Final departure from Swan
Clemenceau joins the 'ghost' ships
After 10 years of legal action and an abandoned voyage to dismantlers in India, the 32,780-tonne Clemenceau is ending her days among the 'ghost ships' of recycler Able UK, in Hartlepool.

Over 500 box ships laid up
The idled fleet of container ships around the world rose to 506 vessels, representing 1.34 million TEUs of capacity at the end of April according to AXS-Alphaliner, a Paris-based shipping consultant.

Sale of The Queen of Scandinavia
The sale of former North Sea ferry Queen of Scandinavia (1981/34,093gt), used for the DFDS service from North Shields to Stavanger and Bergen until closure last summer, fell through in May. Recently an accommodation ship at Oskarshamn, Sweden, potential Finnish buyers, who planned a similar future role, failed to come-up with deposits.

New cruise terminal opened
Following a £19 million investment by Associated British Ports' (ABP) Port of Southampton, the new Ocean Terminal came into operation at the port on 9 May. The new terminal, which was officially opened by Chief Executive of Carnival UK, David Dingle, on 29 May, was built to accommodate the growth in cruise passengers, with the numbers passing through the port having doubled since 2005. Southampton handled 289 cruise calls in 2008, which meant a throughput of 900,000 passengers.

Major vessels enter service
Two major new vessels have made their debuts recently with Norfolkline's Scottish Viking arriving in Rosyth from Zeebrugge to open Norfolkline's service on 19 May, before LD Lines introduced Norman Arrow between Dover and Boulogne on 6 June, a little later than first envisaged.

SeaFrance think again
Despite losses of €3 million during April and a 2009 deficit to date of €13.5 million, SeaFrance is expected to reduce a previously announced 650 job cutting programme and will operate a fourth vessel on the Calais-Dover route. The company plans to continue using ro-ro freight ferry SeaFrance Nord-pas-de Calais with the multi-purpose trio of SeaFrance Rodin (2001/33,796gt), SeaFrance Berlioz (2005/33,940gt) and SeaFrance Moliere (2002/30,285gt).

Pembroke route anniversary
The Irish Sea southern corridor link between Pembroke Dock and Rosslare celebrated its 30th anniversary on 22 May with two sailings by Isle of Inishmore (1997/34,031gt), regular route vessel since a move from Dublin-Holyhead services during 2001.

Cork-Swansea start put back
Resumption of a ferry link between Cork and Swansea has been deferred to 2010 with the co-operative established in western Ireland deciding too much of this year's booking season had been lost during efforts to raise funds and secure the ferry Julia (1981/21,699gt), built for Sheerness-Vlissingen service as Olau Britannia, which remains in Finland.

Phoenix charter Athena
Classic International's Athena (1948/16,144gt) is being chartered by German operator Phoenix Kreuzfahrten as a replacement for Alexander von Humboldt (1990/15,343gt), which is under arrest at Bremerhaven because of the collapse of her owners, Dutch-based Club Cruise. Athena will assume the published programme from 6 June to 12 November. Alexander von Humboldt is expected back on 20 December.
Independence makes home
Royal Caribbean has become the first major cruise line to take the bold decision of basing a large ship out of the UK year round. In April 2010, the 3,600-passenger Independence of the Seas (2008/154,407gt) is back for a third summer season, but instead of returning to the Caribbean in the winter, she will continue to sail from Southampton on longer cruises of between 11 and 18 days to the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands.

Winter Olympics Line-up
Four cruise ships have been chartered to provide extra accommodation during the 2010 Winter Olympics, which take place in Vancouver next February. NCL's Norwegian Spirit (1998/75,338gt) will serve exclusively as a floating hotel for visitors to the event, while a reported CAN$76 million has been paid to charter Carnival's Carnival Elation (1998/70,367gt) and Carnival subsidiary Holland America's Statendam (1993/55,451gt) and Oosterdam (2003/81,769gt) to house security personnel.

Unusual Portbury caller
Container ships are usually on long-term charter but one that bucked the trend recently became an unusual caller to Royal Portbury Dock near Bristol on 19 April. She was the German flag container vessel Hansa Magdeburg (18,334gt) that was on a single voyage charter to CSAV, from Chile to Western Europe at a rate of $5,250 per day.

Maiden call for boxboat
MSC Beatrice made her maiden call at the Port of Felixstowe on 6 April as part of Mediterranean Shipping Company's weekly Silk Express Asia-Europe service. Measuring 366m in length and 151,559gt, MSC Beatrice has the largest declared container capacity of any ship currently in service. The vessel is the second of eight in the MSC Daniela class ordered from Samsung Heavy Industries.

Hoo boat goes for scrapping
One of Lapthorn's original small coasters, Hoo Plover, has come to the end of her career and been sold for scrapping. Built by the Yorkshire Dry Dock yard at Hull, the 1,234dwt coaster was owned by John I. Jacobs but managed by Lapthorn and named Hoo Plover.

Silent Service under scrutiny
One of the consequences of the collision between two submerged nuclear submarines in early February has been a more detailed examination of the operation of the deadliest of weapon systems. In response to a Parliamentary question, it was revealed that Royal Navy submarines have been involved in 13 other collisions over the past 21 years. There have also been 240 fires recorded throughout the submarine fleet since 1987, and in 2007 two submariners died in an explosion on HMS Tireless, attributed to system failings.

Fleet bases reshuffle
The UK Government has announced further details of its Maritime Change Programme which set out to reduce over capacity and running costs at the UK's three main naval bases. Having confirmed in 2007 that all would be retained, the MoD has revealed that Portsmouth will eventually become home to all of the RNs aircraft carriers and escorts, including the next generation of frigates, the Future Surface Combatant.

Most powerful construction vessel
STX Norway Offshore AS in Langsten, Norway has delivered the offshore construction vessel Far Samson to Farstad Construction AS. Built to a Rolls-Royce UT 761 CD design, the newbuilding has a length of 400ft (122m) and a beam of 85ft (26m), and has been outfitted for trenching offshore pipelines in depths of up to 1,000m.

First seismic vessel with X-Bow
Spain's Barreras shipyard at Vigo has completed the first seismic vessel to be designed with the innovative X-Bow developed by Norway's Ulstein Design group. The 88.8m by 19m WG Columbus was delivered to WesternGeco, which purchased the original orderer of the vessel, Eastern Echo, back in 2007. Three other seismic ships ordered by Eastern Echo are still to be delivered to WesternGeco, one of which is being finished by the Barreras yard while two others will be completed by Dubai's Drydocks World. The innovative new ships have been designed to prospect oilfields, and all make use of diesel/electric propulsion.

Carnival still adding ships
Ordered when times appeared much better for the cruise industry, 16 ships are currently under construction by the Carnival group for delivery through 2012 at a cost of US$9 billion. Two of these ships, the 3,004-passenger Costa Pacifica and 2,828-passenger Costa Luminosa, were christened last month at Genoa for Costa Crociere.