Six British fishermen were rescued after the "Audacious - BF 83" sank off the East Coast of Aberdeen on Aug 10, 2012, in the Northsea. The crew was saved by a nearby ship and was transferred to a Coastguard helicopter later. The ship had notified the Coastguard at 2.30 p.m. that it was sinking 40 miles east of Aberdeen. Two helicopters of the RAF in Lossiemouth and another of a Danish Navy vessel proceeded to the accident site. All crew members made it to life-rafts before the ship sank. It was currently unclear what had caused the ship to sink in calm conditions.

By late afternoon of Aug 9 the "Chamarel" was still burning. No visible effort was made to extinguish the fire aboard the stricken vessel. The damage to ship caused by the raging fire was visible from the beach as it slowly drifted towards land. The ship had been on its way north to Benin when the captain received a message that one of the crew member's children passed away. The ship apparently turned around to drop the bereaved crew member off in the nearest harbour, in this case Walvis Bay, and it was then that the disaster struck. The ship had been in the floating dock in Walvis Bay for repairs about two weeks ago. Large numbers of curious onlookers from Henties Bay already turned up at the beach opposite where the burning ship is laying and a large number of tourists were also seen turning up and still more coming every minute. In the foremidday hours of Aug 9 two explosions were heard on the shore within two hours. At 11 a.m. the ship drifted two miles off the shore. Black and white fume was emerging from the ship, mostly from the stern region. The midship region was gutted and the ship listing. A small tug in vain tried to get the drift under control, but the cable snapped various times. About 2.30 p.m. the wreck got stuck on a sandbar. The "Chamarel" was mostly used for the maintenance of the undersea cables „SAT3“, „WASC“ and „SAFE“. The vessel was returning from a mission to repair the Sat3/WASC/Safe submarine cable which connects Portugal and Spain to nine West African countries, circles around the southern tip of Africa, and connects to India and Malaysia, when disaster struck. German report with photos: www.az.com.na/lok...

Fire broke out on board of Ukrainian general cargo vessel Yukka on August 9 2012, when vessel was 40 miles off Cide, Kastamonu district, Turkey, en route from Istanbul to Rostov-on-Don, Russia. It is understood that 10 crew was evacuated and taken to Inebolu, 2 officer was slightly injured. Fire reportedly extinguished by Turkish Coast Guard, latest development and vessel’s position and condition unknown. Maritime Bulletin www.odin.tc

General cargo vessel Sestroretsk ran aground on 2784.7 kilometer mark river Volga in the morning August 82012, en route from Turkey to Astrakhan, Russia. Vessel is loaded with general cargo, attempts to refloat by own means failed. Maritime Bulletin www.odin.tc

Boxship Pandora ran aground in Inner Japan sea on August 10 2012 under unknown circumstances, 0.5 miles off Imabaru harbour, en route from Qingdao China to Osaka Japan. As of afternoon August 10 vessel was in the same position. Maritime Bulletin www.odin.tc

The icebreaker 'Xue Long' made the Arctic Ocean passage from China, where she started on June 8, 2012 through to Norwegian waters. The Chinese icebreaker completed the Arctic North-East Passage marking the first such voyage by a Chinese vessel. More at www.marinelink.co...

Maersk / Rickmers Line's 'Maersk Illinois' makes her first homeport call in Norfolk, Virginia. Maersk Illinois and her sistership Maersk Texas are heavy-lift multipurpose vessels owned by Maersk Line Ltd. (MLL) and operated in partnership with Rickmers-Linie (America). The two companies formed Maersk-Rickmers to provide commercial service to shippers of break-bulk and project cargo. Both ships can lift 480 metric tons. Maersk-Rickmers competes in international markets and for U.S. flag-impelled cargo.

Salvors have started cutting up internal sections of the bow of the "Rena" now and hope to start removing sections next week. US salvage company Resolve has taken over the salvage contract for the wreck. The company has been quiet on its progress so far but says more details will be released next week. Meanwhile, the ship's insurer, The Swedish Club, was conducting studies on whether the bow should be removed entirely or levelled to below the water line. Project head Captain John Owen said the studies - expected to take two months - would be shared with the community so an informed decision could be made. They would look at environmental, cultural, safety, recreation, tourism and community health aspects. A full wreck removal would be a heavy engineering operation which could damage the reef, seabed and marine life. The stern section of the Rena is lying on a slope at a depth of up to 65 metres, while part of the ship's navigation bridge is 10 m below the surface. Meanwhile a window of calm after stormy weather at the wreck has allowed clean-up crews to resume work removing shipping containers from the seabed. Clean-up contractors Braemar Howells used a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) to carry out container preparation work on the seabed near Astrolabe Reef. The ROV on Aug 9 was able to pre-rig four containers, getting them ready to haul to the surface. The better weather has also allowed, under instruction from "Rena"'s owners and insurers, to begin a visual look with the ROV at the seabed around the aft section of the wreck. Shoreline clean-up work was focussing on plastic beads in particular. The beads had washed up on Waihi Beach, where 100 bags and flotsam had been recovered, and on 38 beaches along the Coromandel Peninsula. The beads were spread over a very wide area. All the beaches required different recovery methods and the clean-up teams were coming up with innovative solutions, including a large vacuum system called a "billygoat", a vacuum on wheels with brushes that could be driven along the high tide line, sucking beads into a collection bag at the back. Staff were also continuing to use smaller portable vacuum units that had drums attached to a 15 m hose.

An Air Station Kodiak MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew medevaced an ailing crewmember aboard a fishing vessel approximately 69 miles southeast of Chignik on Aug 9, 2012. A 17th Coast Guard District watchstander received a report at 3:32 a.m. of a 32-year-old crewman aboard the "Cape Caution" who was suffering from severe abdominal distress. Air Station Kodiak launched a rescue helicopter and aircrew at 4:45 a.m. who arrived on scene at 6:31 a.m. and successfully hoisted the patient. The aircrew transferred the patient to a Kodiak City Fire Department ambulance crew at Air Station Kodiak who transported him to Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center for further evaluation and treatment. Report with photos: www.uscgnews.com/...

In the evening August 9 2012 an acetylene cylinder exploded on board of Greece bulk carrier Timios Stavros, docked in Paranagua port, Brazil, during welding works. Exact location of the explosion is unknown, but there was no fire after the explosion. Two crew members died, one Russian and one Filipino, according to local media. Vessel arrived from Lome, Togo, on July 29, to load a cargo of sugar. Reportedly, loading will be completed by August 17. Local company Cargonave, vessel’s agent, is to be responsible for delivering bodies of the perished crew to their home countries. Maritime Bulletin www.odin.tc