Daily Collection of Maritime Press Clippings 2005 – 219
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2005 – 219 Number 219** COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS ***Wednesday 05-10-2005 THIS EDITION IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY : VLIERODAM WIRE ROPES Ltd. wire ropes, chains, hooks, shackles, webbing slings, lifting beams, crane blocks, turnbuckles etc. Binnenbaan 36 3161VB RHOON The Netherlands Telephone: (+31)105018000 (+31) 105015440 (a.o.h.) Fax : (+31)105013843 Internet & E-mail www.vlierodam.nl [email protected] The ARTHUR N seen here arriving in the port of Rotterdam bound for the Mississippi Harbour Photo : Frans Scheutelkamp © PSi-Daily maritime press clippings Page 1 10/04/05 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2005 – 219 Save the ELBE Giro rekening No 8145443 Att : Piet Sinke - Stationsweg 21 - 3151 HR Hoek van Holland The score until today : 50.780 Euro EVENTS, INCIDENTS & OPERATIONS During the FURIADE in Maassluis which was visited by thousands of people the tug ELBE was proudly present in the outer harbour and attracted a lot of spectators, with visible on the left in the background a crane of the Maasland craneoperator BOEKESTIJN keeping the repaired aft mast up, ready for installment later, the mast is refurbished and repaired at HUISMAN in Schiedam Photo : Roger van der Kraan © Israeli vessel seen as likely behind collision A saury fishing boat that capsized off Nemuro, Hokkaido, leaving seven crew members dead last week Wednesday, may have been hit by an Israeli-registered container ship, the Nemuro Coast Guard Office said Saturday. PSi-Daily maritime press clippings Page 2 10/04/05 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2005 – 219 According to the office, the 41,507-ton Israeli ship was confirmed to have been sailing in the area where and when the 19-ton Shinsei Maru No. 3 capsized. Only one of eight Shinsei Maru crew members was rescued. The office said the Israeli ship had entered Pusan Port, South Korea, on Thursday, but already had left. A cross-border surveillance radar operated by Japan tracked a number of ships and boats in the area where the Shinsei Maru was found. From the record, the Nemuro office had narrowed the number of large vessels down to 16. The office then identified the Israeli ship among 16 vessels from reports by crew members of other boats in the area on that day. At the time, the Israeli vessel was on its way to Pusan from Seattle. The Japan Coast Guard asked the Pusan Marine Police Station, which is in charge of Pusan Port, to examine the Israeli ship. During that investigation, the police found what appeared to be a relatively new impact scar and chips of the coating of another ship on the vessel's portside. Police were asked to submit samples of the ship's paint, some chips of the coating and its navigational records, among other information. The JCG will examine whether the chips taken from the hulls of the Shinsei Maru and the Israeli ship match at the its research and test center in Tachikawa, Tokyo. "Based on the Israeli ship's records and the damage on its bow, among other reports obtained by the South Korean investigative authorities, the ship is most likely to be the one that collided with the Shinsei Maru," Mitsuo Hamamoto, deputy director of the Nemuro office, said at a press conference Saturday. Because the incident occurred in international waters, neither Japan nor South Korea has the right to conduct an investigation into the collision. As a result, the Israeli container ship already departed for its next stop, Shanghai Port, early Saturday. If the Israeli ship is confirmed as the vessel that collided with the Japanese boat, the JCG is expected to report the incident to Israeli authorities through diplomatic channels and ask for a joint investigation to be launched. Ferry problem led to free booze The Estonian passenger ferry MS Regina Baltica managed to free itself after running aground off Stockholm last week Tuesday evening, but witnesses were concerned about free-flowing alcohol during the incident. Several Norwegians were among the 373 passengers on board the Regina Baltica when it ran aground in the Baltic Sea at 9:40 p.m. on Tuesday in a well-charted stretch of water. No one was injured in the collision. "We noticed that the ship suddenly lurched astern. It went full speed backwards, then there was an intense bang and then the lights went out. We were first told that there were technical problems but after half an hour the loudspeakers announced that we had run aground," Terje Lund told Aftenposten.no. PSi-Daily maritime press clippings Page 3 10/04/05 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2005 – 219 The ferry managed to work itself loose on its own power at around 1 a.m. and an hour later the ship reached Kappelskär, outside of Stockholm, where passengers were given the option of continuing on to Tallinn in Estonia with another ferry or turning back to Stockholm. Norwegian passenger Torje Sulland said that rescue ships followed the ferry throughout and the incident was "never dramatic". More concern was raised by the ship's decision to offer its inconvenienced passengers free alcohol during the delay, and passengers reported that many abused the situation and some could be seen so drunk they could barely walk. Passenger Jarle Berg told newspaper VG that several people panicked when they saw the ship had run aground and was personally shocked by alcohol being given away in what was an emergency situation. Capt Mike van der Meer, general manager of the Port Authority Division of Walvis Bay Port, pointing at beautiful paintings in his office and telling about “his time” as master onboard this steam powered harbour tugs from Cape Town. See picture below in Photo of the Day section Photo : Piet Sinke © PSi-Daily maritime press clippings Page 4 10/04/05 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2005 – 219 Crowley to Acquire Titan Maritime Crowley Maritime Corporation Chairman, President and CEO Tom Crowley Jr. announced at the International Salvage Union's annual dinner that Crowley has reached agreement with the owners of Titan Maritime, LLC to acquire the company. The deal is expected to close within the next 30 days. Crowley made the announcement to an audience of about 60 salvors from around the world who had gathered for dinner at the Columbia Tower Club in Seattle as part of the weeklong International Salvage Union's annual conference. He said additional details would be provided after the closing. Titan, founded in 1980 by David Parrot, is a worldwide salvage company that is headquartered in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., with offices in Newhaven, UK and Sao Paulo, Brazil and equipment depots in Batam, Indonesia and Dubai, UAE. Over the past 25 years, Titan has performed more than 200 salvage and wreck removal projects worldwide. Workers suspend ferry strike WORKERS suspended a shipping strike overnight that has stranded thousands of tourists on the Mediterranean island of Corsica and pitched the island into ferment over government plans to privatise its ferry link. The conflict at the highly-indebted National Corsica Mediterranean Company (SNCM) entered its third week, with the prospect of a new meeting between the government and union leaders Monday and a meeting of the company's board that could lead to a bankruptcy decision, according to sources close to the affair. The Union of Corsican Workers (STC) said it was calling off the strike until Tuesday "as a measure of responsibility." Union leader Alain Mosconi said, "we are not diehards, and we realise that the situation has deteriorated." He said he hoped the suspension would be accepted as a gesture of appeasement and not of weakness. The strike has taken on volatile political overtones in as militants on the island turned the issue into a nationalist rallying-cry.Violence flared after thousands of islanders demonstrators on Saturday and a group of masked nationalist youths went on the rampage in the northern port of Bastia. Witnesses said they beat up a plain-clothes police officer, who plunged into the harbour to escape and was taken to hospital with head injuries. Later, a bomb went off aboard an unmanned customs cutter, blowing a gash in its side. The unions fear that privatisation of the company will lead not only to loss of jobs on an island where unemployment is an explosive problem, but also the end of the ferry company's public service commitment to continue operating outside the tourist season. The ferry company, which serves Algeria and Tunisia as well as Corsica, has been in financial freefall because of the end of its monopoly on Corsica routes, growing competition from cheaper private operators and regular strikes. The government bailed the company out to the tune of E 69 million last year,but is prohibited by European Union rules from pumping in more money.However EU transport commissioner Jacques Barrot said on Friday that he was prepared to negotiate permission for Paris to inject more cash on condition that the government guarantees the total privatisation of the company. Unions are insisting that the government keep a majority stake in SNCM. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, facing the first major crisis of his administration, has offered a package whereby the government PSi-Daily maritime press clippings Page 5 10/04/05 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2005 – 219 would keep a 25 per cent stake, offer the workers five percent and sell the rest to a French concession operator, Veolia, and the Butler Capital Partners investment group. Unions have rejected that proposal, saying it would lead to the loss of hundreds of jobs.