At 0420 UTC in the Dover Strait TSS near the MPC Buoy the NE bound LPG Tanker M/T Sigas Centurion and the SW bound container ship M/V Jeppesen Maersk were involved in a very close near collision.  

When M/T Sigas Centurion altered course to cross the SW bound lane she was on a collision course with M/V Jeppesen Maersk. M/T Sigas Centurion only became aware of a developing situation when CNIS called to advise of the danger. The collision was avoided by both vessels taking last minute actionWeather at the time was fair with good visibility.The Chief Inspector of Marine Accidents instructed the owner of M/V Jeppesen Maersk to advise him of the issues arising from the incident and to praise the actions of their vessel’s bridge team in avoiding the collision. Read The Incident Report

 For the entire series of photos click HERE.For our previous incident photos of the week click HERE. 

The Library of Congress has announced a partnership with our favorite Web 2.0 photography site Flickr. They tell us:

The first incarnation of The Commons is a pilot project we’ve created in partnership with The Library of Congress. The Library has an enormous photo catalogue, containing over a million photos. The Library team has chosen about 1,500 photos each from two of their more popular collections to show on Flickr. You can see what the streets of Puerto Rico looked like in the 40s, or what King George wore to the trooping of Colors in 1911.

There are two main aims to The Commons project, starting with the pilot: firstly, to increase exposure to the amazing content currently held in the public collections of civic institutions around the world, and secondly, to facilitate the collection of general knowledge about these collections, with the hope that this information can feed back into the catalogues, making them richer and easier to search.

While this is an exciting application of new technology the site needs your help cataloging the historic photos. The power behind flickr is their use of user submitted tags to organize the site’s enormous collection of user photos. Tags are short one or two word descriptions that let you find the best photos of offshore oil rigs or sunsets at sea.

To effectively sort the historic photographs Flickr and the Library of Congress is asking everyone to pick a few photos from the collection and add tags. Once this has been done the photos of ships should emerge HERE.

For the curious… the above photos are of a Hulett automatic unloader discharging coal at the Pennsylvania Railroad docks in Cleveland, Ohio. The set can be viewed HERE.

I am pleased to report a significant amount of positive feedback from mariners when discussing new MARAD (Maritime Administration) initiatives. In addition to being on the forefront of new LNG programs they are aggressively pursuing new ways of providing job opportunities for U.S. Mariners and, the *word on the street* is they are even working with the IRS to protect our interests with regards to the Sailor Tax Deduction Debacle.

One of the programs that gets too little attention is the Marine Highway Initiative. What is the program nicknamed “American’s Marine Highway” all about. Maritime Administrator, Sean T. Connaughton tells us;

Our marine highways are a cost effective, yet under utilized, method for the movement of passengers, containers, and bulk cargoes that is especially fuel efficient, safe, and reliable.

Accelerated use of the waterborne transportation mode holds forth a special promise for tomorrow in; reducing traffic congestion, enhancing freight flow, expanding freight capacity, and providing a new pathway for hazardous materials.

Maybe it’s because MARAD touts advantageous like “new pathway for hazardous materials” over headline grabbing sound bites that key into popular culture (how about “America’s Green Highway – Moving Cargo While Reducing Greenhouse Gas”) but the program contains major benefits for industry, consumers and the environment.

Despite a long line of marketing errors they might finally be on the right track with the attractive logo seen below and a new video that makes you ask; Why haven’t we been doing this all along?

Photo By James Rajotte for The New York Times

The New York Times has an interesting article on the desperate situation in the Great Lakes. Rainfall shortages have caused unusually declining water levels in the countries largest lakes. Low levels are bad news for ships designed and built with a draft meeting operational needs and having tight Under Keel Clearances. The problem is causing each ship to take on less cargo thus increasing the number of ships needed to satisfy the regions transportation need.

The NYTimes continues;

“What we need is some rain,” said Mr. Daniels, director of the Port of Oswego Authority, one of a dozen public port agencies on the United States side of the Great Lakes. “The more we lose water, the less cargo the ships that travel in the Great Lakes can carry, and each time that happens, shipping companies lose money,” he said. “Ultimately, it’s people like you and I who are going to pay the price.”

Water levels in the Great Lakes are falling; Lake Ontario, for example, is about seven inches below where it was a year ago. And for every inch of water that the lakes lose, the ships that ferry bulk materials across them must lighten their loads by 270 tons — or 540,000 pounds — or risk running aground, according to the Lake Carriers’ Association, a trade group for United States-flag cargo companies.

As a result, more ships are needed, adding millions of dollars to shipping companies’ operating costs, experts in maritime commerce estimate.

“When a ship leaves a dock, and it’s not filled to capacity, it’s the same as a plane leaving an airport with empty seats: It cuts into their earning capacity,” said Richard D. Stewart, a co-director of the Transportation and Logistics Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Superior.

“Because it’s mostly raw materials we’re talking about, the average consumer may see an increase in pennies in the price they pay for, say, a new car or washing machine,” Dr. Stewart said. For major manufacturers or firms managing big projects, however, the increase in transportation costs “is much more significant,” he said.   Continue Reading…

The upside for us mariners could possible be more jobs the downside… increased pressure on the Jones Act.