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Onassis shipping company’s vessel conversion to be done at Oman

Drydock Oman Drydock Company (ODC), a shipyard specialising in ship repair and conversion, has won a deal to undertake the transformation of an ore/crude oil carrier into a full-fledged crude oil carrier, according to a report.The conversion work on the Olympic Trophy will begin this month and will use 2,200 tonnes of steel, said the Oman Daily Observer report.The process, which also entailed the recent manufacture of steel structures, will be completed in 80 days, it said.“Olympic Trophy is the fourth ship from the same company to be converted from an ore/crude oil carrier into a crude oil only carrier,” Dr Ahmed al Abri, deputy chief executive officer of operations at Oman Drydock Company, was quoted as saying.The carrier will also under go other general maintenance works including coating, replacement of a number of parts, and some repairs, the report added. Source: Trade Arabia

Arrested vessel sold after two years

The "E Whale" which has been in Cape Town for two years after being arrested in April 2012 because of debt, was sold on MAy 19, 2014, to a foreign company for $61 million. The vessel will be able to sail away as soon as the money has been paid in full. The new owners, who had paid a deposit, had five days to pay the full amount. Once the money has been paid, the court will return the certificates and provide it with documents reflecting the new ownership. The money from the sale of the ship will be paid into an account established by the Western Cape High Court. The court will appoint a referee to whom "E Whale" creditors lodge their claims. The referee will assess the validity of the claims and decide who gets paid how much and in what order. The vessel was arrested after various creditors alerted the authorities in Cape Town. The first one was from a company in Brazil and another from a bank in Taiwan which lodged claim for the ship’s mortgage. There was a provisional sale order made for the "E Whale" in 2012, but then the ship owner, Today Makes Tomorrow International Shipping, applied to a US court for insolvency protection, which was granted. Because the Taiwanese bank had an office in New York, the US court decision was binding and the bank was precluded from taking further steps. The sale was stalled and the ship’s crew were trapped on the vessel for more than a year. Maritime attorney Alan Goldberg, who was alerted over a year ago to the crew’s plight by the International Transport Workers’ Federation, a global union of transport workers’ unions, took on the case of trying to settle the crew’s wage dispute and to get them repatriated. The company that owned the vessel is Taiwanese, and the 32 crew were from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Once the original crew had been repatriated, new crew were brought on board and were rotated every three months.

Crew stuck on board stranded ship

The "E Whale" is at anchor in Table Bay since Apr 27, 2013. The 17 crewmen continued to live aboard the hulking vessel, unable to leave. The ship has been arrested because of several outstanding debts the ship’s owners have neglected to pay on the "E Whale"’s sister ship, the "A Whale". Since the "E Whale" docked in Cape Town it has since been arrested by three other creditors. The crew members must keep the ship functioning until financial matters with the vessel’s owners, Today Makes Tomorrow International Shipping, are sorted out. Captain Abdullah Al Mahmud said some of the crew members were frustrated and desperate to go home. Tensions were rising as the crew continued to work without pay. Leaving the ship is not an option except for dire medical need. The crew have not been paid since December 2012. Maritime attorney Alan Goldberg of Rose Street Chambers was working with the crew to settle the wage dispute, repatriate the seamen, and sell the vessel to a new owner. The bank he has been working with agreed recently to pay the crew all of their overdue wages. Negotiations were expected to be finalised by the end of the week. The bank that has a mortgage on the "E Whale "will soon issue an application to the Western Cape High Court to sell the vessel. Once the court approved the application to sell, it would take three to four months to find a buyer. At that point, the crew will no longer need to remain on board.