The group of eight passengers which had missed the 'Norwegian Dawn' for more than one hour on March 27, finally re-embarked in Dakar on Apri 2. The first attempt to get the guests back on the ship occurred on April 1, when they hoped to re-embark at a port in Banjul, Gambia, some 1,800 miles from São Tomé and Príncipe. However, adverse weather conditions, as well as tidal restrictions meant that the ship could not dock safely. As a result, the guests had to chase the ship to Dakar, a distance of some 100 miles further. The Norwegian Cruise Line helped the passengers by facilitating their visas, and would pay them back for the trip from Gambia to Senegal. The passengers had traveled through seven countries in 48 hours to catch up with the ship.
News
DE YI
The 'De Y' with 13 Chinese and Indonesian crew members on board has been detained on March 30, 2024, by the South Korean authorities in waters near Yeosu, South Jeolla Province. The ship was allegedly headed to Vladivostok from North Korea with a stop in Shidao. The ship initially refused orders to stop; however, the South Korean Coast Guard subsequently ordered the vessel to move to Busan, where it anchored in pos. 35° 03.45' N 129° 01.56' E at noon. The authorities have been unable to confirm what the ship was carrying as the crew was refusing to open the cargo hold. The ship was last operated by an owner in Hong Kong. The South Korean Foreign Ministry was conducting an investigation, in close coordination with the USA. The vessel was allegedly involved in the violation of UN Security Council resolutions on North Korea. The ministry has also stated that they believed the ship to have been in North Korea’s Namo port before heading to Shandong, China.
ABDULLAH
The Director General (DG) of the Department of Shipping, Commodore Mohammad Maksud Alam said on April 2 that there was good progress in the negotiation with the pirates regarding the release of the 23 crew members of the 'Abdullah'. It was yet to confirmed how long it would take to fruitfully complete the negotiation but it was certain that there has been good progress. All crew members were well, and they were occasionally allowed to talk to their family members. The Department was monitoring the situation and were in contact with the ship owner SR Shipping Ltd. Officials of the SR Shipping have claimed to have made progress in talks with the pirates through a third party and hoped for quick release of the crew and the ship.
MSC ARMONIA
The 'MSC Armonia' was detained in the Port of Barcelona on April 3, 2024, due to problems with the visas of 69 Bolivian passengers. They did not have valid visas for entry into the Schengen area. The company has indicated that the documentats seemed appropriate at the time of boarding of the passengers in Brazil, but that the authorities of the Port of Barcelona have not considered it so.
OPEN ARMS
The "Jennifer" as well as the tugs "Open Arms" and "Ledra Dynamic" returned to Larnaca on April 2, 2024, after the death of seven employees of World Central Kitchen in the Gaza Strip in an airstrike. Only a barge carrying around 110 pallets of goods was unloaded in the Gaza Strip before the aid convoy was attacked on the mainland. The 'Jennifer' then set sail without having accomplished anything. The ship had around 250 tons of relief supplies on board. The aid organization immediately stopped its operations in the region in light of the fatal incident. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the attack on foreign aid workers in the Gaza Strip and spoke in a video message of a "tragic case of an accidental hit by our armed forces against innocent people in the Gaza Strip." The Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulidis and EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola, who met in Nicosia on the morning of April 2, strongly condemned the incident, but also pleaded that aid to the suffering population in the Gaza Strip should not suffer as a result. Report with photo: https://www.gmx.net/magazine/politik/tod-helfern-schiff-bringt-hilfsgueter-zurueck-zypern-39500376
GEORGE ISLAND
On March 29, 2024, at 11.58 p.m. the 'Georg Island' was boarded wby three perpetrators, armed with knives, in pos. 1° 3.43' N 103° 29.33' E off Pulau Cula in the Strait of Singapore. No injuries were reported, and nothing was reported stolen.
SC MONTANA
The RCC of the Coast Guard of the Cayman Islands coordinated the response to the 'SC Montana', en route from Montego Bay, which was disabled in Cayman’s waters on April 2, 2024, due to an engine failure. The ship was drifting towards Little Cayman. Acting Governor Franz Manderson and Premier Hon Juliana O’Connor-Connolly met with members of the Cayman Islands Coast Guard and representatives of the Hazard Management Cayman Islands, the Department of Environment and other key stakeholders to discuss mitigation steps. The Coast Guard requested the assistance of vessels in the area to render assistance, and two bulk carriers, the 'Aruna Cihan' and 'Lefkes', have responded. Additionally, a local tug was in route from Grand Cayman. The crew on board still had generator power, and all mechanisms to slow the drift have been employed. The ship’s engines remained offline. The speed, however, has slowed from 1.2 knots on April 2 as of 8:15 p.m., to 1.1 knots as at 10:30 p.m.
DALI
The Unified Command continued to coordinate response operations on April 3 to the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, despite the challenging weather conditions which included severe thunderstorms and high winds. Eight commercial vessels have meanwhile passed through the two temporary alternate channels that were opened up. The Unified Command staged to begin lifting the first of the undamaged containers off the bow of the 'Dali' to give space to safely operate to begin to plan to remove portions of the bridge that are now also embedded into the ship. They were also waiting for a better weather window to do a 350 ton lift off a section near the main channel. Trained crews, in conjunction with the Unified Command, were taking steps forward with operations and are conducting routine salvage assessments, while evaluating the safest and most effective routes. Divers were on scene to conduct underwater surveys along with mapping out plans for future wreckage removal. While the operations continued, they were adjusted as necessary in response to the adverse weather conditions. The Unified Command remaind committed to re-opening the port while ensuring safety and environmental protection. The Key Bridge Response 2024 Unified Command continues to coordinate response operations despite the challenging weather conditions in Baltimore. The Key Bridge Response Unified Command priorities were ensuring the safety of the public and first responders, accountability of missing persons, safely restoring transportation infrastructure and commerce, protecting the environment, and supporting the investigation. The Maryland Department of the Environment received the results of water sampling taken the day of the incident upriver and downstream of the site. The samples were analyzed for substances associated with fuel constituents, including volatile organic compounds. There was no detection of any of these contaminants. The results will be used as a baseline for comparison with water quality monitoring done throughout response, recovery and reconstruction. Sampling will continue indefinitely every few days, as needed. The current 2,000-yard safety zone around the Francis Scott Key Bridge remained in effect and is intended to protect personnel, vessels, and the marine environment. Members of the public may not enter the safety zone unless authorized by the COTP or designated representative. Those in the safety zone must comply with all lawful orders or directions given to them by the COTP or designated representative. The COTP issued a Broadcast Notice to Mariners (BNM) via VHF-FM marine channel 16. Mariners are requested to monitor channel 16 for the latest information. A Debris Reporting Hotline has been established. If the public encounters any debris from the incident, please contact +1 (410) 205-6625 The Key Bridge Response 2024 Unified Command includes the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Maryland Department of the Environment, the Maryland Transportation Authority, the Maryland State Police and Witt O’Brien’s representing Synergy Marine. A website with incident response information can be found at the following URL: https://www.keybridgeresponse2024.com For updated information on the status of the maritime transportation system visit the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Maryland - National Capital Region Homeport page: https://homeport.uscg.mil/port-directory/maryland-ncr The media is requested to call the Joint Information Center at +1 (410) 631-8939 for interview response inquiries and interviews. Resources are available for businesses and individuals impacted by the Port closure: Benefit Line for Port of Baltimore Workers: +1 (667) 930-5989 Disaster Loan Assistance: https://lending.sba.gov
HDMS IVER HUITFELDT
On April 3, the Dankish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen dismissed its the Defense Chief Flemming Lentfer as a consequence of the problems with the 'Iver Huitfeldt's system failure and defective ammunition. The matter of the frigate's failing systems became publich on April 2 and led to Troels Lund Poulsen asking the defense chief for a quick statement on the matter. He received it on the morning of April 3 from the Defense Command - but parts of the statement were leaked to TV 2 before the minister had even explained the case to the rapporteurs in the defense conciliation circle. In this statement, the Defense Command acquits itself and stated that the Ministry of Defense's department was informed of the case. But the minister was not, he stressed both on April 2 and at the press conference on Aprl 3. But quite surprisingly and quite unseen, the minister receives a new report on the same matter on April 3 from the same sender - the Defense Command. But now the content had changed. The first statement should have contained information that the ministry's department was briefed on the problems with the weapons system on the frigate on March 15, and that this information was to be elaborated on at a meeting between the ministry and the defense command on March 18. The new statement has been changed, but the minister did not say at the press conference exactly which information has been changed. “I'm not trying to hide anything. There have been different perceptions of what was disclosed at a meeting on 18 March," he stated at the press conference, where the minister stated that Major General Michael Hyldgaard has been appointed acting chief of defence. At the press conference, the minister also said that no correct information has been given about the costs of the controversial arms purchase from the Israeli manufacturer Elbit. Potentially, the budget could be exceeded by over a billion Danish crowns. The 'Iver Huitfeldt' returned to Denmark on April 3 morning after a 2-month long mission in the Red Sea, where the task was to protect shipping against attacks by the Houthi movement, a task the frigate had difficulty solving, as it turned out that the ship's central radar system is unstable, and the ammunition for the main guns consists of 30-year-old shells. These were conditions that Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen was not aware of.
FAST CAT M19
the 'Fast Cat M19' was damaged in a collision with the barge “Krizza Rica”, loaded with 300 sacks of cement, two nautical miles southeast of Barangay San Agapito on April 3, 2024, at around 1:45 a.m., with 88 people on board, among them 47 crew members and 41 passengers. A 26-year-old male passenger suffered minor bruises and was given first aid treatment. The ferry had departed from Batangas en route to Calapan in Oriental Mindoro. The barged was being towed by the tug “Migi” with 17 crew members onboard, bound from Calaca, Balayan, Batangas to Semirara Island, Caluya, Antique. The ferry was damaged on deck 3 at the starboard quarter. The 'Krizza Rica' sustained scratches on its port side bow. The Batangas portimmediately reported the incident to the Coast Guard Sub-Station (CGSS) Calapan for response. Personnel of CGSS Calapan contacted the crew of the two vessels and advised the barge to anchor at Calapan Anchorage Area for further investigations. The 'Fastcat M19' safely docked at Calapan Port at around 3 a.m., where all the passengers were safely disembarked. The injured passenger was transported by personnel of Calapan City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) to Oriental Mindoro Provincial Hospital for further medical care. The collision did not result to an oil spill based on the assessment conducted by personnel of the PCG Station Oriental Mindoro, CGSS Calapan, and Maritime Safety Services Unit-Southern Tagalog. Repprt with photos: https://mb.com.ph/2024/4/2/passenger-ship-collides-with-barge-off-isla-verde-in-barangas-1-hurt-1?__cf_chl_tk=UaBmixi3hlshX8gUZZeJcgcpDYZ.NdqeNei_wHplAII-1712136807-0.0.1.1-1770
SHTANDART
The 'Shtandart' will not participate in the Escala a Castellón, after a stopover in Sète. The Escale à Sète has barely finished when Escale a Castellón, the next gathering of tall ships, already begins. Many ships present on the island set sail on April 1, 2024, for the maritime event which opens on April 5 in the port of Castellón de la Plana. If the Russian frigate, built according to the plans of the flagship of the fleet of Tsar Peter I, is not on the trip, it is because the organization ultimately opposed its participation, a decision taken by the Spanish municipality under pressure from the Ukrainian population based there. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the ship, which found refuge in the port of La Rochelle, has been at the heart of a geopolitical battle. For the #NoShandartInEurope collective, some of whose activists were present in Sète, welcoming the vessel contravenes European regulations put in place following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In 2022, the prefect of Hérault took the decision to prohibit the arrival of the ship for Stopover in Sète, forcing the crew to head towards Port-de-Bouc. But its captain Vladimir Martus has presented himself since the start of the conflict as a dissident to Putin and obtained authorization to participate in several gatherings. Vladimir Martus was asked not to fly the Russian flag out of respect for the Ukrainian people.
JENNIFER
The "Jennifer" as well as the tugs "Open Arms" and "Ledra Dynamic" returned to Larnaca on April 2, 2024, after the death of seven employees of World Central Kitchen in the Gaza Strip in an airstrike. Only a barge carrying around 110 pallets of goods was unloaded in the Gaza Strip before the aid convoy was attacked on the mainland. The 'Jennifer' then set sail without having accomplished anything. The ship had around 250 tons of relief supplies on board. The aid organization immediately stopped its operations in the region in light of the fatal incident. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the attack on foreign aid workers in the Gaza Strip and spoke in a video message of a "tragic case of an accidental hit by our armed forces against innocent people in the Gaza Strip." The Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulidis and EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola, who met in Nicosia on the morning of April 2, strongly condemned the incident, but also pleaded that aid to the suffering population in the Gaza Strip should not suffer as a result. Report with photo: https://www.gmx.net/magazine/politik/tod-helfern-schiff-bringt-hilfsgueter-zurueck-zypern-39500376
KNOSSOS PALACE
In the evening of April 1, 2024, the Central Port Authority of Piraeus was informed by the Master of the 'Knossos Palace' about the injury of an 18 year old passenger due to a fall on board, while the ship was on a scheduled route to the ports of Milos and Heraklion, the victim required immediate medical attention. The ship returned to the port of Piraeus, where the injured woman was disembarked safely and picked up by an ambulance and taken to the Piraeus Zaneio General Hospital for further medical treatment. A preliminary investigation was carried out by the Port Authority.
NUEVO LUZ ALBA
The 'Nuevo Luz Alba' based in Santander, suffered an engine failure and went adrift with six crew members on board amid a strong storm about 15 nautical miles off the coast of Marin on March 28, 2024. The strong storm caused the diesel to overflow and stall the engine. The ship got assistance by the 'Salvamar Alioth' of Salvamento Marítimo at noon and was towed to Celeiro, where the crew started to repair the engine.
INGRID
A US Coast Guard helicopter aircrew medically evacuates a 29-year-old male person from the 'Ingrid', approximately 160 miles southwest of San Diego, on the afternoon of April 3, 2024. Watchstanders at the Sector San Diego Joint Harbor Operations Center received a distress call from the 'Ingrid' at approximately 1:30 p.m., reporting that a person on board was experiencing a medical emergency. In response to the distress call, it was determined that the patient required immediate higher-level medical care. The Sector San Diego launched an Air Station Jayhawk Helicopter crew with an embarked Specialized Trauma Assistance Team (STAR) medic to retrieve and transport the patient ashore. The aircrew landed at Sector San Diego at approximately 4:30 p.m. and successfully transferred the patient to awaiting Emergency Medical Services (EMS). The patient was reported to be in stable condition.
SUSAN K
The allsion of the 'Susan K', which was transiting with 25 barges downbound on the Mississippi River toward the Natchez-Vidalia Bridge on April 23, 2023, with a bridge pier was caused by inattentiveness by the veteran Mississippi River towboat captain, who had 45 years of experience, resulting in the tow contacting a bridge pier and $2 million in damage, the National Transportation Safety Board reported on April 2, 2024. The 'Susan K' was downbound toward the Natchez-Vidalia Bridge around 10:42 p.m. on April 23, 2023, headed for the western channel under the bridge. But the captain’s attention slipped during the approach. “he tow was out of position for the intended route and the captain’s awareness of the situation came too late to avoid striking a bridge pier. The investigators found no evidence that the captain was fatigued, impaired or distracted. They noted the captain had decades of experience steering towing vessels and maneuvering tows, including hundreds of transits through the Natchez-Vidalia Bridge. Interviewed by investigators, the captain said his attention lapsed after rounding the river bend above the bridge, and too late he realized that he was way off his marks. Trying to recover and make for the eastern channel, the captain increased to full power and used rudder movements. But the tow contacted the center bridge pier, breaking up the tow, sinking one barge and damaging two others. The captain acknowledged that he was lulled by his own long experience. Full report: https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/MIR2406.pdf
CRYSTAL COAST
The 'Crystal Coast', pushing a fuel barge, was the first vessel to move through the newly created temporary alternate channel in Baltimore following the collapse of the Key Bridge on April 1, 2024. The tug and barge were headed to Dover Air Force Base with jet fuel. The emergency passageway, which is 264 feet wide and 11 feet deep, was cleared on April 1 to allow essential vessels to pass along the Patapsco River around the mangled wreckage at the bridge disaster site. Report with Video: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/first-vessel-passes-temporary-alternate-123203976.html
FV BREIZ
Five people have been on trial in Le Havre since April 2 for the sinking of the 'Breiz'. On the first day of the trial, the shipowner was accused by the court regarding its responsibilities. The five people were tried for involuntary manslaughter and negligence. Questioned at the very end of the day after three other defendants who maintained their line of defense, the co-owner of the ship was confronted with his contradictions. “I didn't have absolute confidence in this boat,” the owner finally said, “but I didn't worry about anything anymore, I trusted Quentin.” On January 14, 2021, Quentin Varin, the master of the 'Breiz', called for help while scallop fishing off the coast of Port-en-Bessin. While the ship was towed by a boat from the SNSM of Ouistreham, the ship sank in the middle of the night, leading to the death of the skipper and his two sailors, brothers Jimmy and Steven Gibert, aged 19 and 26 years. With tears in his eyes, the owner of Breiz, who had sold 49% of the shares to Quentin Varin a few weeks before the tragedy, knew that the new boss did not have the necessary qualifications to run a shellfish company, and he was aware of the state of disrepair of his boat: "I have had a lot of damage in six years, the propeller, the gantry, leaks on the deck, an engine fire..." The owner invoked "zero profitability below 1.2 tonnes" per tide to explain the chronic overload of his trawler and the trips made by large time. Quentin Varin, 27, had been wrongly registered by the authorities as captain of the fishing boat without having the required certificates. The hearings of the two DDTM officials did not make clear why it had nevertheless been recorded. On the report from the Bureau of Investigation into Maritime Events (BEAmer), the action of the SNSM boat during the fatal towing was incriminated regarding the lack of vigilance by the crew of the SNSM boat, of whom five were sick, and three were sleeping, causing a delay of 46 seconds between the alert of the towed ship and the reaction of the lifeboat, and blamed too high speed and a dangerous route over shoals.
DALI
The Captain of the Port (COTP) established a second temporary alternate channel on the southwest side of the main channel near Hawkins Point in the vicinity of the Francis Scott Key Bridge for commercially essential vessels on April 2. The action was part of a phased approach to opening the main channel. The second temporary channel has been marked with government lighted aids to navigation and will be limited to transit at the discretion of the COTP and during daylight hours only. It has a controlling depth of 14 feet, a 280-foot horizontal clearance, and a vertical clearance of 124 feet. The current 2,000-yard safety zone around the Francis Scott Key Bridge remained in effect and is intended to protect personnel, vessels, and the marine environment. Members of the public may not enter the safety zone unless authorized by the COTP or designated representative. Those in the safety zone must comply with all lawful orders or directions given to them by the COTP or designated representative. The Unified Command’s operational priorities are ensuring the safety of the public and first responders, accountability of missing persons, safely restoring transportation infrastructure and commerce, protecting the environment, and supporting the investigation. Meanwhile divers have continued to survey underwater to create models of the scene for engineers to study to plan removal of the bridge. Multiple dive teams were operating 3D, multibeam, side-scan survey systems to get a better understanding of what they were dealing with. The divers have found the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge sinking into the bottom of the Patapsco River. After a 200-ton section of the bridge was removed on March 31, the Key Bridge Response Unified Command — which includes the Coast Guard, Army Corps of Engineers, Maryland Department of the Environment, Maryland Transportation Authority, Maryland State Police, and officials representing the cargo ship’s owner and manager, had planned a similar operation for on April 1 that had to be postponed because of lightning. The National Weather Service forecasts a chance of severe thunderstorms around the Patapsco River and Baltimore Harbor on the night of April 2 and April 3. Reports with photos and video: https://www.keybridgeresponse2024.com/post/update-6-multimedia-release-unified-command-opens-second-temporary-alternate-channel-around-key-bri https://www.baltimoresun.com/2024/04/02/key-bridge-wreckage-sinking-weather-delays/
DIAMOND XI
The Bridgeman Services Group has purchased the 'Ocean Diamond', which has been berthed in Gibraltar since March 18, 2024, after its arrival from Las Palmas, to serve as a floatel. The vessel is intended to provide accommodation for workers, the demand for which has been recently growing in sectors such as LNG, mining, and renewable energy. Following the acquisition, the ship was set to soon be renamed “Diamond XI." The ship is also to be refurbished and then will have be equipped with 350 beds in 150 cabins, catering, and entertainment. The ship will have a 200-seat auditorium, fitness facilities, offices, and around 45 workstations with the capacity to be customized for specific client assignments. The vessel will be open to charter anywhere in the world within the period of a few months. The company also has bought the ro-pax ferry “Isabelle' from the ferry operator Tallink in July 2023, which has now been renamed “Isabelle X” and is currently stationed in British Columbia, providing accommodation services for Woodfibre.