A Nautical Miscellany

Palmer plots Titanic order A replica of the Titanic could be sailing the Atlantic by 2016 if a plan by an Australian billionaire comes to fruition.   Clive Palmer has signed an initial agreement with China’s CSC Jinling shipyard to build a modern version of the liner that sank off Newfoundland 100 years ago this …

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An old coast guard ship could be transformed into the "world's greenest oceanresearch platform" off B.C.'s coast by next spring. "It's going to be essentially a mobile observatory in the Salish Sea that will be studying oceanographic conditions that are important to survival of fish stocks," said Kim Juniper, lead scientist for the project. The …

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Noble nobbled by Xena Actress Lucy Lawless is living up to her name by leading Greenpeace’s occupation of a US drillship in New Zealand. The star of TV’s Xena: Warrior Princess boarded the 13,500-gt Noble Discover (built 1966) along with other activists on Friday morning to stop it sailing to the arctic. Police went on …

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Costa “blames” the captain “Preliminary indications” are that “significant human error” on the part of the ship’s Master resulted in the capsizing of the Costa Concordia. “The route of the vessel appears to have been too close to the shore, and the captain’s judgment in handling the emergency appears to have not followed standard Costa …

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Maersk Supply Services has turned to Chilean shipyard Asenav with an order for up to six offshore support vessels. AP Moller-Maersk’s offshore shipowning arm will pay $200m for the first two firm vessels and is sitting on options for four more. Asenav will wheel out the firm 150-tbp ships, which are designed for harsh-environment operations …

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Two Neste Shipping tankers have made it through the icy North-East passage to Asia.   The Finnish owner said the first vessel to try the shorter arctic route from Murmansk in Russia was the 75,000-dwt Stena Poseidon (built 2006), which discharged in South Korea in August.     It was followed by the 75,000-dwtPalva (built 2007), which headed …

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Native group nears LNG deal Developers LNG projects proposed for the Canadian town of Kitimat are nearing a settlement on a native group’s complaint over shipping traffic. A deal would pave help pave the way for National Energy Board approval of the country’s first LNG export schemes. The Gitxaala Nation has raised concerns that LNG …

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Russia’s Murmansk Shipping has chartered an icebreaker to the US to help Antarctic research. The National Science Foundation (NSF) will take the 4,400-gt Vladimir Ignatyuk (built 1983) to its logistics hub at McMurdo Station for the 2011-12 winter season. The vessel will clear a path through the ice that will allow cargoships to deliver the …

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A Scorpio Ship Management tanker has turned up the heat on the Northern Sea Route. The STI Heritage passed through the NSR in double-quick time. Its 73,956-dwt STI Heritage (built 2008) has raced through the passage in just eight days to set a new benchmark for international vessels. The ice-breaker assisted marker smashes the 15 …

Continue reading “Scorpio shoots through – Pretty sure we’re shouldn’t be encouraging ships to “shoot through” ice infested waters…”

SCF sets Arctic record Sovcomflot suezmax Vladimir Tikhonov will follow the Arctic sea route from Murmansk to its destination in Southeast Asia. But what makes this voyage unique is that it is the first time a tanker of this size has taking this route to Asia. The 160,000-dwt enhanced ice class 1A (Arc 4) ship …

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