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A breakdown of the "Golden Bridge" which was linking Motril and Melilla since June, has forced all ticket reservations to be canceled, at least until the night of Aug 14, 2019. A crack in the hull had occurred on Aug 11 and was currently being repaired at El Varadero in Motril. Travel alternatives have been offered to all passengers who were affected. They may use another route also from another shipping company or get the refund of the ticket amount. The ship was due to leave Motril again on Aug 15 at 8.30 a.m.

The "Amelie V", 3237 ts (EU-No.: 02328749), allided with the Boulevard Bridge in Willebroek on Aug 13, 2019 shortly after 10 p.m. Three containers ended up in the water. The emergency services were notified of this. In addition to the local police, the Antwerp shipping police and the fire brigade also were on scene. Shipping between Antwerp and Brussels has since been stopped. Divers of the fire brigade located the containers and were able to secure them fairly quickly. One of them sank, two others stayed afloat. In the meantime, the ship moored along the quay. The Boulevard Bridge was closed to traffic which had to follow a local diversion. The empty containers were to be recovered with a large grab crane. In the meantime, shipping traffic may pass the site at a minimum speed so that the containers do not come loose and pose a danger to other ships. The Boulevard Bridge between Boom and Willebroek has since been released for traffic. The ship berthed at the PSA Europe Terminal in Antwerp on Aug 15 at 8.50 a.m. Reports with photos: https://www.hln.be/in-de-buurt/willebroek/schip-vaart-tegen-brug-drie-containers-vallen-in-het-water~a124296e/ https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2019/08/14/scheepvaartongeval-in-willebroek.app/

Middle East-India-Africa Express (MIAX) to start operations in October 2019 Hapag-Lloyd is expanding its African liner services and will offer its MIAX (Middle East-India-Africa Express) service starting in October 2019. It will include direct connections between the Arabian Gulf, India, Colombo (Sri Lanka), La Réunion, South Africa and West Africa.

South African state-run logistics company Transnet has suspended a number of employees for taking part in a lengthy go-slow campaign at the Ngqura Container Terminal in the Eastern Cape. The port said in a statement yesterday it had “suspended a number of employees at its Ngqura Container Terminal for engaging in an illegal industrial action.

Caledonian MacBrayne's Gourock-Dunoon services were decimated for three days after a mechanical breakdown of the "Argyll Flyer" which underwent an extensive refit and overhaul only in May. The ferry was rendered inoperable due to a damaged propeller shaft, and a total of 68 sailings had to be scrapped on Aug 5, 6 and 7, 2019,as a result of the latest in a series of malfunctions on the vessel. The ferry completed only four out of a timetabled 24 crossings on Aug 7. A replacement bus service was in operation, using Western Ferries, whose services were uninterrupted by the conditions. The vessel and her sister craft "Ali Cat" have racked up more than 4,500 cancelled sailings in the last three-and-a-half years — 678 of those in the first six months of 2019. CalMac apologised for any inconvenience this necessary repair has caused the travelling public and have worked to return the "Argyll Flyer" back into service as quickly as possible. Transport Scotland was considering the long term requirements of the service, including vessel and infrastructure upgrades.

The 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg prepared to sail across the North Atlantic to attend a climate conference in New York. She will be travelling aboard the "Malizia 2" with no shower, toilet or privacy to take part in a United Nations summit. to avoid travelling by air. The yacht is fitted with solar panels and underwater turbines that produce electricity onboard, with the aim of making the journey zero-carbon. The boat's skipper, Boris Herrmann, said the teenage activist was facing a challenging voyage on board the yacht which was due to leave Plymouth on Aug 14, 2019, if weather permits.

Maiden call by Marella Cruises in Kiel. In the early Tuesday morning (16th July) the cruise ship Marella Explorer (see also CruiseMapper) berthed in the port of Kiel with 2,000 mostly anglo-phone passengers on-board. The vessel follows an itinerary of 14 days leading it all across the Baltic Sea. It started in Newcastle on 13th July and will conclude its cruise in the same port on 27th July.

The Port of Tyne has created a new baggage handling for Marella Cruises at its International Passenger Terminal, which is located in North Shields near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England. The port has reconfigured 300 square metres of its terminal, creating space to process 1,000 bags as well as a marquee that functions as an undercover baggage handling facility. There are now also 382 additional parking spaces specifically for Marella Cruises’ guests. Marella Cruises’ customer will be able to drop off their luggage before heading straight to a dedicated car park. The baggage will be checked by security and loaded onto the ship, expediting the embarkation process.

The "Nika Spirit" was used to supply fuel to the occupied Crimea, an investigation established. The municipal court of Kherson on Aug 13 handed down a ruling upon considering a motion filed by prosecutors and the SBU security service on seizing the vessel which was believed to have supplied fuel to certain units of Russia's Black Sea fleet. The court has dismissed the motion. The Prosecutor's Office for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea is preparing an appeal. Searches were conducted on the vessel in Kherson. The investigation claimed the vessel was used in "smuggling petroleum products" into the temporarily occupied territory Earlier, the SBU along with the Military Prosecutor's Office detained the Russian tanker "Neyma", which in Nov 2018 blocked Ukrainian naval vessels from passing the Kerch Strait before the Ukrainian boats were attacked and eventually seized by Russian forces. The investigation found the tanker which had sailed as "Mariya" and "Vilga" had been renamed into "Nika Spirit" to conceal the involvement of the vessel in said illegal actions, which led to the arrest by Russia of 24 Ukrainian sailors, who Ukraine stresses were being held as prisoners of war.

The "Osfjord" is now being removed from Linesøya in South-Trøndelag. The Norwegian Coastal Administration was monitoring the demanding salvage operation. On Sep 22, 2018 the vessel had suffered an engine failure and ran aground support at Linesøya in the Åfjord municipality. Holes were punched in the hull. The crew of four was evacuated by a rescue helicopter. Work on removing fuel and loose parts was started shortly after the incident by the salvage company Ardent. A number of potential sources of contamination and littering were removed, including barrels and jugs with various oil types, paints, mooring ropes, lifebuoys, batteries, pyrotechnic materials, fire extinguishers and a lifeboat. On Nov 2 the Coastal Administration gave the ship owner an order to remove the wreck in its entirety. The salvage company Pro Staal presented a plan for the wreck removal, which consisted of sealing the vessel, attaching floating devices to the wreck and then transporting the "Osfjord" to the Fosen Gjenvinning for recycling. A number of attempts were made to get the wreck to stay afloat, but due to the vessel's condition, weather conditions and bottom conditions at the site, the operation was demanding. The site is characterized by shallow water and rocky terrain both below and above the sea surface. Thus, salvors had to rely on sufficiently long weather windows to be able to float the wreckage off the ground. The insurance company Danish Mutual Marine Insurance found it necessary to consider alternative wreckage methods. On July 17, 2019, the Coastal Administration received a copy of a new salvage plan, presented by the Boa management. The plan was to cut the wreck into 10-11 sections of about 50 tonnes and to transport each section to Fosen Gjenvinning for further dismantling. The subcontractor Kristiansand Bygg A/S was responsible for the cutting work itself. The wreck was cut using a diamond wire which was threaded around the wreck and cut the wreck from the underside. The hull sections ertr then lifted aboard zhe "Boabarge 42" with a mobile crane. The Boa management was now well underway with the work. Among other things, the deck house and stern section have already been removed. The Norwegian Coastal planned an on-site inspection on Aug 15. During the operation, it was likely that debris and oil residues would flow out and spread into the sea. Barriers were laid out and continuous clean-up work was carried out to prevent the spread from becoming too large. After the wreck of the "Osfjord" is removed, Boa management will ensure that the remaining wreckage and oil residues are removed in its entirety. The clean-up work will finally quality assured by means of a ROV survey of the seabed as well as a manual survey of adjacent land areas. Norwegian reports with photos: https://www.kystverket.no/Nyheter/2019/august/skipsvraket-osfjord-fjernes/ https://www.tu.no/artikler/klarte-ikke-a-fjerne-skipsvraket-i-en-del-na-fjernes-det-bit-for-bit/471539

All new ships for UK waters ordered from 2025 should be designed with zero-emission capable technologies, according to ambitious plans set out today by maritime minister Nusrat Ghani to cut pollution from the country’s maritime sector. The commitment is set out in the Clean Maritime Plan published today. The government is also looking at ways to incentivise the transition to zero-emission shipping and will consult on this next year. The plan also includes a £1m competition to find innovative ways to reduce maritime emissions and is published alongside a call for evidence to reduce emissions on UK waterways and domestic vessels.

U.S. Coast Guard crews have given up the search for a 49-year-old Cordova man who went missing after an explosion and subsequent fire on a fixed barge at Delong Dock in Whittier, Alaska, shortly after midnight on Monday. The fire spread to the pier and then to the Anagalik, a 99-foot commercial fishing vessel that was initially reported to have two people aboard at the time of the explosion. Whittier Police Department personnel have since confirmed one of those two is safely aboard a different vessel en route to Whittier. The fire has now been extinguished, but the fishing vessel and barge sank in 85 feet of water at the pier with a potential maximum of 5,500 gallons of fuel oil aboard. The fishing vessel owners have contracted Global Diving and Salvage for clean-up and salvage efforts. An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak has searched for the missing person by air, and crews aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Chandeleur and Coast Guard Auxiliary 336 searched nearby waters.