The 'Captain Nikolas' was arrested at Chattogram on April 11, 2025, following an order from a Bangladesh court. The lawsuits leading to the arrest were filed due to the vessel's involvement in a fire at the port on Oct 16, 2024, at around 12:45 a.m., during an LPG transfer with the tanker 'B-LPG Sophia' (IMO: 9175846). While the fire on the 'Captain Nikolas' was extinguished by 3:30 a.m, the fire on the other ship continued to burn for another 12 hours, and it was found beyond repair and has been broken up in Chittagong since. The LPG Operators Association of Bangladesh alleged that the origin of the LPG cargo aboard the LPG tanker was unclear and that the records regarding its origin were falsified. The issue that the vessel possibly had violated sanctions was under investigation separately. The 'Captain Nikolas' was seized following the fire and remained stationary in Chattogram since due to legal disputes, still holding around 34,000 tons of cargo. The two separate court orders stem from the two admiralty suits filed against the vessel. One suit was filed by the Atlantis Gas DMCC, the owner of the 'B-LPG Sophia', which led to an arrest warrant being issued on April 9. The second admiralty suit was filed by theXenon Energy DMCC, a UAE-based company, which led to a warrant being issued against the same vessel on April 10. The vessel was finally seized on April 11, following two separate court orders for its arrest. The owner of the 'Captain Nikolas' has appointed counsel to contest the lawsuits and was trying to get the vessel released.
News
ABLE
On April 13, 2025, the 'Able' was detained in Karasu with 16 deficiencies: 1) Living and working - Dirty, parasites Not hygienic 2) Living and working - Gas instruments Not as required 3) Living and working - Lighting (working spaces) Not as required 4) Living and working - Pipes, wires (insulation) Not as required 5) Certificate & Doc - Log books, compulsory entries Entries missing 6) Certificate & Doc - International Sewage Pollution Prevention Certificate Not as required 7) Certificate & Doc - International Oil Pollution Prevention Cert Missing 8)) Certificate & Doc - Oil record book Not as required 9) Life saving Appliances - Lifeboats Not properly maintained 10) Propulsion and auxiliary machinery - Other (Machinery) Other 11) Fire safety - Fire pump and its pipes Inoperative 12) Structural conditions - Decks - Corrosion Corroded 13) Structural conditions - Hull - Corrosion Corroded 14) Structural conditions - Ballast, fuel and other tanks Not as required 15) Structural conditions - Closing devices / Watertight doors Damaged 16) Structural conditions - Electrical installations in general Not as required The vessel was released again on April 18 and left the port en route to Sulina with an ETA as of April 21. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063576908591
San Diego
The number of coronavirus cases aboard the USS 'Kidd' rose to 64 as the Navy destroyer pulled into port at San Diego on April 28, 2020, to get medical care for the crew and to disinfect and decontaminate the ship. The 'Kidd' was the second Navy ship to have an outbreak of the disease while at sea, the other being the USS 'Theodore Roosevelt', an aircraft carrier that has been docked at Guam for a month and has more than 900 sailors with confirmed cases of COVID-19, but the entire crew has now been tested. The Navy has moved swiftly to get the 'Kidd''s crew ashore. That was a point of contention with the 'Roosevelt', whose skipper, Capt. Brett Crozier, felt compelled to write to several other commanders pleading for more urgent Navy action to protect his crew of nearly 5,000. Crozier was then relieved of command for what the Navy's top civilian official at the time, Thomas Modly, called poor judgment. Modly resigned several days later, and the Navy is now seeking higher-level approval to reverse his move and restore Crozier to command. The Navy said that 63% of the 'Kidd''s crew of more than 300 had been tested as of April 28. One sailor was medically evacuated to the United States on April 22 after experiencing shortness of breath. Fifteen were transferred to another ship with a medical facility for closer observation of symptoms. Sailors being removed from the 'Kidd' at San Diego will be isolated with twice-daily medical screenings. Crew members who have tested negative will enter quarantine for a period of observation, with military health professionals monitoring them for symptoms. Also, a small contingent of sailors who tested negative will remain on the ship for essential services and deep cleaning. The cleaning is expected to take two weeks. The destroyer had been off the Pacific coast of Central American doing counter-narcotics operations. The Navy said no deployed ships currently have known coronavirus cases aboard. 13 ships that previously had one or more active cases while in port have zero cases now.
Flensburg
The Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft shipyard a which had been operating at a loss for some time, filed for self-administered insolvency on April 24. The goal of the shipyard’s filing was to permit it to start afresh. The future of Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft in the medium term was in building Ro-Ro ferries, according to the message delivered by the management at a workers meeting on Sunday April 26. The move is specifically designed to allow the company to start from fresh without existing contractual obligations to customers and suppliers. Though an administrator will be brought in from outside the company, the company management will continue to control the business which is a different process to bankruptcy in German law. Investor Lars Windhorst is prepared to put money into the business through his Tennor Holding investment vehicle. Tennor Holding took 100% control of the yard in 2019. He has said, however, that the money should not be used on loss making contracts. The former majority owner Siem Industries is interested in contracting 4 further Ro-Ro ferries from the yard. Siem recently took delivery of LIEKUT, the eighth of a series of vessels built by FSG for the company to charter out. FSG had been making significant losses for a number of years. The Siem group acquired the company for a token €1 back in November 2014 after severe liquidity problems. Those losses massively increased in recent years, however, with the yard losing an eye watering €111m in 2018. The hugely increased losses were due in part to delivery delays with Irish Ferries 'W.B. Yeats' and the subsequent penalty payments made to Irish Continental Group (ICG). The agreed contract price to build the 'W.B. Yeats' is understood to have left little to no margin for the yard in the first place.
SISAK IV - RESCUE 1
After serving the Greenland Police for 36 years, the 'Sisak' has been sold at auction by B2B Auctions. The police cutter brought in 3.1 million Danish Crowns, 100,000 more than the expected sale price. The vessel remained berthed at the quay in Nuuk, but it can only remain there until May 1, 2025. Before the new owner sails away, all external signs that it was a police cutter must be painted over, and all police equipment on board must be removed or reprogrammed. The money from the sale will be included in the pool available to the Greenland Police for the acquisition of new and more modern vessels. The defense has previously sold phased-out naval cutters in Greenland.
ANNAPURNA
On April 18, 2025, the 'Annapurna' was detained in Gemlik with 13 deficiencies, four of which being regarded as seriously and grounds for a detention: 1) Fire safety - Jacketed high pressure lines and oil leakage alarm Inoperative 2) Fire safety - Fire doors/openings in fire resisting division Unsafe 3) Water/Weathertight - Ventilators, air pipes and casings Damaged 4) Living and working - Cleanliness of engine room Insufficient The vessel was released again on April 20, destined to Izmit. The same day it anchored at the Tuzla shipyaard area in pos. 40° 53' N 029° 12' E, where it remained stationary as of April 22. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063576908591
Everett WA
The American destroyer USS 'Kidd' returned to Everett after nearly 50 crew members aboard were tested positive for coronavirus as of April 27, 2020. This was the second reported outbreak of COVID-19 aboard a US Navy vessel at sea. After concerns were raised about cases aboard the USS 'Theodore Roosevelt', one sailor assigned to that ship died from coronavirus complications. Roughly half the crew members on the USS 'Kidd' have been tested for the virus, and some have been evacuated. 45% of the ship have been tested for COVID-19, with 47 total positive results. Two Sailors have been medically evacuated. 15 sailors have been transferred to USS 'Makin Island (LHD 8)' for monitoring due to persistent symptoms. None were in the ICU or on ventilators. Sailors aboard the USS 'Kidd' were wearing PPE and N95 masks. Initial COVID-19 testing of sailors from the USS 'Theodore Roosevelt' were now complete, there are 955 active cases, along with 14 recovered cases. The USS 'Kidd' was on a counter narcotics mission' when ait was reported at least 18 crew had fallen ill with the virus.
Grenaa
The chairman of the board of Grenaa Shipyard, Esben Møller, was deeply affected by the violent gas explosion on the dredger 'Grete Fighter', which injured three employees on April 23, 2020. The cause is still unknown. Shipyard chairman deeply affected by accide. "We have never experienced anything like it here, ”says Esben Møller. The accident happened shortly after lunch break when the employees were on their way back to the ship, which was in the shipyard in connection with a 5 year revision. On the way to the ship's tank system there was a huge explosion. Two men have reached the bottom of the ship, while the one closest to the exit was being helped out. Police and fire departments were alerted at 9.35 a.m., and shipyard and ship crews quickly reached the two at the bottom of the ship, which were most severely affected by the explosion, but were unable to rescue them. But they stayed with them until the fire department and the ambulance arrived. According to police, the three severely injured people who were flown to Rigshospitalet are a 31-year-old man from Norddjurs, a 53-year-old man from Syddjurs and a 50-year-old man from West Funen. "I don't know about their situation anymore, other than it's very serious," Esben Møller said. The accident is now being investigated by the police and the Labor Inspectorate. The 'Grete Fighter', which is owned by Peter Madsen Rederi, was in the yard for a five-year inspection. According to Grenaa Shipyard, on the ship various steel works were to be carried out, measurements of screw shaft and rudder, full service of auxiliary and main engine, dismantling of bottom and bilge valves and a full coating of bottom and bulwark. In addition, the old excavator had to be dismantled in favour of a new one.
HM 119 BLUE OCEAN
On April 21, 2025, at 10.19 p.m. the 'Blue Ocean - HM 110', with two people on board, started taking on water and, being in danger of sinking 25 nautical miles west of Hanstholm, issued a distress call. The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre sent a helicopter from Aalborg to the scene, and the Hanstholm Rescue Station was called out. Two boats were immediately launched, the 'FRB11', equipped with bilge pumps, and the lifeboat 'C.B. Claudi'. Also the rescue station Nr. Vorupør was put on alert. The fishing vessel, however, sank when the 'FRB 11' was about 10 miles from the port, The two fishermen were rescued by another fishing vessel, which had been in the vicinity, and were taken aboard this ship to the port of Hanstholm in good health. The 'C.B. Claudi' returned to the port of Hanstholm, while the 'FRB11' collected pieces of wreckage from the sunken ship. The crew managed to recover the EPIRBs, lifebuoys and other wreckage.
ASTRUM APUS
The "Astrum Apus" was detained on April 15, 2025, in Zhangjiagang, where it had berthed on April 4, with nine deficiencies , two of which being regarded as seriously and grounds for a detention. 1) Fire safety - Fire prevention structural integrity Not as required 2) Life saving Appliances - Rescue boats Not properly maintained The ship left the port on April 20, next headed to Muuga with an ETA as of May 30, https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063576908591
Marseille
The 'AIDAblu' made a brief stopover yesterday in Marseille on April 26, 2020, to embark several hundred crew members of one of his sisterships, the 'AIDAsol', which has been moored in the port for 1,5 months. The transfer took place to facilitate the repatriation of AIDA personnel via Germany. The 'AIDAblu' set sail again in the afternoon. At the same time, another cruise ship which had been berthed in Marseille since last month, the 'Europa 2' of Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, set sail to also return to Germany, its arrival in Hamburg was scheduled for May 2. The Marseille areas now hosted six cruise ships, the 'Costa Smeralda', 'MSC Magnifica' and 'AIDAsol', 'Le Boréal', 'L’Austral' and 'Le Lyrial'. The repatriation operations of the international personnel of these ships was still in progress, in particular via flights chartered by the owners. This was particularly the case for the crew members of the 'MSC Magnifica', which arrived on April 20 and who also landed 4 tonnes of food surplus, donated to local associations to help the most disadvantaged.
Toulon
More than 1,000 sailors aboard the aircraft carrier 'Charles de Gaulle' have tested positive for COVID-19, a number that could continue to surge as the crew awaits approximately 930 more test results. The outbreak onboard the French navy’s flagship forced leadership to call off the remaining two weeks of the carrier’s scheduled deployment to the North Atlantic. The ship, which carries a crew of nearly 1,800, pulled into port last week at Toulon Naval Base in southern France. In all, 1,081 crew members from the Charles de Gaulle naval group have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. That total comes almost entirely from the carrier, and includes at least two U.S. sailors who were assigned to the ship as part of the U.S. Navy’s Personnel Exchange Program. The American sailors have since been removed from the ship and were receiving excellent host nation medical care at French facilities. The declining health of one French sailor, meanwhile, necessitated a transfer to the intensive care unit. Partially complicating the early detection process onboard the 'Charles de Gaulle' was the rate of asymptomatic carriers. Of the confirmed cases, nearly half showed no symptoms. Additionally, masks were not made available until late in the ship’s deployment. T The debilitating spread of the virus onboard France’s lone carrier, has sparked concern about the nation’s ability to remain ready to fight. Unlike the U.S. Navy, which touts 10 other active carriers in addition to the coronavirus-stricken USS 'Theodore Roosevelt', losing the 'Charles de Gaulle' for an extended period could cripple France’s nuclear deterrence capabilities.