The only specialised marine publication in Oceania that focuses on the maritime industry, from super yachts to small craft to large commercial ships, including coastal shipping, tugs, tow boats, barges, ferries, tourist, sport-fishing craft
Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/131029
A leak at one of the aft thrusters and the consequent flooding of the engine room of Emma Maersk, one of the world's nine largest container ships, threatened to block the Suez Canal. The vessel was towed to the container port where its cargo of 13,537 containers, including about 1,000 reefer containers, could be discharged and loaded onto other vessels. But it was impossible to unload all the containers because without engine power it was not possible to trim the vessel's ballast tanks to keep it stable during the discharge work. It took only an hour for the Emma Maersk's engine room to be flooded about 18 metres deep, deep enough to cover the massive main engine. Unclear was the extent of damage to this huge 14-cylinder engine, 109,000hp, and whether main and the auxiliary engines, which together provided about 40,000hp, will be reparable. The first priority was to preserve the engine room equipment, which ironically meant keeping it submerged for since any contact with oxygen would result in corrosion. The plan was to have the hole plugged by underwater welders, unload the remaining containers, pump out the water, and as equipment was exposed, wash it with fresh water, dismantle it, and decide what could be repaired and reused and what must be replaced. As a precaution, Maersk instructed the seven other vessels in the E-class fleet not to use their stern thrusters. The Emma Maersk has faced adversity before. The first of the eight vessel E-class, it was nearly ready to be launched when a disastrous fire gutted the accommodations and bridge structure. Unfazed, the Danish shipbuilders removed the superstructure from the next E-class vessel being built and made a fast swap. The Emma Maersk was launched only six to seven weeks late. GREY FLEETS In the Philippines, the Japan-based mine countermeasures vessel USS Guardian ran onto Tubbataha Reef, a UNESCOdesignated World Heritage Site, in spite of warnings from park rangers. Efforts to pull the ship free and attempts to lift it by the crane-barge SMIT Borneo (recently used on the wrecked container ship Rena in New Zealand) failed so it will be dismantled in place. The cause seems to have been an error on digital charts. The Philippine government and people were not happy and the United States government will probably pay the usual fine of about $300 per square metre of damaged coral, plus other fees. But the Navy has good company; in 2005, Greenpeace was fined almost $7,000 after its flagship struck a reef in the same area. The United States Navy revised its overall fleet-size requirement downward from 313 to 306 ships, a modest downscaling that reflects modified operational requirements, not Treasure islands Check for stowaways PLEASE Salvage operations for the ex-Guardian with the help of United States Navy contracted vessels Jascon 25 and tug Archon Tide the ongoing budget crisis. The fleet currently has 288 ships, up from the May 2007 low of 275 ships. The US Navy cut back the number of aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf region from two to one, the latest example of how contentious fiscal battles in Washington are impacting the US military. The USS Harry S. Truman and its carrier strike group will now remain at Norfolk, Virginia. The US 3.3 billion dollar, three-and-a-half-year refuelling overhaul of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln was postponed by the Navy, another manifestation of the inability of Congress to pass a 2013 defense funding bill. Any significant delay in beginning the Lincoln's refuelling overhaul will ripple through years of carrier scheduling. WHITE FLEETS The cruise ship Seabourn Quest left Tonga an hour earlier than scheduled so it would be in deeper water when a tsunami hit. The five-foot-high waves of the tsunami, created by a magnitude 8.0 earthquake at Santa Cruz Island several hundred miles southwest of the Solomon Islands, killed nine people at Santa Cruz plus others in the Solomon Islands. The polar expedition ship Silver Explorer encountered heavy weather and sustained damage while on a cruise from the Argentinian port of Ushuaia to South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula and so it returned to port. None of the 133 passengers were injured but four crewmembers had minor injuries. The polar expedition ship PV Orion, 11 days into an 18-day cruise of the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic, made a 50-hour diversion from a visit to Macquarie Island to pluck a French www.treasureislands.co.nz www.projectislandsong.co.nz CHECK YOUR BOAT AND GEAR FOR RATS, MICE, ARGENTINE ANTS, RAINBOW SKINKS, SOIL AND SEEDS SET BAIT OR TRAPS FOR ANIMAL PESTS REPORT ANY SIGHTINGS TO 0800 DOC HOT (0800 362 468) May/June 2013 Professional Skipper 35