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I like Ships too

Q: Why do ships and aircraft use 'mayday' as their call for help?

A: This comes from the French word m'aidez -meaning 'help me' -- and is pronounced, approximately, 'mayday.'

True??
 
 


Cutter Carrying 2 Injured Sailors To SF Bay
by The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO April 2, 2012, 09:21 am ET


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Two injured British sailors who were rescued from a yacht hit by a monster wave while participating in an around-the-world race were expected to reach San Francisco Bay on U.S. Coast Guard cutter Monday afternoon.

A rescue boat reached the battered yacht Sunday about 200 miles off the California coast and transported the sailors to the cutter, Petty Officer Caleb Critchfield said.

The sailors were being treated aboard the cutter and will receive additional medical aid when the vessel reaches the bay, said DeeDee Taft, a spokeswoman for the Clipper 11-12 Round the World Yacht Race.

The injured were Jane Hitchens, 50, a doctor from Kent, England, who may have suffered broken ribs; and Nik Brbora, 29, a software engineer from London who may have suffered a sprained pelvis, Taft said.

The nearly 70-foot Geraldton Western Australia was hit by a huge wave Saturday when it was about 400 miles from a finish line in San Francisco Bay, knocking out its steering mounting.

"We were making good speed, sailing with the third reef in the main, surfing at 15 to 20 knots," said Juan Coetzer, skipper of the yacht. "Then ... just before the sun came up, a monstrous foaming swell broke over our stern."

The sea was so rough on Saturday that rescuers couldn't parachute down to the yacht and rescue the injured sailors. The Coast Guard was only able to drop medical supplies until the cutter arrived to assist the crew.

Thirteen people were aboard the yacht. Two others who suffered minor injuries decided to continue sailing, Taft said. Max Wilson, 62, a farmer from Queensland, Australia, who also have suffered broken ribs, and Mark Burkes, 47, who was on the helm at the time of the incident, sustained a back injury.

The crew was expected to arrive in Oakland's Jack London Square on Monday.

The crew planned to fix the yacht and continue two more legs of the race, which began in Southhampton in England and will finish there July 22 after nearly a year at sea. The Geraldton Western Australia is among 10 identical yachts participating in the race.

The boats departed Qingdao, China, about a month ago for the 5,680-mile trek across the Pacific, the longest leg of the race.

The first boat arrived Friday at Jack London Square in Oakland, where the entire fleet is expected to stay until April 14 to make repairs, restock, rest and take part in a sailboat show before embarking for Panama.

Rich Gould of Swindon, England, who was aboard a competing yacht, told the San Francisco Chronicle that the rough sea swayed his boat along the waves "like a surfboard."

He said news of his competitors' injuries was a "harsh reminder that sailing in seas like this can be a hell of a challenge."

"It's quite sobering," Gould said.


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=149827081
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Never know Thor. A little paint, some exorcism, and some bed sheets........I could convert it into the Love Boat. :)
 


http://www.bloomberg.com/image/if1fksAUvaVQ.jpg
Shipments accelerated as buyers sought to expand reserves on mounting concern
that Middle East supply will be disrupted by conflict over Iran’s nuclear program.

​

...The fastest expansion in oil cargoes since 2004 is exceeding demand and filling up storage tanks from Egypt to Japan, creating a glut that threatens to reverse the biggest gain in shipping rates in five years.

Tankers will be carrying 488.8 million barrels by April 14, 3.9 percent more than the week earlier, estimates Oil Movements, which has tracked cargoes for 25 years. Rates for very large crude carriers, each holding 2 million barrels, will drop 58 percent to average $19,750 a day...


...Rising stockpiles are coming at a time of slowing growth in China and a contraction in Europe, which together account for about 33 percent of demand. The global market is getting as much as 2 million barrels a day more than it needs, Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said March 20.

“A ship owner would rather see strong consumer demand, and that we do not have,” said Olivier Jakob, the managing director of Petromatrix GmbH, a research company based in Zug, Switzerland, who has worked in oil markets for more than 17 years. “It’s more of a short-term phenomenon. There’s an effort to rebuild stocks in case something happens with Iran, but consumption is actually quite weak right now.”


...VLCC rates climbed 67 percent to $46,811 this year, the biggest first-quarter gain since 2007, according to data from Clarkson Plc, the world’s largest shipbroker.

...Frontline ...says its biggest ships need $23,900 to break even...

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, increased production by 18 percent since the end of 2010 to compensate for declines in Libyan and Iranian supply, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Inventories in Saudi Arabia as well as those controlled by the kingdom in the Netherlands, Egypt and Japan are full, al-Naimi told reporters in Doha, Qatar, on March 20.

A record 392 VLCCs were booked for single-voyage cargoes this year, from 330 a year earlier, according to Galbraith’s Ltd., a London-based shipbroker. Storage tanks in Rotterdam, Europe’s biggest oil-trading port, may be as much as 90 percent full, compared with 70 percent to 80 percent normally,



http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...ersing-rally-as-oil-glut-expands-freight.html
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http://www.npr.org/2012/04/04/149923363/an-upgrade-and-bigger-ships-for-the-panama-canal



An Upgrade, And Bigger Ships, For The Panama Canal
by Jason Beaubien
April 4, 2012





The Panama Canal is undergoing its biggest overhaul since it was opened nearly a century ago.
A third channel is being built, which will allow more and larger ships to pass through.
http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2012/04/03/panama2_wide.jpg?t=1333494962&s=4



The construction to build a third channel for the Panama Canal began in 2007 and is scheduled
to be completed in 2014. This photo shows the state of the construction in December.
http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2012/04/03/panama.jpg?t=1333495002&s=51


​

Two giant ships move through the Panama Canal's two parallel channels at the Miraflores locks, heading toward the Pacific Ocean.

The orange and white Bow Summer is a tanker. The deck of the Ever Dynamic is stacked high with burgundy and blue shipping containers. More boats like these are backed up in both the Pacific and the Atlantic waiting to enter the narrow waterway.

Global trade has grown dramatically, but the Panama Canal — one of the most vital transit routes — hasn't changed its basic structure since it opened in 1914.

But that is about to change.

The expansion of the canal is one of the largest construction projects in the world right now, a multibillion-dollar effort that will add a third channel to the waterway. The new locks will be bigger than the existing ones, allowing massive cargo ships from China and other parts of Asia easier access to the East Coast of the United States. Work on the expansion began in 2007, and the new channel is scheduled to open in 2014.

More Ships, And Larger Ones
"Usually when people think of the expansion of the canal they think about the bigger ships," says Arnold Cano, an engineer who's working on the project. "Right now they can't fit through the Panama Canal. And that's a big aspect of the expansion. But really, the main driver for the expansion is capacity, being able to transit more cargo."

By adding a third lane, 50 percent more ships will be able to pass through the waterway each day. More importantly, the larger vessels will be moving significantly larger loads.

"Right now the biggest ship that can go through the canal is a ship that can carry 4,000 to 4,500 20-foot containers," Cano says. "Containers come in different sizes but 20 feet is the size that we standardize for measuring ships."

In the expanded canal, ships that can hold three times that many containers — as many as 13,000 of them — will be able to pass through the locks.

These ships primarily shuttle goods from Asia to the United States. Rather than docking in California and sending their cargo by truck or rail to the East Coast, they'll be able to steam through the canal to Miami, Baltimore, Norfolk, Va., or New York. For now, one unresolved issue is that most ports on the U.S. East Coast still aren't deep enough to accommodate these hulking vessels.

A Massive Project
Crews are working around the clock on both the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the canal project. Massive yellow earth movers are cutting a trench the size of a valley.

Monster dump trucks, so large the driver's cabin looks ridiculously small, trudge through the ripped up earth. Near the Pacific Ocean, concrete is being poured for what will be a new lock.

Ramon Cascante, an engineer standing on the floor of the project, is in charge of water management. That means keeping water out of the pit and making sure the contractors have the water they need on the site.

Cranes loom overhead while workers rush in what seems to be every direction.

"One of the most challenging things on this project is the durability requirement on the contract," he says. "We made clear on the contract [documents] that the locks need to last at least 100 years."

He says the contractors have had to formulate special concrete for the outer layers of the canal to withstand the constant flushing of water in and out.

The new locks will have double doors so that one set can undergo maintenance while the canal remains operational.

Reshaping Global Shipping
Shipping company officials say the opening of the new channel in 2014 will be a game changer for the global shipping business.

Far more and far larger vessels will head to Panama even if they don't transit the canal. Even now, significant amounts of cargo are shipped to Panama's ports, reconfigured onto smaller boats and then distributed throughout the hemisphere.

Tiehan Zhong with China Shipping Lines in Panama City says this will increase considerably as the canal becomes even more critical to global trade.

"It looks like for all the world, the shipping market format will be changed," he says.

He says boats that currently are going from South Asia, through Egypt's Suez Canal and on to New York may instead head east and transit through Panama.

The canal expansion opens up more opportunities, he says, to move more goods from China to the largest consumer market in the world, the U.S., at a lower cost.
Click to expand...
 
http://www.npr.org/2012/04/02/149866231/historic-ships-struggle-to-stay-afloat


Copyright © 2012 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

You're listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News.

At a dock in Philadelphia, there's a vessel that played a key role in the Spanish-American War, the USS Olympia. It's one of a number of historic ships around the country in need of immediate maintenance.

Yowei Shaw reports that the Olympia is in danger of being sold for scrap unless someone takes over the bills.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL TOLLING)

YOWEI SHAW, BYLINE: On the cruiser Olympia, it's easy to get excited about history. The red and white, 344-foot vessel brought home World War I's Unknown Soldier. She helped win the Battle of Manila Bay. She's the world's oldest floating steel warship, and the first vessel to have electricity and ice machines. She's even been featured on an episode of Syfy's "Ghost Hunters."

JESSE LEBOVICS: As they say, there is activity on board. She's old enough.

SHAW: Jesse Lebovics is ships manager at the Independence Seaport Museum. It's poured over $4 million into the vessel since 1996.

LEBOVICS: I'll just grab a flashlight. The area is lit, but it's so far down that if the lights go out, it could be awkward.

SHAW: But the museum can't afford the $10 million needed to stabilize the ship long term. It's already cost 120,000 just to keep her floating each year.

LEBOVICS: Right next to it - see a little bit of water there? That indicates there's some leakage going on in this area here.

SHAW: Now, the Olympia is at risk of becoming a ghost herself. Lebovics says without significant repair, the ship could sink in five years.

BRUCE HARRIS: If someone said to you, you know what, we really can't afford to take care of the Statue of Liberty anymore, you know, everyone would be appalled.

SHAW: Bruce Harris is president of the Friends of the Cruiser Olympia. It's one of four nonprofit, largely volunteer groups around the U.S., hoping to take over ownership. But not surprisingly, the economy has made it harder to raise funds. Harris says part of the problem is getting people other than history geeks to care.

HARRIS: The modern-day person isn't as connected to ships anymore, which I find amazing, because a lot of your goods, your services, your produce, your automobiles all come and are delivered by ship.

SHAW: So it's up to the historic ship preservation community to make ships, well, sexy. In a step in that direction, the seaport museum will turn the Olympia into a temporary tattoo parlor later this year to raise a little bit of money. Other groups, like the SS United States Redevelopment Project, are focusing on the economic and commercial potential of ships. The SS United States was saved from the scrapyard with a $6 million donation. But now, managing director Dan McSweeney has plans to make the ship self-sustaining with restaurants, a hotel, maybe even a nightclub. McSweeney fell totally in love with her while on a road trip 12 years ago.

DAN MCSWEENEY: I got off the highway and just basically stared in awe of this incredible creation in front of me. This is kind of like my life's goal: to make this thing work.

SHAW: McSweeney has even gotten others excited about his dream. Grammy Award-winning producers Skip Denenberg and Andy Kravitz wrote a song last year to help raise money for the ship.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Singing) Well, she once was the pride of America, the best of the ships on the sea. She was built fast and strong, about 1,000 feet long and was powered by engines of steam.

SHAW: Whether or not they're successful, veterans, maritime history lovers and other volunteers will continue trying to save these pieces of American heritage. For NPR News, I'm Yowei Shaw in Philadelphia.

Copyright © 2012 National Public Radio®. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio.
Click to expand...
 
Just saw that on msnbc! I was wondering when I would see you say something about it.


"....a brief delay caused by a Canadian ship that wanted to salvage the Ryou-un Maru -- but then quickly found it it wasn't able to tow it back to shore."
 
trysail said:
http://www.npr.org/2012/04/04/149923363/an-upgrade-and-bigger-ships-for-the-panama-canal



An Upgrade, And Bigger Ships, For The Panama Canal
by Jason Beaubien
April 4, 2012





The Panama Canal is undergoing its biggest overhaul since it was opened nearly a century ago.
A third channel is being built, which will allow more and larger ships to pass through.
http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2012/04/03/panama2_wide.jpg?t=1333494962&s=4



The construction to build a third channel for the Panama Canal began in 2007 and is scheduled
to be completed in 2014. This photo shows the state of the construction in December.
http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2012/04/03/panama.jpg?t=1333495002&s=51


​
Click to expand...

Look at all that solid stone to blast through.

How would a submarine get through it?
 
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This is very definitely what is known as a " 'light' ship."


Ship Rates Seen Rising Most Since 2009 as Owners Anchor
By Alaric Nightingale
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...g-most-since-09-as-owners-anchor-freight.html
April 9, 2012


Ship owners are anchoring the most commodity carriers since at least 2008 after the biggest slump in rates for more than a decade, cutting capacity just as Brazilian farmers prepare for record soybean exports.

More than 25 percent of the Panamax fleet was anchored last month, the most in data compiled by Bloomberg since 2008. Daily rates for the 750-foot-long vessels will average $10,000 this quarter, 25 percent more than in the first three months and the biggest increase in more than two years, the median of nine analyst estimates shows. Shares of Athens-based Safe Bulkers Inc., which owns 18 Panamaxes...

Rates have been below the $13,000 owners need to break even every day this year, spurring more idling. The slump reflects a glut of capacity rather than less trade, with... the biggest shipbroker, forecasting record volume in 2012. Owners with fleets of 20 vessels or more may keep anchoring some ships to boost rates for those still competing for business...

“Can that strengthen rates? Absolutely... With the improvement in crop cargoes, we may see a pick up.”

Maritime Routes
Rates slumped 37 percent to $8,277 since Jan. 1, the worst start to a year since at least 2000, according to data from the London-based Baltic Exchange, which publishes freight costs along more than 50 maritime routes.

They averaged $7,983 in the first quarter, the lowest since the final three months of 2008, when economies where going through the worst global recession since World War II. The predicted 25 percent gain would be the biggest quarter-on- quarter advance since the end of 2009.

Returns for owners slumped because they ordered too many ships in 2007 and 2008, when rates reached a record $94,977. The fleet expanded 46 percent since the end of 2007 and outstanding orders at ship yards are still equal to 36 percent of existing capacity...

As little as 19 percent of the fleet was anchored in August and last year’s average was 22 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg show. While that includes vessels waiting to load or discharge cargoes, the increase indicates more are being idled by owners or can’t find charters.

Fund Management
Brazilian soybean exports will jump 23 percent to 36.9 million metric tons in the 12 months ending in September, more than compensating for a 3.4 percent decline in Argentine shipments to 8.9 million tons, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates. The extra 7 million tons from Brazil, the largest soy shipper, is enough to fill about 100 Panamaxes.

The greatest influence on Panamax rates in the second quarter is South American crop cargoes...

A surge in South American demand may spur vessels to haul anchor and compete for cargoes, driving rates lower. Laid end- to-end, the fleet of anchored Panamaxes would stretch for about 108 kilometers (67 miles). Owners may also speed up vessels so they can pick up more cargoes, reversing a three-year trend. The average Panamax sailed at 8.6 knots last month, from 11.3 knots in May 2009...

Agricultural Service
Drought damaged crops across South America this season, potentially reducing the amount available for export. Brazil’s soybean crop will probably be 66 million tons, less than the official USDA estimate of 68.5 million tons, the agency’s Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report March 30. Growers had harvested 82 percent of the crop as of April 5...

Demand for the region’s crops also may be weaker than expected after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao cut the nation’s growth target to 7.5 percent last month, the lowest since 2004. The country consumes 28 percent of the world’s soybeans, 22 percent of its corn and 17 percent of its wheat, USDA data show. The agency cut its forecast for China’s soybean imports by 0.9 percent to 55 million tons last month, still a record amount.

Safe Bulkers has the largest proportion of Panamaxes within its fleet of any of the 10 largest publicly traded companies operating the vessels...

Pure Play
...Rates to haul crude from Saudi Arabia to Japan, the industry’s benchmark route, rose more than threefold this year...

Global seaborne trade in dry bulk commodities, which also includes coal and iron ore, will reach 3.814 billion tons this year, compared with 3.685 billion tons in 2011... About 90 percent of world trade goes by sea, the Round Table of International Shipping Associations estimates.

Transport Costs
The second-quarter Panamax rate predicted in the... survey is 5.8 percent higher than the costs anticipated by forward freight agreements, traded by brokers and used to bet on future transport costs. Contracts for the period are trading at $9,456, according to data from the Baltic Exchange.

“The market still has far too many ships, but maybe the glut won’t be quite so awful for a while... Owners are becoming increasingly resistant to these dire markets and we are moving into peak Latin American shipping season so demand is strengthening.”




http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...g-most-since-09-as-owners-anchor-freight.html
Click to expand...
 
gotsnowgotslush said:
Just saw that on msnbc! I was wondering when I would see you say something about it.


"....a brief delay caused by a Canadian ship that wanted to salvage the Ryou-un Maru -- but then quickly found it it wasn't able to tow it back to shore."
Click to expand...

It wasn't worth it to tow it back
 


As a generality, I am not an admirer of power boats. However, in this case, I am forced to admit that White Cloud has attractive lines. At a comparatively modest 66 m. in length, if you painted her grey and added a gun turret on the foredeck, she'd almost look like a U.S. Navy destroyer.







http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/default.aspx?level0=100
 
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