Before we get too exercised by the commemoration of the Titanic centenary, it might be quite apposite to recall that next month it will be 25 years since the purpose-built 1150teu containership Hanjin Incheon was lost in the North Pacific with all on board.
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What’s the attraction in building “mega-containerships” , with these monsters being extruded out of far eastern shipyards in increasing numbers, at a time when demand is flatlining if not actually in decline? Who does it benefit?
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The SatNav, with its dulcet tones urging you to “take the first exit from the roundabout” and “turn around, you have made a mistake!” has , we are told, spawned a generation unable to read a map and with only a passing knowledge of geography.
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My recent blog on weak walled ships seemed to have struck a chord with people who spend their time handling them.
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“T” is for Tug. It is the generally accepted painted mark on the side of a ship where it is safe for a tug to put its nose against the larger vessel and gently push it alongside, assist in turning the vessel short round and generally help in close manoeuvring.
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In 1998, in Indonesia, a few sea-cucumber divers made a discovery that has changed how we think about the history of seaborne trade, and the background of China's maritime commerce.
The divers had come upon what is now known as the Belitung shipwreck, named for the island where it was found.
Dating from the ninth century, the wreck, an Arab vessel, was in effect the Maersk, or APL or NOL, containership of its day; it held more than 60,000 commercial objects.
The cargo, made and shipped from Tang Dynasty China, was bound for Baghdad, then the capital of the Abbasid empire.
The Belitung ship and choice items from its fabulous cargo, are, thanks to the government of Singapore, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., and a number of sponsors…
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LNG is rapidly becoming established as the “acceptable alternative” in the spectrum of marine fuels, with heavy fuel oil being regarded as too filthy for the future and distillates likely to break the bank. This might seem strange if you try and buy the stuff, as it is singularly unavailable at present, outside the environs of Oslo (where the best buses are so propelled) and a few remote ferry berths where some small craft operate in the clean air of the fjords.
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The oil price crunch that is now upon us, together with tougher emissions regulation, are a “double whammy” for operators, engineers and yards.
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We are now, it seems, in the early stages of yet another oil price shock. But who ever heard of a gas shock? The answer is that gas shocks don’t happen.
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Attending Lloyd’s Register’s recent Technology Days, from which you emerge after each session feeling bruised and battered by the sheer brilliance of what is going on at the coal face of maritime research, and in my case at least, a feeling of inadequacy.
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