Aker Philly incurred a net loss of $4.4 million in 2009, on revenues of $226.7 million.  Read the report here.  Given their remaining backlog, it'll only be another twelve months before they'll be gone.  February 22, 2010.

Twelve of the 19 Coast Guard cutters mobilized to Haiti have had serious mechanical problems, the Commandant says.  Read the story in Navy Times here.  So, let's get on with fleet renewal, right?  If the Coast Guard had not wasted years of effort and many millions of taxpayers' money on its insane flirtation with Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin, it might not now be having these problems.  February 22, 2010.

Navy Times reports that the design has changed.  Read the story here.  But has it changed enough?  Or too much?  Is it still proven?  Has the Navy changed its requirements since accepting delivery of LCS 1?  I think we should be told.  February 20, 2010.

I have just been introduced to the wonderful web site/blog Cog and Galley, which is currently featuring an article on the FPBs deployed by Rome on the Rhine River in the 4th century, with the mission of preventing a crossing by those dastardly Visigoths.  Isn't naval architecture a great profession?   February 20, 2010.

There's a really remarkable analysis of the LCS program's two competitors in the latest issue of National Defense, the journal of the NDIA web site.  Read it here.  Now, given the way the Navy has structured the proposal evaluation factors - see Section M of the RFP here - is there not a danger that they could end up with the wrong boat?  February 19, 2010.

In a surprise move, Crowley Maritime has ordered two 11,000-hp oceangoing tugs - pictured on the right - from Bollinger Shipyards, with an unspecified number of options for more.  The boats, designed for ocean towing of rigs and Crowley's new 400-foot deck barges, will be built at Bollinger's Amelia shipyard, which used to be McDermott's and which built all but two of Crowley's 25-boat Invader class, which are now around 35 years old.  Could these be the first two of a wholesale replacement of the Invaders?  Other large Crowley tugs are currently being built by Dakota Creek and by VT Halter.  The price was not revealed but deliveries will be in 2011 and 2012.  Read Crowley's announcement here.  Note that they specifically address the greenness of the design.  I think that, in future, I'm going to blast all announcements of new designs that don't feature green initiatives.  February 17/18, 2010.

Archeologists have discovered tools on Crete that are at least 130,000 years old, providing evidence of migration by sea that is at least 70,000 years earlier than had previously been identified.  Read the story in the New York Times here.  February 16, 2010.

Only a week after hearing of the third and fourth of US Shipping's six ITBs being sold for demolition, the fifth has now left its lay-up berth in Violet LA and is waiting to load grain in Galveston.  She's bound for a port in East Africa, from which it will just be a short hop to a scrapping beach.  February 16, 2010.

In one of the shipbuilding industry's dumbest ever managerial appointments, Fred Moosally is now President of Fincantieri Marine Group, the parent of Marinette Marine, Bay Shipbuilding and Cleveland Ship Repair.  Read the announcement here.  This is the man who recently retired in a storm of criticism from the leadership of Lockheed Martin's Maritime Systems Division, a position which he had held for the past seven years, and we all know how brilliantly that organization has been doing, don't we?  What does Fincantieri think it's doing?  They don't need a good man to run the shipyards: they've already got one.  And they don't need a good man in Washington: they've already got one of those too.  This is suicidal.  Gaaaaaah.  February 15, 2010. 

Northrop Grumman released its 10-K for 2009 yesterday.  The corporation as a whole made a profit of $1,686 million on revenues of $33,755 million, a margin of about 5.0%.  Operating profit was $2,483 million, a margin of 7.4%.  The shipbuilding division had an operating profit of $299 million on revenues of about $6,213 million, a margin of 4.8%.  Isn't it great that the world's most incompetent shipbuilder can also be one of the world's most profitable shipbuilders?  To see a summary of NGSB's historical financial performance, plus that of its predecessor companies, going back to 1985, click here.  February 9, 2010.

The highly regarded Maine tug builder, apparently fully recovered from the fire last year, has unveiled a new design for an 80-ft. Z-drive tug - pictured on the right.  Read about it here.  But is it green?  Who knows?  Why introduce a new design for any type of vessel without addressing the major challenge facing our industry, that of reducing emissions?  February 9, 2010.

Defense News reports that Russia is now talking to France about buying not one but four Mistral-class helicopter carriers.  Read the story here.  As you can imagine, this ticks off a lot of U.S. senators, who, having an average age of 63, are still fighting the Cold War.  But think how badly the Russian Navy would get screwed up if it had to buy ships from Northrop Grumman.  February 9, 2010.

Nineteen days after being mobilized for Haiti, the ex-Hawaiian SuperFerry Alakai is still in Norfolk.  Why?  February 8, 2010.

Here's at least one decent DOD web site, at U.S. Fleet Forces Command.  Good for Admiral Harvey.  Note the excellent map of Haiti Operations that's halfway down the page.  February 8, 2010.

Tradewinds reports that US Shipping has sold two more of its ancient ITBs for scrap.  The ITB New York went for about $3.6 million and the ITB Baltimore for about $4.5 million.  Progress, of a sort.  February 7, 2010.

DON'T LOOK TO GOVERNMENT WEB SITES FOR USEFUL INFORMATION ON THE HAITI STORY

If you want to know what's gong on in Haiti as far as the maritime side of things is concerned - you know, fixing the port facilities, latest ship deployments, putting cargo ashore, etc. - don't waste your time visiting U.S. Government web sites.  They are almost completely useless.  Visit the media portals of the Navy, MSC, MARAD and the Coast Guard to see what I mean.  The Coast Guard's is the worst, especially with that thoroughly off-putting opening question.  Badly designed web sites, astonishingly user-unfriendly, providing little or no useful information and hardly any pictures, and what info there is is far from up to date.  Where's the hard data?  What ships are where?  What are they doing?  What have they achieved so far?  What equipment are they using?  What's the plan for the next few weeks?  Do you see this kind of info anywhere?  No.  Or any decent pictures?  No again.  It's not as if this is a war and the info might be classified.  No, it's just incompetence.  Meanwhile, there's information and there are pictures out there if you have lots of time to search for them, just not on the Government web sites that you and I pay for.  February 6, 2010.

Army equipment coming ashore from the former Hawaiian SuperFerry.  February 5, 2010.

Two more U.S. shipping companies that are pulling out all the stops for Haiti are Antillean and Seaboard.  See a series of great photographs on Antillean's web site here.  Read Seaboard's latest report here: note the high-tech pier they are using.  February 4, 2010.

Three excellent pictures of the INLS handling cargo from the USNS PFC DeWayne T. Williams.  February 4, 2010.

OMSA has just published a study of the economic impact of the offshore service industry - both shipbuilders and vessel operators.  The key conclusions are that U.S. businesses experience about $18.1 billion in new sales annually as a result of economic activities within this segment of U.S. shipbuilding and offshore vessel operations.  These new businesses help to generate about $4.6 billion in new household earnings annually for U.S. workers.  Approximately 103,160 jobs are supported by the economic activity of these segments, with average annual earnings of about $43,992.  And it is estimated that the federal government collected nearly $1.4 billion annually in taxes directly and indirectly in 2008, and $770.8 million in state and local government taxes in the same year.  Read OMSA's announcement here and the study itself here.  February 4, 2010.