On April 10, 2024, shortly before 10 a.m. the 'Ivnosys' caught fire on the Guadalquivir River two miles from Gelves after alliding with a high tension cable. The catamaran had left the Gelves dock bound for Isla Mínima shortly before 9:50 a.m. Its mast hit one of the high-tension cables that cross the river at the height of the Vega de Gelves.All eight people on board, six passengers, a skipper and a deckhand, jumped into the water to escape the flames and were rescued by a zodiac. Two have required health care on site without hospitalizing being necessary. Firefighters, rescue workers and police attended. To extinguish the fire, firefighters from the Mairena del Aljarafe, Santiponce and Sanlúcar La Mayor parks were working from the river bank, where the boat ran aground. The flames have completely destroyed the boat and it has been left semi-sunken. Firefighters have also worked to prevent the fire from reaching solid ground and approaching a nearby hayloft. In addition, a part of the municipality of Gelves has suffered a power outage due to this event, which was being recovered little by little through the work of Endesa technicians. The recent rains have caused the tidal coefficients to be significantly higher than usual. Reports with photos: https://www.gelves.es/es/actualidad/noticias/El-accidente-provocado-por-un-barco-al-chocar-con-un-cable-de-alta-tension-a-500-metros-de-Puerto-Gelves-provoca-un-apagon-en-todo-el-municipio/?urlBack= https://www.europapress.es/andalucia/sevilla-00357/noticia-catamaran-calcinado-gelves-sevilla-estaba-valorado-millon-euros-transportaba-turistas-20240410135937.htmls
News
ABDULLAH
The 23 Bangladeshi sailors of the 'Abdullah' offered Eid-ul-Fitr prayers on the hatch of the 'Abdullah', spreading tarpaulin, in the afternoon of April 10 with the permission of the pirates, officials of the owner of the ship, KSRM Group, and the Bangladesh Merchant Marine Officers Association confirmed. The sailors were doing well, and there was also a lot of progress in their rescue process. Report with photo: https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/mv-abdullah-sailors-offer-eid-prayers-ship-826701
Tanger-Med
Tangier will today celebrate the opening of the largest container port in capacity terms in the whole of the Mediterranean, something that will bring enormous competition to the likes of Algericas just 25 nautical miles away across the Strait of Gibraltar. The $1.6bn expansion of Tanger Med port, located to the east of the Moroccan city of Tangier, due to be unveiled today will create Africa’s largest port with an annual capacity of 9.5m teu. The port is operated by APM Terminals, Eurogate and a local firm.
Ho Chi Minh
Samsung C&T Corp., a construction unit under Samsung Group, said Tuesday it has won a US$179.5 million project to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Vietnam. Under the deal with Petrovietnam Gas Corp., Samsung C&T and Vietnamese firm PTSC will build the Southeast Asian country’s first LNG terminal, in the coastal area 70 kilometers southeast of Ho Chi Minh City for 40 months. The project also calls for the construction of LNG tanks and other related facilities, according to Samsung C&T. Samsung C&T has a 61 percent stake in the project. Source: Yonhap
ZAPOLYARYE
The 'Zapolyarye' sank in Murmansk on April 9, 2024. Rosprirodnadzor specialists conducted a thorough examination of the area where the ship has sunk in the Kola Bay of the Barents Sea. It had belonged to Vostok LLC, which is currently bankrupt. After the arrest, the ship was at the shipyard pier and probably sank due to its disrepair. Rosprirodnadzor took water samples both directly from the site of the shipwreck and five kilometers away for analysis. The contaminated area has already been treated with a sorbent, and oil booms have been installed around the vessel. The results of the study will make it possible to determine the level of threat to the environment and develop further measures. The North-Western Transport Prosecutor's Office, the Murmansk Investigation Department and the Western Interregional Transport Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia started an investigation into the incident. Report with photos: https://www.ecopravda.ru/rossiya/spetsialisty-rosprirodnadzora-vzyali-proby-na-meste-zatopleniya-sudna-v-murmanske/
DALI
Investigators in Baltimore were focusing on the electrical power system of the 'Dali' and its circuit breakers and have called in the ship’s builder, Hyundai Heavy Industries with a preliminary report on the accident set to be released in the first week of May. Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), gave members of Congress in Washington DC an update on April 10 into the ongoing investigation into the Dali’s allision with the Francis Scott Key Bridge last month. “We have had the manufacturer of equipment in the engine room to look closely at the electrical power system. We’re continuing to look at that. We’ve asked for additional assistance from the manufacturer who returned from overseas this week with experts to look at the circuit breakers,” Homendy said. The voyager data recorder had showed that the power failed for just one minute and three seconds as the ship approached Baltimore’s largest bridge, and that the lead pilot tried to swing the 300 m long vessel clear of a collision by dropping its port anchor to pivot it away. The disabled ship ran into a support pillar and caused much of the bridge to tumble into the Patapsco River at roughly 1:30 a.m. on March 26. Just moments before, at 1:26 am, the pilot of the ship called for tugboat assistance, according to the voyage data recorder. At 1:27 a.m., the pilot made an order to drop the ship anchor. The US Coast Guard confirmed that the containership’s engines had undergone routine maintenance during its port stay. A Baltimore port worker told that the 'Dali' had serious power outages in the days before it lost propulsion Container Royalty, which tracks the tonnage on containerships coming in and out of Baltimore, told that the ship was suffering from power outages for two days prior to its departure, citing a number of reefers onboard that had been tripping circuit breakers. As of April 10, 34 containers have been moved from the bow of the ship out of more than 4,700 containers on board. The goal is to remove 178 of them in order to refloat the vessel. The US Army Corp of Engineers said some of the riverbed will need dredging in order to remove parts of the shattered bridge. Reports with photos: https://gcaptain.com/ntsb-chair-homendy-provides-update-on-dali-francis-scott-key-bridge-investigation/ https://safety4sea.com/baltimore-incident-update-ntsb-looks-into-electrical-failure-as-probable-cause/ https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/transportation/key-bridge-containers-removed-6TQT7RM5JJDRRBXZZAD2YTEPJE/
Charleston
South Carolina Ports Authority (SCPA), Southeast's deepwater port, said that five rubber-tired gantry (RTG) cranes arrived at Wando Welch Terminal to further modernize operations. The Port has received 14 of the 24 new cranes ordered for the Wando terminal; the terminal currently has 52 RTGs overall. Meanwhile, SCPA reported its strongest May on record, with 204,457 twenty-foot equivalent container units (TEUs) handled last month.
Brownsville
The Port of Brownsville is closer to deepening the Brownsville Ship Channel after receiving a key permit June 6 from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to advance the Brazos Island Harbor Channel Improvement Project (BIH) to its construction phase.
SUKHOTHAI
The commander of the HTMS 'Sukhothai' said on April 9 that he will resign his commission from the navy, accepting responsibility for the corvette’s sinking. The Royal Thai Navy blamed the catastrophe on Captain Phichitchai Thueannadee’s “reckless” decision not to dock the corvette at the nearest port, as well as heavy waves and unforeseen punctures. The captain would be detained for 15 days but would not face a civil lawsuit. The corvette could resist wave heights of up to 2.5 metres. However, on Dec 18, 2022, the waves were unusually high, reaching up to six metres as the corvette traveled from the Sattahip Naval Base in Chon Buri to Chumphon province. Heavy waves destroyed the wave breaker in front of the corvette’s 76mm gun turret. The dislodged wave breaker also created a one-square-inch rupture in the vessel’s steel deck. An unnamed heavy and hard item also struck the gun turret, causing damage. The damaged turret also featured a hole that allowed water inside the vessel. An inspection also revealed two ruptures in the left gunwale, approximately five feet above the typical water level. The ruptures were produced by exterior and unidentified items, and had nothing to do with the corvette’s welded parts. The ruptures encompassed a total area of 80 square inches. The commander did not dock the vessel at the adjacent Bang Saphan port in Prachuap Khiri Khan province due to strong waves and a lack of tugboats to enable safe docking. He was unaware of the damages, and as a result, he decided to return the corvette back to Sattahip, despite the distance, in order to save the ship. The Royal Thai Navy investigation determined that his choice to return it to Sattahip was imprudent. The Bang Saphan police would examine criminal charges againsthim. Phichitchai apologized and stated that he and other crew aboard the corvette did their best to deal with the situation, which proved to be unmanageable. He stated that he opted to return the corvette to Sattahip because it was not listing at the moment, but weather conditions worsened later. Report with photos: https://www.chiangraitimes.com/news/navy-captain-of-sunken-navy-warship-resigns/#google_vignette
LILIANA X
On April 10, 2024, at around 6 p.m., the 'Liliana X' caught fire off the l’Île de Ré with three people on board, were able to take refuge on the tender of their catamaran, which had set sail from Sables-d’Olonne. The crew of a Guépard Yankee helicopter from the French Navy detachment base in La Rochelle located the boat, and the castaways were taken on board a fishing vessel before they were transferred to the lifeboat “SNS 741 Marie-Anne” from La Rochelle. The boat was towed back to the port and disembarked at the marina in La Rochelle. Report with photos: https://www.sudouest.fr/environnement/mer/un-catamaran-en-feu-au-large-de-l-ile-de-re-ses-trois-occupants-secourus-19287081.php
Rotterdam
Container throughput continues to grow in Rotterdam. Following a record year in 2018 and a record quarter in 2019, April of this year was the best month ever for the Port of Rotterdam. 13.6 million tonnes of container freight was handled in April 2019. The previous record month was August 2018 (13.2 million tonnes). Measured in TEU, the standard unit for containers, April 2019 was the second-best month ever, with 1.3 million TEU, just a fraction lower than the record month of August 2018.
San Diego
Matson, Inc., a leading U.S. carrier in the Pacific, and General Dynamics NASSCO shipyard christened the largest combination container/roll-on, roll-off (“con-ro”) ship ever built in the United States in a ceremony at the NASSCO shipyard in San Diego, CA on Saturday, June 15. The new vessel is named ‘Lurline,’ an iconic name in Matson’s long history, dating to the construction of Captain William Matson’s first ship of that name in 1887. Four more ships were given the name in subsequent years; this vessel will be the sixth. The new Lurline is the first of two new ships being built for Honolulu-based Matson by NASSCO at a total cost of approximately $500 million for the pair, and the third of four new vessels that Matson will put into service during 2018, 2019 and 2020. Named in honor of the ocean deity revered in the native Hawaiian culture, Matson’s two “Kanaloa Class” vessels under construction at the NASSCO shipyard are being built on a 3,500 TEU* vessel platform.