February 2024

Ships Monthly

The world's number one shipping magazine

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Ships Monthly
Editor • Nicholas Leach sm.ed@kelsey.co.uk Art Editor • Mark Hyde Talk Media Sales • www.talkmediasales.co.uk Group Commercial Manager • Mason Ponti Telephone • 01732 920499 Email • mason@talk-media.uk Managing Director • Phil Weeden Finance Director
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Contributors This Month
George Holland is a teacher who, in his spare time, enjoys travelling by sea. He is a keen writer and photographer, covering ferries and cruise ships. Neil McCart is a naval historian and author. Between 1961 and 1970 he served in the Royal Navy in t
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Milestones Marked In Busy Year
Welcome to the second issue of 2024, which looks like being a busy year, with a number of significant anniversaries. Queen Mary 2 has been in service for 20 years; it is 120 years since the first cruise ship began operating, when, in 1904, P&O entere
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Next Generation
Deltamarin has signed a design contract with China Merchants Jinling Shipyard (Jiangsu) Co Ltd for the design and engineering of Wallenius Wilhelmsen’s next-generation Pure Car & Truck Carriers (PCTCs). The contract includes the basic and detailed de
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Ferry To Flotel For Baltic Veteran
Vancouver, Canada-based Bridgemans Services Group has positioned the former Baltic Sea ferry Isabelle to Squamish, British Columbia to house workers involved in the Woodfibre LNG export project following the vessel’s conversion into a ‘flotel’. Forme
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New Chinese Rescue Vessel
The Chinese Ministry of Transport, through sub-agency South China Sea Rescue Bureau, has taken delivery of the rescue vessel Nanhai Jiu 103 (‘Nanhai Rescue 103’) from compatriot builder China Merchants Heavy Industry for operation in the South China
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Irish Sea expansion
Shortsea ro-ro operator CLdN is set to expand its Irish Sea services following the decision by Dublin Port Company (DPC) to grant a licence for the port’s Terminal 5. In September 2023 DPC called for proposals from interested ferry lines to service w
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Aranui 5 Set To Cruise With Cargo
One of the world’s few remaining passenger/cargo ships, the 7,500gt Aranui 5, operated by Tahiti’s Aranui Cruises, is set to offer 22 voyages to destinations within French Polynesia, including the Austral archipelago, a group of seven islands located
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News In Brief
NEW FOR SIREMAR Turkey’s Sofine Shipyard has delivered the 110m LNG-powered dual-fuel vessel Nerea to the Sicilian operator for service from Milazzo to the Aeolian Islands. Nerea has a speed of 16.5 knots, with 490 lane metres of space on a single de
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Second Dual-fuel Newbuild
China’s Jinling Shipyard has delivered the LNG dual-fuel pure car and truck carrier (PCTC) Lake Annecy (72,800gt) to Singapore’s Eastern Pacific Shipping for charter to Japan’s Mitsui OSK Line (MOL). Like her earlier delivered sister Lake Herman, the
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Low Water On The Amazon
The Liberian-flagged oil tanker Minerva Rita was one of a number of vessels stranded on the Amazon river following record low water levels that have seen the river reach its lowest levels in over 120 years at the important inland port of Manaus. The
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Free Crossings
The Sandbanks to Shell Bay floating bridge chain ferry Bramble Bush Bay, which operates across the mouth of Poole Harbour in Dorset, provided some seasonal goodwill by offered free crossings to all types of vehicle, as well as pedestrians, on Christm
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New Names Announced By Cal Mac
In December 2023 Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) announced that the names for the two new ferries that will serve the Little Minch routes will be Claymore and Lochmor. CMAL, which owns the ferries, produced two groups of names, with input f
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Ellerman MSC partnership
Ellerman City Liners has reached an agreement with Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) which will see Ellerman taking slot capacity on MSC ships which are operating between the Baltic, Northern Europe and the US East Coast. The agreement, which began on
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Busy Week At Meyer Turku
On 27 November 2023 Icon of the Seas, the largest passenger ship ever built at 250,800gt and 365m in length, was delivered to RCCL and sailed for Cadiz the next day to complete outfitting with the 2,000-plus crew, both technical and hotel, aboard (se
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Heavylifter Rebuild
Hamburg-based SAL Heavy Lift has completed a major reconstruction of its 2008-built heavylift ship Anne-Sofie to increase the vessel’s carrying and lifting capacity, as well as improve its environmental credentials. The rebuilt ship now features a ca
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Final Departure
The final departure from Dublin of the 1993-built ferry Norbank took place on 20 December 2023, with P&O closing its Irish Sea service and withdrawing both Norbank and sistership Norbay. Bad weather on Norbank’s final crossing meant she was late to l
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Old Ro-ro Blown Ashore In Med
The former Tirrenia ro-ro vessel Beniamino Carnevale was one of a number of ships blown ashore during winter storms in the Mediterranean after a cable snapped while the ship was being towed from Naples to Turkey by the tug Tedy. She now faces somethi
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End Of The Road For Jubilee ST
The Jubilee Sailing Trust (Tenacious) Limited (JST(T)L), the company that owned and operated the three-masted barques STS Lord Nelson and SV Tenacious, has closed. The Jubilee Sailing Trust group, which includes the company JST(T) L and the charity J
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Second Dover Vessel Delivered
P&O Liberté, the second of the two double-ended 1,500-passenger/200-car Fusion class vessels designed for P&O Ferries services between Dover and Calais, was delivered from China’s Guangzhou Shipyard in November 2023, and is set to join sistership P&O
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New Mersey Ferry To Be Built On The Mersey
A contract between Liverpool City Council and the Birkenhead shipyard of Cammell Laird was signed in December 2023 for what will be the first new ferry to be built for use on the cross-Mersey connections from Liverpool Pier Head to Birkenhead Woodsid
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Ferries In The News … Ferries In The News … Ferries In The News … Ferries In The News…
ISABELLE Following upgrades in Finland and Estonia, the 35,154gt Tallink-owned vessel crossed the Atlantic to transit the Panama Canal to begin a charter to the Bridgemans Group providing luxury accommodation in British Columbia for construction work
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News In Brief
MY STAR The first year of operation by Tallink’s shuttle ferry MyStar (50,629gt), which links Tallinn and Helsinki, attracted 1.8 million passengers on 2,100 departures and covered more than 93,000 nautical miles. SMYRIL BUY Bore Limited handed over
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Ireland Ferry Growth For Rosslare And Dublin
Stena Line achieved record levels of Ireland-France passenger and vehicle traffic between Rosslare and Cherbourg following last summer’s introduction of Stena Vision (1987/39,191gt) to sail opposite Stena Horizon (2006/27,522gt), the biggest growth c
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Condor Ferries Route Debut
New acquisition Condor Islander (2005/13,906gt) entered full service for Condor Ferries between Portsmouth and the Channel Islands in late November 2023, but, along with other vessels in the fleet, she lost sailings when an extended spell of bad weat
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Superstar Vessel Completed
Finncanopus, the second of the 68,460gt Finnlines ro-pax series built in China at the CMI Jinling Yard, was handed over in early December 2023 and earned her keep during a six-week delivery voyage carrying cargo and making several calls while she was
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Out Of Service For A Second Time
In December 2022 what was then Ambassador Cruise Line’s only ship, the 1991-built Ambience, was sent to Bremerhaven for urgent attention to her lifeboat systems following an inspection, causing the loss of several cruises. A year later and she is in
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Giants Delivered By Meyer
The Meyer Group has recently delivered two of the largest ships that it has ever built at its Turku and Papenburg shipyards. Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, the lead ship in the Icon class, is officially the largest passenger ship ever built, at
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Another Sale
After a career spanning 33 years as one of only a handful of Japanese-owned cruise ships, the 680-passenger Pacific Venus has been sold to a South Korean cruise start-up, part of DuWon Shipping, a Donghae-based ferry company. Her previous owner, Shin
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News In Brief
PRINCESS CRUISES The second ship of Princess Cruises’ Sphere class, Star Princess, had her keel laid at Fincantieri’s Monfalcone shipyard on 4 December 2023. Meanwhile, the first of tehse LNG-dual-fuelled vessels, Sun Princess, will enter service in
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Three New Ships Named And Enter Service
It is unusual for a cruise ship to be named before she embarks on a revenue-earning voyage, but the 141,420gt Celebrity Ascent sailed from her builder’s at St Nazaire to Fort Lauderdale, where she was named by Captain Sandy Yawn (TV actress) and her
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Unexpected Stay In Dry Dock Causes Delays
When Phoenix Reisen’s Amera, formerly Holland America’s Prinsendam, but built as Royal Viking Sun in 1988 by Wärtsilä in Turku, Finland, went into dry dock in Gdansk on 27 September 2023, she was expected to be back in service in time to resume her s
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Confusion Reigns
Last month the difficulties surrounding the acquisition of a ship for Life at Sea Voyages were reported. In the event, the 1 December 2023 delayed deadline for the three-and-a-half-year cruise to begin came and went without a suitable ship being avai
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Spain’s Submarine Milestone
Spain has become one of a handful of countries capable of designing and building a modern submarine, following the commissioning of SPS Isaac Peral (S-81). Described as the greatest industrial and technological challenge ever faced by Spanish industr
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New offshore ‘Patrouilleurs’
The French Directorate General of Armaments has ordered seven Offshore Patrol Vessels for the Marine Nationale as part of the Patrouilleurs Hauturiers programme. Three contracts, worth a total of €900 million, have been awarded to Constructions Mécan
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News In Brief
RNZN HMNZS Te Mana has successfully test-fired a pair of SeaCeptor missiles following a three-year mid-life modernisation at Esquimalt. It was the first time since 2012 that the RNZN has launched any air-defence missile. Both of New Zealand’s Anzac c
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Modern MEKO
The first of the Turkish Navy’s upgraded Barbaros class frigates has returned to service following mid-life modernisation. TCG Orucreis (F-245) is the first of four MEKO 200TN to undergo an extensive overhaul of the ships’ combat system, weapons, and
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The ‘Swiss Army’ ship
Portugal’s National Defence Ministry has contracted Damen Shipyards for the design and construction of a so-called Multi-functional Naval Platform. The €132 million multi-purpose vessel is largely being funded by the European Union’s Recovery and Res
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New Type Gets Under Way
Construction of the first of up to six F126 frigates for the German Navy is under way, with first steel-cutting taking place at the Peene shipyard, in Wolgast, on 5 December 2023. Despite the Dutch Damen Naval shipbuilder being the main contractor, t
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Red Sea interceptors
The US Defense Secretary has announced Operation Prosperity Guardian, an international maritime security initiative to protect shipping in response to the escalation of attacks in the Red Sea. The Red Sea and Bab El Mandeb Strait,, through which a si
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London Scrap Terminal’s First Caller
The Italian-owned mini-bulker Sider Luck arrived on the Thames in mid-November 2023 to take the first cargo of scrap metal to be loaded at London Scrap Terminal, at Northfleet. The facility has breathed new life into the jetty, which for years has be
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Russia’s Rosatom Takes Over FESCO
Russia’s Rosatom, the country’s largest nuclear agency, has been given control of the Far Eastern Shipping Company (FESCO) by Russian president Vladimir Putin. FESCO currently has 25 ships in its fleet, including 19 container ships, three bulkers and
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LNG-powered Newcastlemax bulkers
China’s New Times Shipbuilding has been contracted to build a large series of 210,000dwt LNG dual-fuel bulk carriers for Singapore-headquartered Eastern Pacific Shipping, with the 299m by 50m Mount Gaea, Mount Tourmaline and Mount Nova Terra already
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News In Brief
ICE-CLASS TANKERS Dynacom Tankers Management of Greece has ordered four 115,000dwt ice-class Aframax product tankers from China’s DSIC Shanhaiguan Shipbuilding Industry Co. The 250m by 44m ships will be equipped with open-type desulphurisation scrubb
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Hapag-Lloyd Takes First SFL Vessel
Hapag-Lloyd has taken delivery of the 14,372TEU capacity container ship Savannah Express, following upgrade works to the vessel in Zhoushan. Savannah Express is one of six sisters the German liner operator agreed to take from New York-exchange listed
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Green Routes
In December 2023 X-Press Feeders announced plans to use dual-fuel vessels, powered by green methanol, to create ‘green routes’ to the Scandinavia-Baltic region. The company, which operates more than 100 vessels, has 14 dual-fuel vessels on order for
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Sevmorput To Be Retired
Russia’s Atomflot plans to retire the nuclear-powered LASH ship Sevmorput later this year and replace the 36-year-old vessel with a diesel-powered container carrier. The ice-classed Sevmorput, completed by the Zaliv Shipyard in 1988 to a lighter aboa
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CMA CGM Builds Up Its Fleet
French container carrier CMA CGM has started taking delivery of a dozen LNG-powered container ships from Chinese builders Hudong Zhonghua and Jiangnan Shipyard with the first vessel, CMA CGM Bahia, now in service. The six ships from the Hudong Zhongh
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The Many Lives Of isle Of Innisfree
Isle of Innisfree is a remarkable ship. She is one of the longest-serving car ferries in the history of the Channel crossing, notching up 32 years of service and counting. She is also one of just two ferries which have operated on all five of Dover’s
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Isle Of Innisfree • Dover-calais Route
In 2021 rumours had abounded for several months that Calais Seaways had been sold by DFDS to Irish Continental Group, and this was confirmed in an announcement made on 4 November 2021. Irish Ferries had established a Dover/Calais service in June 2021
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The Cross Channel Ferry Scene Half A Century Ago
The majority of the ferries illustrated in these drawings were operating across the English Channel, although it was common for operators to move the ships around to meet demand or provide relief cover. Some of the ships illustrated here, such as Vik
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The Big Picture
The former Cunard transatlantic passenger liner Queen Mary at Long Beach in the California sunshine in June 2023, at the site she has occupied for many years. Although her Long Beach years have not been without their problems, it seems her future is
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‘Line Astern’ At Lagos
During the mid 1970s, when Nigeria was rapidly spending its newfound oil wealth, hundreds of ships voyaged to Apapa/Lagos with cargoes of bagged cement for use in the building of new roads and army barracks. Due to berth congestion, many ships remain
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Missed An Issue? Complete Your Collection
ORDER TODAY! COVER STORY Channel ferry scene INSIDE, Voyage on Rotterdam, cruise ship Explora I, battleship HMS Prince of Wales COVER STORY Orkeny and Shetland INSIDE, Admiral Graf Spee, voyage on Rajula, cruise ship Renaissance COVER STORY The conta
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OCEAN NOVA Small But Mighty
The small cruise ship Ocean Nova can trace her roots back more than 30 years, to 1992, when she was built for Arctic Umiaq Line at the Ørskov Christensen Stålskibsværft, Frederikshavn, Denmark. Named Sarpik Ittuk when first in service, she was design
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PANAMA CANAL In Colour
I have had an interest in the CZ (Canal Zone) and ship transits for over 30 years. In the late 1980s I was sifting through a box of ephemera in an old bookshop when I came upon a set of colourised postcard views of US Navy battleships in giant Canal
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Shipspotting
SHIPPING AT TERNEUZEN SPONSORED BY SHIPSPOTTING.COM FOR THOUSANDS MORE PHOTOGRAPHS SHIPSPOTTING.COM
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The Tragic Loss Of Hms Courageous
HMS as one of Courageous was designed Admiral Jackie Fisher’s three light battlecruisers, built for speed and to navigate the waters of the Baltic Sea, in Fisher’s unrealistic pre-World War I plan to invade Germany by way of its Baltic coastline. The
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CONTINUED ADVENTURES ON TRISTAN DA CUNHA Letter Of The Month
What happened next on our ‘Southern Ocean Adventure’ (see SM, Oct 2023)? The Tristan people were very welcoming and hospitable, and we quickly settled happily into island life. It was a fine sunny morning when RSA dropped anchor off the Settlement of
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Mystery Ship
The mystery ship I believe to be Empire Paragon, which was built in 1944 by Sir J. Laing and Sons, of Sunderland. She was built for the Ministry of War Transport and managed by Ellerman’s Wilson Line Ltd. During the war she made at least two voyages
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Book Of The Month
Leyte Gulf A new history of the world’s largest sea battle Mark E. Stille Published by Osprey Publishing, Kemp House, Chawley Park, Cumnor Hill, Oxford OX2 9PH 320 pages, hardback info@ospreypublishing.com www.ospreypublishing.com Price £25 The Battl
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Port Liners Swing The Lantern
The Port Line ex-employees organisation Vintage Port held its Annual Luncheon at London’s Victory Services Club in October 2023. There was much ‘swinging of the lantern’ before and during the excellent meal (followed, of course, by Vintage Port!). In
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A View From The Bridge
HOW DID YOUR CAREER DEVELOP? I joined my first ship, Anglian Sovereign, in September 2004 in Scalloway, Shetland. I worked as Deck Cadet/2nd Mate with Klyne Tugs/JP Knight, followed by time with Svitzer, SBS Marine and Swire Pacific Offshore over the
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Next Issue
CUNARD LINER • CRUISE SHIPS IN SCOTLAND • USS WISCONSIN • LONDON & ROCHESTER’S ‘BARGES’ Stephen Payne, designer of the Cunard Line flagship Queen Mary 2, highlights the career of the ship during her first 20 years of liner and cruise operations. BATT

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