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The Intelligent First Aid Talking Kit is now available. The interesting features of this kit are:

• designed by medical and educational experts
• combines supplies, visual instruction cards
• has an audio module for verbal guidance to manage the most common injuries
• the kit is separated into individually labeled and color-coded injury packs so the user has all the supplies
• has easy to follow instructions for managing a specific injury
• on pressing a button, the audio module in each injury card narrates step-by-step instructions to manage the injury, pausing and repeating when necessary for accurate response
• the case includes a guidebook, with first aid instructions for additional medical emergencies, such as choking, frost bite, heatstroke, asthma
• also included is a product manual with audio instructions
• a book light/flashlight and a shoulder strap

Here is an audio sample from the bleeding pack of the Intelligent First Aid Talking Kit.

Click the icon to listen.

This Intelligent First Aid Talking Kit will be very useful in the ships where timely First Aid is very important.

More details are here at intelligentfirstaid.

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BBC reports fatigue among seafarers as a reason for accidents and near misses at sea. DNV study says 51% of marine accidents are caused by only 25% of all the ships worldwide. One of the reasons for these accidents is fatigue experienced by seafarers.

What is fatigue ?

Fatigue is experienced by us as physical fatigue and mental fatigue. Early stages of fatigue lead to loss of productivity whereas advanced stages of fatigue lead to accidents within the ship or cause groundings, collisions even to the extent of sinking of ships.

Signs of a seafarer suffering from fatigue.

• looking dull with frequent yawns
• half closed eyes
• loss of concentration in work
• unable to listen, understand and act
• non synchronization of body and mind

What causes fatigue to seafarers ?

Continue Reading…

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A comparison of United Kingdom Seafarers (both for Officers and Ratings) for the year 2005 and 2006 is done here.

Click here to view the above graph in interactive mode.

Full report of United Kingdom Seafarer Analysis prepared by The Centre for International Transport Management, London Metropolitan University for the year 2005 is here and for 2006 is available here.

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The International Maritime Pilots’ Association (IMPA), International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and the International Shipping Federation (ISF) have come out with a new brochure to ensure that ladders used for pilot transfers are always rigged correctly. This guidelines are useful to shipping companies and seafarers.

Click here to view online version. Here is a video clip on pilot ladders.

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Here is the unimaginable rescue story of scuba divers off Taiwan coast. Tips for survival at sea for 48 hours are given at the end of this real life story.

April 26, Saturday,1030 hours:

• 8 experienced scuba divers (two females and six males) commenced scuba diving between Oluanpi and Chihsingyen, a popular diving spot off Kenting National Park.
• They were to return to their boat at 1130 hours on completion of scuba diving.
• As they failed to return, the skipper of the boat raised alarm and thereafter massive search and rescue operations were started to trace the scuba divers.
• Nobody could be traced

What went wrong ? and Why they could not be traced ?

• Strong currents drifted the scuba divers and they were not aware of this. Finally they drifted more than 100 kilometres from their diving spot.

April 27, Sunday, around midnight:

• Diving groups dive coach 32 year old Ting Po-ling reached Taimali after 11 hours of swimming and raised alarm to rescue the remaining divers. He swam around five kilometres against strong currents and tides.

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An interactive International Marine Insurance Seminar by Lloyd’s Maritime Academy is going to start from April 28. The seminar would go on for three days at Lloyd’s Maritime Academy Training Suite, London. This year the seminar has been extended to include Norwegian, US and German law.

Seminar highlights are:

Day 1

• Marine insurance law: Overview and latest developments
• Hull and machinery insurance: The fundamentals
• War risks and war P&I
• Reinsurance of state insurers and captives
• Brokers duties and the duty of good faith
• Marine liability cover (protection & indemnity) through the P&I clubs

Day 2

• International regulation and ship owners’ limitation of liability
• Claims settlements: Procedures in getting payment from underwriters
• Norwegian marine insurance plan: A different approach to marine insurance
• Workshop - Claims

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Kenichi Horie has sailed in wave powered boat Suntory Mermaid II, a ship constructed out of recycled aluminium from beer cans. Now U.S.born stuntman turned Captain Robert McDonald of the Sea Heart Foundation has built ‘Viking Thor’, a ship made out of recycled ice cream sticks. The ship has sailed from Netherlands on April 08 to reach England. The interesting features of ‘Viking Thor’ are

• 14.9 metres long and 7 metres high
• made out of 15 million recycled ice cream sticks
• more than 6 tons of glue was used
• took five years to complete the ship
• more than 5,000 children from 18 schools in Europe participated in the construction
• will sail this summer to the UK, Iceland, Greenland and Canada, and will finally reach the most southern tip of the USA, Key West in Florida

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Hudong-Zhong Shipbuilding (Group) Co., Ltd at Shanghai, China has delivered the first Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Carrier ‘Dapeng Sun’ built in China. The LNG Carrier was delivered to China LNG Transportation Holding Co., So far only some shipyards in Japan, the Republic of Korea and some European nations have the capability to build special-purpose tankers. Now China has proved its capability to build LNG Carrier. The vessel has been built under an agreement between Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding and Aker Yards in France. The design and technical assistance throughout the entire construction and testing period was provided by Aker Yards.

The interesting features of Dapeng Sun are:

• construction of the first LNG carrier was started late in 2004
• 292 meters long and 43.35 wide
• has a capacity of 147,210 cubic meters (about 70,000 tons)
• costs US$160 million
• can cool down the gas to minus 163 degrees Celsius to allow it to be condensed to a liquid under pressure
• the ship is ABS classed and has a No.96 membrane containment system (under license of GTT).
• the ship will carry LNG from Australia to LNG receiving terminal at Guangdong Province, partly replacing the service now offered by foreign-flagged vessels

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The digital era of seamless global navigation has become a reality now. The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) has launched state of the art digital product Admiralty Vector Chart Service (AVCS). AVCS is designed to provide the mariner with the power and utility of digital charts, fully supported by the reliability, quality and integrity of Admiralty paper charts.

The UKHO, is actively involved in charting the world’s oceans and coastlines for over 200 years. Nearly 70 per cent of world shipping use the charts of UKHO. The UKHO provides navigational products and services to the Royal Navy and merchant marine in compliance with Safety of Life At Sea (SOLAS) regulations.

Through AVCS, the UKHO is meeting the International Hydrographic Organization’s (IHO) aim for a worldwide seamless official consistent vector chart service. The IHO was established in 1921 as an intergovernmental organization to support the safety in navigation and the protection of the marine environment.

The products of UKHO include:

• RNCs (Raster Navigational Charts)
• ENCs (Electronic Navigational charts)
• TotalTide - a Tidal Prediction Program exclusively designed for SOLAS shipping
• Digital List of Lights – an electronic version of one of UKHO’s most popular publications.

The launching of Admiralty Vector Chart Service (AVCS) began at Singapore on April 03 and will finish at London’s Design Museum on April 07. UKHO has developed AVCS as a response to studies that found using ENCs in Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS) with its capability to give real-time situational awareness at sea. The performance of AVCS has been evaluated by different type of vessels namely: oil tanker MT Supremity, aframax oil tanker MT Rio Genoa, chemical tanker Vedrey Fram, container vessel MV CMA CGM Rose, P&O cruise ship Ventura and RN vessels HMS Illustrious and HMS Manchester.

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Yacht transport vessel ‘Yacht Express’ is the world’s largest yacht carrier of its kind. In simple terms Yacht Express is a modern ship with a floating dry dock. Yacht Express is operated by Florida based Dockwise Yacht Transport. The Yacht Express takes only 8 days to complete transatlantic voyage between Florida and the Mediterranean.

The interesting features of Yacht Express are:

• semi-submersible carrier having float-on/float-off loading method
• length: 209 metre
• beam: 32.2 metre
• draft: 5.8 metre
• max. draft submerged: 14 metre
• dock bay (165 metre in length and 31 metre in width) to safely accommodate yachts
• uses electrical propulsion
• has service speed of 18 knots
• has modern amenties like conference room, media room, an atrium with a swimming pool, fitness room, complimentary cabins for ride-aboard crew
• was built in Yantai Raffles Shipyard, China

Here are some photographs of Yacht Express:

Click here to view a 3D animation of the loading procedure.

Click here to view a video clip of Yacht Express.

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Bill Heritage who has been skipper of Yacht Air Apparent for the last 15 years had to abandon the ship due to mutiny by the three member crew. The 7.9 metre yacht was sailing from Auckland to Nelson and started facing rough weather and rough seas.

What happened there after ?

• due to bad weather
  • ships crew experienced seasickness
  • engine failure and total power failure
  • battery gone dead
  • manual cranking of engines failed
  • communication equipments failed
  • all instruments failed
  • could not anchor the yacht
• ships crew experienced fatigue and felt unsafe at sea
• having no other options, the crew activated emergency locater beacon for rescue against the wishes of the skipper
• maritime rescue helicopters successfully rescued the crew and the skipper.
• $24,000 yacht was abandoned at sea
• cost of rescue operation is more than $20,000

Now, the skipper is planning to sue the ships crew to recover the cost of the yacht. The rescue team is of the view that with good seamanship the yacht could have been saved.

Click here for some photographs of the skipper and ships crew.

Click here for some lessons on seamanship.

Was it a mutiny by the ships crew ? Readers can comment.

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Very often we come across news reports about sinking ships. Ships by design are not to sink. Ships are periodically inspected and certified for their seaworthiness to avoid accidents at sea.

Then Why do ships sink ?

• Is it because of ships crew ?
• Is it because of machinery failure ?
• Is it because of external factors like bad weather ?

It is ultimately the ships crew responsible for the ships to sink. Even machinery failure can be avoided by the crew. Understanding the weather pattern and avoiding bad weather is possible.

Here are 10 easy ways to sink a ship.

1. Do not apply your professional skills

• do not update your professional knowledge
• do not learn from others mistakes
• do not listen to your subordinates view
• do not apply your mind in case of emergencies

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World’s First Wave Powered Boat ‘Suntory Mermaid II’ is getting ready to sail this month from Honolulu, Hawai to Kii Suido, Japan. The skipper of the expedition Earth Partnership 2008 is 69 year old Kenichi Horie a well known marine adventurer. The distance is around 4350 miles and is expected to take two and half months to complete.

The interesting features of Suntory Mermaid II built by Tsuneishi Shipbuilding Company are:

• overall length 9.5 metres, beam 3.5 metres, displacement three tons
• twin hulled catamaran, made from 3mm recycled aluminium sheets
• onboard electronic equipments use solar power
• uses dolphin’s tail like twin fins in the bow to absorb energy from pitching motion of the boat for propulsion
• as pitching is absorbed, the boat has improved stability
• has provisions to use sails and out board motor in case of emergency
• speed not more than 5 knots as only wave energy is harnessed.

Continue Reading…

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Now onwards, containers moving from Shanghai to Savannah will be E-tagged to track their movement for safe and efficient delivery. E-tags of door bell size will be embedded in the 20-foot container equivalent units (TEU). The research team of Shanghai International Port (Group) Co have developed these E-tags. The E-tags cost less than ten US dollars and can last for 10 years.

E-tags are capable of

• monitoring loading port and unloading port with date and timings
• updating the information on shipping company’s website in real time
• giving alarm in the website if the container is illegally opened en route
• eliminating smuggling activities in containers

Container ship Ningbo of China Shipping Container Liners Co., Ltd has sailed from Shangai on March 10, with E-tagged containers. The ship is expected to reach Savannah in a month.

Interesting ? Click here to read more.

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The Rs. 232-crore, Oceanography Research Vessel (ORV) Sagar Nidhi joined the fleet of Indian Research Vessels on March 03. The vessel was dedicated to the nation at Chennai by Union Minister for Earth Sciences, Kapil Sibal in the presence of Union Minister of Shipping T.R. Baalu. ORV Sagar Nidhi will be under the control of National Institute of Ocean Technology, Chennai.

Here are some photographs:

Union Minister for Earth Sciences, Kapil Sibal taking salute

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