Local Shipping – PRINCESS DIANA & PRINCESS ELIZABETH
Two boats that were former Libyan Customs and Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) Patrol Craft and were never used as short sea passenger boats were the 31.4 metres craft PRINCESS DIANA and PRINCESS ELIZABETH. PRINCESS DIANA was built in 1963 for the Libyan Customs by Brodogradiliste Kraljevica in Hrvatska at Yugoslavia as ARRAID and on […]
Local Shipping – Submersible Exploration Ship U BOAT NAVIGATOR.
One of the converted fishing vessels around is the 2008 built U BOAT NAVIGATOR. She was built at Cinar Tersanecilik Ltd, Gemlik in Turkey as the fishing vessel ESAT KOCALI and in 2012 she was converted after being acquired by the submarine pilots and expert diving instructors father-and-son duo Eugene and Dmitry Tomashov. In fact […]
MBL News – Paul Allen research ship PETREL at Malta – 20.03.2017
On Monday 20th March 2017 around 0814 hrs the 76.45 metre research vessel PETREL owned by the estate of the Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen entered Valletta, Malta. The ship is named after the sea bird petrel. In 2016, Allen purchased the offshore vessel formerly named SEVEN PETREL from Subsea 7, a subsea engineering, construction and services company. In 2017, the ship […]
Casualties – EL FARO sunk with 33 crew – 01.10.2015
EL FARO was a United States flagged, combination roll-on/roll-off and lift-on/lift-off cargo ship crewed by U.S. merchant mariners. She was lost at sea with all hands on October 1st, 2015, after losing her propulsion near the eye wall of Hurricane Joaquin. EL FARO departed Jacksonville, Florida, bound for Puerto Rico at 2030 hrs on September 29th 2015, when the Tropical Storm Joaquin was several hundred miles to […]
Ship of The Week – TAKLIFT 1
One of the few vessels that called at Valletta, Malta was the 800 ton lifting capacity floating sheerleg TAKLIFT 1 owned by Smit Internationale, Netherlands. She was built in the Netherlands by Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij as yard no 328 in Rotterdam in 1969 and was homeported at Rotterdam flying the dutch (NLD) flag. Sheerlegs are […]
SS Talabot Anniversary – 76 Years – 26.03.2019
The SS TALABOT was launched in 1935 by the Swedish shipyard A/B Götaverken of Gothenburg as Yard no 492. She was capable of carrying 12 passengers, 37 crew members and her maximum speed was 16.25 knots with 2 engines of 9,650 ihp and 7 cylinder. TALABOT sailed under the Norwegian flag and on Tuesday 24th […]
