At “Marintec China” held in Shanghai in December 2017, the first Chinese smart ship embedded with a domestically developed intelligent navigation system was presented with Lloyds Register (LR) cyber-enabled ship (CES) descriptive notes. The vessel concerned, the appropriately named Great Intelligence, was designed by Shanghai Merchant Ship Design and Research Institute (SDARI).
Ten years after her arrival in Dubai to great fanfare, the former Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth 2 underwent a “soft opening” last week (April 18) as a luxury floating hotel and museum following a stem to stern refurbishment. The vessel was purchased in 2008 for $100 million with the objective of adding her to an already long list of tourist attractions in Dubai but the financial crisis of 2008/09 which hit Dubai particularly hard left the vessel’s fate in limbo.
We normally do not cover ships lying on the seabed, particularly one that has been there for 76 years, but this week we are making an exception for an exceptional vessel. Early last month the wreckage of USS Lexington was discovered by an expedition crew aboard Paul Allen’s RV Petrel. The Lexington was discovered 3,000 meters below the surface approximately 500 miles off the eastern coast of Australia. She was mortally damaged by Japanese torpedo bombers, launched from aircraft carriers, on May 8 1942 during the Battle of the Coral Sea.
After two years of preparations and gaining regulatory approvals the Ocean Network Express (ONE) has finally been launched. The partners are the three major Japanese international carriers with NYK owning 38%, K Line and Mitsui OSK each holding 31%. ONE is launching its first 33 services this month and will eventually operate 85 service loops with 1.4 million TEU of capacity serving more than 200 ports globally as the sixth largest ocean carrier in the world.
Having been ordered in May 2014, the world’s largest cruise ship, Symphony of the Seas was on show last week in the port of Malaga ahead of her maiden voyage taking in Spain, France and Italy. She will spend the summer in the Mediterranean before repositioning in the fall to join her slightly smaller sisters, Oasis, Allure and Harmony in the Caribbean with home-port Miami.
Seen alongside at Kinder Morgan’s Westridge Terminal last week is the Medium Range (MR) oil/chemical tanker Torm Amalie, having delivered a cargo of aviation fuel destined to keep the wheels turning at Vancouver International Airport (YVR). The Trans Mountain Jet Fuel pipeline system carries fuel from the Chevron refinery, and the Westridge terminal to YVR via a 41km pipeline system that has been in operation since 1969.
After successfully completing sea trials, the Royal Canadian Navy’s new Resolve-class naval support ship M.V. Asterix sailed from Quebec City in December 2017 for her home port of Halifax where she was formally commissioned on January 30 this year. Built in 2010 as a container ship, Asterix carried the names Amorito, Neermoor and Cynthia in the five years prior to being purchased by Federal Fleet Services in 2015 under the Canadian Government’s “Project Resolve”.
Anchored in the direct route between Seabus Terminals last weekend and earlier this week was the Japanese owned Capesize bulk carrier Pacific Oak. That she was anchored in the inner harbour for an extended period continues to highlight the acute shortage of Capesize anchorages available to us.
Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, a Boeing 777-200ER, took off from Kuala Lumpur on March 8th 2014 with 239 people on board heading for Beijing. Unnoticed until many hours later, the plane abruptly altered course over the South China Sea and broke off radio contact.
Seen here departing Portsmouth in the UK is the multipurpose container/breakbulk reefer ship Star Endeavour 1 owned by Siem Shipping. Portsmouth has evolved into one of the UK’s largest fruit-handling ports, with fruit imports from the Caribbean, Central and South America, Morocco, South Africa, New Zealand and the eastern Mediterranean. The port claims to handle about 70% of the bananas eaten in the UK.
