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Topics - Lysfoss

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Shipping News and information / Stena Voyager Ferry lacked necessary equipment - inquiry

« on: October 01, 2009, 01:17:17 PM »

UK marine accident investigators have found that a Belfast-bound ferry, which was stranded off the Scottish port of Stranraer for 24 hours last January, did not have the necessary equipment to secure vehicles on board.

Almost 200 passengers and crew were stranded overnight on the Stena Voyager when an articulated truck crashed through its rear door shortly after the vessel left port.

The high-speed ferry was unable to re-berth because the lorry, which was left hanging precariously off the stern, was obstructing access to the docking terminal.

Passengers were eventually lifted off the vessel after a full day by a local fire brigade appliance.

The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB), which was tasked to examine the incident, found that while the crew had made efforts to secure the vehicle the lashing straps and fixtures used were not strong enough.

It also said that chocks placed under the wheels had not been positioned correctly.

'The driver of the road tanker had not applied the vehicle's parking brakes and had left it out of gear,' the report found.

'Although the vehicle had been lashed to the deck and its rear wheels chocked, the securing arrangements were not in accordance with the vessel's securing manual, and they failed to stop the vehicle from rolling backwards when Stena Voyager became trimmed by her stern (tilted backwards) as she accelerated.

'Neither the ferry's deck securing points nor the vehicle's ferry securing points, to which the lashings were attached, accorded with the applicable international and national codes of practice.

'The lashing straps were also of insufficient strength, and tests have shown that the chocks could not have been correctly positioned.'

MAIB said Stena Line and lorry owners Turner (Soham) Ltd have since taken steps to address the problems identified by its investigation.

The agency also made recommendations to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) and the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) to ensure that road hauliers are made aware of the need to make their vehicles safe to transport by sea.

It has also urged the MCA to monitor securing arrangements and practices on board all high speed craft carrying freight vehicles to make sure they comply with their cargo securing manuals and the applicable codes of practice.

Shipping News and information / Israel gets two more German submarines

« on: September 30, 2009, 02:02:02 PM »

military spokesman said on Tuesday.
A German Navy U212 class sub in the docks in Emden, northern Germany, in 2003

"We have received two Dolphin-class submarines built in Germany," he said, on condition of anonymity.

The submarines, called U212s, can launch cruise missiles carrying nuclear warheads, although when it confirmed the sale in 2006 the German government said the two vessels were not equipped to carry nuclear weapons.

The subs were ordered in 2005 and delivery was initially expected in 2010.

Including the two new ones, Israel has five German submarines -- the most expensive weapon platforms in Israel's arsenal.

Germany, which believes it has a historic responsibility to help Israel because of the mass murder of Jews in World War II, donated the first two submarines after the 1991 Gulf War.

It split the cost of the third with the Jewish state.

According to Jane's Defence Weekly, the U212s are designed for a crew of 35, have a range of 4,500 kilometres (2,810 miles) and can launch cruise missiles carrying nuclear warheads.

Israeli media have written that the Dolphin submarine could be key in any attack on arch-foe Iran's controversial nuclear sites.

An Israeli submarine recently used the Suez Canal for the first time in June, escorted by Egyptian navy vessels, in what Israeli media said was intended as a message to Iran.

Widely considered the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear power, Israel suspects Iran of trying to develop atomic weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear programme, a charge Tehran denies.

Shipping News and information / 56 dead after boat sinks in India

« on: September 30, 2009, 11:48:10 AM »

Rescuers have found 56 bodies and are searching for more victims after a boat packed with Hindu devotees capsized in eastern India.

The boat was returning from a religious festival on Monday when it sank in the Bagmati River in Bihar state, 200km north of the state capital Patna.

'We have so far brought out 56 victims, including the bodies of two dozen women and children,' local civilian administrator Abhay Singh said.

Police said a storm overturned the boat, which had the capacity for only 35 people but was carrying 80 passengers. So far nine survivors have been found.

Shipping News and information / Samskip Express not under command

« on: September 30, 2009, 10:31:19 AM »

I checked the position of the samskip express and she appears in the english channel not under command. 0.07 knots. Can anyone shed some light on this?

http://www.shipais.com/showship.php?mmsi=304965000

Has she engine failure or somthing?

Shipping News and information / Nato Piracy Patrols In Gulf 'Are Working' as 7 pirates arrested

« on: September 27, 2009, 11:41:59 AM »

Despite fresh attacks in the region. Seven pirates were arrested off the coast of Somalia on Saturday after the alarm was raised by two separate Panama-flagged merchant vessels that feared they were being targeted.

Turkish navy commandoes on board the TCG Gediz were then involved in a raid on a small pirate vessel.

The frigate is one of about 25 ships on counter-piracy patrols in the area.

It is part of a Nato force that complements ships from the European Union and independent navies.

The international anti-piracy efforts are co-ordinated by the Combined Maritime Force (CMF) based in Bahrain, which has its own specialist task force called CTF 151.

Speaking on board the CTF's flagship battleship, the USS Anzio, Admiral Scott E Sanders said efforts off the Somali coast were yielding results.

"Due to the effective co-ordination between the many navies operating in the Gulf Of Aden pirates are having to resort to multiple attacks," he said.

"They will target one ship after another because their attempts are being thwarted by our swift response tactics."

"The fact that the international maritime community has tightened up its procedures is evident in the recent failed attempts."

Somali pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden peaked between the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009.

The internationally recommended transit corridor (IRTC) was created in February 2009.

The 464-mile stretch of water runs right through the middle of the Gulf Of Aden.

It is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, with some 33,000 merchant ships passing through the channel every year.

By having a recognised corridor it is much easier to co-ordinate international efforts against pirate attacks.

Anti-piracy commanders say the drop in the number of hijackings is evidence their strategy is working.

Royal Navy Captain Keith Blount, the chief of staff on board the USS Anzio believed the patrols were working.

"Conditions have been perfect for pirate attacks in recent weeks yet no ships have been successfully taken despite a number of attempts," he said.

"That's down to the standing patrols from CTF 151 and those of the other navies in the area together with the co-operation of the merchant marine community."

Four ships and their crews were still being held hostage by Somali pirates and negotiations to secure their release were ongoing.

Shipping News and information / Converting Single Hull to double hull ships.

« on: September 27, 2009, 10:43:47 AM »

I always wondered with a sinlge hull ship can you build on a second hull to make a double hull vessel? I know that its complusory for tankers to be double hulled and if not, there not allowed to sail in certain waters. So rather than breaking up the vessls to make way for doubled hull vessels is this possible? Would be a waste to break up such huge vessels and build new double hulled vessels at a cost of billions of dollars.

Shipping News and information / Cork to Swansea route to re-open

« on: September 25, 2009, 05:34:32 PM »

A west Cork tourism cooperative has been backed by a Finnish community savings bank to re-start the ferry service between Cork and Swansea, which has been closed for two years.

Tourist interests have raised

Shipping News and information / Lysfoss the most outstanding ship of the year

« on: September 24, 2009, 06:00:36 PM »

In the years 1989-1991 delivery of three (3) Ro-Ro/Container/ /paper carriers, 3,400 dwt, of which one has been chosen in the year 1989 as the one of the most outstanding ship of the year by the US magazine "Maritime Reporter & Engineering News".

http://www.hb.hr/download/containers.pdf

(Page 4)

Shipping News and information / DFDS LYSLINE pulls out of ireland.

« on: September 23, 2009, 04:38:15 PM »

Lys-skog loads her last container at drogheda port. She sails to Waterford to load pulp for the port ot lyngdal and then sets sail to the port of oslo were her owners will take possession of her entirley. Lysline has been in operation since the 1970s transporting paper from scandinavia to ireland.

DFDS LYSLINE has finished trading between ireland and scandinavia as of from the 23rd September 2009. Paper reels will be shipped from scandinavia to immingham and transported by truck to dublin via ferry.

http://www.shipspotting.com/modules/myalbum/photo-989340-LYS-SKOG

Shipping News and information / Toxic waste ship sunk by mafia found off Italy

« on: September 16, 2009, 09:41:03 AM »

Italian authorities have found the wreck of a ship sunk by the mafia with 180 barrels of toxic waste on board, one of more than 30 such vessels believed to lie off Italy's southern coast.

Following a lead from a mafia turncoat, investigators used a remote-controlled submersible to film the 110m-long vessel on Saturday, around 28km from the coast of the south-western Italian region of Calabria.

The ship, which officials said might even contain radioactive elements, lay in 500m of water in the Tyrrhenian sea.

TV images showed at least one barrel had fallen from its damaged hull and lay empty on the seabed.

'There could be problems of toxins and heavy metals ... this is an issue for the whole international community,' Silvestro Greco, head of Calabria's environment agency, said.

The ship's location was revealed by an ex-member of Calabria's 'Ndrangheta crime group.

Mr Greco said investigators believed there were 32 ships carrying toxic waste sunk by the mafia since the introduction of tighter environmental legislation in the 1980s made illegal waste disposal a lucrative business for crime groups.

'The Mediterranean is 0.7% of the world's seas. If in this tiny portion there are more than 30 (toxic waste) shipwrecks, imagine what there could be elsewhere,' he said.

Shipping News and information / Severe conditions noted in Honey Dew II report

« on: September 15, 2009, 02:49:02 PM »

The report into the sinking of the fishing vessel, the Honey Dew II says sea conditions were very rough with extremely high waves at the time of the sinking.

Read the full report

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0915/Honeydew.pdf

The report by the Marine Casualty Investigation Board states the main reason for the sinking was that a wave or waves caused sections of the port bulwark to fail catastrophically and be forced inward.

This allowed a large quantity of water to rapidly flood into the shelter deck space. The boat sank in a matter of minutes.

Conditions of storm force 10 were recorded off the west Waterford coast that night, with waves as high as 18m.

The skipper, 39-year-old Ger Bohan from Kinsale, and 31-year-old crew member Tomasz Jagla from Poland, were lost and presumed drowned.

An extensive search of the wreck by garda divers failed to locate the two missing men.

Two other crew members survived and were rescued 15 hours later. The boat itself was located two weeks later on the seabed south of Mine Head by another fishing vessel.

At the time of the sinking no distress call or emergency beacon signal was received from the vessel.

The Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, which would normally emit such a signal, was found on Courtown beach, Co Wexford, by a member of the public 11 months later and following battery replacement was found to operate satisfactorily.

The failure of the EPIRB to give out a distress signal can only be explained by its failure to float free of the vessel, the report says.

Shipping News and information / UN says 65 migrants dead, missing in Gulf of Aden

« on: September 15, 2009, 02:26:38 PM »

Sixteen migrants died and 49 others are missing and feared dead while making a perilous voyage in smuggling boats across the Gulf of Aden, the UN refugee agency said on Tuesday.'dhow' suspected of carrying. A team from a Canadian ship provide assistance to a 'dhow' suspected of carrying Yemen and Somalia, 11 suffocated, three were fatally beaten by smugglers and two drowned in three separate incidents that occurred in the last 48 hours, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement.

At least two of the boats had set off from Somalia, but the migrants included non-Somalis, it added.

Conflict, famine and drought have pushed thousands of people to attempt the risky sea voyage.

This year alone, some 860 boats carrying 43,586 people have attempted the crossing and 273 migrants have drowned or are presumed dead, said the UNHCR.

"UNHCR staff in Yemen report an increasing number of larger smuggling vessels making the journey across the Gulf of Aden, which puts more lives at risk," it added.

Conditions on board were often very difficult.

In the latest tragedies, survivors from one boat said passengers were "repeatedly beaten and threatened by the smugglers during the journey."

In another boat, smugglers beat three people to death while another 10 died as a result of asphyxiation. An 11th suffocation case occurred on another vessel.

A third boat was sinking when an EU warship managed to rescue 38 of the 46 people aboard from the small vessel. Two bodies were recovered from nearby waters while another six people are presumed to have drowned.

While the EU warship had helped to rescue lives in this incident, UN human rights chief Navi Pillay pointed out that in many other cases, such migrants are turned away by authorities.

"In many cases, authorities reject these migrants and leave them to face hardship and peril, if not death, as though they were turning away ships laden with dangerous waste," she told the Human Rights Council.

"Their fate is thus sealed as they try to cross the Mediterranean, the Gulf of Aden, the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, and other stretches of water,~ she added.

"In clear violation of international law, they are abandoned and rejected without proper check of whether they are fleeing persecution."

Italy has faced criticism lately for sending back boats of African migrants to Libya, after it concluded a controversial agreement with Tripoli earlier this year.

Pillay said the "hardship" of those stranded near the shores of Libya, Malta and Italy drew attention to the plight of these migrants and refugees, as she called on states to respect the human rights of individuals regardless of their status.