General News

Austal ships chairman John Rothwell has pledged a vigilant pursuit of technological advancements to ensure the company?s "leading role" in delivering premium levels of passenger comfort.Speaking about long term prospects for the…

Just occasionally a meeting takes place where coincidental events that are making news headlines elsewhere focus the minds of the delegates more strongly on the agenda than they ordinarily would be, resulting…

Security is an unavoidable issue in today?s climate of terrorism derived fear and paranoia. Such security fears are strongly impacting development in the natural gas industry, particularly where gas comes ashore at…

Completely new shipyards are rare, but two yards that stand out are the Kvaerner Philadelphia yard in the US andYantai Raffles in China.While the Philadelphia yard has been designed primarily to build…

Brittany Ferries? new flagship, Mont St Michel, entered service on the Portsmouth-Caen route in December last year and is claimed to be the largest cruise ferry to have been purpose-built for operations…

Much research has been done on the performance of various pipework materials when used on saltwater systems. Copper-nickel alloys have been specified for seawater use for over 50 years and are the…

American Eagle Tankers? Eagle Virginia, is believed to be the first VLCC to be equipped with a Dual Axis Doppler Speed Log, according to the company?s chief executive officer Joseph Kwok.The Doppler…

While a number of this year?s selection of notable ships are included principally for their pioneering use of podded propulsion, this revolutionary drive is not the only method shipowners and equipment manufacturers…

Three of four ULCCs ? the largest to be ordered for nearly 30 years ? were delivered to Greek tanker company Hellespont Shipping in 2002. The 442,470 dwt vessels were built by…

As the first Royal Navy (RN) vessel to be fitted with integrated propulsion and Azipod propulsors, HMS Echo represents a radical departure for the normally conservative minded decision makers at the UK?s…

The 50,400g La Superba, delivered in March by Italian shipbuilder Nuovi Cantieri Apuania, is the first in a new two-ship series of what its Italian owner Grandi Navi Veloci (GNV) describes as…

LNG carriers have probably been the biggest boom category in shipbuilding over the past year as demand for gas increases in line with power utilities switch to cleaner forms of energy production.…

Since Normand Flower was handed over to Solstad Shipping in September, the vessel has operated in the North Sea carrying out a variety of roles. Built by the Norwegian shipyard Soviknes Verft,…

Croatian shipbuilders have built up a healthy backlog of orders since the end of the Balkan conflict. The four main players ? 3 Maj, Brodosplit, Trogir and Uljanik ? have been particularly…

Improved automation will this year enhance performance of key system for controlling seawater cooling pumps.Central engine cooling systems can be a source of wasted energy. The pumps must be designed to pump…

In terms of column inches in the trade press, azimuth thrusters have been somewhat overshadowed by their azimuthing electric podded cousins of late. Yet in the past few years the azimuth thruster…

Eight days after leaving Riga, Latvia, bound for Singapore with a cargo of nearly 77,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil, Prestige hit trouble off Cape Finisterre in heavy seas. Six days later…

Here at The Motor Ship we above all take pleasure in writing about the ships which make the most innovative use of new designs and technologies. Over the course of a year…

Alaskan air quality is set to survive a potential smoke stack choking later this year when Princess Cruises? latest luxury liner Coral Princess, delivered from France?s Chantiers de l?Atlantique last month, arrives…

The lead ship in Holland America Line?s (HAL) new five-cruiseship ?Vista class? Panamax series, the Zuiderdam, sailed on its maiden voyage, a seven-day Caribbean cruise from Fort Lauderdale, Florida on December 14.Although…

China?s Guangzhou Shipyard International has finally completed Tai An Kou, the first of two 18,000 dwt semi-submersible heavy lift ships it was contracted to build by Chinese company Cosco Guangzhou. It is…

One of the world?s largest custom built livestock carriers, Becrux, is fulfilling a design brief for delivering high volumes of livestock in first class condition despite a rocky start to its service…

Another oil spill, another knee-jerk reaction. The Spanish government, rightly or wrongly, acted swiftly and decisively in the wake of the pollution caused by the tanker Prestige to its coastline by banning…