US News
In a significant move in March, the nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson made an historic port visit to Vietnam, the first by an American carrier since the end of the Vietnam War in 1973.
The carrier took part in multi-national exercises under the auspices of the Pacific Partnership mission which includes co-operation with Canadian, British, French, Peruvian, Japanese and Australian forces in the region.
The American organisation DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) handed over the first prototype of what the US Navy hopes will be an autonomous sub hunting surface ship on 30 January. Sea Hunter is the result of the US Navy’s Anti Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) program and is likely to create a whole new class of naval vessels that could remain at sea for months at a time without humans onboard. Sea Hunter is a trimaran hulled vessel with a displacement of 140 tons and capable of speeds up to 27 knots. As a prototype, the vessel carries no weapons, but is capable of carrying out surveillance over a large ocean territory.
German News
The German Navy recalled the latest class of frigates after they failed first of class sea trials and had to be sent back to the shipbuilders. Baden-Wurttemberg class ships are designed to replace the 1980’s era Bremen class in service. Sadly, the ship is the first vessel ever to be refused to be accepted by the German Navy from its shipbuilders following the discovery of a large number of faults and problems.
Around ninety percent of the systems onboard the frigate are new as well as the computer software designed to control them. The Atlas Naval Combat System, built by Atlas Electronik GmbH of Bremen, has reportedly, been particularly troublesome. Furthermore, the ship lists to starboard slightly and is overweight and its propulsion systems cannot get the ship to its designed top speed.
Indian News
The third of a planned class of six French designed Scorpene class attack submarines for the Indian Navy, Karanj, was launched on January 31.
The submarine was built by Mazagon Dock Limited and the ceremony was performed by Reena Lanba, wife of the Indian Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba.
South Korean News
The first of the new FFX-II class guided missile frigates Daegu was delivered on 1 February.
At 122 metres long the new frigate was built by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering. She is the first of eight such vessels on order and is an enlarged version of the earlier Incheon (FFX-I) class ships that entered service from 2013.
The contract for the design and build of the port handling facilities on Teesside for Sirius Minerals Plc, owners of
On the afternoon of Nov 10 last year, a special ceremony took place off Sunderland to mark the sinking of
The Appledore shipyard in Devon is to be closed in March by its owners, the UK-based engineering company Babcock International.
The latest vessel to join the fleet of model ships used for training at Southampton University’s Warsash School of Maritime,
All fifteen people were rescued from a listing self-propelled self-elevating jackup platform, known in the US offshore industry as a
For the second year running, the Port of Long Beach, California, has broken its record for the volume of cargo
Drugs with a street value of $500mn were unloaded at Port Everglades, Florida, on Nov 15 by the US Coast
The major US oil exporting port of Corpus Christi, in Texas, set a new tonnage record during the first nine
In a major first on Oct 1, four liquefied gas carriers transited the Panama Canal in one day through the
A simulated collision - known as a tabletop drill - involving a LNG carrier and a fishing boat in Japanese waters has
The major Japanese shipping group Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) has come up with a new concept of how a ship
The UK registered container ship CMA CGM Centaurus, 131,322gt, crashed into the quay at the United Arab port of Jebel
The P&O Cruises Australia cruise ship Pacific Explorer, 77,499gt, was detailed by the Australian authorities after spilling waste water in
American News In what might be seen as a return to the heady days of NASA’s Apollo moon program, the
British News Many people never thought they’d see it happen, but F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters have finally flown
American News The Zumult class destroyer USS Michael Monsoor was in dockyard hands at Bath in Maine for the removal
British News The assault ship HMS Albion, at time of writing, had just completed a five day visit to Tokyo
British News The latest survey vessel to join the Royal Navy was commissioned into service at her homeport of Devonport
The impending closure of the Appledore Yard is another loss of merchant ship-building capacity even though its bread and butter,
A country well used to tragedy, saw another, on Lake Victoria in September.
At this time, when all cross-border ferry operators ex UK must be extremely apprehensive as leaving the EU approaches, Seatruck
I would have liked to have seen the face or hear the language of the OOW when he realised he
Since she was rebuilt in 2011, the mulie barge Cambria has been based in Kent, but in September, after her
At the end of the Southampton Boat Show in September, the barque Kaskelot, which had been on display, was sold
I am amazed the port industry has not made more thorough and timely comments about the potentially negative impact of
Apart from the Whitstable Harbour Barge Race, all the other barge races have a yearly points system that counts up
During World War II, most of France’s traditional sailing vessels were destroyed and after the war, the emphasis was on
The Fjords DA has announced it plans to add another all electric passenger vessel to its award winning fleet, with
Public access to documents charting the history of the River Thames and London’s Docks over nearly 250 years has been
In November 2017, I was greatly saddened by the disappearance and assumed loss of the Argentine submarine San Juan.
Over the years at Sea Breezes, we have highlighted the inherent weakness of some of our electronic navigation systems to
An ambitious plan to bring marine manufacturing and support industries back to the Upper Clyde, if fully realised, will result
Turquoise Yachts, the Turkish based shipyard under the same ownership as the Dutch Oceanco shipyard, has commissioned Ken Freivokh Design
Following the example of the Lindblad Cruise Line and National Graphic in the USA, Ponant, the French cruise line which
Recent readers of these Cruise News pages will possibly be familiar with the coverage given to “Bridge 2017”, a transatlantic
The history of former shipping lines are frequently well chronicled in various museums.
