In the video the 68,789 dwt bulk carrier, Grand Rodosi, absolutely destroys the much smaller tuna boat, Apollo S, while moored at the wharf in Port Lincoln, South Australia.  The Apollo S quickly sank (at least once the Grand Rodosi had unpinned it) and the wharf was damage in the collision.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Additional information can be found on this incident HERE.

An overview of the sunken Argentine-flagged cargo ship "Rio Turbio", which was transporting sand when it collided with the Paraguayan ship Ava Payagua, in the Parana de las Palmas river is seen off the coast of Zarate port, 80 km (50 miles) north of Buenos Aires in this Prefectura Naval Argentina handout photo.

The Buenos Aires Herald reports six sailors on board the sand barge “Río Turbio,” are confirmed dead following a collision in the early morning hours this past Saturday with the Paraguayan tugboat “Ava Payagua”.  The incident occurred on the Argentine river, Parana de las Palmas.

The sand barge sank immediately as a result of the accident and seven of its eight-member crew went missing.

The three officers on board the tugboat have reportedly been taken into custody and remained in in solitary confinement, Coast Guard commander Sergio Gaetán told the press.

“Those under arrest are the captain of the boat, the “baqueano” (the maritime pilot) and the helmsman.  The legal followup will be presided over by the Zárate-Campana courts,” said Gaetán, who is in charge of the Zárate area.

The officer reported that the tugboat “was withheld in order to carry out expert studies.”

Names of the confirmed dead include: Ciriaco Rodríguez, Gustavo Caracciolo, Felipe Haroldo Aguirre, Marcelo Osvaldo Córdoba, José Mario de la Fuente Sequeire and Cristian Ariel Marmet.

The Nils Holgersson with her bow tightly embedded in the starboard side of the Urd.

The captain of German ferry Nils Holgersson could be facing serious charges after local coast guard officials have ruled out that any technical malfunction caused his ferry to ram another passenger ferry in Luebeck, Germany last week.

Damage to the passenger ferry "Urd".

Authorities investigating the May 3 collision at the German Port of Travemünde are now pointing to human error on behalf of captain of the Nils Holgersson as the cause of the collision, saying he failed to set the proper thruster positioning when approaching the dock.

The passenger ferry on the receiving end of the collision, named the Urd, suffered severe damages but managed to escape without any injuries to its passengers or crew after getting t-boned by the Nils Holgersson. The Urd was moored at Pier 3 of the Scandinavian Quay in Travemünde when she was struck, puncturing two large holes on her starboard side both below the waterline and to her upper decks.

“The ship collided with the ferry, which was in port, almost at a right angle,” coast guard spokesman Karsten Dose told the Lübecker Nachrichten newspaper.

A number of vessel rushed in to assist the vessels and pump water from the Urd.

The Nils Holgersson suffered damage to her bulbous bow and bow. She is operated by TT-Line, a shipping company based in Lübeck, Germany providing direct ferry and freight service between Germany and Sweden.  Local reports have indicated that alcohol has likely been ruled out as a contributing factor. The captain could be facing charges of endangering shipping.

Image of jackup rig struck by tanker off Port Aransas, image via gCaptain contributor

On the approach into the channel at Port Aransas, Texas this morning, the 74k DWT product tanker, FR8 Pride, a Scorpio Tanker-managed vessel, lost power and collided with the Rowan EXL-1 jackup drilling rig.

FR8 Pride, image via gCaptain contributor

AIS tracking data indicates the FR8 Pride may have been traveling at around 8.8 knots at the time of the incident.

The following is the report from the US Coast Guard:

Watchstanders at Sector Corpus Christi received a report at 7:25 a.m., that the Rowan EXL-1, a mobile offshore drilling unit, and the 750-foot tanker vessel FR8 Pride had collided in the Aransas Channel, near buoy 3.

The FR8 Pride was heading inbound in the Aransas Pass Channel when it reportedly lost propulsion and drifted into the Rowan EXL-1.

The FR8 Pride was able to separate itself from the Rowan EXL-1 with the assistance of nearby tugs.

The Rowan EXL-1 suffered significant damage, resulting in a minor hydraulic oil leak from a damaged crane.

The crew of the Rowan EXL-1 was able to move the MODU offshore and stabilize it by deploying its legs.

The crew of the FR8 Pride reported flooding in a forward ballast space, but they were able to control the flooding and ground the FR8 Pride two miles offshore.

The Coast Guard deployed multiple assets to respond to the collision including:

• Two MH-65 Dolphin rescue helicopter from Air Station Corpus Christi
• An HU-25 Guardian jet from Air Station Corpus Christi
• Two 45-foot Response Boat – Medium from Station Port Aransas
• The Coast Guard Cutter Manatee homeported in Corpus Christi

The Coast Guard has currently deployed teams of offshore vessel inspectors, port state control examiners, marine casualty investigators and pollution responders.

The Aransas Pass Channel remains open to traffic.

There were no reports of injuries or significant pollution.

The Coast Guard is currently investigating the cause of the incident.

FR8 Pride AIS track, via MarineTraffic.com

A screenshot of the Aegean's SPOT Messenger feed, last updated Saturday, Apr 28th at 1:36 a.m., right on North Coronado Island

UPDATE:  The Latitude 38 blog reports that other boats in the race reported have a close encounter with a large ship around the time and in the same vacinity.

Michael Lawler, a crewmember aboard the Newport Beach-based Choate 48 Amante, reports having a close encounter with a freighter in the same vicinity and time as Aegean‘s tracker stopped working. “We were farther offshore, about 10-12 miles west of the Coronados,” says Lawler. “Around 1:30 a.m., I went on watch and saw a freighter bearing down on us at what was probably 20 knots. His range lights were lined up and I could see both red and green bow lights. I didn’t have time to get on the radio, so I grabbed my two million-candlepower spotlight and aimed it at the ship. That caught his attention and he took a hard left turn to take our stern. He passed about 1/4 mile behind us.” Lawler, who circumnavigated aboard his North Wind 47 Traveller, says the wind was light, the seas were a little lumpy, and visibility was good.

However, a recently discovered feed of the Aegean’s SPOT Messenger showing the satellite track of the vessel (above), last updated at approximately 1:36 a.m., with the vessel directly on top of North Coronado Island, suggesting the vessel may have broken up on the rocks of the island.

This chart shows the search area for the sailing vessel Aegean. U.S. Coast Guard graphic (click for high res)

Original: At least three sailors competing in a yacht race from Newport Beach, CA to Ensenada, Mexico have been killed and one still remains missing after an apparent collision with a large cargo ship.

Newport Ocean Sailing Association (NOSA), host of the N2E annual regatta, said that the sailboat Aegean, a Hunter 376 representing the Little Ships Fleet club, vanished from the race’s online tracking system at approximately 1:30 a.m. Saturday.  Hours later, vessels in the area of the Coronado Islands reported finding debris in the water, which prompted the launch of a Coast Guard search leading to the discovery of the wreckage, including the rear transom with the vessel’s name on it.

By mid afternoon, the bodies of three crewmembers and loads of badly beaten debris had been recovered.  The search for the fourth crewmember continued Sunday, but was called off Sunday afternoon by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The cause of the incident is still under investigation, but initial reports indicate that the incident appears to be the result of collision with a much larger ship that did not see or even likely know of the collision.

“It was real obvious it had been hit just because the debris was so small,” a searcher told the Pasadena Star-News. The yacht looked like it “had gone through a blender.”

On Monday, it was revealed that the sailbot did not issue a distress signal or mayday.

A crew list was not immediately available, nor was it first known how many other crew may have been on the boat, but could have been sailed by five or more persons, said NOSA in a statement

The race started off Newport Beach in mid-day Friday and many boats finished in Ensenada Saturday, with the last ones due in Sunday. Weather conditions were lighter than normal at the time and place of the incident, with boats reporting winds of only 1 or 2 knots.

The incident marks the first fatalities in the 65-year history of the race, which saw 213 boats enter this year.

The crew of the Hunter 376 Aegean at Friday's start to the Newport to Ensenada Race. © 2012 Susan Hoffman via Latitude 38 blog

NNS Thunder, image via Oyibos Online

One person is still missing after a Nigerian warship, NNS Thunder, collided with a Total-owned vessel on Nigeria’s Bonny River.  According to local Nigerian news Oyibosonline, the incident happened at 3PM on Tuesday afternoon and the search for the missing Navy sailor continued into the night.  Sources close to the emergency response teams are reporting that the Navy appears to have been at fault.

A Bourbon offshore supply vessel was first on-scene and secured the capsized Total vessel upon arrival.

We reached out to Total and Bourbon for comment this morning and both are now looking into the matter.

The Silver Shadow cruise ship, owned by Silversea Cruises

With a spotlight on cruise passenger safety, a luxury cruise liner owned by Silversea Cruises reportedly collided with a local cargo ship while navigating in dense fog off the coast of Vietnam on March 16th, causing minor damage to the cruise ship and, from the looks of it, rather extensive damage to the bridge of the cargo ship.

Details of the collision are still a bit, er, foggy, yet Silversea cruises acknowledged the collision in a statement obtained by various media outlets, saying that their Silver Shadow cruise ship “was involved in a minor incident on March 16, 2012, at around 4:20 GMT as it was approaching the pilot station in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam. There was contact between Silver Shadow and a local commercial vessel. Silver Shadow incurred limited minor dents and guests’ safety was never compromised. The ship was fully operational and continued on its course to Ha Long Bay, where all shore tours operated normally.”

CNN has the story…

The collision occurred early Saturday between the 557-foot U.K-flagged M/V Seagate (pictured) and the 492-foot Liberian-flagged M/V Timor Stream off the northeast coast of Tortuga, Haiti.

Blindsided: The M/V Seagate, severely damaged after being struck by the bow of the Timor Stream. Photo: USCG

The M/V Seagate, a 28,836 dwt general cargo ship owned by Zodiac Maritime, was badly damaged in the collision and taking on water.  18 of its 21 crewmembers boarded life rafts while the remaining 3 stayed on the vessel for damage assessment.

Of the 18 crewmembers who boarded life rafts, 17 were later recovered by the Timor Stream, and one was recovered by a good-samaritan motor yacht.  Amazingly, no one was injured.

The captain of the M/V Seagate later reported the vessel was stable with just minimal water in the engine room. However, one of the fuel tanks was punctured in the collision sparking fears that approximately 4,000 gallons of lube oil onboard could be released.

An aerial view of the damage to the M/V Seagate. Luckily, no injuries were reported. Photo: USCG

The M/V Timor Stream, with an unknown number of personnel on board, suffered only “minimal damage” and also no injuries.  The vessel is owned operated by Geest Line, one of the premier shippers providing reefer service between the Caribbean and the UK and Europe.

The Liberian-flagged M/V Timor Stream, pictured here in this file photo, is owned by Seatrade and on charter to Geest Line. Photo: Geest Line

The USCG’s 210-foot cutter Venturous, homeported in Florida, arrived on scene to assume the role of on-scene commander. A Coast Guard helicopter and airplane also responded to conduct overflight assessments.

“Our main focus now is to ensure the continued safety of the Seagate crew and to mitigate any further damage to the vessel or environment that may be caused by worsening weather,” said Cmdr. Troy Hosmer, Venturous’ commanding officer.

The Coast Guard Cutter Venturous on scene. Photo: USCG

The Union Moon cargo ship in front of the much larger Stena Feronia. Photo via Belfast Telegraph

UPDATE: The captain of M/V Union Moon, plead guilty to excess alcohol by the master of a ship Friday morning.  The captain, Miroslaw Pozniak, 55, from Poland, will remain in custody until at least Monday when it will be dicided if bail will be set.

Original: The captain of a cargo ship has been arrested in Northern Ireland after authorities found him to be drunk when his ship collided with a much larger passenger ferry.

The collision occurred near the mouth of Belfast Lough at about 7:45 pm local time between the 1,543 gross ton M/V Union Moon and the 21,856 gross ton Stena Feronia passenger ferry.

Lifeboats from the Bangor and Donaghadee Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), who were on a training exercise nearby, quickly rushed to the scene to assess the damage.

The Stena Feronia escaped with relatively minor damage above the water line and a bit of scare for the 51 passengers that were inbound from Liverpool to Belfast.  Luckily no injuries were reported.

The M/V Union Moon on the other hand did not fare so well.  Not only did the vessel sustain extensive damage to its bow in the collision, but the captain was arrested after failing a breathalyzer test.

BBC has reported that the Stena ferry has now docked at the Stena terminal and the Union Moon was accompanied by the coastguard back to Belfast.

The 55-year-old captain is due to appear in court Friday and has been charged with excess alcohol by the master of a ship.

Here’s a look at what the RNLI lifeboats found when the arrived on scene:

Click here to view the embedded video.

TOKYO – Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. today announced that the 78,000 DWT MOL-operated containership MOL Maneuver collided with the containership Zhen He while under way on the open seas southeast of Hong Kong, on February 22, 2012, at around 1745 local time.

None of the crew was injured and no oil leak has been observed.

The MOL Maneuver is capable of sailing under its own power.  Meanwhile, MOL is investigating the situation on the other ship, but has not identified any injured persons or oil leakage.

MOL Maneuver serves on the Europe/Far East Asia route, and was under way from Singapore to Yantian.

MOL Maneuver Vessel Details

• 6,700 TEU-type containership
• Length/Breath: 301.97m/43.40m
• Seafarers: 23 (Indians, Filipinos and others)
• Flag: Marshall Islands
• Built: 2011