Merchant Mariners
Sunken ship MV Swanland suffered 'structural failure'
(BBC) A cargo ship suffered a "catastrophic structural failure" before sinking and claiming the lives of six of its crew, an investigation has found.The MV Swanland was in the middle of a gale force storm and 4m (13ft) waves off the Gwynedd coast last November.
Post to TwitterPirates hijack Singapore-owned tanker in Lagos
(AFP) LAGOS — Pirates have hijacked a Singapore-owned oil tanker in Nigerian waters, the third attack in just over two weeks in the Gulf of Guinea, the International Maritime Bureau said Wednesday.Widening of Panama Canal will remake world trade patterns
PANAMA CITY, Panama — The nature of global trade is about to change. The Panama Canal will soon have a third lane that can accommodate mega-ships nearly three times larger than any vessel that has ever transited the isthmus over the past century. It might not seem like earth-shaking news.Maritime industry demands mandatory weighing of containers
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has received a formal proposal co-sponsored by a broad array of industry organizations, labor, and governments to require loaded containers to be weighed to determine their actual weight. The IMO’s Subcommittee on Dangerous Goods, Solid Cargoes and Containers will consider the proposal at its next meeting in September. East Coast ports scramble to dig deep, for supersize ships
(USA Today) A growing number of supersize freighters, which up to now have relied mostly on West Coast ports to deliver goods from Asia to the USA because they couldn't fit through the Panama Canal, will be able to make the trip to the East Coast economically when an expansion of the canal is completed in 2014. A growing number of supersize freighters, which up to now have relied mostly on West Coast Skipper of grounded vessel fined
(BBC News) The skipper of a cargo ship has been fined £3,000 for failing to alter his course and prevent grounding the vessel on a small island off North Uist. Konstantin Golubev, 40, was further fined £300 for being drunk while it was docked in Stornoway, Lewis, three days after the incident. READ MORELargest Ship Record Broken In San Francisco Bay
(SF Gate) The MSC Fabiola sailed under the fog-shrouded Golden Gate Bridge and into the record books just before 5 Wednesday afternoon. The ship, which tied up in Oakland to unload cargo, is the largest vessel ever to enter San Francisco Bay. READ MOREUS Navy rescues Iranian sailor after boat capsizes
(Fox News) DUBAI, United Arab United – The U.S. Navy says it has rescued an Iranian merchant seaman and recovered the bodies of three others after their boat capsized during rough weather in the Gulf. READ MOREUS ship rescues more stranded Iranians in Persian Gulf; Clinton assails Iran nuke activity
(Washington Post) WASHINGTON — A U.S. Coast Guard cutter rescued six Iranian mariners from a vessel in distress in the Persian Gulf, the second such incident in a week of tension punctuated by the Islamic republic’s death sentence to a young Iranian-American man and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s sharp criticism Tuesday of Tehran’s uranium enrichment activity.Questions mount over stricken ship
(Sydney Morning Herald) There were growing questions today as to why the container ship that broke apart at Christmas Island on Sunday, spilling oil and fertiliser into the sea, was allowed to dock overnight despite the threat of heavy swells smashing the vessel.