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Felicity Ace seen burning in the Atlantic Ocean off the Azores Islands. Picture was released Friday, February 18, 2022 by the Portuguese Navy. Photo courtesy Portuguese Navy

Felicity Ace seen burning in the Atlantic Ocean off the Azores Islands. Picture was released Friday, February 18, 2022 by the Portuguese Navy. Photo courtesy Portuguese Navy

Year in Review: Maritime Photos of 2022

Mike Schuler
Total Views: 22156
December 29, 2022

With 2022 coming to a close, here’s a look back at some of the biggest maritime stories of the year through pictures.

Photo showing the Julietta D abandoned and adrift off the Dutch Coast. The bulk carrier was rescued after a dramatic 24-hour rescue and nearly running aground during Storm Corrie in late January 2022. Photo courtesy Dutch Coast Guard.


U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star (WAGB 10) moors up to the ice pier at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, February 7, 2022. Polar Star arrived to McMurdo after an 86-day transit from the United States and broke a 37-mile-long channel from the ice’s edge. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Diolanda Caballero)
Photo released by the Portuguese Navy on March 1, 2022 showing the Felicity Ace badly burned and listing. Felicity Ace sank on March 1, 2022 around 220 nautical miles off the Azores nearly two weeks after suffering fire and developing starboard list while carrying around 4,000 vehicles, including VW and Audis, and some luxury brands like Porsches, Bentleys, and Lamborghinis. It incident also raised questions about the safety of lithium ion batteries as many of the vehicles were reportedly EVs. Photo: Marinha PT
A Coast Guard Air Station Houston MH-65 Dolphin aircrew conducts a search and rescue operation for crew members aboard a jack-up rig on fire in Sabine Pass, Texas, February 24, 2022. The U.S. Coast Guard rescued nine people by helicopter from the rig without injuries or pollution. U.S. Coast Guard Photo
A Coast Guard Air Station Houston MH-65 Dolphin aircrew conducts a search and rescue operation for crew members aboard a jack-up rig on fire in Sabine Pass, Texas, Feb. 24, 2022. All nine people aboard the rig were rescued with no reported injuries. U.S. Coast Guard Photo
Shown is Maersk Peary, a National Science Foundation supply vessel, moored in Winter Quarters Bay, McMurdo Station, from the bridge of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star (WAGB 10), February 2, 2022. Maersk Peary resupplied McMurdo with an estimated eight million gallons of fuel to keep the research center running until 2023’s resupplying mission. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Diolanda Caballero)
port of Berdiansk fire
Smoke billows from a fire on what Ukrainian Ministry of Defence says is a Russian ship, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, at the port of Berdiansk, Ukraine, March 24, 2022 in this still image obtained from a social media video. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was one of the biggest stories 2022. Kirillovka.ks.ua/Handout via REUTERS
EVER FORWARD Salvage
A 45-foot Response Boat-Medium underway alongside the grounded container ship Ever Forward in the Chesapeake Bay. The 1,095-foot ship grounded back in March outside the main shipping after missing a turn and became stuck for more than a month. A Coast Guard investigation determined the pilot was distracted by his cell phone. U.S. Coast Guard Photo
The Emirati ship Al Salmy 6 is seen sinking 30 miles from Assaluyeh in the Persian Gulf, Iran, March 17, 2022. Iran Ports organization/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
A 45-foot Response Boat-Medium boatcrew from Coast Guard Station Curtis Bay, in Baltimore, enforces a safety zone Sunday, April 10, 2022, around container removal operations for the grounded container ship Ever Forward in the Chesapeake Bay. The Ever Forward departed Baltimore March 13 en route to Norfolk, Virginia when it grounded with 4,964 containers aboard. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Kimberly Reaves/released)
USS The Sullivans pictured April 14, 2022. The decorated U.S. Navy destroyer-turned museum ship partially sank at its pier on April 13 after a “serious hull breach” on its starboard side, and was later refloated. U.S. Coast Guard Photo
The U.S. Coast Guard, Maryland Department of the Environment and Evergreen Marine Corporation, in partnership with multiple state and local responders, refloat the Ever Forward Sunday, April 17, 2022, in the Chesapeake Bay. U.S. Coast Guard
Allseas’ revolutionary heavy lift vessel Pioneering Spirit shows off its new jacket lift system for the first time with the removal of the 8,100 metric ton Ninian Northern jacket in the North Sea off the Shetland Islands, in April 2022. Photo courtesy Allseas
A fire burns on a barge carrying scrap household appliances in the Delaware River, May 23, 2022. Bowers Fire Company Chief Aaron Warren said it was likely the largest Delaware firefighting operation in state history. U.S. Coast Guard Photo
Tugboats spray water on the Spirit of Norfolk passenger vessel after a fire broke out near Naval Station Norfolk in Norfolk, Virginia, June 7, 2022. The sightseeing vessel was on a cruise on the Elizabeth River near Naval Station Norfolk when it caught fire with 108 people on board, many of whom were school children on a field trip. Credit: U.S. Navy
Adm. Linda Fagan (left) relieves Adm. Karl Schultz as the 27th commandant of the Coast Guard during a change of command ceremony at Coast Guard headquarters June 1, 2022. Admiral Fagan became the first woman to lead a branch of the U.S. armed forces. (DHS photo by Benjamin Applebaum)
A photo showing the Russian missile cruiser Moskva before sinking. Russia confirmed the Moskva, the flagship of its Black Sea Fleet, sunk while being towed to port following what it said was a fire and explosions involving ammunition stowed onboard. Ukraine says the Moskva’s was sunk by missile strike launched by its forces from the coast.
First look at the M/V Ever Alot at sea. The ship, with a carrying capacity of 24,004 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), was delivered by China’s Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding in June, becoming the first ship in the world to crack the 24,000 TEU mark, earning it the title as the World’s Largest Container Ship.
The bulk carrier Mark W. Barker pictured underway on maiden voyage. Viewed from the front.
The first new U.S.-flagged Great Lakes bulk carrier built in nearly 40 years departed on its maiden voyage from Fancantieri Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. The new River-Class, self-unloading bulk carrier is the first ship for U.S. Great Lakes service built on the Great Lakes since 1983.  Photo courtesy Interlake Steamship Company
The Ocean Cleanup’s System 002 deployed in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The largest and most ambitious ocean cleanup project in history achieved a major milestone in July by removing its its first 100,000 kg of plastic. Photo credit: The Ocean Cleanup
The Sierra Leone-flagged cargo ship Razoni, carrying Ukrainian grain, is seen in the Black Sea off Kilyos, near Istanbul, Turkey August 3, 2022. The ship was the first to depart Ukraine under a UN-brokered deal to resume Black Sea grain and fertilizer exports to help ease the global food crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.REUTERS/Mehmet Emin Caliskan
A view of the half-sunk cargo ship OS 35 in Catalan Bay after its collision on Wednesday with an LNG tanker near Gibraltar, September 1, 2022. The bulk carrier partially sank and later broke up off Gibraltar following a collision with an LNG carrier in August. The Gibraltar Government/Handout via REUTERS
MSC Tessa under construction at Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding in Shanghai, China. With a carrying capacity of 24,116 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), MSC Tessa will surpass Evergreen’s Ever Alot by 112 TEU to take the title of the world’s largest containership. Photo courtesy CSSC
flames and smoke come from the funnel onboard the Carnival Freedom cruise ship
A fire burns in the funnel of the Carnival Freedom while docked at Grand Turk Island in Turks and Caicos. The incident made for some entertaining viral videos because as the fire burned, guests continue to party on deck. Photo courtesy @AirbornJM via Twitter
jack-up vessel Seajacks Zaratan installing wind turbines at the Akita and Noshiro offshore wind farms in Japan
Seajacks International’s Seajacks Zaratan installs wind turbines at Japan’s first offshore wind farm, at the Akita and Noshiro offshore wind farm situated off Japan’s Akita Prefecture. Japan’s first offshore wind farm. Photo courtesy Akita Offshore Wind Corporation
The U.S. Coast Guard Healy (WAGB-20) transits through multi-year pack ice in the Arctic Ocean as the cutter approaches the North Pole, September 27, 2022. The voyage marked Healy‘s third trip the North Pole and only the second time a U.S. ship has reached the location unaccompanied. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Deborah Heldt Cordone, Auxiliary Public Affairs Specialist 1
French President Emmanuel Macron talks with workers on board a boat during a visit at the Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm, off the coast of the Guerande peninsula in western France, September 22, 2022. The offshore wind farm started operating in November, adding 480 megawatts of capacity to the grid at a time when Europe is scrambling to secure energy supplies following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/Pool
A gas leak from Nord stream 1 pipeline is seen in the Swedish economic zone in the Baltic Sea in this picture taken from the Swedish Coast Guard aircraft on September 28, 2022. Major leaks that suddenly erupted in the Nord Stream gas pipelines in September led to a lot of finger pointing about who was behind the leaks, which investigators have determined were an act of sabotage. Swedish Coast Guard/Handout via TT News Agency/via REUTERS
Bulk carrier inspection
Ellie M, a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship carrying Ukrainian corn, waits for the inspection at the anchorage area of the Bosphorus southern entrance in Istanbul, Turkey October 10, 2022. Turkey and the United Nations brokered a agreement between Russia and Ukraine in July that would allow the resumption of grain and fertilizer exports for the first time since the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February. REUTERS/Mehmet Emin Caliskan
Barges make their way down the Mississippi River, where the water levels have reached historically record lows in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. October 23, 2022. Record low water levels on the Mississippi River this fall had major impacts on barge shipments of grain, fertilizer, coal and other commodities on the major shipping waterway. REUTERS/Karen Pulfer Focht
The Panamanian-flagged containership TSS Pearl burns before sinking in the Red Sea in October. All 25 crew members abandoned ship and were picked up by other ships in the area. Photo: Saudi Press Agency
A view shows the nuclear-powered icebreaker “Yakutia” during the launch ceremony at the Baltic Shipyard in Saint Petersburg, Russia on November 22, 2022. The vessel is one of three nuclear-powered icebreakers that will ensure year-round navigation in the Western Arctic and “strengthen Russia’s status as a great Arctic power,” according to President Putin. REUTERS/Igor Russak
The roll-on/roll-off ship Ville de Bordeaux trials Airseas’ new “Seawing” automated kite system during a transatlantic voyage between Europe and the United States in December 2022. Photo Credit: Airseas
NASA’s Orion Capsule is drawn to the well deck of the U.S.S. Portland after it splashed down following a successful uncrewed Artemis I Moon Mission on December 11, 2022 in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California, Mexico. Artemis 1 was the first in a series of missions that will eventually help send humans to the moon. Mario Tama/Pool via REUTERS
Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) ship Hoegh Esperanza is guided by tug boats during its arrival at the port of Wilhelmshaven, Germany, December 15, 2022. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the speed with which Germany managed to build and link up its first floating gas terminal to replace lost supplies of Russian gas should serve as a model for a new, pacier German economy. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/Pool
Coast Guardsmen on Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star (WAGB 10) enjoy a swim call near the equator in the Pacific Ocean, Dec. 8, 2022, as part of Operation Deep Freeze 2023. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Aidan Cooney
A marine looks at the capsized Royal Thai Navy warship HTMS Sukhothai in the Gulf of Thailand, December 18, 2022. At least five deaths and 24 marines unaccounted for were reported from the warship’s sinking. Royal Thai Navy Handout via REUTERS

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