Uncategorized – Page 32 – Professional Mariner

01 Mar

Bulker toll remains high, despite initiatives to increase safety

Professional Mariner StaffUncategorized

Despite years of effort to make bulk carriers safer, the death toll for these ships has remained steady over the past 10 years. While everyone acknowledges that bulk-carrier safety continues to be a problem, there is wide disagreement over solutions to the problem. There is even disagreement over how the latest statistics can be interpreted. Over the past 10 years,…

01 Mar

Lakers hampered by cargo declines, aging locks and harsh weather

Professional Mariner StaffUncategorized

The United States and Canada depend upon the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway for efficient movement of essential commodities, but vessel operators from both countries face a host of difficult problems on this crucial inland system. In recent years, there has been a slowing of cargo moving through the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway on vessels like the…

01 Mar

IMO panel proposes changes to make new bulkers safer

Professional Mariner StaffUncategorized

After years of controversy over measures needed to make bulk carriers more seaworthy, the International Maritime Organization's Maritime Safety Committee has adopted several rules that will make new bulkers considerably safer. The most significant move is a requirement for double-side-skin construction for all new bulk carriers of 150 meters (492 feet) and longer. While the rules for new bulkers, adopted…

01 Mar

Army â€˜goose’ migrates up and down the coast replenishing beaches

Professional Mariner StaffUncategorized

On a drizzly March day, the hull of Currituck split open in the shallows fronting the Old Coast Guard Station museum in Virginia Beach, Va. The Army Corps of Engineers' split-hulled dredge dumped her hopper of fine sand, adding 250 cubic yards to the popular beach community's main attraction. Currituck's hull splits open as it deposits a load of fine…

28 Feb

Tanker voyages give a cadet the chance to learn his limits

Professional Mariner StaffUncategorized

By the time I finished my junior year at Maine Maritime Academy, I thought I knew something about tanker operations. I had taken all kinds of classes and had completed some credits toward my tankerman's certificate. The author running an errand in the ship's utility boat in the port of Los Angeles/Long Beach. In the course of a summer, he…

28 Feb

Securing LNG

Professional Mariner StaffUncategorized

Whenever a liquefied-natural-gas (LNG) tanker is mentioned, the words huge, caution and safety seem to hover close by. Recently Moran Towing and McAllister Towing, the East Coast giants in the ship-assist business, conducted a joint firefighting exercise near the Dominion Cove Point LNG terminal, halfway up the west shore of Chesapeake Bay. z-drive tugs A.J. McAllister and Emily Anne McAllister…

28 Feb

Engine technology propels trends in ship design

Professional Mariner StaffUncategorized

Advances in propulsion technology continue to be the driving force in new ship designs. This 807-foot ferry represents a vision of the future developed by WÃ¤rtsilÃ¤ Corp. and Kvaerner Masa-Yards. The 4,200-dwt ro-pax vessel, capable of carrying 2,000 passengers employs dual-fuel diesel technology and would have a service speed of 28 knots. WÃ¤rtsilÃ¤ Corp., in Helsinki, Finland, has teamed up…

28 Feb

Frank Basile: Architect, boatbuilder and ‘imagineer’

Professional Mariner StaffUncategorized

Frank Basile, engineer, naval architect and boatbuilder, has been at the center of the churning Gulf Coast workboat industry for over half a century. At 78, he shows no eagerness to retire. An engineer by training and a naval architect by experience, Basile has had a profound influence on the world of workboats, especially along the Gulf of Mexico. Basile…

28 Feb

Titanic

Professional Mariner StaffUncategorized

The compass was in plain sight of all who boarded in April of 1912. It sat atop a 15-foot-tall platform on the roof of the first-class lounge. The role of Titanic's standard compass in the loss of the ship and some 1,500 lives has been ignored for almost a century, even though it shows the importance of efficient bridge design…

28 Feb

Decades later, bells still toll for crew of Edmund Fitzgerald

Professional Mariner StaffUncategorized

Nov. 9, 1975 started as a crisp, calm, sunny day along the U.S.-Canadian border. On that day Edmund Fitzgerald, one of the largest freighters on the Great Lakes, left Superior, Wis., to deliver iron ore pellets to Zug Island in Detroit. It carried a crew of 29 men. Luck was not with the ship or the crew. They would soon…