Indigenous ship owners have begun a fierce battle to have a cut of the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF), even though the modalities for its disbursement are still being worked out. LEADERSHIP investigation shows that the four banks appointed as the primary lending institutions (PLI)-Skye Bank, Equitorial Trust Bank, Diamond Bank and Fidelity Bank - have received 92 applications for loans from the $100 million available for the cabotage vessels financing.

The four banks were appointed PLIs for the loan disbursement a few months ago by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and are still in the process of putting their acts together for the disbursement of the fund.

A look at the applications received by the banks shows that demand for loan assistance has hit the $1billion mark, while the amount available for them to disburse is only $100million.Diamond, Skye and Equitorial banks have 23 applications each while 22 ship owners applied through Fidelity Bank.

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Major shipping companies have warned that some firms may be forced to quit the UK because of new rules governing how much they pay foreign workers.

Firms including P&O, Stena Line and Maersk have objected to regulations requiring crews based overseas to be paid the same as those in the UK.

They say the government "appears on the verge of encouraging shipping companies to take their business elsewhere".

Transport minister Mike Penning said the issue was being examined.

In an open letter to the Daily Telegraph, senior executives of major cruise, ferry and freight operators said: "As a result of an obscure regulation arising from the Equality Act, many major companies will have little choice but to re-register their ships away from Britain.

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Several federal, state and local agencies have asked YachtPals to remind boaters that it's National Safe Boating Week in the US. This week has been set aside in an attempt to curb the boating fatalities which occur every Memorial Day weekend, by reminding people during the preceding days to practice safe boating and reminding them to wear life-jackets, not to operate watercraft under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and to travel at safe speeds in the crowded waterways. We understand that most of our YachtPals members and readers are experienced boaters who abide by safety rules, and you are all no doubt aware that more than 90% of drownings could have been prevented by simply wearing flotation. So, instead of pointing out obvious things (example: Almost nobody has time to put on a PFD during or after an emergency - like putting on a seat belt during a car crash), we're going to focus on something entirely overlooked on most boats: Safety Drills.



Safety drills are a crucial exercise in operating a safe vessel, and can be a lot of fun if you have the right attitude. While you may think that you have everything you need for an emergency and know where to find it, a drill will almost always show you some weak point in your preparation, and will give you and your crew the kind of hands-on experience that can avoid panic and confusion, and save lives in a real emergency. You may, of course, devise drills for any number of potential situations. Here, we'll deal with drilling for the top three dangers: Man Overboard, Fire, and Sinking.

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A U.S. destroyer is shadowing a ship off the coast of Somalia after it was taken over by 50 pirates, authorities said.

The M/V Iceberg was identified last week after the USS McFaul conducted a 36-hour surveillance mission, the multi-national Combined Maritime Forces said in a statement. The USS McFaul began shadowing the Panamanian-flagged vessel May 19 before the M/V Iceberg reversed course and began heading toward the Somali coast.

"We cannot be sure what the pirates' plan was if they had not been interrupted," said Rear Adm. Beom Rim Lee, commander of the Combined Maritime Forces task force.

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Somali pirates seized a Taiwanese fishing vessel with three Filipino crew members north of Seychelles, increasing the number of Filipinos and vessels the group has held captive.

The Philippine Embassy in Nairobi reported that the Taiwan-registered fishing vessel FV Tai Yuan was hijacked May 13 while at a fishing ground north of Seychelles, a release posted on Monday at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) website said.

Apart from the three Filipinos, also onboard the vessel are nine Chinese, Taiwanese, Kenyan, and Mozambique nationals.

The DFA Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers' Affairs is coordinating with the vessel's principal and other concerned agencies for the crew’s release, the statement said.

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The five Bulgarian crew members of the St. James Park tanker landed in the city of Varna Friday after spending more than four months in the hands of the Somali pirates.

The five men – Svetlozar Tenev, Emil Dyankov, Nikolay Kolev, Ivaylo Ruse, and Stefan Angelov – were met by their relatives and friends at the Varna Airport. They were also welcomed by Bulgaria’s Transport Minister Alexander Tsvetkov and the Mayor of Varna, Kiril Yordanov.

“The Somali pirates are very good manipulators,” declared the the Deputy Captain of the St. James Park, Ivaylo Rusev, during the news conference that the five men gave upon their arrival.

“Not more than 15% of the what reaches the international public about them is true. There were moments that I did not know if I was telling my relatives the truth on the phone,” the sailor explained.

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A group of suspected Somali pirates arrested last month by Dutch marines in a daring high-seas rescue operation appeared in court Friday to fight their extradition to Germany, where prosecutors want to put them on trial.

Prosecutors in the German port city of Hamburg have issued arrest warrants for the nine men and one boy because they were detained aboard a German container ship they had hijacked in the Gulf of Aden on April 5.

Their case is a rare example of Somali piracy suspects being transferred to Europe for trial after being arrested by an international armada shepherding aid and freight ships through the pirate-infested waters off the coast of Somalia.

Hanneke Festen of the Amsterdam Public Prosecutor's Office said she expects they will be handed over under European Union rules governing the transfer of suspects.

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More details emerged about the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan, with a report describing a calm scene of relaxation abruptly thrown into terror by an explosion caused by a North Korean torpedo.

According to the report released Thursday by an international investigative team as well as eyewitness accounts, the Cheonan at 9:22 p.m. on March 26 was traveling northwest about 2 kilometers west of Baengnyeong island, which is about 10 kilometers from the southwestern coast of North Korea.

Only 29 of the 104-member crew were on duty at the time. The 75 others were relaxing, with some washing their faces and others talking to their girlfriends on their cellphones.

Suddenly and without warning, a huge explosion rocked the ship.

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A Royal Navy warship on Nato counter-piracy operations rescued the crew of a merchant vessel after it was caught in a tropical cyclone off the Somalian coast, it has emerged.

The drama began early on Thursday when HMS Chatham received a distress call from the cargo ship MV Dubai Moon which was listing heavily and was in danger of running aground on a reef.

In a three-hour operation in rough seas and high winds, the warship's helicopter was launched and 23 seamen winched to safety.

Commander Simon Huntingdon, HMS Chatham's commanding officer, said: "This rescue was conducted in the most challenging sea conditions imaginable and I am extremely proud of my ship's company whose sole focus was to assist the Master and crew of MV Dubai Moon.

"It was, without doubt, the professionalism and courage of my sailors and aircrew that ensured this rescue was a success."

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CAMEROON-ATTACK/

* Captain, engineer alive - ship owner, seafarers' union

* Captain says he and engineer in Nigeria - union

* Ship owner says hopes negotiations to start today

DAKAR, May 21 (Reuters) - Two Russian sailors abducted from their ship off Cameroon are in good health and may have been taken by their captors to neighbouring Nigeria, according to the ship's owner and the Seafarers' Union of Russia (SUR).

Unidentified gunmen raided the Greek-owned cargo ship North Spirit on Sunday while it was at anchor off the port of Douala, taking the captain and chief engineer in an attack analysts say marks an expansion in the range of West African piracy.

The pirates also attacked a nearby Lithuanian vessel, Argo, seizing that ship's captain and robbing its safe. "The (captain of the North Spirit) was allowed to make a call last night said he and his crew mate were alive and in good health," said Vadim Ivanov, spokesman for the SUR. "He said they had been taken by sea to Nigeria."

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Shipping associations, marine insurers and unions joined forces on Wednesday to demand ''concrete action'' from governments to end Somali piracy.

Somali pirates have stepped up their attacks in recent months, making tens of millions of dollars in ransoms from seizing ships, including tankers and dry bulkers, in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden.

The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), an umbrella association of 760 global unions, together with world shipping and marine insurance bodies, said the chances of economic recovery were ''being jeopardised by this threat to world trade''.

Spyros Polemis, president of the International Shipping Federation, which represents 75 percent of the global seaborne industry, said more than 1,800 seafarers had been kidnapped in the past two years in increasingly violent attacks.

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Representatives from across the local shipping sector will today sit an exam at the end of a week-long course on a new international maritime labour convention due to enter into force in 2012.

The new convention will place greater emphasis on ship operators, flag states and coastal countries to ensure good conditions on board merchant ships.

The shipping industry is the lifeblood of global trade but, while many companies employ mariners on good terms, others are more lax.

Some seafarers have little option but to work in unhygienic, sometimes dangerous conditions, and often for little money.

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Ultimate Software, the leading provider of unified, end-to-end human capital management (HCM) SaaS solutions in North America, announced today that the Seafarers Vacation Plan, which handles the payroll and benefits for the Seafarers International Union, selected UltiPro Workplace in January 2010 to manage the union's workforce in the United States, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.

"We have been using a payroll service bureau and handling many of our processes manually, so all three people in my department have been entering the same data for different purposes," said Leah Ryan, director of personnel for the Seafarers Vacation Plan. "UltiPro was the only HCM solution that could address our strategic and geographic requirements for HR, payroll, and time management for our employees in the U.S. and all the countries we serve."

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Four injured Chinese crew members were in stable condition on Tuesday after a pirate attack on a general cargo vessel on Sunday evening.

The four injured, including the captain, are receiving treatment in Lagoon Hospital in Lagos, Nigeria. Doctors said they are all in stable condition.

The cargo ship "Anzejiang", which belonged to the Chinese shipping giant China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company, was attacked about 8:30 p.m. on Sunday by 15 pirates in two speed boats when it berthed outside the Apapa port in Lagos, said Liu Xinjun, captain of the ship.

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A 113-metre cargo ship is taking on water off Cape York in far north Queensland after hitting a reef.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) says the ship hit a reef near Papua New Guinea and continued into Australian waters before it was ordered to anchor near York Island in the Torres Strait.

AMSA spokeswoman Tracey Jiggins says the ship is not leaking fuel but it has been ordered to anchor near York Island in the Torres Strait as a precaution.

"The forward cargo hold of the vessel is taking on some water," she said.

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Seamen want merchant ships to be provided with armed escort.

Mr Mazurkin Aleksandr, captain of the msc Peggy which survived a pirate attack on May 13, said this would help curb piracy off the coast of Somalia.

Calling for a review of maritime laws to allow armed escort, Mr Aleksandr said: “If the pirates knew there are armed people on board, they would not attack so easily. I do not know what the world is waiting for before the laws are changed,” he said as he recounted how he escaped.

His comments come amid reports by East Africa Seafarers Assistance Programme coordinator Andrew Mwangura that pirates have hijacked a Bulgarian oil tanker, the mv Panega and her 15 crew.

“The situation is getting worse, especially after the killing of a pirate by the Russian navy. Pirates are reportedly torturing 16 hostages on the fv Sakoba, which was hijacked more than two months ago. As we speak, we do not know the whereabouts of the chief and second engineers,” he said.

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A shipping company, whose vessel along with 19 Indian and three other seafarers was hijacked 10 days back, today said the pirates had established contact with it and the hostages were safe.

The OMCI Shipping, managers of the hijacked chemical tanker Marida Marguerite, said it was initiating negotiations with the pirates for securing the safe release of the hostages.

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A Somali man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges that he hijacked an American-flagged cargo ship and kidnapped its captain, in what the authorities called the first piracy prosecution in the United States in decades.

The man, Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, also pleaded guilty to conspiracy and hostage taking in connection with the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama container ship in April 2009. The hijacking ended with a daring high-seas rescue by United States naval forces and spotlighted the rampant problem of piracy off Somalia.

“What we did was wrong,” Mr. Muse, speaking through an interpreter, told Judge Loretta A. Preska of United States District Court, in Manhattan. “I am very, very sorry for the harm we did. The reason for this is the problems in Somalia.”

In exchange for his plea, prosecutors agreed to drop four of the six counts against him, including the most serious, “the crime of piracy as defined by the law of nations,” which carries a mandatory life sentence.

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The master and chief engineer of a Russian cargo ship were missing after a raid by gunmen in the Cameroonian port of Douala, a Russian official and a seafarers association said on Tuesday.

The incident took place late on Sunday when unknown attackers boarded and robbed the crew of the North Spirit, a 6 400 ton cargo ship, before making off with the two men.

Countries in Africa's oil-producing Gulf of Guinea say the threat of piracy, similar to attacks in Nigeria's Niger Delta, is spreading across much of the region.

"Armed people came on board, they robbed the cabin (crew) and they took the master and chief engineer," Vadim Ivanov, head of foreign relations at the Seafarers' Union of Russia, told Reuters by telephone.

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Heavily-armed Somali pirates have hijacked a Europe-bound German-owned chemical tanker, taking hostage the 22 crewmembers onboard the carrier.

The pirates armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic guns stormed the Marida Marguerite, about 120 miles (190 km) south of Oman on Saturday afternoon, as it was making its way from India to Belgium, said the European Union Naval Force.

A spokesman for the anti-piracy task force said a military operation to free the tanker was unlikely, citing concerns about the safety of the crew -- who reportedly consists of 19 Indians, two Bangladeshis and one Ukrainian national.

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Bayonne police are still awaiting the arrival of the Explorer of the Seas cruise ship at the Cape Liberty Cruise Port after the Royal Caribbean line's vessel and Coast Guard recovered the body of a crew member from the ocean after the man was reported missing Wednesday, according to city officials.

The identity of the 26-year-old man has not been released.

According to CruiseCritic.com, " ... closed-circuit camera footage revealed that the employee was on Deck 5, and 'climbed over the railing and lowered himself over the side of the ship ... "

The ship sailed past Puerto Rico when the man was last seen. Coast Guard Spokesman Ricardo Castrodad said crews had searched for the man 138 miles north of the coastal town of Isabela in Puerto Rico..

The ship was nearing the end of a nine-night Bermuda and Caribbean cruise that departed from the Bayonne on April 29.

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Somali pirates have hijacked a Taiwanese fishing vessel with 26 crewmembers onboard, an official said Saturday.
The owner lost contact with Tai Yuan 227 two days ago.

The vessel was heading for the Maldives.

Crewmembers included Chinese, Kenyan, Taiwanese and Mozambique nationals.

“We received the reports Friday and it seemed the hijack took place two or three days ago,” Andrew Mwangura, East Africa coordinator of Seafarers Assistance Programme, told Xinhua on phone.

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ITF’s Cockroft To Speak On Human Factor At INTERTANKO Anniversary

ITF General Secretary David Cockroft will talk about the human factor in shipping and praise improved communication between the ITF and INTERTANKO when he appears as a guest at the tanker owners’ association’s 40th anniversary meeting in London today.

Addressing the meeting Cockroft is expected to say:

“It is unfortunate that you should be celebrating the 40th anniversary of INTERTANKO at the same time as what is quite probably the worst oil related disaster in history, which is currently taking place off the US coast. Once again, it is not the 11 rig workers who tragically lost their lives who get the most attention. It’s the oysters, the crabs, the seabirds and the sea turtles.

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Cargo ship and barge collide; 8 missing

In the early hours of the morning on Tuesday, May 4, a cargo ship and a barge collided off north China’s Tianjin coast. One of nine crew members aboard the barge was rescued before it sank, the other 8 are still missing. The crew aboard the cargo ship was unharmed.

A dozen Chinese rescue vessels are searching for the missing crew.
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ROK ship spills fuel after collision in Panama Canal

On Monday night, May 3, the South Korean ship HANJING MONACO leaked fuel after colliding with the Pedro Miguel floodgate in the Panama Canal.

The collision damaged the ship’s fuel tank, causing an estimated 35 barrels of fuel to be leaked. The spill was quickly under control and technicians and staff of the Union of Control and Response to Pollution cleaned the fuel spill zone.

The ACP towed the ship to a safe zone where it is going to be repaired. Panamanian authorities are carrying out an investigation into the cause of the accident.

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Hong Kong ship sinks after collision with freighter

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The chief engineer of a cargo ship that included the state port in Morehead City on its route pleaded guilty this week in federal court to dumping oil-contaminated waste in area waters and failing to follow recording procedures, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

Vaja Sikharulidze, 59, a citizen of Georgia, pleaded guilty May 3 before U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III to violations of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, the release said.

Sikharulidze was the chief engineer of the Motor Tanker Chem Faros, a 21,145 gross-ton ocean-going cargo ship. The ship was operated by Cooperative Success Maritime SA and regularly transported cargo between various ports in Asia and the United States, including the Morehead City port, the release said.

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Even by the jaded standards of the failed state of Somalia, this week's news was enough to raise eyebrows: one of the country's two competing Islamist factions, Hizbul Islam, stormed into the coastal city of Harardhere and drove out the pirates who have run amok in the waters off the Horn of Africa, wreaking havoc on global shipping and confounding the world's navies.

"Piracy has become too much. It's an anti-Islamic business, and we won't accept it," Hizbul Islam spokesman Sheik Mohamed Ali Abdinasr told TIME. "We want to bring law and order to that country of Somalia, and we want to show the good name of Somalis."

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THIS being the Year of the Seafarer, as decreed by the International Maritime Organisation, Lloyd’s List would like to encourage commercial seafarers of all stripes to share their stories.

The object will be to publish them throughout the year to give all of our land-bound readers, clinched to their desks, to paraphrase Herman Melville, a chance to live vicariously.

The point will be to draw an accurate first-person picture of the struggles and joys of a life at sea. We are not asking for fine writing, but, of course will be delighted to receive it. Lloyd’s List’s gallery of green eyeshades will assist by editing where necessary.

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ITF General Secretary David Cockroft will talk about the human factor in shipping and praise improved communication between the ITF and INTERTANKO when he appears as a guest at the tanker owners’ association’s 40th anniversary meeting in London today.

Addressing the meeting Cockroft is expected to say:

“It is unfortunate that you should be celebrating the 40th anniversary of INTERTANKO at the same time as what is quite probably the worst oil related disaster in history, which is currently taking place off the US coast. Once again, it is not the 11 rig workers who tragically lost their lives who get the most attention. It’s the oysters, the crabs, the seabirds and the sea turtles.

“We do not yet know the reason for the accident and I am sure that lawyers will be fighting over it for many years, but someone somewhere made a serious mistake. This demonstrates what the ITF has long been saying, and I suspect the reason you invited me here today, which is that the human factor is crucial to a well run, safe oil industry – both in production and in shipping.

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The nine crew members of the hijacked Miri-registered tugboat Atlantic 3 were found in the high seas, about two days journey from the shores of Vietnam.

The crew of the tugboat and a barge who were rescued off the coast of Vietnam – nine days after they were hijacked and dumped into the seas more than 1,000km away from their last point of journey near southern Borneo – are now on board a Vietnamese navy ship.

Axsonic Shipping Sdn Bhd, the ship’s owner based here in Miri, is keeping track of the crew with the help of its agent in Vietnam.

“Our agents told us that the crew members are still on the way to the Vietnamese shores. They were found far off the coast. They may arrive in a day or two.

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Sixteen crew members who were abandoned by their ship's bankrupt owners since March will soon be able to fly home to their families after the 6,894-tonne vessel MV Nicea was yesterday auctioned in court.

The ship sold for €851,000, from which the crew will receive €130,000 in salaries they were owed. Some of the money will also go towards their repatriation costs.

A company registered in the Marshall Islands, MSK, bought the boat, which was "arrested" in Maltese waters after its Turkish owners, Erwina Shipping Ltd, defaulted on bank payments.

The crew has been stranded in Malta for two months and managed to catch the media's attention after writing calls for help on bed sheets saying things like: "Help us. No food or electricity" and "Where is the ITF (International Transport Workers Federation)?"

"Our situation became critical on March 20 when provisions practically finished. We had no fuel for electricity supply so we had to cook on deck and ended up eating barbecued spaghetti for breakfast and dinner," Vladimir Motsalov, captain of the Maltese-registered ship had said.

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