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The pirates, who kidnapped eight sailors, one Ukrainian, three Russians and four Filipinos, from the "Marmaita" off Cameroon, contacted the ship owner Marconsult. A ransom for their release was being negotiated. The talks can last for up to two weeks and the amount of ransom will not be revealed for the captives’ security. The health condition of the Russian captives was said to be satisfactory, and an agreement was reached to supply them with medicines against malaria. The pirates were Nigerians, and presumably, the sailors were taken to Nigeria. An emergency response group was negotiating the release of sailors Russia’s Foreign Ministry said its diplomats are working with Cameroonian officials to accelerate the process of the release of the Russian citizens. The vessel itself was not seized.

Ferry service on the route Langevåg-Buavåg was canceled for 2,5 hours i nthe morning of Aug 22, 2019, due totechnical problems of the "Utstein". Operator Norled announced a delay in ferry traffic 06.40 a.m. The ferry returned to normal operation after troubleshooting at 9 a.m.

ENCHANTED PRINCESS, the fifth in a line of six Royal Class ships built for Princess Cruises, was floated out on 6 August at Fincantieri’s shipyard in Monfalcone.

On August 1, ABP announced new customers for the Port of Immingham this week: The port welcomed the first vessel in a new contract with customers Top Blue and The Fuel Trading Company. The new deal is expected to bring an extra 30,000 tonnes per year through the Port of Immingham – the largest Port by tonnage in the UK. The cargo being delivered is Prilled Urea which is a key part of the mixture for the AdBlue market.

Greece has refused to help the "Adrian Darya 1". Deputy foreign minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis told he not willing to facilitate the course of the ship to Syria. The "Adrian Darya-1" had left Gibraltar on Aug 18 and listed the port Kalamata as its destination. Tehran has previously said it was willing to send naval forces to escort the "Adrian Darya-1" which was currently north of Oran. Varvitsiotis confirmed the US had put pressure on Greece to deny any help to the tanker. Iran has not been in touch with the Greek government. The "Adrian Darya-1", which was carrying two million barrels of crude oil, was too large for any Greek port to accommodate. It was believed the ship was trying to return to Iran through the Suez Canal in order to offload around a million barrels to another vessel, most likely with an Iranian flag as well, because she is too heavily laden in the water," he said. To go to Syria she's also too heavily laden to deliver to the port of Baniyas without assistance. The tanker took a circuitous route to the Mediterranean, travelling around the entirety of Africa instead of through the far shorter and quicker Suez Canal. The ship with its crew of 29 - from India, Russia, Latvia and the Philippines - was seized with the help of British marines on July 4, after the government of Gibraltar suggested it was heading for Syria in breach of EU sanctions.

On Aug 22, 2019, at 6 a.m. the ferry service on the road 57 between Hordaland and Sogn and Fjordane was canceled. The "Melderskin" on the Leirvåg - Sløvåg route had encountered technical problems. A cruise boat was set up to cover the route for pedestrians. At 8 a.m. the problems were resolved, and the ferry returned to normal operation.

Expansion works on the Takoradi Port have started with the construction of a multipurpose on-dock Atlantic Container Terminal. The project will see the port basin being dredged to create a 16-metre depth and land reclamation for the building of five new berths to hold bigger capacity vessels. A visit to the Takoradi Port in the Western Region revealed that the contractors were casting the foundation stones for the quay wall to herald the expansion project at the port. The project, being developed by Ibistek Ghana Limited at a cost of $475 million, marks the first time a wholly owned Ghanaian firm has been engaged in port development in the country. The Atlantic terminal, which will be the major development in the history of the Takoradi port when completed, will have a cargo holding space of one million twenty-footer equivalent units (TEUs), an upscale from the average container traffic of about 55,000 TEUs a year.

Terminal operator APM Terminals (APMT) has released a video of the final three ship-to-shore (STS) cranes arriving at the Vado Gateway terminal, which it hopes will be the next major logistics hub for the Mediterranean and Europe. The Vado Gateway terminal is scheduled to open on December 12, 2019, and will be built with a 700-meter deep-sea berth specifically to handle the latest Ultra Large Container Ships (ULCS), as well as an automated gate and stacking area. APMT announced the inauguration date in July 2019 – a story PTI reported on at the time. Located in the Vado Ligure Port Complex in the northwest of the country, it will be the first semi-automated port in Italy and be integrated with an already existing reefer terminal.

The "Ocean Viking", already stranded at sea for 13 days awaiting port access, has been denied entry by Malta and its two requests to Italian authorities have gone unanswered. The ship was carrying mostly Africans from Sudan, plucked from the sea in four separate missions. They included more than 100 minors, around 90 of them unaccompanied. Three children were under the age of five. The ship requested port access to Italian authorities on Aug 9 and Aug 12. Supplies were running down and the crew has begun to ration showers to conserve water. No port except for Tripoli has welcomed the ship, but the charities regard the Libyan port as unsafe and fear the migrants would be thrown into detention centres and suffer human rights abuses if returned to the country. The French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said Paris was ready to take in 40 people from the "Ocean Viking". Talks were under way with the European partners and his counterpart in Malta.

The "Color Hybrid" was involved in a rescue operation outside Hvaler in Østfold in the night of Aug 21, 2019. Two men were on a sailing trip, and one of them was going to dive, the other guarded him in a small rubber dinghy. There was strong wind in the area, and the man in the dinghy was blown out to sea in poor visibility and amid high waves. He was discovered from the bridge of the new hybrid ferry which stopped the voyage from Strømstad and alerted the MRCC. An MOB was launched and took care of the man. The lifeboat "Horn Stayer" was sent out from Skjeberg and took him on board. Meanwhile also the diver came back to the surface without finding his mate. He did everything according to the book, got off the equipment and swam ashore. Everything was going well with both him and the man in the dinghy. Norwegian report with photo: https://www.aftenposten.no/norge/i/e8yO0g/Color-Line-ferge-reddet-mann-i-gummijolle-som-drev-til-havs

Icebreaker assistance and ice restrictions for ships entering the basin of Section No.1 at the Port of Sabetta, Yamal and access channel are canceled as of 00:00 Moscow time, August 6. The corresponding order was signed by the Port Harbourmaster Nikolay Nesterov. The order says that there is a possibility of separately floating ice floes, therefore masters of ships sailing in this water area of the Port of Sabetta and on approaches to the port are advised to exercise caution. Arctic Port of Sabetta is built on the western shore of the Gulf of Ob (Kara Sea) for transshipment of hydrocarbons from the South-Tambey gas condensate field on the Yamal peninsula to the Western Europe, South America and APR countries under Yamal LNG project. The project envisages the construction of an LNG plant capable of producing 16.5 million metric tonnes of LNG and 1.35 million tonnes of gas condensate annually

The Government of Maharashtra, India, India has named the Virgin Hyperloop One – DP World Consortium as Original Project Proponent (OPP) for the Pune-Mumbai Hyperloop Project, making it the first hyperloop project in the world. In a statement, Virgin Hyperloop One described it as a “landmark announcement” for the building of the Mumbai-Pune hyperloop transportation system.