Pathfinder Identifies Sunken Vessels During At-Sea Demonstration

Military Sealift Command (MSC) oceanographic survey ship USNS Pathfinder (T-AGS 60) identified two sunken vessels during a joint, at-sea capabilities demonstration in Ukrainian territorial waters.

German coastal submarine U-18 was the first target the oceanographers identified using underwater video capabilities with a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). The second ship is believed to be RUS Prut, a Russian minelayer that sank during World War I in 1914. “The sea floor is a resting place for brave sailors, regardless of the country they come from,” said Dr. Serge A. Gulyar, head of the Underwater Physiology Department at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, who participated in the search.  The ship’s civilian oceanographers used equipment such as a side-scan sonar, multi-beam sonar and ROVs to locate the vessels. The sonars use sound pulses on the ocean’s floor to locate possible shipwrecks. The ROV is deployed underwater to verify the sonars’ findings. “It was interesting using all of the state-of-the-art equipment,” said Gulyar. “As a physiologist, it was nice learning about all the technical parts of the underwater exploration.” Civilian surveyors from the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO), a team of civilian oceanographers from the U.S.-base Institute of Exploration (IFE) and Ukrainian sailors, historians and surveyors headed the joint, at-sea demonstration.

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Hong Kong ship seized off Somalia

Hong Kong: Hijackers have seized a cargo ship chartered by chemical tanker shipping group Stolt-Nielsen off the Somali coast, a senior company officer said.

Andrew Pickering, managing director for Asia-Pacific, said the 25,000-tonne Stolt Valor, on its way to Mumbai, India, with a cargo of base oils and chemicals, had just passed through the Suez Canal when it was hijacked. “Our understanding is that the crew is safe,” he told by phone from Singapore. “The whereabouts of the ship have been identified. It’s in Somalia.” Gunmen from Somalia have hijacked more than 30 ships so far this year, making the strategic shipping lanes in the busy Gulf of Aden the most dangerous in the world. On Tuesday, 30 French commandos stormed a luxury yacht in a pre-dawn assault to rescue two French tourists who were being held for ransom by heavily-armed Somali pirates. The Hong Kong-registered vessel is owned by Central Marine Company in Hiroshima, Japan, and managed by Fleet Management in Hong Kong.

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Khorfakkan welcomes mammoth container

Gulftainer’s Khorfakkan Container Terminal (KCT) in the Sharjah played host to 9700 teu, 350-metre long ‘CMA-CGM ORFEO’ the biggest container ship ever to berth at the port.

The volumes already much higher in the first half of the year as a result of lines increasingly choosing to route cargo through the KCT gateway to the UAE, have been further boosted as congestion and slow working conditions have affected other ports in the region. Gulftainer director & general manager Peter Richards commented, “We have been pointing out for years that KCT is ideally placed, geographically, to save shipping lines time and money, especially since the terminal’s speedy performance ensures that large, expensive container ships would not spend much time berthing and working.” “Containers for the UAE market have continued to move smoothly on our ‘minibridge’ to the Sharjah Inland Container Depot (SICD), allowing fast and convenient distribution to the UAE market when most other gateways have been increasingly gridlocked with traffic,” he added.

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