Maritime News and Comment

March 2007

   U.S. BOAT LEFT IN VIETNAM FOR SALE ON E-BAY.  An aluminum patrol craft built by Sewart Seacraft, builder of the famous Swiftboats, and left in Vietnam at the war's end, is for sale on E-Bay.  Read the details here.  Can anyone confirm or correct the very intriguing description given?  The consensus of responses received to this question seems to be that the boat is bogus.  March 31/April 2, 2007.

   McKAY BROTHERS GET JAIL.  Former AMO National President Michael McKay was sentenced to 78 months yesterday: his brother Robert, the former National Secretary-Treasurer, got 15 months.  Read the announcement here.  March 30, 2007.

   AKER PHILLY EXPANDS AGREEMENT WITH MIPO.  Aker Philadelphia announced today that it has expanded its agreement with Hyundai Mipo Dockyard not only to cover up to six product carriers in addition to the first series of ten but also to cover a suitable containership design.  Read their announcement here.  March 28, 2007.

   BULKER AGROUND OFF PORT MANATEE.  The Coast Guard reports that the 15,000-dwt Panama-flag, "Antilles II" lost power and ran aground off the entrance to Port Manatee this morning, effectively closing the Port of Tampa for most of the day.  The 6-year-old Japanese-built ship is owned by Hiong Guan Navegacion and is carrying a cargo of phosphate.  Read the Coast Guard's announcements here.  March 28, 2007.

   JONES ACT WAIVER FOR AHTSS REQUESTED.  The Maritime Administration, (MARAD), has received a request for a Jones Act waiver to allow the use of two foreign-flag, ice-class AHTSs in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.  Before approving the request, MARAD has posted a notice in the Federal Register asking for identification of suitable US-flag vessels.  Read it here and read the documents in the docket here (except that there aren't any yet).  Looks to me like another camel's nose, guys.  The Beaufort and Chukchi Seas are the next North Slope.  Let two foreign-flag boats in today and five years from now there'll be a hundred of them up there.   March 28, 2007.

   SECOND OSG TANKER FLOATED.  Aker Philly has floated the second of OSG's tankers, the future "OSG Long Beach", only 43 weeks after keel-laying, and has started fabrication of the fifth ship in the series, only 23 weeks after starting the fourth.  The schedule continues to accelerate.  Read the shipyard's announcement here and the latest construction update here.  March 27, 2007.

   VT HALTER TO BUILD A GIANT PSV.  VT Halter Marine has executed a contract with an undisclosed customer for the construction of a 285-foot deep-water Platform Supply Vessel, with capacity for 3,500 tons of deck cargo.  The contract price is $23.5 million, with delivery in the 4th quarter of 2008.  Read the announcement here.  The last time VT Halter got a contract from an undisclosed customer for a PSV, the undisclosed customer turned out, to nobody's surprise, to be Seacor, but that does not, of course, mean that the customer for this new boat is Seacor.  Heavens, no.  March 27, 2007.

   STOCKMAN CHARGED WITH FRAUD.  The man who killed half the U.S. shipbuilding business, David Stockman, has been charged with securities fraud by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.  Read the DoJ's announcement here.  As a 35-year-old congressman from Michigan, Stockman became President Reagan's first budget director and his chief instrument for the implementation of Reaganomics.  One of his first acts was to kill all funding for Titles V, VI and XI of the Merchant Marine Act - in direct contradiction of Governor Reagan's campaign promises - thus bringing the construction of US-flag ships for foreign trade to a screeching halt.  That's why all those containerships flying the US flag today are foreign-built and foreign-owned.  Justice at last, maybe.  March 26, 2007.

   JACK GILBRIDE DEAD AT 90.  Another of the prominent shipbuilders of the post-war years, Jack Gilbride, who spent his life with Todd Shipyards and was its Chairman from 1975 to 1986, died last week at the age of 90.  His obituary appears in today's New York Times: read it here.  March 26, 2007.

   USS KENNEDY DECOMMISSIONED.  The last conventionally powered aircraft carrier, the USS "John F. Kennedy", (CV 67), was decommissioned on Friday in Mayport FL.  Delivered by Newport News in 1968, she was the last conventionally powered aircraft carrier to be built, being followed by the "Nimitz".  One non-nuclear carrier remains on duty, however, the USS "Kitty Hawk", (CV 63), which was built by the almost forgotten New York Ship, in Camden NJ.  Read the Navy's coverage here.  Read the homeport coverage in Jacksonville's Florida Times-Union here.  March 24, 2007.

   MAJOR COCAINE BUST BY USCG.  The Coast Guard intercepted a cargo ship carrying more than 20 tons of cocaine the other day.  Great.  Congratulations.  Pats on the back all round.  Read the transcript of the Coast Guard's press conference here.  This is great news, but.  According to the Coast Guard's web site, they have intercepted, on average, about 100 tons of cocaine a year over the past five years.  According to a variety of sources, including the White House, U.S. consumption of cocaine is somewhere between 300 and 400 tons a year.  In short, for every boat or plane or mule that the Coast Guard and the rest of DHS intercepts, three boats or planes or mules get through.  And if cocaine smugglers in small boats can get through our coastal defenses, doesn't that mean that terrorists in small boats can also get through our coastal defenses?  March 24/28, 2007.

   LLOYD BERGESEN DEAD AT 89.  One of the few great shipbuilders of our time, Lloyd Bergesen, who was in charge of planning at Cramp Shipbuilding in WWII and went on to manage both Electric Boat and Quincy, died recently at the age of 89.  His obituary appears in today's Boston Globe: read it here.  March 22, 2007.

   JACK-UP AGROUND IN GULF.  The jack-up "Dolphin III", operated by Nabors International, was deliberately grounded off Port Aransas TX yesterday, to avoid the risk of it sinking.  Read the Coast Guard's update here.  March 22, 2007.

   PHILLY TO BE A WORLD-CLASS PORT?  The International Longshoremen's Association, (ILA), has teamed up with the Ports of the Delaware River Marine Trade Association to form an organization committed to making Philadelphia a "world-class container shipping hub".  The new entity, the Maritime Stakeholders Group of the Port of Philadelphia, will hold a press conference in Newark NJ - Newark NJ ??? - on Wednesday, to announce its plans, which apparently involve the creation of at least 100,000 jobs.  Read the announcement here.  Are they going to be able to get the feds to dredge the river to the required depths?  Are they going to be able to build efficient modern terminals?  Are they going to be able to teach ILA members how to handle cargo efficiently and economically?  Are the major container shipping lines going to be interested in sending their ships 100 miles up the Delaware to Philadelphia?  And even if they did, would it create 100,000 jobs?  No, no, no, no and not a chance.  How deluded can you get?  March 20, 2007.

   USS ATB COST UP TO $80MM.  The 150,000-barrel ATB that US Shipping Partners ordered from SENESCO in August 2004 for $45mm is now expected to be completed some time in May, which will be more than two years late, at a final cost of around $80mm.  Read USS's announcement here.  By contrast, the three similar ATBs now being built by Bay Shipbuilding, (the barges), and Eastern Shipbuilding, (the tugs), will each cost $65mm.  One could almost feel sorry for USS if they hadn't got themselves into this mess in the first place by selecting an unqualified shipbuilder.  (I got enormous grief from a bunch of people for saying as much at the time.)  March 19, 2007.

   NAVY PROPOSES LCS FIX.  The Navy has proposed a fix for the LCS program's problems that the contractors aren't going to like but may have to swallow.  Read SECNAV's announcement here.  In essence, the Navy is going to convert Lockheed's contract to FFP, even though it's a prototype.  Of more significance, the announcement appears to say that after building the first four ships, the Navy will pick one design and hold an open competition for its construction.  This would be a radical departure from the original plan.  March 16, 2007.

   COAST GUARD TAKES FRC OUT OF DEEPWATER.  The Coast Guard has terminated the portion of its contract with Integrated Coast Guard Systems - the terminally incompetent NGSS/LMT joint venture - that deals with the Fast Response Cutter, (FRC).  The new class, which is intended to replace the "Island"-class patrol boats, will now be procured directly by the Coast Guard, with competition opened up to all comers.  The RFP for the first flight of 12 boats will be released in May.  Read the Coast Guard's announcement here and its FRC fact sheet here.  March 15, 2007.

   FEDEX LOSES MERCHANT MARINER FILES.  The Coast Guard has revealed that a sealed box of 50 merchant mariner files has been lost while in transit from New Orleans to Kearneysville, via FedEx.  Read the announcement here.  March 13, 2007.

   NGSS ON STRIKE.  The unions at NGSS have rejected the company's latest offer and are now on strike.  Read the coverage in the Biloxi Sun-Herald here.  March 8, 2007.

   USS CONFIRMS USE OF FOREIGN SHIPYARDS.  In an 8-K filed today, US Shipping Partners confirmed that the Coast Guard has approved its plans to double-hull its ITBs in a foreign shipyard.  Read USS's announcement here.  They say that it will cost $12 to $15 million, which they describe as "substantially" less than the cost in a U.S. shipyard.  Strange that they cannot be more precise.  March 8, 2007.

   OSG ORDERS THREE MORE ATBS.  Overseas Shipholding Group's US-flag company, OSG America, (formerly Maritrans), has ordered three more 290,000-barrel ATBs from Bender Shipbuilding.  As with the three units already on order, the barges will be built by Bender's affiliate, Tampa Bay Shipbuilding, and the 12,000-hp tugs by Bender itself.  The new units will cost $90 million each and be delivered in late 2009, mid 2010 and late 2010.  Read OSG's announcement here.  March 7, 2007.

   POST COLUMNIST ATTACKS NAVY'S SINKINGS.  An Op-Ed piece in the Washington Post today criticizes the Navy's apparent rush to use a bunch of perfectly good ships as targets.  Read Craig Hooper's piece here.  I tend to agree.  What's the rush?  What would be so hard about tieing these ships up for a while?  March 6, 2007.

   EPA WANTS A CLEAN MARINE  The Environmental Protection Administration, (EPA), has introduced a new emission control program that would cut PM emissions by 90% and NOx emissions by 80%.  The rules will apply to all types of marine diesel engines below 30 liters per cylinder displacement, beginning in 2009 for the small stuff and in 2012 for the rest.  Read all about it here.  March 5, 2007.

   MORE ON THE SS INDEPENDENCE  Further to our item last week about the strange letter from the Coast Guard to Preston Gates concerning the SS "Oceanic", formerly "Independence", I now hear that the old ship is to be stripped of all its fittings and artifact this coming Wednesday, March 7.  I am also reminded that Colin Veitch, the head of NCL, indicated last May that NCL thought the "Independence" was too old and in too bad a condition to be revived.  Are they preparing for a tow to the scrap yard?  Such a thought brings to mind the fate of her sister ship, the "Constitution", which mysteriously sank in mid-Pacific while under tow to the scrap yard.  Hard to imagine that that might happen again.  March 3, 2007.

   FOSS TO BUILD HYBRID TUG.  In an excellent display of the innovative spirit that still marks some corners of the commercial sector of the U.S. marine industry, Foss Maritime has announced that it will develop and build a hybrid tug.  Read their announcement here.  The tug will be built by Foss' own shipyard, in Rainier OR, and delivered next year.  March 2, 2007.

   NASSCO DELIVERS T-AKE 2.  The second of the "Lewis and Clark" class of combat support ships, USNS "Sacagawea", (T-AKE 2), was delivered on Tuesday.  Read the Navy's announcement here.  Read NASSCO's announcement here.  March 2, 2007.

   BULKER AGROUND IN CHESAPEAKE BAY.  The 4-year-old Panamax bulker "Montrose" grounded yesterday off the mouth of the Choptank River, near Tilghman Island, in Chesapeake Bay.  The ship had just loaded coal in Baltimore, for a voyage to Constanta, in Romania.  Read the Coast Guard's announcement here.  March 1, 2007.

   NEWS OF "OVERSEAS HOUSTON".  No sooner had I posted a snippy comment this morning concerning the lack of news of the "Overseas Houston" than Aker American Shipping posted its fourth quarter report, which includes the news that warranty work on the new ship was completed in Tampa and she is now on her way to pick up her first cargo.  Well, excellent.  Read Aker American's report here and don't miss the two links at the foot of the page.  All very interesting stuff.  March 1, 2007.

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