from CargoLaw.com Leogane, Haiti - A landing craft unit from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (22nd MEU) embarked aboard Amphibious Dock Landing Ship USS Carter Hall (LSD 50)

See The Cargo Letter: Jan. 21 2010 — Marine Engineers Bring Strength from the Sea »

Also:

• Jan. 15 2010 — Rescue — U.S. Coast Guard First On Scene
• Jan. 17-18 2010 — Rescue Continues

gCaptain’s photo of the week is a helicopter shot of LNG Tanker Lokoja (IMO# 9269960). Built by the Korean shipyard Daewoo in 2006 she is owned by BW Gas and chartered to Suez LNG.

What makes this the photo of the week is both the amazing perspective and the photographer himself. gCaptain believes every mariner has a specialty, hobby or interest that makes him unique and we love to showcase their work. This is a great example because, like our friend OneEighteen’s best work, Carlos Ferreira, the photographer, took this shot while performing his everyday duties at sea. Carlos also happens to have a day job that every mariner deeply appreciates, Rescue Captain aboard Spain’s Rescue Helicopter “Pesca 2″.

For more of Carlos’ amazing photos CLICK HERE.

FPSO delivery photos from the gCaptain archives… enjoy!

Ever wonder how a huge FPSO is delivered to it’s destination? Shipspotting forum points us to Seven Marine’s photos of a recent heavy lift operation:

The FPSO Sevan Voyageur left Yantai Raffles Shipyard in China this morning. The FPSO is placed onboard a dry tow vessel and is on its way to the Keppel Verolme shipyard for topside hook-up and commissioning. FPSO Sevan Voyageur will be installed on the Shelley field in the central UK North Sea in 2008, under a five year contract with Oilexco North Sea Ltd.

Full sized photos HERE.

M/V Shagra

Today’s photo of the week is of the LNG tanker M/V Shagra and her sister ship the M/V Zagra. More info can be found on the flickr photo’s page: 2 New LNG Tankers

More gCaptain maritime photos can be found on Flickr and this blog.

Today’s photo of the week, by Captain Richard Robson, shows SUNY Maritime’s training ship Empire State anchored in a clam sea. You can find information on the ship’s latest cruise HERE.

Our friend Richard Rodriguez of the BitterEnd Blog had an excellent post titled VTS – Working with large vessels, that gives Puget Sound boaters tips on communicating with the numerous large ships transiting to and from port. [Continue Reading →]

 

 Vessel Traffic Services Overview: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This weeks Ship Photo of the Week is brought to us via PortStrategy.com (For high resolution image, CLICK HERE).

In late May, the 14,000-teu MSC Daniela became the largest container ship to have ever left the port of Rotterdam fully laden – a European record.

Never Sea Land brings us the largest engine ever built:

The Wartsila-Sulzer RTA96-C turbocharged two-stroke diesel ship engine is the most powerful and most efficient prime-mover in the world today. The Aioi Works of Japan’s Diesel United, Ltd built the first engines and is where some of these pictures were taken.

It is available in 6 through 14 cylinder versions, all are inline engines. These engines were designed primarily for very large container ships. Ship owners like a single engine/single propeller design and the new generation of larger container ships needed a bigger engine to propel them.

The cylinder bore is just under 38″ and the stroke is just over 98″.

The engine weighs in at 2,300 tons and is capable of delivering 109,000 horsepower.

The largest piston in the world!

More Enormous Piston Rods.

“DU-Sulzer 12RT A96C” translated to “One large MFD”

How it works. [Continue Reading →]

Geoholm Fourchon Sunset

The above photo is from Flickr user whink27’s photostream.  Click on the image for some more really great pictures of various workoats in the GOM from whink27’s.

Thanks to gCaptain member studbuzzer for bringing it to our attention on this thread of the forum.

How is a cabin is built in this day of containerization and commodization? Remotely of course. Eurodam News, Holland America’s blog showcasing the shipyard activities around their latest new build project, brings us photos of the stateroom installation.

Of potential interest to readers of this blog the method shown here is very similar to how accommodation blocks are built aboard modern commercial ships. In conjuntion with this trend is the movement towards equality among crew members, which means the Captain’s cabin is often identical to that of the most junior crew member minus the extra rack. This is in stark contrast to my first ship, a Wrecks Act tanker built in Japan, which contained bunkrooms for junior crew members and a four room (day room, office, sitting room, cabin) suite for the Captain. [Continue Reading →]