TODAY’S BULLETIN OF MARITIME NEWS
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- First View : TAIYUAN
- Drama at Cape Town as marine pilot falls into sea from boarding ladder
- PetroSA signs deal with Russia’s Rosgeo to drill for offshore gas
- Ghana’s second Karpower ship takes up station at Tema
- Ibo Island fort to be rehabilitated
- The untold story of the Chinese aboard Titanic
- Port of Richards Bay operations disrupted by weather
- Maritime agencies unite at London International Shipping Week
- PRESS RELEASE: Cathelco to supply equipment for Royal Navy’s Type 26 Frigates
- Expected Ship Arrivals and Ships in Port
- Cruise News and Naval Activities
- Pics of the Day : ATLANTIC ACANTHUS
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China Navigation’s bulk carrier TAIYUAN (37,657-dwt) sails from the New Zealand port of Lyttelton after loading logs for China.
Perpetuating quite a celebrated name for one of China Navigation’s ships – a company dating back to 1872 and part of the Swire Group – Taiyuan was built in 2016 and is owned, managed and operated by CNCo out of their Singapore office. An earlier Taiyuan was a rather smart looking passenger ship which entered service with CNCo in 1949 and continued into the 1970s. This picture is by Alan Calvert
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DRAMA AT CAPE TOWN AS MARINE PILOT FALLS INTO SEA FROM BOARDING LADDER
There was drama in Table Bay on Monday night (4 September) when a Port of Cape Town marine pilot slipped and fell from the boarding ladder as she was boarding a merchant ship.
The incident occurred as the pilot was on the ladder while attempting to board the asphalt/bitumen tanker, ACACIA NOIR (5895-dwt, built 2004).
The tanker, operated by Swedish company Wisby Tankers AB, was inbound and approaching the port where it was met by the pilot boat Petrel at approximately 21h40 with the pilot onboard, who then proceeded onto the ship’s ladder.
Details of how she fell are not available but the pilot presumably lost her grip and fell into the waters of Table Bay. She was wearing a regulation life jacket and was able to remain afloat, having not been hurt in the fall.
The crew of the Petrel immediately raised the alarm which was responded to by the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI, Table Bay Station which launched its rescue boat Spirit of Vodacom. NSRI Bakoven was also activated, as were Western Cape Health EMS and the AMS/EMS Skymed rescue helicopter which was placed on standby.
Shortly afterwards it was reported that the crew of the Petrel had rescued the pilot who was back on board, wet and cold but otherwise uninjured.
The pilot boat transferred the pilot to the pier next to the port control tower where she was met by an ER24 ambulance and taken to hospital as a precaution.
The NSRI commended the crew of the harbour pilot boat Petrel for the swift and successful rescue of their marine pilot.
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PETROSA SIGNS DEAL WITH RUSSIA’S ROSGEO TO DRILL FOR OFFSHORE GAS
Russia’s exploration company Rosgeo has signed an agreement with South Africa’s embattled PetroSA to drill for gas off the southern coast of South Africa.
The US$400 million deal aims at helping build South Africa’s reserves.
The agreement was formalised on Monday on the sidelines of…[restrict] the BRICS Summit being held in Xiamen, China.
PetroSA’s gas-to-liquid plant at Mossel Bay has faced depleted output in recent years. According to PetroSA, “The project envisages extraction of up to 4 million cubic metres of gas daily. This will subsequently be delivered to PetroSA’s gas-to-liquids refinery.”
Reports in Europe however suggest the deal is firmly in favour of Rosgeo which will own 70% of the project, with PetroSA taking up the balance of 30% and with the finance coming from Russian and South African banks.
In terms of the deal Rosgeo will use seismic and drilling ships to explore along the South African South-East coast in an area near where French oil company Total also has acreage.
The area to be exploited, blocks 9 and 11a have estimated reserves of 50 million tons of crude and 1.2 trillion cubic metres of natural gas.
It is expected that Rosgeo will undertake an exploration of over 4,000km2 of 3D seismic exploration and more than 13,000km2 of gravity-magnetic exploration, in addition to drilling of exploratory wells.[/restrict]
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GHANA’S SECOND KARPOWER SHIP TAKES UP STATION AT TEMA
Ghana’s second Karpower floating power station has taken up its berth at the Tema Fishing Harbour.
The 450-megawatt capacity Karadeniz OSMAN KHAN will replace a 225 megawatt barge that arrived from the Turkish floating power station specialist in November 2015 to overcome a shortage of power generation at Ghana’s leading port city.
The new arrival will augment the country’s current electricity supply. This is…[restrict] in terms of an agreement signed with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) requiring Karpowership Ghana Company Limited to provide a total of 450MW capacity which can be fed directly into the national grid for 10 years.
Osman Khan is 300 metres in length and has a width of just on 50 metres. The floating power station will be connected to the national grid and will enter service alongside and with the barge for a period of one month to ensure the power supply is stabilised before the barge is decommissioned and withdrawn from Ghana.
Edward Osei, Tema port director said the Karpowership will make a significant contribution to Ghana’s electricity supply as the most reliable pow
er plant in the country, and will create more employment opportunities. source: GPHA[/restrict]
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IBO ISLAND FORT TO BE REHABILITATED
The following is not exactly a maritime story although it affects the ‘harbour’ at the island, but we are carrying it because for many decades it was one of the more important places where ships sailing between Portugal and India could take shelter in mid-journey.
The fort that is described and which is the subject of this report ensured that such ships would be safe while under the guns of the fort, much as it as further south on Mozambique Island and the much larger fort of Sao Sebastião at that equally fascinating and historically important place on the East Africa coast.[restrict]
The following report was published in the Portuguese language newspaper Noticias.
The rehabilitation of the São João Baptista Fortress in the Ibo Island district, part of the Mozambique government’s efforts to boost tourism in this part of Cabo Delgado province, will be completed next year.
The announcement was made by Cabo Delgado Celmira da Silva during her presentation of the 2018 Economic and Social Plan and budget to the provincial assembly a few days ago.
The idea is to transform the Fort of São João Baptista do Ibo into a tourist attraction and open up the space for other community and commercial activities.
The government started efforts to finance the rehabilitation works with cooperation partners last year, with the Provincial Directorate of Education and Human Development taking the lead.
Built in 1781 and last restored in 1953, the Fort of São João Baptista do Ibo is the second largest fortification of Mozambique. Star-shaped and located next to the sea, the fortress has interior buildings able to house about 300 men and a chapel, as well as 15 iron cannon.
In addition to the São João Baptista fort, Ibo also has the 1760 Fortim de São José, which it replaced, and the 1847 Santo António do Ibo fort that once defended the local port.
Ibo was elevated to the category of village in 1761 after the detaching of the province of Mozambique from the Portuguese State of India in 1752, thus becoming the first capital of Cabo Delgado.
Its government was installed in 1763, and comprised a municipal council and court.
Ibo saw its economic apogee at the time of the slave trade, whose abolition spelt a slow economic decline that was consummated, politically, with the transfer of the last divisions of the administration of Cabo Delgado to Pemba (then called Port Amelia) in 1929.
Note: The Qurimbas archipelago consists of about 32 islands, including Ibo, Matemo, Medjumbe, Quirimba, Metundo, Quisiva, Vamizi Island and Rolas Island all going up to the Tanzanian border. The Quirimbas National Park, spanning an area of 7,500 square kilometres (2,900 sq mi), includes the 11 most southerly islands, which are partly surrounded by mangroves.
The park was established in 2002 as a protected area. source: Noticias[/restrict]
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THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE CHINESE ABOARD THE TITANIC
It is a little known fact that eight Chinese passengers were on the legendary liner Titanic when she went down in 1912. Six survived, reports Xinhua.
Now a new documentary, “The Six,” made by a British director, is going to tell the story of the Chinese survivors.
Arthur Jones, a professional documentary director from Yorkshire, speaking in his Shanghai studio, said that after he learnt about the Chinese survivors almost two years ago from his friend, Steven Schwankert, a US maritime historian, he decided to make the documentary to tell the world about who the…[restrict] six Chinese survivors are, how they survived and why they vanished from the records.
“Out of over 700 survivors of the Titanic disaster, the six Chinese people were the only ones who never told their stories,” said Jones, who has been living and working in China for over 20 years.
According to the historical evidence and accounts that Jones’ team have collected, all the eight Chinese men had previously worked on cargo ships traveling between China and Europe. They boarded the Titanic in England on a single ticket listing eight names, working as stokers and staying in the third-class cabin area.
When the giant ship struck an iceberg, the men tried to escape with their own survival skills. Five of the six survivors boarded lifeboats, while the sixth was found floating on a door and luckily picked up by a lifeboat that returned to search for survivors.
But when the six survivors finally arrived in the US, the discriminatory Chinese Exclusion Act in force at the time forced them to leave within 24 hours.
Since then, they disappeared from the history books.
Their absence has left questions unanswered, including a claim that they were stowaways on lifeboats. Jones and his research team believe this rumour was born of racism and is unjust.
“We visited a large number of foreign archives and museums, worked with historians from the United States and China, searched and studied much evidence,” Jones said.
“There is not a single shred of evidence to prove the Chinese survivors were stowaways. I believe they did not do anything dishonourable.”
Courage, not cowardice
Schwankert, now also working on the documentary, said the Chinese survivors’ story is not of cowardice as the Western media unfairly portrayed more than a century ago, but actually one of courage and of quick thinking.
“We don’t accept the reports and the history as it is presented,” he said.
“The six Chinese men have been put into a position of injustice for more than 100 years. We can finally tell their story correctly.”
In order to trace the descendants of the survivors, Jones and his team went to the US, Britain, Canada, Cuba and other countries and found their descendants.
The British passenger liner Titanic, the largest ship afloat at the time — and declared “unsinkable” — sank in the North Atlantic in the early hours of 15 April 1912, after it hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City.
Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard the ship, more than 1,500 died, making it one of the deadliest commercial peacetime maritime disasters in modern history. source: Xinhua & Shanghai Daily[/restrict]
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PORT OF RICHARDS BAY OPERATIONS DISRUPTED BY WEATHER
The unsettled weather (winds and high sea swells) continue to disrupt port operations in KwaZulu-Natal, with the Port of Richards Bay affected on Monday 5 September.
Between the hours of 22h30 and 06h00 on 5 September a strong gusting wind reaching 40 knots and a sea swell off the port entrance channel of approximately 3.5 metres saw all port ship movements being suspended.
The Port of Durban has experienced several disruptions for similar reasons in recent weeks, some of which have been reported in Africa PORTS & SHIPS.
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MARITIME AGENCIES UNITE AT LONDON INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING WEEK
Launch of seafarers’ welfare programme: Debate on fair shipping
The International Seafarers’ Welfare Assistance Network (ISWAN) will officially launch its highly acclaimed International Port Welfare Partnership (IPWP) programme during London’s International Shipping Week (LISW 17) at a formal Business Breakfast in the historic setting of Trinity House from 08h00 to 10h00 on 13 September 2017.
The IPWP programme is based on a small but highly impressive pilot project that ended in May 2016, having successfully established seafarers’ welfare boards in Europe, Africa, Australia and America.
As part of the same event the four maritime welfare charities that LISW17 is supporting have also organised a debate entitled Fair Shipping: does it exist? The panelists are: Tom Holmer of ISS, Nicola Good of Fairplay Magazine, Natalie Shaw of ICS, Andrew Wright of Mission to Seafarers, Kuba Syzmanski of Intermanager and Phil Parry of Spinnaker International.
Designed to bring together maritime leaders, the Business Breakfast will show how the IPWP
programme, a joint initiative managed by the Merchant Navy Welfare Board (MNWB) on behalf of ISWAN, is driven by the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC 2006, Regulation 4.4). The MLC 2006 advocates the establishment of seafarers’ welfare boards to co-ordinate and improve “access to shore-based welfare services”, for the benefit of the seafarers’ workforce, worldwide.
The MNWB has successfully operated welfare boards, also known as Port Welfare Committees (PWCs), for nearly 70 years and is keen to partner ISWAN to share best practice with the rest of the maritime sector.
ISWAN Executive Director, Roger Harris, said: “Despite increased public awareness that the shipping industry is vital to our daily lives and trade around the world, there’s still little understanding about the challenges facing seafarers. Life at sea has always been hard but never more so than today. Separated from family and friends with ever smaller crews and shorter turnarounds, seafarers can often face isolation and loneliness, depression, harassment and bullying whilst at sea.”
Peter Tomlin, Chief Executive of the Merchant Navy Welfare Board (MNWB) and IPWP Programme Director, agreed saying: “That’s why welfare facilities and services in port are so important for seafarers, providing a home from home where they can rest, recuperate and contact family and friends in a safe, welcoming environment.”
He added: “We recognise the tremendous efforts made by the numerous organisations, particularly in the voluntary sector, that support seafarers’ welfare in ports. We hope the truly collaborative and supportive nature of our partnership programme will enable the maritime community to work even closer together to improve welfare conditions for seafarers across the globe.”
Funded by the ITF Seafarers’ Trust, TK Foundation, Seafarers’ UK and MNWB, the programme boasts an Executive Committee made up of shipowners, unions, port authorities, owners, government, maritime funders and voluntary organisation representatives, all of whom are keen to promote better seafarers’ welfare in ports under MLC, 2006. It is therefore fitting that the IPWP launch is held in the presence of maritime decision makers and key stakeholders during LISW17.
About ISWAN
The International Seafarers Welfare and Assistance Network ( www.seafarerswelfare.org ) promotes seafarers welfare worldwide and supports seafarers with a 24/7 helpline to be found at: www.seafarerhelp.org
Edited by Paul Ridgway
London
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Cathelco to supply equipment for Royal Navy’s Type 26 Frigates
Cathelco have signed a contract to supply equipment for the first three vessels in a new generation of warships which will have a major role across the full spectrum of the Royal Navy’s operations.
The Type 26 Frigates will be installed with two types of Cathelco systems, one protecting the underwater hull surface against corrosion and the other designed to prevent blockages in engine seawater cooling system pipework caused by bio-fouling.
Due to start the manufacturing phase in the coming weeks at BAE Systems’ shipyard in Glasgow, the first ship is scheduled to enter service[restrict] in the 2020s.
“As a British company, we are delighted to be supplying equipment for the Type 26 warships, particularly as we supplied and upgraded systems on their predecessors”, said Justin Salisbury, managing director of Cathelco.
A key role of the Type 26 warships will be to protect the new Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers from hostile submarines. Cathelco have also supplied hull corrosion protection and marine growth prevention systems for these vessels.
The hulls of the new warships will be protected with Cathelco ICCP hull corrosion protection systems consisting of an arrangement of hull-mounted anodes and reference electrodes connected to a control panel. In operation, the reference electrodes measure the electrical potential at the hull/sea water interface and send a signal to the control panel which automatically adjusts the output to the anodes so that the hull receives the optimum corrosion protection at all times.
Cathelco marine growth prevention systems (MGPS) will protect nine seachests on each vessel against blockages in sea water cooling lines caused by the growth of barnacles and mussels. The seachests will be installed with copper and ferrous anodes wired to a control panel.
The copper anodes produce ions which create an environment where larvae do not settle or breed, whilst the ferrous ions produce an anti-corrosive layer on the internal surfaces of pipes. The concentrations of copper are extremely small – less than two parts per billion –and therefore the system is environmentally benign and does not harm the wider marine environment.
Cathelco and its subsidiary Corrintec Marine have had a long association with Royal Naval frigates having supplied ICCP systems for all the current Type 23 Frigates.
Cathelco are world leaders in these systems and have equipment on a large number of the Royal Navy’s surface craft and submarines. They also have a record of supplying equipment to over 40 navies worldwide during a period of more than 50 years.[/restrict]
For further information from Cathelco, please contact:- Richard Woolley Email: richard.woolley@cathelco.com
Tel: +44 (0)1246 457900 Fax: +44 (0)1246 457901
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CRUISE NEWS AND NAVAL ACTIVITIES
QM2 in Cape Town. Picture by Ian Shiffman
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Naval News
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PIC OF THE DAY : ATLANTIC ACANTHUS
With the Bluff headland in the background, the reefer vessel ATLANTIC ACANTHUS (11,793-dwt) arrives in Durban harbour earlier in August to load citrus at the fruit terminal. Built in 1999 and flying the flag of the Bahamas, the refrigerated ship is owned by Greek interests and managed by Chartworld Shipping Corp of Athens, Greece. The name Acanthus is that of a genus of flowering plants and rather appropriately, the ship’s former name was Atlantic Iris, yet another flowering plant. The 144 metre long ship was built by the shipyard of Shin Kochi Jyuko Co Ltd in Kochi, Japan, as hull number 7112. This picture is by Keith Betts
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”
– John Muir, 1869
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