TUI TO ABANDON CP SHIPS NAME
Germany's TUI has confirmed it will abandon the CP Ships brand name, most probably by the end of 2007, on completion of its integration with Hapag-Lloyd Container Line (see SM, January 2006). However, TUI will first allow CP Ships time to complete its own brand consolidation, which it launched in April 2005. TUI successfully completed its $2.3 billion takeover of CP Ships late last year and plans to merge the carrier, a consolidation of nine historic shipping companies, into Hapag-Lloyd over the next 12 to 18 months.

MØLLER-MÆRSK TO DELETE NAMES
AP Møller-Mærsk plans to delete both P&O Nedlloyd and Sealand from its ships and equipment in favour of Mærsk Line over the next 12 months. Royal P&O Nedlloyd NV, the result of a merger between P&O Containers and Nedlloyd Lines in 1996, was acquired by the Danish group in August 2005 while Sea-Land Service was purchased in December 1999

BANK LINE EXPANDS
Seeing the world from a cargo/passenger ship's perspective is a rare opportunity and for passengers on the four round-the-world Bank Line vessels it is about to get better. The four ships - Foylebank, Speybank, Arunbank and Teignbank - are about to be refurbished and modernised in a major refit by owners Andrew Weir Shipping before embarking on a new two-year schedule. These British-registered freighters depart monthly from Hull and Dunkirk, travelling via the Panama Canal to Papeete in Tahiti, the islands in the South Pacific, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Singapore, and then via the Suez Canal, return to Europe in about 110-120 days.

CROISIEUROPE TO THE SEA
French river cruise operator CroisiEurope, is building its first ocean going cruise ship. To be named Marco Polo, the shallow drafted vessel will be built in Belgium by the Meuse & Sambre Chantier Naval yard in Namur. Able to accommodate 200 passengers, she will be delivered in April 2007 and deployed on cruises along the Croatian coast.

SEACO APPOINT BROKERS
London shipbroker Galbraiths has been given exclusive rights by Sea Containers to sell vessels including the cruise ships Walrus and Silja Opera, the passenger/car ferry Finnjet and three high speed craft all identified as surplus to requirements. Silja Opera, built as a ferry in 1980 and converted for cruising in 1992, is currently employed in Silja Line's Helsinki-Stockholm service. Walrus has latterly been on charter in the Far East and is available for inspection in the Strait of Jahore, near Singapore. Fast craft on the market are the 74m catamarans Seacat Scotland and Seacat France which both spent much of last year laid up at Sunderland, and the monohull Superseacat One, latterly in use on Silja Line's Helsinki-Tallinn link.

BOMB IN THE WASH
An unexploded Air Drop bomb was destroyed in the sea off the Norfolk coast after its discovery on board the 114m Bahamas-registered dredger Arco Dijk following dredging operations in the Wash. The vessel, with ten crew onboard, made the discovery at 0600 on 6 January, and immediately reported it to the Coastguard. The Royal Naval Bomb Disposal Team from Portsmouth proceeded to the area to make the device safe. The dredger, pictured below, was on passage from the Lincolnshire dredging area to Amsterdam when the discovery was made.

SPEEDFERRIES FREIGHT OPTION
Directors of SpeedFerries are reported to have looked at the terminals in Dover and Calais which have been idle since Hoverspeed closed down last November. Founder and chief executive Curt Stavis is also talking of starting a cross-Channel freight service with rates calculated on a different system to that employed by existing operators and Eurotunnel.

ENGLISH CHANNEL MINI-CRUISE PLAN
Coban Cruises has announced plans for an English Channel mini-cruise operation with daily departures for 22-hour round trips from Portsmouth via Guernsey to Le Havre and back. The Portsmouth-based company says it wants to provide a short-term cruising experience for people from the UK and France and claims market research suggests the operation could be quickly profitable and lead to the introduction of additional tonnage. Although Coban Cruises do not identify the vessel to be used initially, publicity material includes external and interior photographs of currently sales-listed Baltic mini-cruise vessel Silja Opera, some of them dating back to the ship's earlier days as Sally Albatross.

MORE SHUFFLING AT CARNIVAL
Regal Princess (1991/70,285gt) is moving to P&O Australia in spring 2007. Currently the oldest ship in the Princess Cruises fleet, she will replace the problem-plagued steam turbine-driven Pacific Sky (1984/46,087gt), which ends her P&O career on 7 May. Pacific Sky has been sold to Spanish operator Pullmantur, which has long been interested in acquiring the ship.
Pacific Sky was delivered as Fairsky by Sitmar Cruises from French builders in March 1984 and catered primarily to the US West Coast market on cruises from Los Angeles to the Mexican Riviera and to Alaska. She was renamed Sky Princess when Sitmar was purchased by P&O and replaced Fair Princess in the Australian market in 2001. Pacific Sky has recently been based in Singapore for a series of cruises to Thailand and Malaysia.

FRIGATE RE-FLAGGING
The Chilean Navy took delivery of the first two ex-Dutch Navy frigates at a handover ceremony held at Den Helder on 16 December. The Latorre (ex-Jacob van Heemskerck) and Blanco Encalada (ex-Abraham van der Hulst) will arrive at Valparaiso in March.

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT
The Military Sealift Command is to adopt a new name and headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia. The US Government organisation which operates 133 predominantly civilian manned vessels ranging from various combat supply vessels and tankers, to hospital ships, ocean tugs, survey ships, and pre-positioned container ships amongst others, will become the Military Sealift Fleet Support Command.

WRECK PROTECTED
30 years since the Great Lakes bulk carrier Edmund Fitzgerald (1958/13,632grt) sank in a storm in Lake Superior with the loss of all hands, restrictions are to be placed on diving on the wreck site. The Government of Ontario is to designate the wreck, and those of sailing ships Hamilton and Scourge lost in the 1812 war, as Protected Marine Archaeological Sites.

AFTER LIFE
The pilot house and a section of the bow of the Great Lakes bulk carrier Lewis G, Harriman (1923/4,535grt) have been saved from the scrapyard. The four-storey section was purchased by Marc and Jill Vander Meulen and has been transported by barge to DeTour Village in Michigan where it will be used as a cottage.