Professional Mariner – January 2025 – Page 2

State and federal grant programs accelerating turn to electric and hybrid propulsion

The agency that operates the Cape May-Lewes Ferry has spent years planning for a new vehicle ferry that will connect New Jersey and Delaware across Delaware Bay. As the design took shape, the ferry’s propulsion system remained a question mark. The Delaware Bay and River Authority, the multistate agency that operates the ferry system, now has more certainty thanks to…

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Containership experiences parametric rolling, loses containers, battles 5-day fire

On Oct. 21, 2021, the containership ZIM Kingston had completed its transit from South Korea and was just offshore of Vancouver, Canada, waiting for anchorage and performing a controlled drift in 16-foot seas and 35-plus-knot winds when it began extreme, violent rolling of up to 36 degrees – 109 containers were lost overboard, and several smashed containers were strewn over the side. Nearly 36 hours later, a fire broke…

Containership loses propulsion due to flawed propeller blade

A faulty controllable-pitch system caused a loss of propulsion in a vessel traveling in the Pacific Ocean two years ago, a National Transportation Safety Board investigation has found. Maunalei, a U.S.-flagged, 681-foot-long containership, was en route to Portland, Ore., in August 2022 for drydock repairs when the crew intentionally shut down the main engine due to a controllable pitch propeller (CPP)…

Bulk carrier breaks free from its moorings on Mississippi, collides with barge

While loading its cargo in Convent, La., in March 2023, the bulk carrier Sirocco broke free from its moorings and was swept down the Mississippi River in a 4-knot current. Several tugs scrambled to wrangle the drifting 751-foot bulker, which had dropped both anchors and engaged its engine, but Sirocco eventually struck a moored barge downriver. No injuries or pollution were reported from…

Crew on Canadian pilot boat perishes after falling overboard

A crewmember on a pilot boat died after falling overboard near St. John’s Harbour, according to a Transportation Safety Board of Canada report. The incident happened shortly after a pilot transfer on Sept. 26, 2022. The deckhand and master were alone on the 62-foot-long, 51-ton, A.P.A. No. 18 when the deckhand fell overboard at approximately 2357 Newfoundland Daylight Time. They were approximately 2 nautical…

Tugboat makes contact with deteriorating bridge fender system in Washington

The clock approached midnight on a clear October evening as the pusher tugboat Montlake and its barge Sodo left the dock in Tacoma, Wash., for a short run up to Seattle. But first, the articulated tug-barge (ATB) unit had to pass through a double bascule bridge over the narrow Hylebos Waterway. The ATB approached the bridge slightly out…

The past and present of ocean towing

By Alan Haig-Brown In recent years, news of the American tug industry has focused on the advent of ship-handling tugs. Voith Schneider propellers, z-drive propulsion, skegs and hawser winches are in the press. Meanwhile, the nation’s ocean-towing fleets have been moving dead ships, fuel, cargo and container barges in support of industry from Alaska, Hawaii, New York, the Caribbean and…

Lending a helping hand

It was a cold November night, and a warm fire burned brightly in our wood stove as my wife and I watched the Christmas special for one of our favorite British mystery series. After finding out who did it at the end of the show, we decided to watch the “bonus feature” on the DVD, which included interviews with the…