gcaptain — Image (c) Shutterstock/Kesu A big high-five to the gCaptain community today as we’re happy to report we’ve blazed past a huge milestone for our website… Over the past month, the pages of gCaptain.com have been opened over 2 million times by over 540,000 unique visitors from around the world. Getting to this point...
gcaptain — Horizon Lines’ Horizon Spirit. Horizon Lines is in the preliminary stages of converting two of its Jones Act-qualified, steam-powered containerships to the use of dual fuel… at a foreign shipyard! Tim Colton over at Colton Company on Wednesday obtained a preliminary determination from the U.S. Coast Guard that grants Horizon Lines permission to hire...
gcaptain — 2010-built AHTS, MDPL Continental 1, image courtesy Jaya Holdings ABUJA, June 19 (Reuters) - Pirates in speedboats attacked an oil supply vessel and kidnapped four Indian and Polish crew members in increasingly dangerous waters off Nigeria’s coast last week, two security sources said on Wednesday. The gunmen launched their assault on the Singapore-flagged tugboat...
gcaptain — “We can’t prejudge, and we’re not directly involved,”commented Tom Boardley, Marine Director at Lloyd’s Register and Chairman of the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) today on the catastrophic break up of the containership MOL Comfort. “This incident of great concern and we want to know the cause of this structural...
gcaptain — The M/T Adour. Image courtesy Sea-tankers Shipping Pirates in Nigeria have released a French sailor kidnapped from a tanker on June 13 off the coast of Nigeria, a military commander told Reuters. Pirates attacked the M/T Adour, a French-flagged product/chemical tanker owned by Sea-tankers Shipping, on June 13 about 30 miles off...
gcaptain — Carnival Triumph wedged up against the USACE dredger, “Wheeler”, on April 3, 2013. U.S. Coast Guard Photo Carnival Corporation has filed a lawsuit against BAE Systems over damages sustained by the Carnival Triumph cruise ship after she broke free from her moorings at the BAE shipyard in Mobile during a strong...
gcaptain — The loss of the MOL Comfort (formerly named the APL Russia) is a incident that is currently sending huge shockwaves throughout the global maritime industry. The significance is on par with the loss of the Costa Concordia, minus the loss of life. SEE: MOL COMFORT Suffers Broken Back, Sinks Off Yemen Built...
gcaptain — This photo was taken from the sailing yacht “Crocodile”, a Beneteau First 40.7 while transiting offshore the coast of Long Island and New Jersey during a recent delivery from Newport, Rhode Island to Maryland. The winds and weather embedded in this were “challenging” to say the least but the crew and...
gcaptain — This photo of the MOL Comfort shows considerable hogging. Image credit: IANS 26 crewmembers of an MOL containership were forced to abandon ship Monday off Yemen after the ship suffered from catastrophic hull failure and sank. India’s IANS News reports that the MV Mol Comfort cracked in half about 200 miles from...
gcaptain — Death Ship (Avco Embassy, 1980) It is a tried and true cinematic gimmick to trap adults in a confined space so they must face their past and confront the present. Ships crewed by sweaty nomads with checkered pasts have all the right ingredients. Just add water and you get Heart Stopping Terror on...
gcaptain — Image courtesy WDSU A 112-foot supply vessel sank on Friday after striking an oil platform in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, WDSU News in New Orleans reports. The U.S. Coast Guard told WDSU that the M/V Celeste Ann struck a platform located 15 miles west of Southwest Pass at about 9:18 a.m....
gcaptain — Ane Mærsk Mc-Kinney Uggla breaks a bottle against the vessels hull during the official naming ceremony. Image courtesy Maersk Line Ane Mærsk Mc-Kinney Uggla, chairman of the Moller Foundation, had the honour of naming Maersk Line’s first Triple-E containership during a naming ceremony held at the DSME yard in Okpo, South...
gcaptain — USS Nimitz at sea. U.S. Navy photo A fire broke out aboard the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz in the ship’s electrical equipment while underway in the Indian Ocean on June 7, the U.S. Navy said Thursday. No Sailors were injured during the fire or response, and the ship was able to continue without...
gcaptain — Grey no more. The Paris MoU on Port State Control Committee has approved their 2012 inspection results and adopted new performance lists for flags and ‘Recognized Organiziations’, which is to enter into force on July 1, 2013. The Paris MoU’s “White, Grey and Black (WGB) List” presents the full spectrum, from quality flags...
gcaptain — Some new details are in on the proposed Nicaragua Canal which is to be designed, built, operated and maintained by Hong Kong-based HKND group. Here’s an interview with HKND spokesperson, Ronald MaClean-Abaroa: Here is a quick FAQ from HKND: What is the Nicaragua Canal and Development Project? Nicaragua Canal and Development Project is intended to...
gcaptain — MV Asian Express. Image (c) dhanasekaran muthu via Panoramio The Indian Coast Guard rescued 22 crew members from a sinking cargo vessel off the coast of Mangalore, India. The Times of India reports that the M/V Asian Express, a Malidives-flagged general cargo ship, had suffered an engine failure and was adrift for...
gcaptain — Excel Maritime’s capesize bulker, MV Kirmar. Image courtesy Excel Maritime Troubled Athens-based shipping company Excel Maritime (EXM) revealed in yesterday’s press release one of industry’s worst kept secrets: The company is insolvent. In a 255 page-long report filed with the SEC, outlining a proposed pre-packaged bankruptcy reorganization plan, Excel Maritime admitted...
gcaptain — June 12 (Reuters) – The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index, which tracks rates for ships carrying dry bulk commodities, rose for the fifth straight day on Wednesday, as rates for both capesize and panamax vessels climbed. * The overall index, which factors in the average daily earnings of capesize, panamax,...
gcaptain — M/V Swanland. Image courtesy MAIB The UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch has released the report on their investigation into the catastrophic structural failure and fatal sinking of the general cargo ship MV Swanland in the Irish Sea in 2011. The master and five crew of the Cook Islands-flagged general cargo ship were...
gcaptain — Jascon 4 tug. Image: West African Ventures By Joe Brock WARRI, Nigeria, June 12 (Reuters) – After two days trapped in freezing cold water and breathing from an air bubble in an upturned tugboat under the ocean, Harrison Okene was sure he was going to die. Then a torch light pierced the...
gcaptain — SS Henry B. Smith – Great Lakes freighter built in 1906 by the American Ship Building Company at Lorain, Ohio USA - image via wrecksite.eu - The Associated Press Duluth News Tribune Monday, June 10, 2013 Nearly 100 years after the Henry B. Smith freighter went down during a November storm in Lake Superior, a group...
gcaptain — Image courtesy Quest for Oil/Maersk Oil is one of today’s most indispensable resources, and still few people actually know where it comes from and how it is extracted from the ground. To help educate the masses on oil production (and possibly recruit new talent), Maersk Group on Monday announced the launch a...
gcaptain — News sources around the world are reporting the Chinese company, HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Co. Ltd., is fast-tracking plans with the Nicaraguan government to build another canal to link the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans across the Latin American isthmus. If this 11-year, $40 billion construction project is completed, implications could be...
gcaptain — Salvatore Girone (L) and Latorre Massimiliano, members of the navy security team of Italian merchant vessel Enrica Lexie, are seen at the lawns of a guest house of the Central Indian Security Force, More…Credit: REUTERS/Sivaram V (Reuters) The thud of bullets smacking into his wooden fishing boat jolted captain John Freddy out of...
gcaptain — M/V Lyubov Orlova, via Lilpop, Rau & Loewenstein in the Antarctic, 17 February 2010 On January 24th, 2013 the derelict cruise ship M/V Lyubov Orlova, seized in a lawsuit by Canadian authorities in 2010, was being towed from Canada to a scrap yard in the Dominican Republic, when the tow cable...