Overseas Luxmar - ship safe, company in trouble

The oil products/chemical tanker Overseas Luxmar arrived at anchor this morning and will move to Imperial Oil. Built in 1998 by Halla Engineering and Heavy Industries in Samho, South Korea, the ship measures 28,357 gross tons and 45,999 deadweight tonnes.
It started life as Petrobulk Pollux, becoming Luxmar in 2001 and Overseas Luxmar in 2005. In its first iteration it flew the flag of Panama, then changed to Marshall Islands in 2001. When it took the Overseas name it went under the US flag (non-Jones Act), but returned to Marshall Islands in October of this year.
The ship's operators, Overseas Ship Management Group (OSG) is one of the world's largest tanker companies and is traded on the New York Stock exchange. On November 16 it filed for creditor protection under the US Chapter 11 statute, as a means of  reorganizing and dealing with financing and debt issues.
It is expected that OSG may sell off some of its US assets, such as the former Maritrans tug/ tanker barge operation.
OSG also has a Canadian arm, OSG Overseas Ship Management (Canada) Inc, which managed the tanker Overseas Shirley, but its Canadian registry was closed October 12. The ship was transferred to the Marshall Islands registry and management assigned to OSG's Athen's based operation. It was brought under Canadian flag in 2006 to carry crude oil from Whiffen Hd, NL to Portland, ME, and other Canadian ports, but that trade dropped off and was taken up by other ships. OSG has also brought in foreign flagged ships for this work on coasting licenses, but has not done so since August.
As of July OSG had a fleet of over 100 tankers, including 43 crude, 45 product, 4 gas, and under the US flag 12 tankers (2 non- Jones Act) 7 ATBs and 2 lighters. Of these 64% were owned and the balance chartered. Overseas Luxmar may be in the latter category, but it is hard to tell.

Samuel Plimsoll - a name to reckon with

Samuel Plimsoll was an expert on the subject of shipping coal. Born in Bristol, England in 1824, he was horrified by the loss of life resulting from unsafe loading practices on so called "coffin ships" . He began to campaign for safer conditions for seafarers and was elected to the British Parliament. Despite many setbacks he was ultimately successful in seeing legislation that established regulations to, among other things, define the maximum loads that could be carried by individual ships.
Initially it was the British Board of Trade, but it is now all classification societies (such as Lloyd's Register, the American Bureua of Shipping, Det Norske Veritas, etc.,) that calculate that safe load, and thus establish the minimum freeboard for each ship. On each ship, marked amidships, at the loaded waterline, is a symbol and "log" which shows the safe freeboard in various sea conditions (Winter North Atlantic being the most restrictive) both in salt and fresh water, summer and winter.
Plimsoll also fought for the rights of seamen to refuse duty if they were placed in unsafe conditions. Until his time, signed-on sailors would be jailed for refusing duty. Plimsoll had to fight powerful shipowning forces in Parliament to get the reforms through, and he won the enmity of many. Some owners protested by painting the Plimsoll mark, as it came to be known, on the funnels of their ships as a form of protest. Fortunately Plimsoll's ideas prevailed and still today, more 120 years later, Plimsoll Marks are found on every seagoing ship. Inspection authorities refuse a ship permission to go to sea if it does not have a valid "load line" (i.e. a Plimsoll Mark and corresponding certificate).
The bulker Alpha now in port to load grain, is operated by a company called Load Line Marine. Their company's funnel mark is a version of the Plimsoll Mark (not as a form of protest, I hope).

Here is a typical Plimsoll Mark found amidships on a loaded ship:

To the left is the ship's draft, in imperial and metric. (This ship is drawing exactly 34 feet of water)

In the centre is the Plimsoll Mark, a 12 inch diameter disc, with 18 inch long horizontal line, marking the ships loaded waterline in summer conditions. The letters L R represent Lloyd's Register, the ship's classification society, which assigned the load line while the ship was under construction.

To the right is a log representing various sea conditions. The bars to the left represent fresh water. The top bar should read TF for Tropical Fresh water (it has been obliterated and should be repainted) and below it F for fresh water.

The right facing bars read from top to bottom: T for Tropical, S for summer (the photo was taken in summer, and the ship is loaded accordingly). Below these and not visible, are W for Winter and WNA for Winter North Atlantic. Had this picture been taken in winter, it would have a foot or two of additional freeboard for safety purposes.

The allowable draft / freeboard of course has an effect on the amount of cargo a ship can carry, so its deadweight tonnage (the weight in  tonnes of cargo, stores, fuel, crew and passengers) will vary with draft / freeboard.

On this blog, when a ship's deadweight tonnage is noted, it is in summer conditions.

HMCS Toronto - heading to the shipyard

1. HMCS Toronto glides through the Narrows this morning on the way to HMC Dockyard.

It was announced yesterday that HMCS Toronto will be heading to Halifax Shipyard later this work for work prior to an overseas deployment. This is welcome news for the yard which had to lay off some people after completing the refit of the ferry Atlantic Vision last week.
The same announcement stated that CCGS Alfred Needler and CFAV Firebird were going to Shelburne for refit work, resulting in the recall of some of the laid off workers there.

2. A shore party disembarks to a RHIB.

3. The forecastle crew stands by forward.

San Francisco Express - another big one

Hapag-Lloyd's second big post-Panamax ship arrived at dusk today. San Francisco Express is a sister to Busan Express which began calling last month. These ships manage to cram 6,750 TEU into a 300m x 40m hull. That works out to 75,590 gross tons and 85,400 deadweight. The ship was built in 2004 by Daewoo's Koje yard in South Korea.
Several OOOCL ships have been given Express names, and they are post-Panamax ships too, but slightly smaller in terms of carrying capacity.
These ships have been bumped from Asia/Med/Europe service by even larger ships, thus sustaining the trickle down theory. That theory is that the largest ships will always serve the Asia/Med/Europe service and will displace other ships that will then run transatlantic. All bets on this theory may be off in 2014 when the expanded Panama Canal opens.

Alpha finally comes in to load

After lying at anchor since November 19, the bulker Alpha finally moved in to pier 28 this afternoon. It will begin loading its grain cargo in the morning. The ship had to wait for Carol to complete its top-off load. That work was completed last night. As a relatively low value cargo the ship will probably only work during regular hours, with no overtime for longshoremen, so it will be here for several days. That will give the crew a few days ashore after gazing on the city, but out of reach, for two weeks.
(See photyos of the ship on its arrival by scrolling back to Novemner 19.)

Bedford Basin helo ops

It was an unusual sight in Bedford Basin today to see three Canadian warships riding at anchor, all ready for helicopter operations. The safety nets around their helo decks were lowered, but I only saw one 'copter operating when I was there.

1. Left to right: Iroquois, St.John's, Charlottetown. Ville de Québec

2. Charlottetown Ville de Québec nets down and ready.

3. St.John's also ready.

4. Sea King casts its shadow on Iroquois on approach.

5. In position.

6. And down.

Atlantic Vision out of drydock

Marine Atlantic's Atlantic Vision sailed this afternoon from Halifax Shipyard. The ship arrived in Halifax for the first time October 27 and entered the Novadock floating drydock for maintenance.
Using her thrusters she wiggled out of the drydock on her own, but did use the tugs Atlantic Willow and Atlantic Oak to turn once clear of the dock. She then proceeded to number one anchorage area for a compass swing before heading to sea.

Having completed her summer service between North Sydney and Argentia, the ship may now be on standby to fill in for Highlanders or Blue Puttees if needed, but otherwise will spend a quiet winter alongside. It will be spring however before the crew can get out and complete the much needed repainting of the main blue colour of the hull.