A Seastreak fast ferry returning from Martha's Vineyard to New York City Sunday evening in heavy swells changed course to New London, Connecticut, after a large wave dislodged a deck storage box that smashed a window on the first deck.

Shards of glass and water sprayed passengers sitting in the front rows nearest the windows. Ambulances met the ferry at the New London ferry terminal. Three people reported minor injuries, Mike Glasfeld, New England Fast Ferry president, told The Times in a telephone conversation Monday morning.

Mr. Glasfeld said a sister ship was in port and available. Passengers were transferred to the second ferry and continued on to New York City without incident, he said.

Two of the three injured passengers declined medical attention. One man was treated for cuts in a nearby hospital. Mr. Glassfeld said the passenger received two stitches and continued by car to New York City later that night.

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Kenyan High Commission has begun talks with Somali pirates who abducted Sri Lankan crew working in the 17,300 tonne freighter- M V Suez, which was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden in early August.

In a major breakthrough- Kenyan High Commission along with the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Washington DC have reportedly contacted the pirates and had requested that the condition of Lankan crewmen whom the pirates took as hostages, be informed immediately, Asian Tribune learns.

Until now, although the government had been trying hard to determine as to how many Sri Lankan nationals were taken as hostages through the American company that chartered the vessel and crew, it failed while all attempts to rescue or get in touch with them also proved futile.

Early morning on August 2, the Panama-flagged vessel had dispatched a message stating that it was “captured under small arms fire from a pirate attack". Minutes later she reported "pirates on board", European Union Naval Force (EUNAVFOR) Somalia said in an earlier statement. Although a Naval helicopter rushed in, it was too late.

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The technical conditions of the Ukrainian ship the St. Sophia are a threat to the safety of the sailors on board, the Strong Ukraine Party reports.

"We have discovered the actual technical condition of the ship. Water continues seeping in. The propulsion engine is already below water. As water rises, the list increases, and in the near time it may reach an irreversible point, at which it will be impossible to tow the ship," the party's press service informs.

According to information, a stern-tube bearing that has cracked and is out of order now, constitutes the greatest danger to the ship. "In fact, this is a valve which keeps back the seawater. An ordinary rope is holding the lever of the valve closed. If it fails, the ship will remain afloat for a maximum of two hours," the Strong Ukraine's press service informed.

According to the information, it is already impossible to stop the water seeping into the machine compartment, and the ship has no power.

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The 2010 Maritime Industry Salute dinner and tenth annual “Great Tug Boat Races of San Pedro Bay” fund-raising event benefiting the International Seafarers Center (ISC) of Long Beach-Los Angeles is being held aboard the RMS Queen Mary, Thursday, Sept. 16, 2010, and will honor retiring ITEP Founder and former Port of Los Angeles Harbor Commissioner Carol Rowen.

The ISC is the last open center serving the needs of all seamen in the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. Proceeds from the night’s event benefit the International Seafarers Center, the only organization reaching out to visiting ships' crews throughout the entire Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbor complex with transportation, recreation, spiritual outreach (for many different faiths), mail, Internet, telephone services, and much more.

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Noting that it''s ships and seafarers were impacted by piracy, India has underlined the need for Somalia to be primarily in-charge for combating the problem supported by international community.

Pointing out that bilateral agreements between countries for trials and incarcerations had not been very successful, India also highlighted the need for more regional cooperation to tackle piracy.

"The issue of imprisonment of convicted persons can be best addressed by building prison infrastructure in the region, ideally in Somalia," Anupam Ray, the acting Permanent Representative of India to the UN said.

"It is also important to ensure that sustained and predictable financing is available to host States to handle the financial burden of prosecuting and imprisoning convicts over long duration," he added.

Ray also pointed out that 11 per cent of seafarers engaged by international shopping companies are Indian nationals some of whom have been taken hostage by Somali pirates.

Ray noted that India''s naval ship deployed in the Gulf of Aden had thwarted several piracy attempts and provided security escorts to merchant marine in these waters.

At the same time, the senior Indian diplomat stressed the need for ensuring prompt prosecution for piracy suspects to tackle the problem.

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Japanese officials began inspecting an oil tanker after it sailed into Tokyo Bay yesterday afternoon, almost a month after it was damaged in a suspected militant attack in the key Strait of Hormuz.

United Arab Emirates officials have said they believe an explosives-laden boat struck the M Star in the July 28 “terrorist attack,” which dented the hull of the Japanese vessel and slightly injured one crew member.

Militant jihadists have made unconfirmed claims that a suicide bomber attacked the ship, which is owned by Mitsui OSK Lines and was crewed by 16 Filipinos and 15 Indians, in the waterway leading into the Gulf.

Soon after the incident the M Star arrived in Fujairah harbour under its own steam, with conflicting reports about the cause of the damage.
Japan has set up a special committee to investigate the suspected attack, made up of Self-Defence Force, coastguard, diplomatic, police and other officials, with the government describing the incident as “extremely grave”.
“As soon as the M Star docks in Tokyo Bay, experts of the special committee will start an on-site inspection,” transport ministry official Yasufumi Onishi said yesterday, adding that the inspection would continue this morning.

“There are two major reasons (for the inspection) - to take a close look at the ship for the first time and to search for more physical evidence regarding the blast.”

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An Abkhazian official has said that Abkhaz authorities stand ready to help engineer a return to Turkey of a Turkish ship that has been docked at Abkhazia’s Port of Sukhumi for about 50 days due to technical disputes.

Valery Papba, the head of transportation and communications for Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia, offered assistance for the freighter MV Daphne, which he said had been “abandoned to its fate” with five Turkish, four Syrian and one Azerbaijani crewmembers, the Anatolia news agency reported on Monday. The Sierra Leone-flagged ship cannot return to Turkey due to disputes between the Turkish company that operates the ship and an Abkhaz agency it works with, according to media reports. There is little legal redress available to Turkey since the ship flies the flag of Sierra Leone.

Saying that his administration had provided necessary food and water for the crew and gave them mobile phones so they could contact their families, Papba said officials of the company that owns the ship had done nothing to help the ship return to Turkey.

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The Japanese oil tanker hit in a suspected attack in the Strait of Hormuz arrived in Tokyo yesterday where authorities will try to determine what caused the damage.

Six officials will continue their two-day inspection of the M Star today as part of an investigation that is expected to take at least a month, Yasufumi Onishi, of the Maritime Bureau, said. “We have not yet decided what happened to the tanker,” Mr Onishi added.

The M Star suffered damage on July 28 while carrying 270,000 tonnes of oil from Al Ruwais to Japan. A suspected blast dented its side and blew out windows. One of 31 crew members was injured but has returned to work.

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Accompanied by Chief of Staff José Julio Rodríguez, Chief of the Navy Staff Manuel Rebollo, and Fleet Admiral Juan Carlos Muñoz-Delgado, the Minister for Defence Carme Chacón welcomed back the frigate 'Victoria' to the Rota Naval Base after having concluded its participation in Operation Atalanta.

During its participation in Operation Atalanta, the frigate 'Victoria' took part in the liberation of two merchant ships and escorted ten other vessels from the World Food Programme. Spain's contribution to the EU operation to tackle piracy is comprised of the patrol boat 'Infanta Cristina', a maritime patrol aeroplane and the amphibious assault ship 'Galicia', which is currently sailing towards the Indian Ocean.

The Minister for Defence expressed her gratitude to the more than 200 military personnel on board the frigate for their work in combating piracy and the effectiveness they demonstrated during their mission. In her speech to the crew, Carme Chacón pointed out that, so far this year, "the work of Operation Atalanta and the allied countries has enabled 85 criminal gangs to be broken up; a total of more than 1,000 pirates. In seven months, we have multiplied by five the number of pirates arrested in all of 2009".

The Minister also highlighted the contribution made by the frigate 'Victoria' within the framework of Operation Atalanta. She mentioned the surveillance and assistance work it provided on two specific occasions: the liberation of the North Korean vessel 'Rim' in June; and its actions to avoid the highjacking of the Norwegian vessel 'Bow Saga' in August.

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LEGAL action is to be taken against the Kuwaiti employer of seven Indonesian workers, allegedly left stranded in a ship off the coast of Bahrain for six months.

The move was confirmed by the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions (GFBTU) after a meeting between its representatives, two of the stranded employees and officials from the Labour Ministry's labour disputes department.

Speaking after the meeting, GFBTU activities and projects assistant secretary-general Karim Radhi said the ministry was unable to intervene in the situation.

"Because this is a Kuwaiti company not registered in Bahrain, the Labour Ministry cannot apply the local labour laws to this case," he told the GDN.

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The RCMP say they’ve interviewed almost all the Tamil migrants who arrived in B.C. by boat and so far found no evidence of another smuggling ship making its way here.

And the Mounties believe they’re getting closer to nabbing the organizers of the smuggling ring who used the rickety MV Sun Sea to bring 492 Tamil migrants to the coast of B.C. this month.

They all filed refugee claims.

Police suspect the migrants were smuggled here by members of the Tamil Tigers terrorist group to earn funds and bring members here to start a new cell.

RCMP Const. Michael McLaughlin said there’s nothing to suggest a second smuggling ship is heading here.

“We are looking at possible criminal actions that may have occurred during the voyage and on Canadian waters,” McLaughlin said on Tuesday from B.C.

He said it may take some time before charges are laid in the case.

McLaughlin said the migrants are being interviewed by police, who are collecting forensic evidence from the ship.

Police and border officers are using satellite imagery to retrace the movements of the ship as it made its way to B.C. from its home base in Thailand. The photos will help police determine the vessel’s location at different intervals.

The ship was originally bound for Australia but was turned around by authorities there and set sail to B.C.

Intelligence reports suggest two more ships “packed” with migrants are on “standby” at an Asian location, awaiting news of the fate of the Sun Sea occupants.

“There are many facets to this investigation that remains very active,” McLaughlin said. “We are working with any agency that could help us stop this criminal activity.”

Last October, a ship carrying 76 Tamil migrants arrived off the B.C. coast.

All filed refugee claims which are being heard. Smuggling charges against the captain and crew were tossed out.

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There seem to be two rules to being a passenger on a Greenpeace ship. One: if you take a beer from the refrigerator, always remember to log it on the drinks sheet. (And pay your bar bill before you leave the boat—otherwise, I believe they make you walk the plank.) Two: there is no such thing as a passenger on a Greenpeace ship. Everyone works onboard, with chores starting at 8 AM—which is how I came to find myself recently on the Arctic Sunrise's poop deck (yes, that's the name), sorting the glass recyclables from the organic trash. At first, I have to say, I was a bit annoyed—I'm a journalist, not an assistant galley slave. But over the few days I spent onboard Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise as it sailed through the Dry Tortugas, I learned why the vessel's spirit of cooperation and conservation represents what it means to be truly green.

Greenpeace's navy is best known for its headline-generating protests—think of the Rainbow Warrior iconic clashes with whaling vessels in the 1980s. But I joined the Arctic Sunrise—a former Norwegian icebreaker that is one of three Greenpeace ships scattered around the world—in mid-August for the first phase of a two-month long scientific mission to the Gulf of Mexico. Greenpeace provides rides and support to rotating teams of scientists carrying out oil-spill related studies, from plankton health near the spill site to surveys of marine mammals who might have been impacted by the crude. Given the controversy unfolding over the true extent of the spill underwater—the government says much of the oil has disappeared; independent scientists are skeptical—the voyage couldn't have been better timed. “This is about bearing witness to what's going on,” says Paul Horsman, a former Greenpeace activist and the director for the TckTckTck campaign on climate change.

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The last time a similar amount of hardware was sitting in this river, it all sailed off to occupied France and defeated the Nazis.

But, today, this pile of steel is going nowhere. Indeed, some of it has been going nowhere for so long that it is now part of the local landscape.

What was once regarded as an eyesore is now drawing in tourists who will happily sit for hours just staring at this vast barometer of the state of the world economy.

The more cargo ships that are tied up here on the River Fal and the longer they sit here doing nothing, the worse the state of international trade. And some of these monsters have now been here for nearly two years.

As with the entire global economy, the outlook is unsettled to say the least. Recent figures suggest that some sectors of the shipping industry have suffered a drop in trade of 50 per cent since May.

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The crew of a Manx-registered ship have been attacked by machete-wielding pirates off the coast of Malaysia.

The 173,000 tonne bulk carrier, Bet Fighter, was in the Malacca Straits as six pirates raided the vessel, the Isle of Man ship registry said.

Crew were threatened and two officers were tied up by the pirates who took valuables and cash before fleeing back to their small boat.

The attack prompted the International Maritime Bureau to issue a warning.

Director of the Isle of Man ship registry Dick Welsh said the owners of the China-bound ship had informed him of the incident.

He said: "This was a different type of piracy to that we see off the horn of Africa where pirates take a vessel and ask a significant ransom for the vessel and its cargo.

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After an epic 30 hour journey, the crew who survived when the fishing trawler they were working on sank in the Southern Ocean, have arrived in New Zealand.

The Amaltal Atlantic - a fishing trawler owned by NZ company Tally's - docked at Lyttelton Port, near Christchurch, early on Friday morning, carrying the 45 survivors from the sunken South Korean vessel, Oyang 70.

"I saw 45 very happy people get off the boat today," said Tony Hazlett, the chief executive of Talley's fishing division.

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The RCMP is likely facing significant challenges in identifying the captain and crew of the MV Sun Sea — a critical piece of information in the human-smuggling investigation of the vessel, according to an expert on international security.

Andre Gerolymatos, a Simon Fraser University professor of history specializing in international security, said it's a common practice in human-smuggling operations for the organizers to threaten passengers into silence.

"They'll be told to say they didn't pay anything (to travel), that they don't know who the captain is or who the officers are, (or that) they just paid somebody back on land and ended up on the ship," said Gerolymatos.

If the Sun Sea were part of a human-smuggling operation, Gerolymatos said, migrants might be fearful that if they reveal any information regarding the captain and crew, it could jeopardize their own chances of being accepted as refugees and threaten the safety of their families back home.

The Sun Sea docked in Victoria on Aug. 13 after a three-month voyage from Sri Lanka. The Thai cargo ship was crammed with 492 Tamil asylum seekers who are currently being detained in three separate correctional facilities in Burnaby, Alouette and Maple Ridge.

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Eight Iranian sailors whose vessel caught fire were rescued by US Navy helicopters in the Arabian Sea, according to a US military statement late Thursday.

Two helicopters from the nuclear-powered carrier USS Harry Truman carried out the rescue operation on high seas, after an F/A-18 jet assigned to the carrier squadron spotted a vessel on fire, according to a statement issued by the Bahrain-based US 5th Fleet Command.

The vessel in distress was sighted late Wednesday about 80 kilometres from the aircraft carrier.

Two SH-60 helicopters "were dispatched to render assistance" and reached the stricken vessel within about 45 minutes, the Navy said. A search and rescue swimmer dove into the waters near the burning boat and discovered eight people in a raft.

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Police and marine investigators are talking today to survivors from the Oyang 70 to learn more about why the fishing trawler sank so quickly off the South Island coast on Wednesday.

A New Zealand trawler, the Amaltal Atlantis, docked in Lyttelton before dawn today carrying 45 surviving crew from the South Korean-flagged trawler which sank 800km southeast of Dunedin.

Three bodies of Indonesian crewmen were taken away by hearse to undergo autopsies which are expected to be completed today.

Three people - including the ship's Korean captain - are still missing and presumed drowned.

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All the crew members of the cargo vessel, which ran aground a coral reef off Kavaratti in Lakshadweep two days ago, are safe and fuel oil is being pumped out of Nanda Aparajita to prevent any spillage, officials said.

"The ship has about 20kl of fuel oil for its use and efforts are on to pump it ashore to prevent any spillage into the sea. There is no leakage so far and the fuel oil is being removed as a precautionary measure," director, Ports of Lakshadweep, Syed Ismail, said.

The 12 crew members are safe, he said, adding there was some engine problem and bad weather compounded to the difficulties.

The vessel is in safe place and there was no cause for any concern. When the weather improves, it will be towed to safer place, Ismail said.

Naval and Coastguard personnel are making all efforts to pump out the fuel oil.

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A sessions court today granted interim bail till tomorrow to the captain of cargo vessel MV Khalijia 111, which had collided with another cargo ship MSC Chitra resulting in a major oil spill off and around the Mumbai coast earlier this month.

Captain Laxman Dubey of Khalijia had approached the sessions court yesterday seeking anticipatory bail after the police registered a case of negligence against the captains and crew members of both the vessels.

According to Dubey, the collision was due to navigational error and not deliberate and Khalijia was at a slow speed at the time of the accident.

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Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. (the "Company") (NASDAQ: SHIP; SHIP.W) announced today that the MV Bet Fighter, a 1992 built, 173,149 dwt Capesize vessel, was boarded by pirates off Singapore, on August 17, while en route to China. Currently the vessel is continuing with her voyage with no disruption. During this incident the pirates did not seize the vessel or any of its crew members and left of their own accord.

Dale Ploughman, the Company's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, stated: "We are pleased that the crew members are safe and that there was no damage to the vessel. Unfortunately piracy is a real concern in some parts of the world and we are fortunate to escape without incident to the MV BET Fighter.

About Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp.

Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp., the successor to Seanergy Maritime Corp., is a Marshall Islands corporation with its executive offices in Athens, Greece. The Company is engaged in the transportation of dry bulk cargoes through the ownership and operation of dry bulk carriers.

The Company's initial fleet comprised two Panamax, two Supramax, one Handymax and one Handysize dry bulk carriers that Seanergy purchased and took delivery of in the third and fourth quarters of 2008 from companies associated with members of the Restis family. In August 2009, the Company acquired a controlling interest in Bulk Energy Transport (Holdings) Limited, which owns four Capesize and one Panamax dry bulk carriers. In May 2010, the Company acquired a controlling interest in Maritime Capital Shipping Limited, which owns nine Handysize dry bulk carriers.

The Company's current controlled fleet includes 20 drybulk carriers (four Capesize, three Panamax, two Supramax and one Handymax and 10 Handysize vessels) with a total carrying capacity of approximately 1,292,544 dwt and an average fleet age of 12.8 years.

The Company's common stock and warrants trade on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbols "SHIP" and "SHIP.W", respectively.

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For nearly four decades, marine scientists have longed for a state-of-the art research vessel that could explore the Arctic’s ice-clogged waters, while having little impact on the environment.
Click here to find out more!

At long last, their dream ship soon will become a reality.

“It’s going to be a great tool for science,” said Matthew J. Hawkins, program officer for ship acquisition in the National Science Foundation’s division of ocean sciences. “It is definitely a next generation research vessel--the first of its kind.”

The R/V Sikuliaq, a 254-foot oceanographic research ship, expected to be one of the most advanced university research vessels in the world, likely will be ready for use by 2014, with construction scheduled to begin in October.

Its name, pronounced “see-KOO-lee-auk,” is an Inupiat word that refers to “young ice,” “new ice,” or “thin ice,” and describes ice without snow that is safe to walk on. The new vessel, when complete, will be able to break ice as thick as three feet, and navigate in seasonal sea ice and open ocean waters near Alaska, including the Chukchi, Beaufort and Bering Seas, as well as the eastern Arctic.

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Three people died and another three were missing after a New Zealand chartered fishing boat with a crew of 51 sank in icy waters in the Southern Ocean early Wednesday, rescuers said.

Forty-five survivors had been recovered from life rafts and three people including the ship's master were unaccounted for, New Zealand search and rescue coordinator Mike Roberts said.

"We have so far recovered five life rafts but have been advised there was a sixth life raft on board. We remain hopeful of locating the three missing men," Roberts said.

The nationalities of the crew on the South Korean-flagged vessel Oyang 70 were listed as Korean, Indonesian, Filipino and Chinese.

The weather in the area was described as extremely cold. Fog, hampering visibility, was expected to lift.

New Zealand's Rescue Coordination Centre received an alert from the positional indicator beacon on the 82-metre (270-feet) trawler at 4:40 am (1640 GMT Tuesday).

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An executive briefing on shipping for July 23, 2010, prepared by Asia Pulse (http://www.asiapulse.com), the real-time, Asia-based wire with exclusive news, commercial intelligence and business opportunities.

INDONESIA'S TRADA TO LEASE OUT FACILITY TO CNOOC

JAKARTA - Indonesian ship operator PT Trada Maritime (JSX:TRAM) will lease out a floating storage offloading (FSO) facility to China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) SES Ltd for US$112 million.

The contract is for 8 years starting January 2011, Trada Maritime President Danny de Mita said yesterday.

THAI PM TARGETS LOGISTICS COST REDUCTIONS TO 15% OF GDP

BANGKOK - Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Thursday said he has targeted bringing down the costs of Thailand's logistics system to as low as 15 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) as soon as possible, and to lower than 10 per cent when all aspects of the system are fully developed.

The premier made the statement at a seminar held by Parliament's Logistics Commission titled "The Way out of the Logistics Crisis in Thailand".

INDONESIA'S PELINDO I TO RENOVATE BELAWAN INTO WORLD CLASS PORT

JAKARTA - Indonesian state owned port operator Pelindo I said it will spend Rp1.3 trillion (US$144 million) to refurbish a number of its ports including North Sumatra's port of Belawan.

The ports will be modernized to become world class ports, Pelindo I's human resources director Parsoroan Herman Harianja said.

BANGLADESH TO UPGRADE MONGLA PORT TO INT'L STANDARD

BAGERHAT - Bangladesh's second largest seaport Mongla will be upgraded to international standard soon.

The government took the initiative for boosting country's economic growth, particularly in the south-western region.

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The U.S. Coast Guard has released audio transmissions of the minutes before and after a barge collided with a packed Ride the Ducks boat on the Delaware River.

It was 2:39 p.m. on July 7 when the barge The Resource overtook the disabled Duck Boat #34 in the waters just off Penn's Landing. Thirty-seven people went into the Delaware as the amphibious vehicle sank to the riverbed.

Hungarian tourists Dora Schwendtner, 16, and 20-year-old Szablcs Prem were killed in the crash.

The recordings, which were released Friday, were taken from VHF Channel 16. In one transmission made around 2:39 p.m., an unidentified man could be heard yelling for a boat to watch out.

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The bosses of Carnival UK and ferry companies P&O and Stena Line are among those to have penned a letter to the media warning new rules could lead to “intolerable” crew costs in the UK.

The letter in today’s Daily Telegraph warns that many major shipping companies will have little choice but to re-register their ships away from Britain due to obscure regulations arising from the Equality Act.

Among the eight signatories are Carnival UK chief executive David Dingle, P&O Ferries fleet director John Garber and Stena Line director Robert Akerland.

The letter says: “These companies currently pay seafarers resident abroad at levels that are related to those of highly skilled professionals in their home countries.

“What is proposed would compel British-flag operators to pay British rates to these seafarers – even though they may never set foot on British soil.

“The costs will put our British operations under intolerable pressure not felt by competitors abroad.”

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A technical malfunction caused Carnival Cruise Lines ship Carnival Fascination to lose power for several hours. WTAX Jacksonville reports that certain passengers aboard reported that the ship drifted without power for about five hours.

“All of the sudden, all the lights and the power went out. The air conditioning went out. The motor went off,” passenger Rita McGartland told WJXT Jacksonville. “We were floating.”

The ship was on the last leg of a five day cruise that departed Jacksonville, Fl on Saturday. AOL Travel news reports that there were approximately 2,600 passengers and 920 crew aboard the Fascination during the troubles.

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Firefighters are tackling a major fire on a cargo ship on the west coast of Scotland.

The 100,000 tonne bulk carrier Yeoman Bontrup had been loading material at the Glensanda quarry on the Morven peninsula in Lochaber.

No-one has been seriously injured but the vessel is believed to have been extensively damaged.

A coastguard spokesman said the fire broke out on a conveyor belt and had caused explosions on board.

The blaze took hold on the Bahamas-registered ship at about 1530 BST on Friday on the conveyor belt used to carry material from the quarry to the ship.

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The pirates that seized a Singapore-flagged cargo ship with 19 Chinese crew members on board have asked for ransom, according to the Shanghai-based company that chartered the ship.

The captain on the carrier "Golden Blessing" was allowed to call Shanghai Dingheng Shipping Company to prove that they were safe, the first time since they were captured on Monday, Li Jinzhong, the company's spokesman, said yesterday.

Li said the pirates did not say how much they wanted for the ship's and crew's return. The company was still negotiating with them.

The ship was carrying glycol-ethylene, an anti-freeze for vehicles, from Saudi Arabia to India when it was attacked in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia.

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore said on its website that rescue efforts were underway.

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Officials began testing Friday what they hope will become the world's largest oil skimming vessel, able to gulp up huge volumes of crude spewing in the Gulf of Mexico from the well owned by BP PLC.

If successful, the ship has the potential to take in as much oil-infused water in a day as smaller skimming boats have collected in two months.

The A Whale ship, owned by Taiwanese company TMT Group, is the length of 3½ football fields and 10 stories high. It is designed to work close to the source of the spill where the oil is more concentrated. The smaller skimmers work from nearer the shore to about three to five miles out, where the oil is fairly dispersed.

"The ship is the best hope to date for an effective clean-up," said Edward Overton, professor emeritus of environmental sciences at Louisiana State University. He was asked by TMT to inspect the ship when it was docked in Norfolk, Va., last week.

Before the ship can be pressed into service full time, it must pass certain hurdles. The ship, a cargo vessel that was retrofitted at TMT's expense to help with the spill, hasn't been tested in real-world conditions, so it is unclear whether it can effectively ingest the thin crude that is flowing from the well, said BP spokesman Scott Dean. Chemicals called dispersants used to break down the oil also make it harder for the skimmers to pick up the oil.

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