My Ship Time

Ghost Ship WESTERDAM latest: Thailand refused entry to disembark passengers Thailand will not allow WESTERDAM to disembark passengers at the Laem Chabang port, Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Feb 11. Mr Anutin posted a short Facebook message saying he has directed authorities not to allow the Westerdam ship to dock in Thailand. The message was posted after the operator of the vessel announced on Feb 10 the ship will disembark passengers at port in Chon Buri on Feb 11, Kyodo News reported. Feb 10: Hapless cruise ship WESTERDAM with 1257 people on board has become a Flying Dutchman, a ship from techno thriller movie – she’s rejected entry by country after country, port after port, and her present port of destination is unclear. The ship is (was) on a 14-day Taiwan & Japan cruise, she departed Hong Kong on February 1, with 1455 passengers and 802 crew on board. WESTERDAM was scheduled to call Japanese Ishigaki Island, Naha, Okinawa, Nagasaki and Fukuoka

Shipping Gets Smashed by Coronavirus in More Ways Than One The shipping industry tends to do badly when Chinese demand disappoints, but the outbreak of the coronavirus has done more than just damage the amount of cargo that needs to be transported. It’s also preventing many owners from making their ships commercially viable. Giant Capesize carriers that take iron ore and coal to China are now earning less than $2,600 a day, according to the Baltic Exchange in London. That’s a fraction of what they need even to pay their crew, and 93% below a 2019 peak. Supertankers transporting 2 million-barrel cargoes of crude have collapsed about 95% from their high point last year. That’s bad enough, but for a big part of the shipping industry the virus is presenting additional woes: many owners urgently need to have their vessels fitted with equipment called scrubbers at shipyards in China. The kit allows carriers to keep legally burning fuel that would save them millions of dollars a year. The cor

"Modi- Ji , Please...": Indian Crew's SOS Video From Quarantined Japan Ship Coronavirus: In a video recorded from Diamond Express, the Indian crew member appealed to the government and the United Nations to segregate the Indians on board. Panic has struck the crew and passengers of the luxury cruiseliner that has been quarantined off a port in Japan since February 5. An Indian crew member on-board Diamond Express told News channel that the captain of the ship announced today that 66 people have been tested positive for the new coronavirus. He is one of the 160 Indian crew members on the ship.  More than 3,700 passengers and crew are facing a two-week quarantine . Binay Kumar Sarkar, a chef from north Bengal who had earlier gone on social media to appeal to the Indian government for help, told News channel that there was full-fledged panic on-board. In a video recorded from the ship, Mr Sarkar appealed to the government and the United Nations to se

CMA CGM container ship sailing from China reported 6 crew with fever 6 Sri Lankan seamen confirmed ill, suffering fever and high temperature, on board of container ship CMA CGM URAL, which is presently steaming in Gulf of Aden, en route from China to Suez and then Mediterranean / Black sea ports, via Singapore. Ship called Chinese ports as follows: Shenzhen Jan 15; Xiamen Jan 14; Ningbo-Zhoushan Jan 11; YANGSHAN Jan 8-9. Merchant Shipping Association of Sri Lanka was alerted on a mass crew illness in the morning Jan 27. It is not known of course, at present, if seamen are infected with coronavirus, or it’s something else. ETA Suez Jan 30, exact type of disease can be identified only in port with respective medical facilities, though of course, if situation deteriorates and condition of ill seamen will significantly worsen, they’ll have to be medevaced, there are more than enough means, ports and medical facilities in Red sea region. Container ship CMA CGM URAL, IMO 9705079,

Mysterious GPS outages are wracking the shipping industry The call came  in by radio one evening last September, at around 9 p.m. On the line was the master of a tanker, approaching the end of a monthlong journey from the Port of South Louisiana and carrying more than 5,000 metric tons of ethanol. The message was urgent: The ship’s GPS signal had suddenly disappeared—leaving the crew to navigate Cyprus’s shoreline in the dark. On the other end of the line was the pilots’ office at the Vasiliko oil terminal, whose staff oversees shipping traffic at Vasiliko’s harbor on Cyprus’s arid, palm-fringed southern coast. Stelios Christoforou, the pilot on duty, recognized the gravity of the situation right away. In daylight, an experienced ship captain can maneuver using paper maps, markers, and the coastline as guides. But at night, GPS becomes a critical tool in unfamiliar waters—especially near Cyprus, where NATO and Russian warships roam. And any accident could spill the tanker’s car

Government approves model pact with foreign countries for seafarers’ competency certificate – education The government on Wednesday said it has approved a model pact with foreign countries for recognition of seafarers’ competency certificates. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here. This will pave the way for mutual recognition of maritime education and training of seafarers by the countries involved. “The proposed bilateral MoU will enable India and another country with which such an MoU may be entered, to mutually recognise maritime education and training, certificates of competency, endorsements, documentary evidence of training and medical fitness certificates, issued to the seafarers who are citizens of respective countries,” the Shipping Ministry said in a statement. The pact will facilitate unilateral recognition certificates issued by the Directorate General of Shipping to Indian seafarers by another cou