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The North-Western Office for Criminal Investigations in the Transport Segment of Russia’s Investigation Committee said that the Saint-Petersburg Transport Investigation Department has initiated a criminal case on the fire onboard the "Pyotr Tchaikovsky", moored at the Oktyabrskaya Embankment in Saint-Petersburg, constituting an offence under Part 2 of Article 263 ot the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (improper operation of water transport which resulted inadvertently in the death of a person). The fire broke out in the engineer's cabin of the "Pyotr Tchaikovsky" on Aug 22, 2019, at 05:30 a.m. The 25 year old man died from injuries caused by the fire while being transported to a medical facility. The more than 200 passengers and 80 crew members were evacuated from board. The fire was put out within one hour. Crime scene investigation team immediately appeared at the scene of the accident. Investigative activities are underway to establish facts, causes and circumstances of the case. Report with photo: http://en.portnews.ru/news/282316/

An 88-year-old British passenger of the "Aurora" died aboard the ship in the morning of Aug 21, 2019. The vessel had sailed from Southampton to Funchal. The crew reported to the CROSS Corsen at 07.50 that the passenger had fallen ill. After a remote consultation of the maritime medical center of Toulouse and the SAMU in Brest, it was decided to send a Caiman NH 90 helicopter. Around the time when the staff was hoisted on board, shortly before 10 a.m., the patient was dead. His body will be kept on board until the ship has arrived in Funchal the next weekend.

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.

On Aug 20, 2019, at 9.30 p.m. a fire broke out aboard the "De Hoop 4", 204 ts (EU-No.: 02310161), on the Oude Maas at Dordrecht. The ship berthed at the merchant ship quay where the fire rescue was able to tackle the fire which was soon brought under control.

A traffic accident occurred in the port of Syros in the afternoon of Aug 21, 2019, during the loading process of the "Blue Star Paros". A vehicle with a 51-year-old driver hit and injured a 46-year-old crew member of the vessel. The crew man was taken to the Syros General Hospital for medical treatment, and a preliminary investigation was being carried out by the relevant Port Authority.

The "Helm" suffered engine trouble in the Red Sea northwest of Yanbu in the evening of Aug 20, 2019. The AIS was turned off with the last port of call having been Caofeidian, and reappeared on Aug 20. The tanker was adrift about 30 miles off the Saudi Arabian coast. The offshore supply tug "Swissco Supplier" (IMO: 9397078) arrived on size on Aug 21 at 4 a.m.

After improvement of the weater, on Aug 21 at 4 p.m. a mobile crane which had been erected on the North jetty in of Dénia in the morning, started to take off the 70 vehicles aboard the "Pinar del Río" one by one. The salvage team proceeded to unload all vehicles except a caravan and two motorcycles that required special fasteners and were to be recovered on Aug 22. The crane hoisted the cars and placed them subtly on the breakwater. The Baleària workers, who had got the car keys already on Aug 17, transferred them to a parking lot in the port. Baleària contacted the owners and told the cars were now safe and that they could pick them up. The recovery continued at night with one car all ten minutes. Once these works are finished, the Dutch company Ardentia Marine will continue with the stabilization of the 'Pinar del Río' to prepare its refloating. After the storm it turned out that the starboard hull of the ferry was quite damaged. In the morning the fast ferry "Jaume 1" started covering the service between Ibiza and Palma. Spanish reports with photos: https://www.levante-emv.com/comunitat-valenciana/2019/08/22/coches-aires-denia/1913720.html https://www.lasprovincias.es/marina/ferry-denia-encallado-descarga-coches-20190821120440-nt.html

The "Ellen", the first ferry in Denmark to be fully powered by electricity has entered service on Aug 14, making it the first in the country without a diesel engine on board. The "Ellen" is sailing between the ports of Søby and Fynshav, connecting the islands of Ærø and Als. It is powered by a battery system with a capacity of 4.3 megawatt hours, and does not emit environmentally-harmful substances during operation. The e-ferry took two years to construct at the shipyard in Søby, and it was built through a partnership between Ærø Municipality and the European Union. The "Ellen" can sail approximately 40.7km between charges, giving it a range that is seven times longer than any other fully electric car ferry. The distance between Søby and Fynshav is 17.2km miles, and it's 15.2km between Søby and Fåborg. This means that it is capable of making a round-trip between the destinations and returning to the charging station in Søby to get topped up again.

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.

Sold to Chittagong Breakers

The Port Authority of Kefalonia was informed by the master of the “Vikentios Damodos" in the evening of Aug 21, 2019, about a leakage of a cooling water pipe of the port side main engine. The ferry was operating a scheduled itinerary on the Lixouri-Argostoli Kefalonia route. The vessel sailed safely to the port of Lixouri, where it was detained by the Port Authority of Kefalonia, and after repairing the damage and presenting a seaworthiness certificate of the attending classification society, the vessel was allowed to continue its schedule.

On Aug 21, 2019, around 11 a.m. the "Eemstrom", 2127 ts (EU-No.: 02320418), whilst coming from Den Oever, slammed into the gate of the Oranje lock of the Willem-Alexanderkolk near Schellingwoude in Amsterdam. The lock was closed, and technicians of Rijkswaterstaat were called to repair the damaged gate which was expected to last at least until the evening of Aug 22. Divers investigated the submerged part of the gate. There was no passage for ships longer than 95 meters from the east side of the IJ. The tanker remained berthed off the lock. Dutch report with video: https://www.at5.nl/artikelen/196254/tankschip-ramt-sluis-bij-schellingwoude-sluis-minstens-tot-vannacht-dicht

On Aug 18, 2019 the CROSS AG received a call of the patrol boat 'Heliconia Star' of the Montserrat Maritime Police after a sailboat was on fire five miles northwest of the island. At this moment, no occupant was spotted on or near the ship. The CROSS AG immediately deployed the civil security helicopter of Guadeloupe, a Dragon 971 and the patrol boat "Violette" from Guadeloupe which was joined by the "Lesley PG". At 2:30 a.m. the blazing boat sank despite attempts to extinguish the fire. Just over an hour later, the Dragon 971 detected two people in an inflatable boat. The 'Heliconia Star' diverted to the position and took on board the two castaways. They were immediately sent to the Montserrat hospital. One of the two castaways, severely burned during the fire, succumbed to his injuries in the morning. French report with video: https://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/martinique/dragon-971-sauve-naufrage-montserrat-740913.html

The "Red Eagle" with 50 passengers on board assisted in a rescue operation in the morning of Aug 21, 2019, during its 06:00 a.m. Southampton to East Cowes sailing. Just minutes after departing Southampton, Captain Craig Young spotted an upturned dinghy in the water off Hythe, near Dock Head. Further investigation aided by binoculars revealed that a man was in the water, holding onto the side of the dinghy. Captain Young immediately instructed his team to deploy Red Eagle’s rescue boat. The Southampton Harbourmaster and Solent Coastguard were also alerted. The Southampton Patrol attended the incident and was able to recover the man from the water, assisted by the ferry’s crew, and brought him to shore where local medics attended. He was taken to hospital via ambulance. The "Red Eagle"’s rescue boat towed the stranded dinghy to Hythe Marina before returning to the ferry for the 06:00 sailing to recommence. There were some delays to the service as a result but the return sailing from East Cowes to Southampton was only five minutes past the scheduled arrival time.

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

Beached at Aliaga 21.08.19

On Aug 21, 2019, at 7.25 p.m. the "Nidarø" with a crew of five on board lost engine power at Saltstraumen and ran aground on rocks just north of the bridge on the Knaplund side. Though the vessel regained engine power soon after, the captain chose to wait for the arrival of the alerted NSSR-lifeboat "Hermann Horn" to assist in refloating it. Also a Sea King helicopter was placed on standby. By 8 p.m. the lifeboat managed to pull the ship off and into the deeper waters of the fjord. It berthed in the port of Bodø at 9.40 p.m. Norwegian report with photos and video: https://www.an.no/nyheter/saltstraumen/bodo/se-video-av-redningsaksjonen-i-saltstraumen/s/5-4-1067991