Menace on the high seas
With another high-profile hijacking of a ship and a valuable cargo near the Horn of Africa, the menace of piracy once again made the headlines in November 2008. In the latest incident, the Saudi-owned very large crude tanker Sirius Star was hijacked by Somali pirates about 450 nautical miles off the coast of Kenya and forced to anchor near the criminals' stronghold at Harardhere. The fully-laden tanker is the largest vessel ever stolen.

QE2 says adieu around the world
Queen Elizabeth 2 arrived at her new home of Dubai on 26 November, ending one chapter in an illustrious career that has so far spanned 40 years, as she is about to begin a second chapter. She was greeted by a large flotilla of yachts and small boats, as well as by the Dubai Royal Yacht.

Changes in the Central Corridor
Arrival of the ro-pax vessel Stena Nordica (2001/24,602gt) on Stena Line's Irish Sea central corridor services from Holyhead in mid-November coincided with the HSS 1500 catamaran Stena Explorer (1996/19,638gt) having her schedule cut to one Dun Laoghaire-Holyhead round trip a day.

Portsmouth debut for Norman Voyager
LD Lines' long-awaited second Portsmouth-Le Havre route vessel Norman Voyager came into service on 6 November and could be joined next summer by a sister ship now under construction at the Visentini Yard in Northern Italy.

One ship for two routes
The new Portsmouth-Santander service, due to be launched by Brittany Ferries in March, will replace one of two weekly round trips from Plymouth. Originally there was talk of using fleet flagship Pont-Aven from Portsmouth and switching Bretagne back to the Plymouth-Santander run for which it was built in 1989.

Pentalina on the move
Pentland Ferries' new catamaran Pentalina finally resumed her protracted delivery voyage to Scotland on 15 November after more than two months in Oman. The 67m craft, purpose-built for the route from Gills Bay to St Margaret's Hope, was handed over by FBMA Marine in August but the 350-passenger/32-car/six-lorry vessel was stranded at Salalha after encountering mechanical problems en route from the Philippines.

Rates alarm for operators
Ferry port MPs want a meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown to protest at a change to the rating system that is landing operators with multi-million pound back-dated bills estimated to top £33 million nationwide. Already Brittany Ferries, Norfolkline, Stena Line and Cobelfret have warned that future expansion and even continuation of services could be in jeopardy.

SpeedFerries in receivership
Dover-based SpeedFerries went into receivership on 12 November, just a week after their only craft, the 86m Incat Speed One, was arrested in Boulogne as the local Chamber of Commerce sought to recover outstanding port charges and taxes.

Ocean Village moves Down Under
Cunard UK's Ocean Village brand is to be wound down, with both its ships being transferred to P&O Australia. Ocean Village Two, the first to go in December, is being renamed Pacific Jewel and will begin operations from her new homeport of Brisbane, displacing Pacific Sun, which moves to Fremantle. Ocean Village will continue to sail from Palma during summer 2009 and 2010 and from Barbados in winter 2009-10. She will move Down Under in autumn 2010 and be based in Auckland.

Black Prince to retire
The British market will lose two popular ships within a few weeks of each other during 2009. In addition to Saga Rose's departure, Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines' Black Prince (1966/11,209gt) is to be retired in October, news which has not come as a surprise following the line's confirmation she would not be refitted to meet new SOLAS 2010 safety regulations.

Island Adventure sold
SeaEscape's day cruise ship, Island Adventure (1976/15,409gt), was sold at auction on 16 October to Florida entrepreneur Glenn Straub for US$3.6 million. However, shortly afterwards, he agreed to sell the ship to the second highest bidder, Anastasios N. Kyriakides, for an additional $100,000, that sum to be given to a shelter for the homeless in Miami. Half of this donation was provided by James Verrillo, co-owner of Imperial Majesty Cruise Line, on the condition that the vessel would not be employed from Port Everglades and thus be a competitor to IMCL.

Celebration cancelled
Thomson Celebration cancelled a 'Taste of Ireland' three-day cruise from Liverpool on 23 October because of anticipated rough weather in the Irish Sea. All the passengers, who had already boarded the vessel, were told they would not be sailing to Dublin and Cork, but remain berthed throughout alongside the industrial surroundings of the Langton Cruise Terminal in Bootle.

China delivers heaviest ship
In early november 2008 China's Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipyard delivered the 318,000dwt Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) Hua San to Singapore's Ocean Tankers as the first ship of its size to be built to common structural rules (CSR).

New owner for Hapag-Lloyd
Germany's Hapag-Lloyd has been acquired by a Hamburg-based consortium headed by Klaus-Michael Kühne and also including the line's previous owner, TUI AG, as well as the city of Hamburg, private bank M. M. Warburg, regional bank HSH Nordbank, and insurers Signal Iduna and Hanse Merkur.

World's first LNG cargo vessels
Norway's Sea-Cargo AS has ordered the first ships in the world that will be fuelled solely with liquefied natural gas (LNG), although a number of dual-fuel ships have been built that can use both LNG and traditional fuel oil. The new cargo ships, to be constructed in India by the Bharati shipyard, will also have a simple mechanical drive propulsion system that will use a Bergen B35:40V12PG main engine driving a controllable pitch propeller through mechanical coupling with a reduction gear.

Slow progress on first of class
The 7,400-tonne submarine Astute has returned to the water after spending a year back inside the giant Devonshire Dock Hall in Barrow for her nuclear fuel to be loaded. The vessel returned to the DDH in October 2007 on completion of initial wet dock trails that included making her first dive.

Support for support ships
The UK MoD has placed contracts worth £250 million with Northwestern Shiprepairers and Shipbuilders (NSL) of Birkenhead and the A&P Group in Falmouth and Newcastle-on-Tyne for the long-term maintenance of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary's fleet of navy support ships. The contractors will maintain 'clusters' of ships providing the necessary upkeep and refit work for the RFA's 16 vessels throughout their service lives, with the ships grouped according to their roles and capabilities.

Assault ship in the dock
With 3 Commando Brigade, her main offensive weapon system, firmly ensconced in combat operations in Afghanistan, HMS Albion is to undergo a timely refit at Devonport Dockyard. It will be the first dry-docking for the amphibious assault ship since she entered service in 2003.

Bears on the prowl
The Russian Navy has demonstrated its re-emergence with the deployment of separate task forces from the Northern and Black Sea Fleets as far afield as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. A four-ship naval group from the Baltic Sea, comprising the nuclear-powered cruiser Pyotr Veliky (Peter the Great), the destroyer Admiral Chabanenko, and support vessels made a number of calls in the Mediterranean prior to crossing the Atlantic for exercises with the Venezuelan Navy in November.

Largest subsea construction vessel delivered
DOF Subsea ASA of Norway has taken delivery of the world's largest and most advanced subsea construction vessel, the 18-knot Skandi Acergy, from Norway's Aker Yards, now controlled by South Korea's STX group. The 157m by 27m ship has been designed for deep water operations, at depths of more than 3,000m, and will work under charter to Acergy for the next eight years.

Another fleet of X-Bows ordered
Offshore shipowner Polarcus of the United Arab Emirates has become the latest company to order X-Bow vessels (see SM Aug 2008). The Dubai-based firm is to have six X-Bow seismic vessels built to the Ulstein SX124, SX133 and SX134 designs by Drydocks World Dubai, all for delivery in late 2009/early 2010. The SX133 and SX134 designs are the first X-Bow ships to receive DNV's ICE-1A class notation, which means that they will be able to operate in Arctic waters.

All this and more in the latest issue of Ships Monthly now on sale