The sinking of the Princess Kathleen

Mar 02, 2010 0 Comments by

The vessel was sailing towards Skagway, having entered Favorite Channel. The Channel is located north of Stephens Passage, between Shelter Island and the mainland. She had 307 passengers and 80 crew aboard when the steamship, captained by Graham O. Hughs hit the rocks at Point Lena.

At the time of the sinking, around 0300 hours as passengers and most crew slept, Chief Officer Charles W. Savage was on the bridge. Savage would later say though the ship had radar, it had not been turned on. A company spokesman told the press that whether or not to turn on the radar was a decision made by the officer in charge and apparently Savage did not deem the situation radar worthy as it traveled off shore at a speed said to be 9 knots.

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Tanker collision in Port Arthur, TX (photos)

Jan 24, 2010 0 Comments by

It’s a mess for the folks down in Port Arthur Texas this weekend, as crews work to clean up the estimated 11,000 barrels of crude oil that spilled from the Singapore flagged crude tanker Eagle Otome after it collided with a barge being pushed by the towing vessel Dixie Vengeance in the Sabine Neches Waterway near Port Arthur.

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Huge Oil Spill near Australia

Sep 27, 2009 0 Comments by

There is a growing environmental catastrophe ongoing in the Timor Sea off Australia. Oil and gas condensate has been spilling into the sea since August 21st, when a blowout occurred on the West Atlas mobile platform in the Montara oil field. The blowout forced the evacuation of all 69 workers on the platform, and has challenged response agencies in cleaning-up the resulting massive oil slick. The leaking well head is owned by Thailand’s national petroleum exploration company, PTT Exploration and Production.

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First Tier Four Engine Lubricant Introduced

Sep 24, 2009 0 Comments

This announcement came via the folks at the Maritime Executive.  For some of you, this may have been an anxious wait.  I would expect to see a stream of new lubricants catering to tier 4 engines or specifically tailored for use with low sulfur and ultra low sulfur fuels in the next year.  Here’s a [...]

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Severe Hogging: Tanker splits in two

Sep 02, 2009 0 Comments

Ships are breakable – just another reminder. It appears they really screwed up during tank washing, by not calculating stresses. This results in a condition called “hogging” in which two ends of the ship are loaded, creating extreme stresses at the center of the ship. This appears to be what happened in the case of the T/V Elli.

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