RoRo Vessels – MSC BRIDGE

One of the Italian built ships that had an interesting shipping history so far is the 1998 built roll on roll off (RoRo) vessel MSC BRIDGE. She was built in Italy by Esercizio Cantieri at Viareggio as STENA AUSONIA. Between 1998 and 2002 she was chartered to Britain’s Royal Fleet Auxiliary renamed RFA SEA CENTURION A 98 […]

Tugboat News – POINT SPENCER at Malta – 1983

One of the tugs that was involved in the salvage of the car carrier fire FREMANTLE HIGHWAY that started on 26th July, 2023 , the 1972 built HUNTER traded for sometime at Malta as the POINT SPENCER. On 8th October 1972 she was launched by Richard Dunston (Hessle) Ltd with yard number S888 and in […]

Casualties – One dead in fire onboard car carrier FREMANTLE HIGHWAY – 25.06.2023

Around 2230hrs on Tuesday 25th July, the Dutch coastguard received a report that a major fire broke out on the car carrier FREMANTLE HIGHWAY with 23 crew members onboard  at the time and was sailing 27 kilometres north of Ameland. She left Bremerhaven, Germany around 1430hrs UTC bound for Egypt. The fire erupted around 2130hrs […]

Cruise Liner – JULES VERNE

One of more than 5 ships named in honour of the French science fiction writer JULES VERNE was a cruise liner built in Spain. She was built as yard no 185 at Union Naval de Levante in 1990 for Commodore Cruise Line as CROWN MONARCH trading 1994 then sold to Crown Cruise Line , operating […]

Smit International – Tugboat ZEELEEUW

Smit Internationale N.V. (or Smit International) was a Dutch company operating in the maritime industry. It was founded in 1842 by Fop Smit as a towage company with onl 1 paddle steamer tug KINDERDIJK. Fop’s sons, Jan and Leendert, continued the company under the name L. Smit & Co and expanded the fleet. In 1870, they began using tugs with […]

Passer By – Ropax BLUE STAR 1 – 04.06.2023

On Sunday 4th June, 2023 at 0009 hrs the 2000 built ropax BLUE STAR 1 was seen passing 28.8 nautical miles off Mgarr Harbour, Gozo while underway to home at Greece after she finished her charter with Irish Ferries and left Rosslare Harbour, Ireland 4 days ago last Wednesday 31st May. She was built by […]

Tanker News – ADVANTAGE SWEET seized by Iran – 27.04.2023

On Thursday 27th April, 2023 around 1315 hrs local time the US Naval Forces Central Command reported that the Marshall Islands flagged (MHL) tanker ADVANTAGE SWEET  was seized by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) while transiting international waters in the Gulf of Oman after the tanker issued a distress call during the seizure. The […]

Maiden Call – Frijsenborg – 05.10.2022

One of the famous Visentini built ro/ro’s around, FRIJSENBORG, entered Grand Harbour, Malta on  Wednesday 5th October while she was on charter with Grandi Navi Veloci (GNV). She was built in 2016 at Cantiere Navale Visentini Srl at Porto Viro, Italy with yard number 231 as FRIJSENBORG ordered from Levantina Trasporti Srl. In April 2016 […]