It took more than 100 firefighters to extinguish a fire aboard a 200 ft coastal freighter that was moored in the Miami river on Saturday night.  The ship’s cargo was apparently mattresses, bicycles, and cars bound for Haiti.  All nine crew members were safely evacuated.  The vessel is named ATLANTIC.  There are very few details [...]

The first global study into the effectiveness of the IMO required Ship Security Alert System (SSAS) by Singapore’s Rajaratnam School of International Studies has concluded that the system is virtually worthless.  Amendments to the SOLAS Convention, required most merchant ships to be fitted with a SSAS system to enable crew members to silently alert authorities ashore of [...]

The Coast Guard issued a safety advisory titled “Controllable Pitch Propeller Systems and Situational Awareness“.  The alert was issued after the analysis of the Alaska Ranger sinking in the Bering Sea this past winter.  Investigators found that when the decision was made to abandon ship, the propellers were still turning with astern pitch.  The resulting [...]

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1910909238288190289&q=skysails&ei=n3FtSOLLCZaYrAOjyuisDw] Bunkerworld is reporting that the German shipping company Wessels has decided to install SkySails on all three of its next newbuilds, citing a 50% fuel savings when used in optimum conditions. The trials and testing of SkySails has been posted on numerous blogs, but nonetheless, if you haven’t seen this before, its actually pretty [...]

The 140ft Coast Guard buoy tender “Morro Bay” collided with the 175ft Block Island ferry running from Point Judith Rhode Island, to Block Island. Fog had reduced visibility down to about 200 yards at the time of the incident. Apparently the Coast Guard Cutter had just finished a change of command ceremony in Newport and [...]