This week’s Interesting Ship of The Week was actaully recently named Ship of The Year for 2007 by The Japan Society of Naval Architects and Ocean Engineers. Her name is Brasil Maru, a 320,000 DWT iron ore carrier operated by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL). The selection committee noted that the Brasil Maru is a pioneering vessel in reducing iron ore transport cost which will have a great effect on steel production. A June 18, 2008 press release from MOL reads:
Brasil Maru Vessel Characteristics
First of all, the Brasil Maru reflects the needs of the times, offering high efficiency thanks to its large size. With deadweight tonnage of 320,000 tons which is one of the world’s largest, it is the optimal size to transport iron ore produced in Brazil. MOL, with its customer (Nippon Steel Corporation), shipyard (Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., Ltd.), and shipowner (Tamou Line S.A.) spent a year and a half studying and designing the vessel. It was built in Japan, where such large-scale iron ore carriers had never been constructed, and is ideally suited to meet increasing demand for transport of iron ore from Brazil to Japan via shuttle service.
Starting with the Brasil Maru, more than 50 iron ore carriers in the 300,000 dwt class have been ordered around the world. The Brasil Maru is truly the forerunner of future iron ore transport.
The vessel’s design relied on the most advanced computer simulation to optimize environmental protection and safe operation. It offers high-performance course stability that takes water flow into account, and excellent maneuverability. In addition, UIT, a revolutionary method of treating steel surfaces, was used to more than double resistance to metal fatigue in the welded parts. [Continue Reading →]
Now you can sort through the hundreds of topics gCaptain has covered with the help of “the spinning globe”, our new tag cloud. Click HERE to view it now
The top ranked page belongs to the mariner licensing branch of the US Coast Guard. While we visit the page often it’s more famous for taking the place of USCG.mil/stcw, a page in much need of a redesign. Also interesting is the absence of Homeport from the list. Homeport was created as an “all in one” solution for finding information on ports, vessels and mariners but never gained popularity with industry insiders. We think the main reason for it’s failure is the security “feature” that prevents us from linking directly to pages within Homeport. What use is the information if we can’t easily share it with friends & colleagues?
For the record, here are the official USCG pages that we use the most.
This is video released from the US Coast Guard post Hurricane Gustav. The description reads:
In this video released by the U.S. Coast Guard, helicopter crews from Air Station New Orleans fly over the greater New Orleans area to assess impact to the infrastructure after Hurricane Gustav passed through the area Sunday, Sept. 1, 2008. In the portion of video viewing the Industrial Canal there is footage of two breakaway barges and a ship that came unanchored and floated quickly down the canal.
On April 26 1956, the SS Ideal-X, an ageing tanker, departed from the Port of Newark, and docked in the Port of Houston five days later.
What was unusual in this otherwise routine coastal trip was that part of the cargo consisted of 58 35ft aluminium containers. The ship was owned by Malcom McLean of McLean Trucking, a man with little experience of shipping. What he did understand, however, was that if transportation could be integrated, the vast expense of shifting freight from land to sea, and back again, could be cut significantly.
McLean started buying ships. At first he tried transporting the loaded trailers by sea - after all, they could be wheeled on and off the boats. But this proved cumbersome and not particularly economic. The answer was to remove the trailers. Cranes would lift the boxed payloads from the trucks’ trailers, stack them on and below deck, and reload the trucks with incoming, standard-sized boxes. Freight costs fell from up to 25 per cent of the price of a product to negligible levels. [Continue Reading →]
As we reported last week, this past weekend was the 16th Annual Great North River Tugboat Race & Competition organized by the Working Harbor Committee, and once again it failed to disappoint. The competition went on without a hitch with a total of 29 participating. Looks like it was a beautiful summer day on the Hudson seems like a good time was had all around.
Unofficial results announced Sunday state that Ross Sea won the race but we are still waiting on official results to be released which might not be until later this week. Bernard Ente of the Working Harbor Committee tells us:
Results will take a few days to tabulate. Every boat runs against the clock as well as a handicap for size/weight/power. Some captains are playfully objecting to the unofficial results announced yesterday. Bragging rights in the harbor are important! So we have to wait for the official papers.
Bernard is also the photographer for the Working Harbor Committee and provided us with these great photos and video below. Enjoy!
Tugs Catherine C Miller and Susan Miller proudly wave the red, white and blue on the Hudson.
Tug Dorothy Elizabeth powers through the water. Even the New York Fire Department showed up to put on a show for onlookers.
Tugs race down the harbor for bragging rights for the year ahead.
Dorothy Elizabeth and Pegasus square up for the bow to bow push, a crowd favorite. [Continue Reading →]
You can find links to all the previous editions at the bottom of this post. You are encouraged to participate using the comment link/form at the bottom of the post. If you have photos or stories to tell, do email me at fred@gcaptain.com.
—————————————-
This Week’s Photos:
This week’s photos come from the website of Sweden’s Broström Group:
Broström is one of the leading logistics companies for the oil and chemical industry, focusing on industrial product and chemical tanker shipping and marine services.
Broström supplies the oil and chemical industry with complete, global transport solutions with a strong focus on quality and safety. Broström’s 1,200 employees are active throughout the world.
EagleSpeak has the US Navy’s establishment of a “Gulf of Aden Maritime Security Zone” including a chart of the route that merchant shipping should take through the area as it will be patrolled by ‘Combined Task Force 150′ so at least theoretically, help wouldn’t be too far away, provided that your quick enough to call for it. Information Dissemination, which covers fleet operations, notes that the current rules of engagement will limit the effectiveness since only surface vessels can shoot back with anything other than a camera. That is a rule that should quickly be changed.
The Monitor has the results of a study on the effects of fatigue on seafarers in “Who needs a drink when you are working 14hrs a day“. Among other things, the report ‘found that risks were particularly high where a two-watch system was used’.
Kiwi At Sea has “Maritime bloggers beware” as he was forced to choose between his current job and blogging with the end resulted in packed seabags and an early discharge. I am sure many of the maritime bloggers are self censoring when it comes to dealing with confidential information. On the other hand, blogging makes it more likely that sensitive/embarrassing news might be exposed, hopefully resulting in businesses being more open to disclosure, if for no other reason than to avoid negative information coming out in an uncontrolled manner. Anyway, this is one of the things you have to put up with when sailing. While the company pays you only for the 8-12 hours a day (7 days a week, including mandatory overtime) you are working, they tell you how to behave 24 hours a day. Like having a beer when you get home from work? Good luck doing that on most ships these days. More coverage at MarineBuzz. More: Things could be worse!
The Official Blog of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation has “MARAD Administrator Sean Connaughton: Celebrating Progress” as he notes the removal of the 75th obsolete ship from the Ready Reserve Fleet for recycling since January of 2001.
Now the counterintuitive conclusions of the report from the Waste Resources Action Programme (Wrap) suggest that the advantage of recycling over landfilling is so great that it makes environmental sense to ship waste right round the world if it can be used again.
Well the US is already reclaiming methane from some garbage dumps and has finally figured out how to recycle used tires, so at what point will it become profitable to mine our garbage dumps for raw materials and fuel?
BitterEnd has “Train Wreck“. It all starts with a request to deliver a wrench to a boat that needed one, located two hours away.
blue water: news of my escape pisses off the tug company he has been working for lately as he is called back to sea early for the other company he was working for. They tempted him back with the promise of a permanent third mate’s job, once he gets his license. See “the conundrum“. Do promises mean anything in this current job market? Back in 1994 promises didn’t mean…
More than 500 airports, 190,000 km of railways, 200,000 km of motorways. 35,000 km of waterways and 1200 seaports caters for the European Union’s half a billion people every single day. The transport sector accounts for some €1000 billion – or over 10 percent of the EU total gross domestic product (GDP) – and employs 10 million people.
But the increase in traffic in the last few decades has created serious congestion problems in urban areas across the bloc, which in turn cause health problems and delays that could at the present rate cost the 27-member bloc one percent of its GDP by 2010 and therefore dent Europe’s economic competitiveness on the global market.
According to Japanese export statistics, Malta exported in one year close to 12 million kgs of tuna to this country. But experts and wildlife conservation organisations claim that the Maltese tuna farming industry can only physically ranch, and therefore produce, 6 million kg of tuna.
Answers supplied by fisheries minister George Pullicino of how Malta could have realistically farmed such an enormous amount of tuna have been published, but still opens up his ministry and this government to some serious allegations of possible involvement in an international tuna laundering racket: allegations which this newspaper is informed are now being examined by the European Commission, as well as by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT).
IceNews has “Norway introduces tough new commercial fishing laws” requiring ‘all fish caught within its waters to be landed at an official fishing port. The regulations will state that all boats, regardless of nationality, must take their catch back to a proper port in a bid to discourage wasteful dumping of fish when boats do not have a quota’.
An Unofficial Coast Guard Blog has news from South Korea in “Coast Guard Steps Up Defense of Disputed Islets“. Japan also sees the islands as theirs, they are just lack possession of them at the moment.
Neptunus Lex has budget cuts for the Royal Navy in “The 1000- 979-ship Navy“. One commenter points out that the Royal Navy has almost as many active Admirals as they have large vessels.
The European Union and their blasted rules have struck again. This time they’ve managed to make Newquay in Cornwall, England lose its claim to being the world’s smallest island.
USN – maritime security patrol area established in Gulf of Aden - The US Naval Forces Central Command issued anews release stating that it directed establishment of a Maritime Security Patrol Area (MSPA) in the Gulf of Aden. Coalition warships will patrol the area and aircraft will fly in the airspace above. The MSPA is being established in support of the IMO’s ongoing efforts to suppress piracy. (8/22/08). - Dennis Bryant Holland & Knight homepage(Used with Permission)
AND:
Canada – extension of jurisdiction over Arctic waters - The Office of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued amedia release stating that the Government of Canada will extend its jurisdiction over Arctic waters. Legislation will be introduced to amend the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act so as to regulate ships operating within 200 nautical miles of the nearest Canadian land. Regulations will be established to require mandatory reporting from all ships destined for Canadian Arctic waters. (8/27/08). - Dennis Bryant Holland & Knight homepage(Used with Permission)
Fairplay Daily News has:
Iranian port ops on block - Nearly half of Iranian port and container terminal operator Tidewater will be sold as a block on the Tehran Stock Exchange.
Fairplay has learned that the sale is due to take place on the 3 September and will involve 96M shares, representing 44.5% of the company. About 91M shares will be sold through the Tehran Stock Exchange, with the other 5M shares to be offered to Tidewater employees.
The estimated target price is $1.05 per share, although the final price will be set via auction. The target price implies an overall valuation for Tidewater of $227M.
To participate, interested investors must deposit $3M with Melli Bank of Iran before 2 September (Melli Bank is subject to international sanctions). The successful buyer must pay half of the sale price initially, with the remainder paid in six-month installments over the next three years.
Tidewater handles 40% of Iran’s port operations and 93% of its container movements. It reported profits in the 2007-8 financial year of $50.5M - Fairplay Homepage(Used with Permission)
But union officials were perturbed by the speed of the initiative.
Zvonko Segvic, speaking for the Independent Union of Workers at the largest yard in Croatia, Brodosplit, warned: “We will not accept this without there being a significant social aspect to the proposal.”
Ozren Matijasevic, the head of the Croatian Association of Trade Unions, voiced concern that jobs might be lost in a privatisation.
“The 10,000 employees at the shipyards throughout Croatia will now be worried about keeping their jobs,” Matijasevic added.
Opposition leader Ljubo Jurcic from the Social Democratic Party earlier warned that privatising the yards could endanger up to 42,000 jobs tied to the industry.
“Private investors will only be concerned about their own interests and not the sector as a whole,” he predicted.
The yards are: Brodosplit in Split, Brodotrogir in Trogir, Kraljevica in Kraljevica, Maj in Rijeka, Uljanik in Pula and Viktor Lenac in Martinscica, near Rijeka. - Fairplay Homepage(Used with Permission)
—————————————-
Submissions for future editions:
Please submit articles for inclusion in next week’s edition using the following submit form at Blog Carnival. You are also welcome to email stories and photos to fred@gcaptain.com for inclusion in future editions as well as suggest areas of coverage.
—————————————-
Previous Editions: As linked below or click on the tag ‘Maritime Monday’ for all gCaptain editions.
With Hurricane Gustav now a Category 4 and gaining strength, the 2008 season is really starting to peak in strength. So gCaptain has put together a list of the best hurricane tracking website to help keep you informed and stay safe. Below are links and graphs we are using to track Gustav
IBISeye.com tracks any active tropical depression, tropical storm or hurricane with accompanying news and any watches or warnings. Click on the map to interact.
Weather Underground provides forecasts for the US and the world with a fast, easy to use interface. The site is full weather maps, graphics and radar images, including a great tropical weather section with satellite maps, sea surface temperatures and hurricane advisories.
Of course NOAA has some of the most extensive, accurate and up to minute information to help track storms and provides official US weather, marine, fire and aviation forecasts, warnings, meteorological products, climate forecasts and information about meteorology. NOAA’s National Hurricane Center will provide you with everything you need to know to stay safe and knowledgable.
The US Navy NOGAPS Weather Forecast is another great resource for tracking storms with information provided by the US Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System.
Of the countless sites out there to help track weather, these are just a few of our favorites, so hopefully this will help everyone with their hurricane tracking needs. After all the best way to stay safe is to stay informed so if anyone out there knows any other great resources you prefer, we would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
gCaptain is proud to publish the great new layout for our blog page! Our goal was to provide you, the readers with the most user friendly ways to access all the great content that gCaptain has to offer and we think you’ll really enjoy some of the new features. As you may know, gCaptain prides itself on bringing tools of web 2.0 to the professional mariner and enthusiast alike, not to mention the latest news from the waterfront. Let’s take a look:
First, if you notice to your right you’ll see 4 large, grey icons. These are links to some great tools that we feel will be of use to everyone out there.
This link will take you to our Maritime Industry Custom Search Engine powered by Google. You can search within maritime related sites, gCaptain or both. Also, above this you’ll find a quick search box but by clicking this icon you will have greater filter options.
By clicking on this icon, you can sign up for our gCaptain RSS feed. What is an RSS feed you ask? It is a tool that allows users to access a great amount of content in a small amount of time. By subscribing, you will receive updates every time gCaptain posts new content and how you receive the content is up to you.
This icon will take you to Messing About In Ships, a podcast for mariners hosted by Sea-Fever’s Peter A. Mello and our very own Captain John Konrad with contribution from Captain Kelly Sweeney.
The envelope icon will bring you to the Contact Us page and we encourage everyone to use it. Email us with tips on breaking news or general questions. gCaptain is also always on the look out for people to share their knowledge of the maritime industry so if you feel you can contribute content, this is where you will find out how.
Below these icons you will find our Comment Box where you can see the articles people are commenting on. By the way, we really want everyone to comment as much as possible. It’s easy to do… all you need is an email address. Don’t worry we won’t spam you. Also we are planning a contest that will be open only to our commentors (we’ll update you on that later, so stay tuned).
Next, is Popular Tags, This provides you with an easy way to sift through gCaptain’s content related to certain topics of interest to you. A great way to get information.
Going down from there you will see our Sponsors, they make gCaptain possible so be sure to give them our support. You will also find a list our great Authors and Most Recent and Popular Posts.
Finally, you can still read the latest articles on our blog’s hompage but by clicking on the title of an article, you will be taken to a separate page that allows you to comment, find related posts, or share the post with friends. One new feature you will see here are the icons below:
These are easy ways to share gCaptain content with your friends. You can email it, post it on your facebook page or Twitter, bookmark it in Google, or share on StumbleUpon with a thumbs up (StumbleUpon is a great way to find unique content based on your interests that you would never find otherwise and we encourage everyone to use it, but it is addicting… you have been warned!). Also click on the More icon to access countless other ways to share our content.
So, these are the new and upgraded features that you will find on our blog page and we think that everyone will really enjoy them for surfing our content. But we want to know what you think! Let us know in the comments.
The US Coast Guard brings us their 
