WorkBoat June 2023

FEATURES

16 Focus: Substitutes

A closer look at alternative fuels.

18

Vessel Report: Dig it

The dredging market is steady, but could be busier.

26 Cover Story: Yearbook

• New owners for several shipyards • Inland waterways operators see improved barge demand • For tugs, better propulsion and more crew comfort • Offshore oil and gas market gains steam as offshore wind stumbles

• Passenger vessels expect another strong summer season

BOATS & GEAR

22 On the Ways

• All American Marine delivers offshore wind survey vessel

• Rodriguez delivers 1,600-hp pusher tug to Weeks Marine • Chesapeake Shipbuilding delivers 180-passenger riverboat to American Cruise Lines • ACI Boats to build whale-watching tour boat

36 Safeguard

To improve safety, find out what occurs on your vessel

AT A GLANCE

NEWS LOG

The Imperial River Transport towboat Hailey Nicole at the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers in Pittsburgh. Jeffrey Bowser Fort Frick Photography

Back to normal ... almost

The pandemic is of cially over. At least as far as reporting on the workboat industry goes.

I’m not an epidemiologist. I don’t study and investigate the causes and sources of diseases. Thus, I have no idea if Covid or another similar infectious disease will return and wreak havoc on the marine industry and the world.

But for now, it has been refreshing to be able to write again about the nuts and bolts of the workboat industry, whether it’s designing and building boats, or operating them.

And the main sectors we cover have been busy in the past year getting back to business, as we report in our annual Yearbook issue that begins on page 26.

After a couple of tough years, inland tug and barge operators started to return to normal last year. Now, with barges in equilibrium and demand relatively strong, only weather and the ongoing mariner shortage are holding the industry back.

Barge rates have remained high, boosting revenues, largely due to the barge supply balance as fewer barges are being built or replaced due to the high cost of steel. Other barges, especially in the tank barge eet, are being removed for regulatory inspections.

“Demand has been pretty robust in many sectors, and folks have some optimism that this will continue,” Jennifer Carpenter, president and CEO of the American Waterways Operators, said.

“As bright spots, I see a supply and demand equilibrium [of barges] and a return to pre-Covid pro ts," Mer-

ritt Lane, president and CEO, Canal Barge Company Inc., New Orleans, told WorkBoat

A sector that got beat up by Covid is the passenger vessel industry. Now, you no longer need to mask up when you ride a dinner or tour boat, a big relief to operators.

“I talk to a lot of people, East Coast, West Coast and Midwest,” said Capt. Alan Bernstein, past president of the Passenger Vessel Association (PVA) and owner of BB Riverboats, Newport, Ky. “Many people are having a good start to the season and reporting very good advance sales for tours and charters.”

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NOVEMBER 29DECEMBER 1, 2023

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Second woman certified marine chemist

Iamcurrently on inactive reservist duty with the Coast Guard and my friend, Lt. Kayla Aird, is an active Coast Guard reservist in San Diego. She recently achieved an amazing accomplishment in the maritime industry and has been a true inspiration to me. Lt. Aird is the 741st certi ed marine chemist in the U.S. This may not sound like much to some people, but she is only the second woman in the U.S. to achieve this title. She pushed through hours of advanced school classes while on active duty and conquered the grueling supervised hours of tank crawling and paperwork all the way to the oral board while a reservist in San Diego. Not only did she achieve this title, but Kayla also pushed ahead to start her own company.

I am amazed at her dedication and work ethic. Kayla is proud of her ac-

complishments but won’t reach out for praise. Her story needs to be told so that others can be inspired.

Kelsey Holford Spokane, Wash.

Wants more offshore wind coverage

JimRedden’s article on offshore wind was a great beginning but I was left wanting more (April 2023, WorkBoat, “Mixed Forecasts”).

I would love to see you discuss more in depth the whole picture including the points of view from the shing industry, conservationists, European companies affected by the Jones Act, and the possible nancial ties that some wind generation companies might have with elected of cials who seem to be ramrodding wind farm development through governmental regulatory agencies without customary environmental impact studies.

My attendance the last two years at the Paci c Marine Expo has provided me with a much different picture about wind energy than the promotional articles oating around about jobs and new power sources. Your publication has fed me a nice mixture of wind energy’s pros and cons. I would love to see all the puzzle pieces put together.

Greg Martz Senior Business Development Madden Industrial Craftsmen Seattle

Caterpillar not

WorkBoat encourages readers to write us about anything that appears in the magazine, on WorkBoat.com or pertains to the marine industry. To be published, letters must include the writer’s address and a daytime phone number. Email: dkrapf@divcom.com

70 YEARS COOLING

R.W. Fernstrum is committed to providing long-lasting, quality heat exchangers. Our sales and engineering team will work with you to custom design a solution that meets the needs of your vessel and operating conditions.

Our

Marine Headset Systems can mean the difference between an operation from hell, and a hell of an operation.

David Clark Marine Headset Systems

Crews on board patrol boats, fire/rescue craft, offshore service vessels, tugs, and other workboats must perform a variety of complex operations. Wind noise, loud engines and pounding through rough waters can make boat crew communication extremely challenging.

David Clark Marine Headset Systems offer clear communication and rugged reliability in the harshest marine environments, while enhancing the safety and situational awareness of boat crew members.

Call 800-900-3434 (508-751-5800 Outside the USA) to arrange a system demo or visit www.davidclark.com for more information.

BY JOEL MILTON

Milton

On the Water

Don’t take anything for granted — Part II

Decking on a conventional tug or towboat will never be a safe space, whether for millennials or anyone else. It’s inherently risky. And while the risks may be mitigated, they can never be eliminated.

Many young workers were raised by dangerously over-protective helicopter parents and received subpar schooling. They may have underdeveloped innate survival instincts, especially for what is needed in a dynamic industrial workplace.

The harsh reality on tugs is that a new “greenhorn” deckhand with no previous tug experience must initially be treated very much like a toddler who is looking for the nearest electric outlet to stick a fork into.

Members of the baby boom, Generation Jones and Generation X are fully responsible for the broad state of incompetence their children, with their participation awards in tow, often bring into the workforce, but it’s our obligation to remedy it. It’s no easy task, nor should it be. We’re just reap-

Captain’s Table

Spring means boating safety

With the spring navigation season and the annual celebration of Safe Boating Week, it’s a good time to talk about boating safety.

ing what was sown.

Once out of childhood, which for many is sometimes a very lengthy period, most people become more resistant with age to learning new things, especially things we believe we already know. It’s simply human nature. Today, the adage, “you never stop learning” is debatable. And Mark Twain’s all-ages dictum maintains its powerful, eternal truth: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

Occasionally you’ll come across someone with good “radar” — a person that has enough selfawareness to know when they just don’t know. This person also has an ego flexible enough to allow them to throw themselves into the necessary learning without fear or hesitation. But this is unusual.

The expression “fake it till you make it,” while not entirely new, is now thoroughly embedded into the culture.

In the end, there is no silver bullet. Persistence and, above all, a generous amount of patience, are necessary if you hope to get anywhere. And the same applies if they’re genuinely trying to learn and improve.

boaters were required to have some form of license or at a minimum carry proof that they have passed a training course which, among other things, covered the rules-of-the-road. While I recognize that this might be difficult to administer, it would be a positive step forward that would help to avoid future accidents.

BY CAPT. ALAN BERNSTEIN

Over the past several years, I have grown increasingly concerned by what I see to be a lack of general boating knowledge by recreational boaters. The abuse of alcohol and other substances while operating recreational watercraft further complicates this growing problem.

I’ve been a mariner since 1970. I have seen incidents and avoided many others that involve recreational boaters and commercial vessels. I firmly believe that an untold number of accidents have been avoided because of the knowledge and proficiency of licensed mariners. At the same time, U.S. commercial vessel operators continue to attain high levels of safety through rigorous training and far-reaching government regulation.

So, shouldn’t recreational boaters also be held to a high standard of proficiency and knowledge?

For the good of the boating public nationwide, it would be a positive step forward if all recreational

Our nation has taken solid steps to regulate motor vehicles and the states are responsible for testing and issuing licenses to citizens to operate motor vehicles. So, have we reached the point that the same should be done for recreational boaters? Should they be better educated and possibly regulated more stringently? I believe the U.S. has reached this point and it is necessary to begin discussing how we can most efficiently improve the proficiency of recreational boaters and, as a result, protect everyone who operates on the water.

Whether aboard a towboat, a commercial passenger vessel or a recreational vessel, our waterways are for everyone to use and enjoy. But we must make a national investment in safety by broadening the education and training of the recreational boating community.

Editor’s note: This column first appeared in the June 2019 issue of WorkBoat

Joel

works on towing vessels. He can be reached at joelmilton@ yahoo.com.

Alan Bernstein, owner of BB Riverboats in Cincinnati, is a licensed master and a former president of the Passenger Vessel Association. He can be reached at 859-292-2449 or abernstein@ bbriverboats.com.

Energy Level

Getting power to the people

BY JIM REDDEN, CORRESPONDENT

Lost among the commentary on U.S. offshore wind’s in ation and supply chain woes is the daunting challenge of getting electricity to all homes and businesses on the mainland.

To achieve the Biden administration’s goal of deploying 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind power by 2030, “we must recognize immediately that the transmission constraints must be addressed,” said Jeffery Dennis, deputy director for transmission at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) newly created Grid Deployment Of ce. “The highest capacity [transmission] lines often don’t reach the coast.”

Dennis outlined the DOE initiatives during a Feb. 22 Reuters webinar that examined the needed modernization and expansion of the onshore electrical grid to harness the full potential of offshore wind at an affordable cost. “Our focus is on assuring the deployment of grid infrastructure at scale to ensure we’re providing electricity to everyone, everywhere.”

The Grid Deployment Of ce was established in August 2022, following passage of the generational Infrastructure Act and the In ation Reduction Act, which Dennis described as “the largest investment ever in the deployment of clean energy technologies.” Among the components in the grid expansion toolbox is supporting commercial development through low-cost loans and grants.

“When we talk about transmission, we have to recognize that independent estimates have found that we need to expand the capacity of existing transmission systems by as much as 60 percent by 2030 and may even need to triple existing capacity by 2050,” he said.

“If we maintain our current pace of transmission capacity expansion, which has been about one percent a year over the last decade and declining, estimates

have shown that we will lose as much as 80 percent of the greenhouse gas emission reduction that we expected to come from the full implementation of

the In ation Reduction Act. We need to increase the pace of capacity expansion by at least two percent a year,” he said.

WorkBoat Composite Index

WorkBoat stocks dip 4.5% in April

The WorkBoat Composite Index lost 145 points in April, or 4.5%. For the month, losers topped winners 13-11.

Among the leading percentage gainers in April was Arcosa Inc., which gained about 7%. Arcosa’s Inland Barge Group, comprised of Arcosa Marine Products Inc., is a leading

manufacturer of barges.

Arcosa’s Transportation Products segment revenues were up 43% driven by solid volume growth in both the barge and steel components businesses. Adjusted segment EBITDA increased over 100% and margins expanded to 13.4%.

Arcosa received barge orders of

$122 million during the quarter. These orders primarily, for hopper barges, extend the company’s backlog into 2024. Arcosa ended the quarter with a total barge backlog of $279 million and the company expects to deliver approximately 70% of the barges during 2023.

“Our first quarter results also highlighted the potential of our cyclical business,” Antonio Carrillo, president and CEO, told analysts during the company’s first-quarter earnings call April 28. “In Transportation Products, we improved margins by 450 basis points as volumes increased and created significant operating leverage. Our backlog for our barge business at the end of the first quarter is at the highest level in three years and now provides production visibility into 2024.”

For the complete up-to-date WorkBoat Stock Index, go to: www.workboat.com/resources/workboat-composite-index

Inland Insider

China and US barge demand

China is losing population and its birth rate is falling. This might seem like a faraway development, but the U.S. barge industry should take note.

With Arcosa’s “market-leading positions and opportunities across our portfolio to capitalize on increased infrastructure spending I am very optimistic about our future.” — David Krapf

Many of these dry bulk carriers depend directly on business with China. Any weakening of demand, whether because China is buying less to feed livestock or less to feed a dwindling and aging population, could have serious repercussions for barging as well as for U.S. farmers.

BY PAMELA GLASS

This is because the Red Tiger is a very big, hungry consumer of U.S. grains, most notably soybeans. In fact, U.S. agricultural exports of soybeans to China hit a record high in 2022, making China the largest export market for the second year in a row, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Despite supply chain problems and pandemicinduced global closures, China is the world’s largest soybean importer, the USDA noted, accounting for nearly 60% of global soybean trade and half of U.S. soybean export value. China is forecast to be the biggest U.S. agricultural export market for the third consecutive year during the 2023 fiscal year.

Moving all these grains to market is primarily the job of covered river barges. They pick up cargoes from river locations along the Mississippi and take them to the Port of New Orleans and the Port of South Louisiana to be loaded on ships heading East.

Now comes a recent study from S&P Global Commodity Insights, a provider of energy and commodities information, that could worry barge operators. It reports that China’s population dropped in 2022 for the first time in 60 years. The Chinese birth rate has also fallen to its lowest level ever recorded, despite the one-child policy being abandoned in 2016.

“A demographic shift is taking place in the country that has been a driving force in agricultural demand and trade over the past 30 years,” S&P analysts wrote in “China’s Aging Demographics: What does it mean for food and commodities?”

“This shift could potentially slow China’s growth dramatically from what food and agricultural markets have become accustomed to,” the report said, noting that a similar trend happened in Japan in the early 1990s.

“The implications are huge,” said Ken Ericksen, a senior vice president at S&P Global in Memphis, Tenn., adding that a future drop in Chinese demand for U.S. grains could affect barge demand.

Pamela Glass is the Washington, D.C., correspondent for WorkBoat. She reports on the congressional committees and federal agencies that affect the maritime industry, including the Coast Guard, Marad and Army Corps of Engineers.

Nor’easter

Politicians plant their flags on offshore wind

Af ter months of headlines about dead whales and offshore wind projects, New Jersey politicians are staking out positions with an eye to 2023 state Senate elections and the 2024 Congressional races.

New Jersey Republican congressmen Reps. Jeff Van Drew and Chris Smith convened a public meeting in March to demand a suspension of offshore wind projects, drawing an over ow crowd of hundreds to a seaside auditorium in Van Drew’s congressional district.

In April New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration announced nearly $2 million in funding for new environmental studies, including a whale detection buoy off Atlantic City. State of cials had been getting pounded in the news media since December, when groups opposed to wind projects began claiming that whale strandings were linked to geotechnical survey vessels working offshore.

On April 11 Republican state Sens. Declan O’Scanlon and Ed Durr introduced a resolution “urging the state and federal governments to place an immediate moratorium on all sonar testing and wind turbine mapping in response to the surge of unexplained marine wildlife deaths along the coast of New Jersey.”

The ght is rapidly escalating. The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration argued strenuously that survey technology has been used for decades without evidence of causing marine mammal deaths.

Democratic legislators sought to re back with an April 24 conference in Long Branch, N.J. There Rep. Frank Pallone

Jr., D-N.J., asserted “the science has not linked the whale deaths to offshore wind activities. Climate change is the biggest threat to marine mammals.”

Pallone and Sen. Cory Booker, DN.J. promoted legislation – the “Clean Ocean and Safe Tourism (COAST) Anti-Drilling Act” – that would prevent BOEM from issuing offshore oil and gas leases anywhere from the Northeast to the Straits of Florida.

That’s the kind of legislation that for many years has been a crowd-pleaser in East Coast states – fearful of what an oil spill would do to their tourism economies – whether they are dominated by Republican or Democratic lawmakers.

Now offshore wind has been pushed into a similar debate. Activists in beach resort communities say they will be devalued by offshore wind industrializing the seascape, and commercial shermen say they are being shut out of productive waters.

BY KIRK MOORE, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Contributing

Editor Kirk Moore was a reporter for the Asbury Park Press for over 30 years before joining WorkBoat in 2015. He has also been an editor for WorkBoat’s sister publication, National Fisherman, for over 25 years.

Pallone cast the choice as “unnecessary and dangerous drilling off our coast that could drench our oceans and marine wildlife in oil and increase emissions. That’s exactly why we must continue to transition to a clean economy and develop renewable energy sources.”

New Jersey’s 2023 state legislative elections could be an early test of how potent the pro- and anti-wind power sentiments are. The state Senate’s 40 seats are dominated by 25 Democratic members, a powerful advantage for the Murphy administration.

BY DANIEL J. HOERNER

Legal Talk

Stop-work authority is a win-win

Many view stop-work authority as an underused or hollow “feel good” practice that should rarely be implemented. But this proactive safety measure should be embraced and exercised by employers and workers alike.

The underlying premise of stop-work authority is to permit anyone involved in business activity to halt operations when a danger or risk of an accident, injury or damage is perceived. Theoretically, a stop-work order can prevent accidents before they happen.

The effectiveness of stop-work authority is only as good as those who allow it or exercise it. In my three decades of litigation practice, I have heard too often from workers on the front line that they would never seriously consider invoking the policy, primarily out of fear of repercussion or being deemed a problem employee. On the other hand, management nearly always stands firm that

Insurance Watch

Holistic risk management

Recently I read about a mooring bollard failure at a Mississippi shipyard that caused a collision between a drillship and cargo vessel that resulted in almost $5 million in damage to the ships and shipyard.

unfettered stop-work authority is an essential part of risk management and that no worker should hesitate to use it when an unsafe situation is believed to exist. Anecdotally, there is often some degree of truth to both opposing viewpoints.

If stop-work authority is going to serve as a viable tool in promoting safety and reducing risk of injury or loss at the workplace, then it needs to be firmly entrenched as part of a company’s safety culture, from the upper levels of management down to the boots on the ground.

First, it should be well defined and reduced to writing in a company’s safety rules or procedures manual. Second, the policy must be expressly and unequivocally communicated throughout the ranks of each business so that the rule is known and understood by all. And finally, all personnel must practice what they preach and recognize that a stop-work order is not something that can be either used arbitrarily or ignored when it is invoked.

Reinforcing the policy at safety meetings can go a long way in encouraging an appreciation of the value of a meaningful stop-work authority practice that is respected at all levels.

tant things relating to insurance and risk management: The importance of holistic thinking about risk, the importance of preventative maintenance, and the importance of the resources your insurance company offers for risk control.

BY DAN BOOKHAM

Dan Bookham is a vice president with Allen Insurance & Financial. He specializes in longshore, offshore and shipyard risk.

He can be reached at 1-800-236-4311 or dbookham@ allenif.com.

The bollard broke away from the dock due to strong winds pushing on the tied-up vessel, which then drifted into the channel, hitting the cargo ship. There were no injuries or pollution issues, but the incident affected multiple insurance policies and caused huge headaches for the owners and management of the shipyard and vessels.

The National Transportation Safety Board said there were several contributing factors that caused the bollard to snap at its base. Among them were age, corrosion, and modifications to allow for more lines. Additionally, there were other factors that could well have contributed, including the increasing size of commercial vessels and the absence of a regulatory bollard inspection regime. Each of these on its own would not necessarily trigger alarm bells but collectively could have caused a significant mishap.

This story reminds me of at least three impor-

Holistic risk management means trying to account for all the variables as part of a cohesive risk review rather than running through a checklist without considering how each element plays off each other. An older bollard, for example, isn’t a risk in and of itself, but its level of corrosion and the bulk of the vessels using the dock might change the equation.

A preventive maintenance schedule helps you organize and prioritize maintenance tasks so you can create the best possible working conditions and life span for your equipment and infrastructure. By conducting regular preventive maintenance drawing on holistic risk management, you can ensure your equipment continues to operate efficiently and safely.

Everyone should keep up with preventative maintenance, but sometimes other pressures intervene. One of the jobs of an effective manager is to resist those pressures and stick to preventative maintenance plans. The pay-off in the long run is reduced costs, reduced unplanned downtimes and safer work environments.

Daniel J. Hoerner is a maritime attorney with Mouledoux, Bland, Legrand & Brackett LLC. He can be reached at 504-595-3000 or dhoerner@mblb. com.

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Marad names Small Shipyard Grant Program recipients

News Bitts

Coast Guard funding bill moves forward

InApril, the Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee approved H.R. 2741, the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2023, which will authorize funding for the Coast Guard. The bill now awaits consideration by the full House of Representatives. It provides $14.24 billion for the Coast Guard for fi scal year 2024 and $14.78 billion for fi scal year 2025.

New Jersey to fund more off shore wind studies

The Maritime Administration (Marad) announced in May $20.8 million in grant awards to 27 small shipyards in 20 states through the Small Shipyard Grant Program. The funds will help shipyards modernize, increase productivity, and expand local job opportunities while competing in the global marketplace, Marad said.

Since 2008, Marad’s Small Shipyard Grant Program has awarded $303 million to nearly 350 shipyards in 32 states and territories throughout the U.S. Below is an abbreviated list of shipyard grant recipients in scal year 2023:

• Alabama Shipyard LLC, Mobile, Ala., $718,442

• Bay Ship & Yacht Co., Alameda, Calif., $830,380

• Fincantieri Marine Repair LLC, Jacksonville, Fla., $874,079

• ACBL Transportation Services Inc., Jeffersonville, Ind., $1 million

• Sun ower Enterprises Inc., Dubuque, Iowa, $599,840

• Verret Shipyard Inc., Plaquemine, La., $1 million

• United States Marine Inc., Gulfport, Miss., $238,741

• Bayonne Drydock & Repair Corp., Bayonne, N.J., $730,477

• Hughes Bros., Brooklyn, N.Y., $1 million

• North Carolina Department of Transportation Ferry Division, Havelock, N.C., $86,649

• Superior Marine Ways Inc., South Point, Ohio, $838,221

• Heartland Fabrication LLC, Brownsville, Pa., $660,783

• J Goodison Co., North Kingstown, R.I., $704,206

• Senesco Marine LLC, North Kingstown, R.I., $738,289

• Main Industries Inc., North Charleston, S.C., $527,173

• Southwest Shipyard LP, Channelview, Texas, $1.2 million

• Sterling Shipyard LLC, Port Neches, Texas, $1 million

• All American Marine Inc., Bellingham, Wash., $916,166

• Everett Ship Repair LLC, Everett, Wash., $1.16 million

• Marine Group Boat Works LLC, Chula Vista, Calif., $1.14 million

• The Portland Co., Portland, Maine, $739,302

Jersey state offi cials said they are directing an additional $2 million toward studying environmental impacts of off shore wind power. New projects will monitor whales and harbor seals near wind energy projects off Atlantic City. The announcement comes after months when Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration has been beset by pressure from off shore wind project critics and Republican legislators over a series of whale and dolphin strandings on New Jersey beaches. To date, the state’s Off shore Wind Research & Monitoring Initiative (RMI) has provided $8.5 million in funding for off shore wind-related projects.

NOAA making vessel traffic data more accessible to the public

debates over siting offshore wind energy projects has made stakeholders reliant on Coast Guard vessel traffi c data to scope out potential confl icts. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has added new online tools to provide the data to a wider public. The Automatic Identifi cation System that tracks vessel movements with transponders on ships has helped create an “AIS database of 30 billion-plus vessel locations that has become the go-to resource for maritime planners and ocean geospatial tech experts,” according to a recent summary from NOAA. For more information, go to MarineCadastre.gov.

Escalating

Ken Hocke photo

Small Shipyard Grant Program awards went to 27 yards in 20 states.

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FOCUS Alternative Fuels

Substitutes

By Ben Hayden, Content Specialist

Look around you. Nearly everything you see got there via a containership, breakbulk or bulk ship. Ocean shipping is responsible for delivering almost everything you own.

Today, just under 90% of containerships are powered by heavy fuel oil. During a typical long-haul transport, a single cargo vessel can emit over 6,000 tons of CO2, in addition to other harmful pollutants and particulates.

The International Maritime Organization’s hope, in its pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 50% by 2050 vs. 2008 levels, is that new innovations in fuel technology and propulsion will eventually bring the emissions rate down to zero.

Most commercial vessels have an operating life of 20 to 30 years. Many of the ships being built this decade will still be in operation in 2050. Retro ts will be a key factor in reaching IMO

goals. This will likely mean modifying existing diesel engines and engine rooms with double-walled piping, new ventilation systems, and new fuel storage tanks, among other efforts.

Alternative fuels and propulsion methods like ammonia, biofuels, electric power, fuel cells, hydrogen, methanol, and wind can help accelerate decarbonization while simultaneously bolstering energy security.

Though these are all cleaner options, each alternative fuel comes with its own set of pros and cons. Issues such as regulation, safety, pricing, infrastructural availability, supply chain constraints, lifecycle emissions, and barriers to adoption must be considered.

In June 2021, the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 76) conducted a work plan that incentivized measures to move away from fossil fuels to low- and zero-carbon fuels.

What follows is a breakdown of some

LIQUID NATURAL GAS

LNG is widely recognized as the largest segment of the alternative fuel market and has been utilized as a fuel for the past two decades.

In 2022, the global classi cation society DNV, using gures from its Alternative Fuels Insight (AFI) platform, said 275 vessels that will be built to sail on alternative fuels were contracted in 2022. LNG propulsion will be used on 222 of the ships, or 81% of total orders.

LNG is natural gas that has been cooled to –260° F, changing its state from a gas into a liquid, and reducing it to 1/600th of its original volume. LNG produces 40% less carbon dioxide (CO2) than coal and 30% less than oil, which makes it the cleanest of the fossil fuels.

In the U.S., some companies have already made the switch over to LNG. In 2015-2016, TOTE Maritime launched the world’s rst two LNG-powered 764' Marlin-class containerships and conversion to LNG power is underway on their 839' Orca-class ships. These ships oper-

alternative fuels and their current use in the maritime industry.

Norled

Norled said it put the world’s first ferry powered by liquid hydrogen into service earlier this year.

Operators are increasingly looking into the use of alternative fuels in their vessels.

ate on dual-fuel engines and can run on either fuel oil or LNG.

Existing U.S. regulations do not specifically address the design and installation of natural gas fuel systems on commercial vessels, nor do they address byproduct emissions from their infrastructure projects.

HYDROGEN

Hydrogen fuel cells have a long track record of supplying efficient, clean power for a wide range of applications like passenger cars, buses, and trains.

Many in shipping recognize hydrogen’s potential, but the barriers to implementing hydrogen technology are substantial, including advanced storage requirements and fire hazard mitigation. Hydrogen is characterized by having the highest energy content per mass of all chemical fuels (120.2 Megajoules/kg), which can lead to increases in the effective efficiency of an engine.

Hydrogen also has a lower volumetric energy density, and liquid hydrogen may require two times more space than liquefied natural gas for the same amount of energy. To liquefy, hydrogen also requires temperatures below -253° C

(-423.4° F). To contain this temperature extreme, the required volume to store liquid hydrogen could be even greater when considering vacuum insulation for cryogenic storage materials.

In 2021, SWITCH Maritime announced the world’s first hydrogen fueling of a commercial marine vessel. The Sea Change is a zero-emissions, 75-passenger ferry powered by hydrogen fuel cell technology. After undergoing sea trials for a year, the vessel arrived at its home port in San Francisco in March. The 70' catamaran ferry is equipped with a hydrogen fuel cell system from Zero Emissions Industries.

ZEI Executive Vice President John Motlow noted that their power systems are “as easy to install and operate as a marine diesel engine.”

“We are working to build solutions that truly enable the maritime industry to decarbonize without negatively impacting their operations.”

AMMONIA

According to the International Energy Agency, Ammonia is predicted to become the leading fuel source for cargo ships by 2050.

Ammonia is being positioned as a zero-carbon alternative since it emits no carbon dioxide when burned. This inorganic compound is readily available, and it can be artificially created using renewable energy sources like wind and solar, designating the fuel type “green.”

The density of ammonia is also 30% higher than hydrogen, and it can store 50% more energy per cubic meter than hydrogen. The compound remains liquid at room temperature with moderate pressures, which allows the use of less robust gas cylinders.

According to a 2020 aggregate investment study on decarbonizing the maritime industry, annual ammonia demand could increase by 670 to 946 million tons and represent a potential $5 trillion market by 2050.

The race is on to produce the world’s first ammonia-powered vessel. In March, Amogy Inc., Brooklyn, N.Y., announced plans to retrofit a 105' tug with an ammonia-powered propulsion system, with

hopes to deploy the vessel in late 2023.

“With successful demonstrations of our ammonia-powered drone, tractor and semi-truck under our belts, we look forward to presenting the first ammoniapowered ship in 2023, with a target to fully commercialize in 2024,” said Amogy CEO Seonghoon Woo.

BIOFUELS

The two most common types of biofuels in use today are ethanol and biodiesel, both of which represent the first generation of biofuel technology.

Biofuels are derived from biomass or renewable biological sources into a liquid fuel for use in combustion engines. Biomass examples include renewable raw materials like crop waste, food waste and algae.

A Frontiers in Marine Science study from 2022 (“Opportunities Surrounding the Use of Sargassum Biomass as Precursor of Biogas, Bioethanol, and Biodiesel Production”) said that “the potential use of this material is as a precursor in biorefineries where multiple value-added products are generated concurrent with the ultimate production of biofuels.”

METHANOL

The second most popular alternative fuel choice in 2022 was methanol. The DNV platform said that methanol fuel will be used on 35 out of 275 ships ordered in 2022, or 13% of the total orders placed.

Methanol can reduce greenhouse gas emissions like nitrogen oxide by 80%, and carbon dioxide by 15% compared with conventional marine fuels.

This illustration showcases the multiple steps involved in hydrogen production.

Elliott Bay Design Group

Startup company Amogy, based in Brooklyn, N.Y., plans to test a unique zero-emission tugboat powered by ammonia in late 2023.

Amogy

In 2015, TOTE took delivery of the Isla Bella, the world's first containership powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Dig It

New dredge construction and rebuild work stays steady.

By Ken Hocke, Senior Editor

With the launch of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope last year, scientists are more convinced than ever that space goes on into in nity.

Back on Earth, those who work in the dredging business are more convinced than ever that shoaling in U.S. waterways also goes on into in nity. In addition to shoaling, containerships that call at U.S. ports are getting bigger and hauling more containers, which means the ships have deeper drafts.

To handle these larger ships, ports in places such as New Orleans have had to dredge their shipping channels deeper.

For companies like Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp. (GLDD), Orion Marine Group, Weeks Marine, EJE Dredging Service, and Callan Marine, the buildup of silt and sand in navigable waters, and deepening of waterways, harbors, and ports, has created an entire industry — and one that can be very lucrative.

GLDD, for example, announced in March that it had been awarded $138.8 million in dredging contracts. The contracts include:

• Trujillo Alto Design and Build for the Lago Loiza (Carraízo) Dredging Project (maintenance, Puerto Rico, $93.1 million)

• Townsends Inlet to Cape May Inlet Project (coastal protection, New Jersey, $28.8 million)

• Palm Beach Harbor Maintenance Dredging Project (maintenance, Florida, $11 million), and

• South Boca Raton Beach Renourishment Project (coastal protection, Florida, $5.9 million).

DREDGES

To do this work, it takes the right equipment, primarily dredges. Over the past year, shipyards have built and delivered new dredges and have several others under construction.

GLDD announced last summer that it had exercised an option to build a second 346'×69'×23', 6,500-cu.-yd.-capacity trailing suction hopper dredge at Conrad Shipyard, Amelia, La. With expected delivery in the rst quarter of 2025, the Amelia Island will be a sistership to the Galveston Island, also under construction at Conrad with delivery expected in July.

The dredge is in the water undergoing under nal topside construction, Bill Hanson, GLDD’s senior vice president, market development, said. Overall, he added, the “state of the U.S. dredging market is still hopeful but not developing as quickly as we would like.”

“We remain optimistic in the long-term outlooks for both dredging and the offshore wind markets,” Lasse Petterson, president and CEO, said during the company’s February earnings call. “Our ambition is to continue to be the U.S. industry

The 194'x41' cutter suction dredge General Marshall was built in Poplarville, Mo., and Reserve, La.

Callan Marine photo.

Dredges

leader in our selected market segments. And an important part of our strategy is to keep our fleet renewal program moving forward as planned.”

Both new dredges will feature two 800-mm suction pipes and will be able to dredge at depths of up to 100'. They will be outfitted with 16,500 hp each.

Both dredges will be equipped with a direct high-power pump-ashore installation, dredging system automation, dynamic positioning and tracking, Tier 4-compliant engines, and additional features designed to minimize the impact of its dredging process on the environment.

The new vessels will incorporate features designed to minimize turbidity and marine species entrainment.

Callan Marine, Galveston, Texas, recently launched the 194'×41' cutter suction dredge General Marshall, which was built by DSC Dredge LLC in Poplarville, Mo., and later completed

in Reserve, La. The new dredge was assembled and launched at Kennedy Shipyard in Galveston.

The General Marshall is equipped with a total of 3,005 hp and designed to feature advanced production automation

and monitoring systems. It has an 18" suction and discharge diameter. Karl Senner LLC supplied two Reintjes LAF 444 gears to operate the dredge pump.

Orion Marine Group christened its

The Orion Marine Group dredge Lavaca underwent a complete reconstruction over a 15-month period. The rebuild was finished late last year.

Orion Marine Group

VESSEL REPORT Dredges

newest dredge rebuild, the Lavaca, at Port Lavaca, Texas, late last year.

The rebuilt vessel underwent a complete reconstruction over a 15-month period. Detailed engineering was provided by The Shearer Group to meet Orion’s requirements for lengthening and widening of the hull at Southwest Shipyard LP.

The rebuilt Lavaca has been out tted with onboard continuous survey monitoring systems, dredge pump, draw works, and cutter automation systems with fully electric draw works and spud winch systems, all designed to allow the dredge to operate more ef ciently in both maintenance and virgin material projects.

The design of the dredge, including its modular quarters, walkways, access and egress points, ventilation, handrail and fendering systems have all been engineered with an emphasis on safety.

Design improvements to the crew accommodations reduced noise and vibrations during dredging operations and provide a reprieve for the crew during their rest periods. The open-concept lever room allows for the leverman to monitor and control all dredging systems from a specially designed control station with touchscreen displays and oor-to-ceiling windows that provide a 180° eld of view.

The Lavaca has been repowered with Tier 3 marine gensets supplied by Mustang Cat, maintaining a consistent supply of power to the electrical switch-

boards and controls systems provided by Avid and DSC, as well as electrical cabling, lighting, and alarm systems supplied and installed by Rio Marine Controls & Hydraulics

Conrad Shipyard delivered the Miss Katie, a 156'3"×35'×10'9" hopper dredge, to Dare County, N.C., and EJE Dredging Service last August.

Wanchese, N.C., is the dredge’s homeport.

Crowley Engineering Services, Seattle, designed the vessel, which has a 9'5" draft. Greenville, N.C.-based EJE Dredging owns and operates the shallow-draft split-hull trailing suction dredge.

“The Miss Katie has been specically developed and designed to ensure she will be able to safely navigate the channels and inlets of North Carolina,” Jordan Hennessy, vice president of EJE Dredging, said at the time of the delivery. “The split-hull con guration will allow spoil discharge in shallow waters, thus preventing the vessel from grounding on her own hopper load.”

The dredge’s main propulsion comes from twin Cummins QSK-19DM diesel engines connected to two ZF ATZ 4111-SM DA-FP stern-mounted azimuth thrusters, each featuring depth adjustment. The dredge’s running speed is 10 knots.

Miss Katie features a ZF ThrusterCommand AT control system. In addition to providing controls for the two Wesmar V2-26SS thrusters, the system

provides follow-up steering and propulsion control, as well as independent backup and emergency stop systems.

The dredge features twin 5,000-gpm dredge pumps, has a capacity of 512 cu. yds. of spoils, and was speci cally developed and designed to ensure it will be able to safely navigate the channels and inlets of North Carolina.

Later this year Eastern Shipbuilding Group Inc. (ESG), Panama City, Fla., will deliver the 356'×79'6"×27'3" R.B. Weeks, the second trailing suction hopper dredge that ESG has built for Weeks Marine Inc.

Designed by Royal IHC, the new trailing suction hopper dredge has a hopper capacity of 8,550 cu. yds. The vessel out tting and trials are being conducted at Eastern’s Port St. Joe, Fla., facility for an on-time delivery in 2023.

The R.B. Weeks is nearly identical to the Magdalen, delivered by ESG in 2017. The vessel includes an electrical power, propulsion, and dredge machinery package by Royal IHC, and GE Tier 4 engines, along with several accommodation and crew comfort upgrades.

Though few speci cations of the R.B. Weeks have been released, the sistership Magdalen features two booster pumps, powered at 1,600 kW each, and an HD dredge pump, powered at 1,600 kW. There are two jet pumps powered at 445 kW each.

Main propulsion comes from a pair of GE 16V250 diesel engines producing 5,682 hp each and two Wärtsilä controllable pitch propeller systems in nozzles.

For added maneuverability, there is a Wärtsilä VFD xed-pitch bowthruster tunnel unit producing 730 kW of power. Electrical power comes from two Hyundai 3,400-kW gensets, a GE 6L250, 1,423-kW auxiliary genset and a Caterpillar C18, 425-kW emergency genset.

The R.B. Weeks, which can accommodate 26 people, will be Lloyd’s classed Maltese Cross 100A1 Hopper Dredge, LMC, UMS registered, Coast Guard certi ed, and U.S. agged.

The 356' trailing suction hopper dredge R.B. Weeks is scheduled for delivery later this year.

Eastern Shipbuilding Group

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CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY AT WORKBOAT YARDS

All American delivers offshore wind survey vessel to Geodynamics

To Chris Freeman, an ocean surveyor and cofounder of Geodynamics, Newport, N.C., the boat that carries his sonars and other tools of the trade is more than just a platform to transport him and his equipment.

“We consider the boat as a precision survey instrument, purpose-built for the speci c survey environment and then wrapped around the ideal sensors for a speci c set of missions,” he said. “This holistic approach to our vessel builds has proven successful time and again but requires a builder open to an uncompromised data-centric build.”

Geodynamics (an NV5 company) recently took delivery of its newest and largest vessel, the 73'×26.7' Shackleford, from All American Marine in Bellingham, Wash. The boat is named after Shackleford Banks, a small island at the southern end of the Cape Lookout National Seashore off North Carolina. The hydrofoil-assisted aluminum catamaran was designed by Teknicraft Design in New Zealand, like most boats built by

All American Marine, including several other research vessels.

The semi-displacement cat is powered by a pair of Caterpillar C18 “D” ACERT, Tier 3, 2,100-rpm, 803-hp engines turning xed-pitch propellers through ZF 665V remote-mounted gearboxes. The boat is said to comfortably and economically cruise at 20 knots. Survey work is often performed at about 8 knots.

The new boat will provide Geodynamics with the necessary stability and capability to conduct accurate “single pass” survey operations for the growing offshore wind market on the Atlantic coast. The Shackleford itself is a further development of near-coastal vessels from Teknicraft/All American such as Duke University’s Shearwater and Blue Tide Puerto Rico’s Blue Manta

The Shackleford’s main deck features an open layout of dry-lab spaces for workstations with multiple display screens. There is also a small U-shaped galley and nearby dining table. The boat

can accommodate up to 16 people for day operations and has bunks for 10. The vessel was built to Subchapter T standards. Electrical power is supplied by a pair of Kohler 24EKOZD, 24 kW, 60Hz, 120/208 VAC, 3-phase gensets.

Outside, a retractable strut can lower and raise a Kongsberg multibeam echosounder through a moon pool at the aft end of the house. The main working deck also features an adjustable A-frame over the stern for launching and recovery of towed instrumentation. The stern is also tted with swim platforms at both corners. On the upper deck, there’s a small knuckle-boom crane on the port side, aft corner above the main deck. The upper deck also features an open steering station forward with a hardtop cover.

“This new best-in-class vessel will provide an unmatched platform for our continued focus on performing to the most stringent offshore survey speci cations in the world,” said Geodynamics’ Freeman, “whether that is for nautical charting or for subsea exploration to support offshore wind development.”

All American is currently building a smaller research vessel for NOAA’s Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of Georgia. The new boat is a 52'×19' aluminum catamaran, also designed by Teknicraft Design. The design is based on a research boat, the Storm Petrel, built for NOAA’s Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary a few years ago.  — Bruce Buls

Rodriguez Shipbuilding delivers pusher tug to Weeks Marine

Rodriguez Shipbuilding, Coden, Ala., delivered the 72'×30'×11', 1,600-hp pusher tug Boyce B to Weeks Marine, Cranford, N.J., in late March.

Designed by Entech Designs, Kenner, La., with a 9'3" draft, the new 159gt. boat primarily assists in dredging operations.

From half-inch bottom plate from bow to aft engine room bulkhead and 5/8" bottom plate from aft engine room

73' offshore wind survey vessel delivered to Geodynamics.

bulkhead to stern, 3/4" bow and stern corner plating, 3/4" side sheer strake, 3/4" head log and transom, and 3/8" side shell “makes this a heavy-duty hull to handle all the work that comes with dredging,” said David Tuck, Weeks’ chief engineer/project manager. “And 360-degree fendering from M&M Bumper gives another layer of protection. Building the fleet deck as well as the aft deck to handle 6,000 lbs. also is a great addition to help transport equipment to and around the dredge site.”

Main propulsion comes from a pair of Cummins QSK 19-MRCS diesel engines producing 800 hp each. The mains

BOATBUILDING BITTS

ACI Boats, Port Townsend, Wash., and Coastwise Corp., an Anchorage, Alaska-based marine architectural fi rm, will build a new whalewatching tour boat to operate in Washington state’s San Juan Islands. Designed by ACI and Coastwise, the 54'x20', 80-passenger Subchapter T vessel will be built for Orcas, Wash.based Outer Island Excursions . Main propulsion for the all-aluminum symmetrical planing catamaran will come from four 600-hp Mercury V12 outboards with 4-bladed, dual prop, counter rotating wheels. The new tour boat will also be equipped with two Garmin 861XSV 16 MFD and Garmin 18xHD 4 kW radar. electronics and navigation. The main fl oor is designed to accommodate 54 passenger seats, three dinettes, a galley, and two head compartments. The upper cabin will feature four dinettes, bench seating, and an enclosed helm station, accommodating up to 16 passengers.

Silver Ships, Theodore, Ala., recently delivered a custom-built Explorer 26 to the Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile (Ala.) District. The

ON THE WAYS

are connected to 82"×67", 4-bladed, stainless-steel props through Twin Disc MGX-5222 DC marine gears with 6.96:1 reduction ratios. The propulsion package gives the Boyce B a running speed of 8 knots and a bollard pull estimated at 20 tons.

Ship’s service power comes from twin Cummins QSB7-DM powered Stamford generators sparking 75 kW of electrical power each.

Controls, installed by Gulf Coast Air and Hydraulics, are from ZF and steering is by Jastrum, also installed by Gulf Coast Air and Hydraulics.

26' marine survey vessel , Miss Agnes, will conduct hydrographic survey analyses along the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. The Miss Agnes is powered by twin 200-hp Mercury SeaPro outboards and includes a double jack plate that simultaneously controls both engines when lifting or lowering them within the water. The survey boat is a multibeam and single-beam capable vessel that features an enclosed center console, a three-monitor survey station, and an air conditioner unit that is paired with a generator.

Bollinger Shipyards will refi t the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) oceanographic research vessel Ronald H. Brown, the largest vessel in NOAA’s fl eet at 274'. The work will be done at Bollinger Mississippi Repair, Pascagoula, Miss. The overhaul is expected to extend the life of the vessel, fi rst launched in 1996, by an additional 15 years. The vessel refi t is scheduled to be completed and redelivered to NOAA in August 2024. During the refi t, the propulsion

system will largely be replaced with new, more environmentally friendly diesel generators, renewal of the bowthruster and propulsion motors, new switchboards, control systems, and alarms. Additional ship systems that are scheduled to be upgraded include the potable water plants, sewage plant, uncontaminated seawater sampling system, HVAC systems, tank level indicators, navigational components, radar, overhead lighting, and ballast and exterior fuel tank vents. Bollinger will replace much of the ship’s piping, along with steel as identifi ed by the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS).

Burger Boat Co. announced recently that the superstructure has been set in place on the fi rst of two 180' motor yachts. The yachts are currently under construction at Burger’s shipyard in Manitowoc, Wis. The fi rst is sold, but the second is for sale, which gives the customer an opportunity to build the new yacht in the U.S. and add custom touches to its design, shipyard offi cials said. The yachts are powered by twin Caterpillar 3512C IMO Tier II engines.

NOAA

26' marine survey vessel for the Corps.

The NOAA oceanographic research vessel Ronald H. Brown will undergo a refit at Bollinger Shipyards.

54' whale-watching tour boat will work in Washington state. ACI Boats

Silver Ships

The aft and fleet cargo decks are both designed to carry a 20-yard loaded dumpster capable of carrying between 6,000, lbs. and 8,000 lbs. Also, on deck are facing Wintech HW40-E7.5 doubledrum winches with 150' of 1" synthetic 40-ton wire.

Firefighting equipment consists of two fire-hose stations, Griswold 3"

pumps with 10-hp motors, a 900-lb. fixed NOVEC 1230 bottle installed by Hiller, Mircom FA-300 six-zone fire alarm, with smoke, heat, and CO2 detectors also installed by Hiller, and portable fire extinguishers.

Other features of the Boyce B include a 45' vertical clearance, a 31' height of eye, and berthing for up to eight

mariners.

Tankage includes 21,107 gals. of fuel; 25,080 gals. water; 884 gals. lube oil; and 111 gals. hydraulic oil.

Safety equipment includes a 12-person liferaft, a Markus Lifenet rescue device, EPIRB, survival suits, and life jackets.

Among the electronics suite equipment are Furuno FA170 AIS; SCX, two 1945, 6-kW radar; GP-39 GPS; 12-speakers — one in the wheelhouse, one in the stern station, four outdoor, and six internal — Standard Horizon VLH3000 loud hailer; seven Standard Horizon GX1800S VHF radios — four in the wheelhouse, two at the stern control station, and one in the galley; SiriusXM radio; a wind/weather sensor station featuring an R.M. Young ResponseONE ultrasonic anemometer 91000; Koden CVS-126 depth sounder; and xenon 500-watt and 1,000-watt searchlights.

— Ken Hocke

The 72' push tug Boyce B will support dredging operations.

Chesapeake Shipbuilding delivers a 180-passenger riverboat to ACL

American Cruise Lines (ACL) took delivery in April of the 328'×60'4", 180-passenger American Serenade from Chesapeake Shipbuilding.

The new riverboat is the sixth riverboat in the company’s Modern Series, and the 18th small ship built by Chesapeake for ACL.

American Serenade immediately joined the company’s expanding Mississippi River eet. ACL christened the new riverboat during its inaugural cruise in late April while visiting Vidalia, La.

“American Serenade shows our continued commitment to small ships for America’s rivers. She has the same spacious features as her five sisterships and a design package that wows everyone who boards,” Charles B. Robertson, president and CEO

of American Cruise Lines, said in a statement announcing the delivery. “Introduced just a few months after American Symphony and just a few months before American Eagle, the new ship is a testament to ACL’s rapidly increasing production capability.”

The new riverboat features ve decks and offers 100% private balcony state-

rooms, including suites and singles. The boat’s interior design incorporates a liberal use of glass, allowing for enhanced views throughout the ship.

American Serenade showcases ACL’s patented opening bow and retractable gangway, as well as an open-air fthdeck skywalk with an ellipse that cantilevers over the café below.

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New ACL riverboat is the 18th small ship built at Chesapeake Shipbuilding.

American Cruise Lines

YEARBOOK

The big story in the last 12 months was that the coronavirus pandemic was no longer the biggest story, and the workboat industry was finally able to concentrate on getting back to work. At shipyards, business stayed steady during the pandemic, and several yards changed owners (see below). Inland barge operations are returning to normal as cargo shipments rebound (see page 28). Tug operators continue to build boats with improved propulsion and more crew comforts (see page 30). The offshore oil and gas industry continues to enjoy a strong market while offshore wind development has been hit by inflation and increasing costs (see page 32). The passenger vessel industry had a strong rebound season and expect another good cruising season in 2023 (see page 34).

Shipyards continue to change hands

By Ken Hocke, Senior Editor

Twenty- ve years ago, there were no bigger names in the Tier II shipyard market than Bollinger Shipyards, Lockport, La., and troubled Halter Marine, Gulfport, Miss. Both yards have gone through signi cant changes. Bollinger was sold to Edison Chouest Offshore (ECO) in 2014 and VT Halter Marine, Pascagoula, Miss., to ECO’s

Bollinger in November for $15 million. Bollinger purchased the companies from ST Engineering North America, a technology, defense, and engineering group.

In addition to the $15 million, ST Engineering may receive another $10.25 million, subject to the award of certain future shipbuilding contracts to Halter that meet certain conditions.

The deal was framed as an acquisition, which also included ST Engineering Halter Marine and Offshore (STEHMO) and two dor-

mant yards north of Pascagoula. The Pascagoula facilities have direct, deepwater access to the Gulf of Mexico and included corporate of ce space, engineering, fabrication, warehousing, and a foreign trade zone.

The newly acquired yards have been renamed Bollinger Mississippi Shipbuilding and Bollinger Mississippi Repair

ST Engineering conducted a thorough review of its two U.S. marine businesses and found that they had incurred a combined net loss before taxes of $256 mil-

lion in the last ve years (2017-2021), with an annual net loss before taxes that ranged from about $40 million to $60 million.

“We have experienced challenges and losses in the past years operating the two U.S. shipbuilding and ship/ rig repair businesses,” Vincent Chong, group president and CEO of Singaporebased ST Engineering, said after the deal closed last year. “After a thorough review of strategic alternatives, we made this dif cult decision to exit the U.S. marine business.”

All ongoing VT Halter programs have been transferred to Bollinger with the transaction, including the Coast Guard polar security cutter (PSC) program and the Navy auxiliary personnel lighter-small (APL(S)) program. Those programs will continue to be built at Bollinger Mississippi Shipbuilding.

PRIVATE EQUITY OWNERS

Vigor Industrial LLC, Portland, Ore., changed hands from one private equity rm to another in February.

Back in 2019, The Carlyle Group, a global investment rm, and private equity firm Stellex Capital Management acquired and merged Vigor and MHI Holdings LLC, a ship repair and maintenance company (MHI Ship Repair & Services LLC) based in Norfolk, Va.

Frank Foti founded Vigor in 1995 as a provider of vessel fabrication and ship repair services. By 2019, the shipyard employed 2,300 people and operated

eight drydocks across the Paci c Northwest and Alaska, including the largest oating drydock in North America. MHI Ship Repair had 800 employees at the time of the 2019 sale.

This year, Carlyle and Stellex announced they had agreed to sell Titan Acquisition Holdings to an undisclosed affiliate of Lone Star Funds.  Titan is made up of Vigor, MHI Holdings, and Continental Maritime, San Diego. The transaction is expected to close later in 2023. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Key Titan customers include the Navy, Coast Guard, Military Sealift Command, and other commercial U.S. government customers, as well as Boeing, cruise lines, shing eets, barge operators, and ferry services.

Meanwhile, another Northwest-based shipyard — Safe Boats International LLC, which designs and manufactures aluminum boats ranging in size from 21' to more than 100' — recently transferred 100% of the company’s ownership to its employees.

The company’s employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) acquired Safe Boats in April, completing a process that began in late 2022. Safe Boats was founded in 1996 and now has more than 250 employees in two locations. The company has several signi cant contracts, including the Coast Guard response boat-small (540 boats), the Coast Guard special purpose craftlaw enforcement (58 boats), the U.S.

Customs and Border Protection coastal interceptor vessel (52 boats), and the agship Navy MK VI patrol boat (12 boats for the U.S. Navy and eight boats for the Ukrainian navy).

OFFSHORE WIND FACTOR

Americraft Marine, a subsidiary of the Libra Group, acquired St. Johns Ship Building in May 2022. The Libra Group is a privately-owned international business group whose subsidiaries own and operate assets in more than 50 countries.

Based in Palatka, Fla., near Jacksonville, St. Johns builds and repairs steel and aluminum vessels, including ferries, tugs, deck and tank barges, landing craft, and general cargo vessels. The shipyard has also gotten very involved in building vessels that support and service offshore wind farms.

Americraft of cials said the purchase of St. Johns comes at a time of signi cant need for Jones Act-compliant vessels.

With facilities including a storm-protected 100-acre inland campus with an 850-ton oating drydock, the shipyard said it has positioned itself to accelerate production of Jones Act-compliant vessels, particularly the construction and maintenance of offshore wind supply and support vessels.

St. Johns has two 82.8' Chartwell crew transfer vessels (CTVs) and two Incat Crowther 98.4' CTVs set for delivery this year to Atlantic Wind Transfer (AWT) and Windea, respectively. Construction will begin this year on two additional vessels for AWT and another CTV for an undisclosed customer.

Americraft plans to bolster capacity at St. Johns through workforce training.

“Generally, we’re revamping almost our entire infrastructure to support individual build slots for CTVs while still maintaining our steel line,” Jim Cutts, who heads up the CTV program for St. Johns, told WorkBoat earlier this year. “We haven’t set an exact percentage yet, but it’s fair to say that we’ll maybe be in the 75 percent to 25 percent range of aluminum versus steel.”

Bollinger Mississippi Shipbuilding

VT Halter Marine was sold to Bollinger Shipyards for $15 million.

Inland operators survive another historic drought

By Pamela Glass, Washington Correspondent

The biggest event of the past year for the inland waterways industry was the historic drought along the Mississippi River Basin that began in October. It lasted until earlier this year, causing havoc to barge traf c with vessel groundings, more than 40 days of river closures, massive backups, limits on barge loads, costly delays, and logistical headaches for shippers and barge operators.

At one point in October, just as the grain harvest season got started, more than 2,000 barges carrying corn and soybeans were stalled. The Mississippi River is the workhorse of the U.S. grain market, with 60% of the nation’s grain harvest and 54% of soybeans moving by barge. Operators said they hadn’t seen such low water levels since 1988. The Army Corps of Engineers remained busy for nearly six months dredging the river to restore navigation.

Barge of cials credit a successful partnership between vessel operators, the Coast Guard and Corps, as well as industry’s use of long-standing training and resources that helped avoid more damaging disruptions and kept cargo moving, although at a much

slower pace and with smaller loads.

“It could have been a more signi cant crisis for the country, not just for our company and our revenues,” Christian O’Neil, president, marine transportation group at Kirby Corp., Houston, said at a December Marine Money conference. “It’s been incredible to watch the coordination.”

With water levels restored, barge traf c is back to normal along this important stretch of the U.S. waterways, and operators there and across the navigable inland system report that demand to move commodities is strong and steady.

“Demand has been pretty robust in many sectors, and folks have some optimism that this will continue,” said Jennifer Carpenter, president and CEO of the American Waterways Operators. “With demand for our services,

we need to make sure we have people who can crew the boats and we need to continue to work well with the Coast Guard and Corps so we can manage high water when it comes.”

Other factors have been favorable for the industry since the drought dissipated. A heavy infusion of federal funds for modernizing waterways locks and dams over the past two years has bene ted and advanced many projects along the river system. A mild winter has meant less ice and snow, making operational conditions easier on many stretches of the rivers. Freight rates have remained high, boosting revenues, largely due to the tighter availability of barges as fewer are being built or replaced due to the high cost of steel. Other barges, especially in the tank barge eet, are being removed for regulatory inspections.

Doug Stewart

The Kirby Navigator and its tow on the Atchafalaya River in Louisiana.

MORE DEMAND, MORE PROFITS

There have also been some new opportunities. “We are seeing an uptick in deck barge business as well, primarily to support infrastructure projects including bridges, LNG export facilities and industrial plants,” Merritt Lane, president and CEO, Canal Barge Company Inc., New Orleans, told WorkBoat. “As bright spots, I see a supply and demand equilibrium [of barges] and a return to pre-Covid pro ts.

“Increased investment in critical waterways infrastructure, strong re nery utilization resulting in more inbound and outbound cargo to move, and increasing investment in alternative fuel sources, including biofuels, wind turbines and blades and LNG plant components,” will also favor barging, he said.

In addition, Covid has faded as a

concern, movements of energy products and petrochemicals is strong, new steel plants are being built or expanded along the Ohio River, and coal has seen a surprising uptick in demand despite the closure of many domestic coalred utility plants. This has provided a welcome bump for dry cargo operators who haul coal for export and to U.S. steel and utility customers.

“Since the Russians invaded Ukraine, we’ve seen tremendous demand,” said Peter Stephaich, chairman and CEO of Campbell Transportation Co., Houston, Pa. Many domestic utilities signed contracts with coal companies last year that must be ful lled, which keeps barges busy.

“I’m of the belief that the death of coal is prematurely discussed in the media. Some coal- red plants are making investments to run them in the longer term, others are saying we’ll run them as long as we can and then pull

the plug,” Stephaich said. “Coal will go away no doubt, it’s a matter of how quickly.”

There are some concerns, however.

In ation is eating into pro ts, jacking up the prices of labor, services, materials, and the cost to build new equipment. Despite a robust increase in federal investment in inland waterways infrastructure, due mostly to last year’s massive infrastructure bill passed by Congress, in ation has pushed up the cost of project construction, forcing the Corps to revamp cost estimates.

“It means that a lot of projects that we know the cost of completion will now cost a lot more money and the timeframe will change” for some, said Cherrie Felder, vice president, Channel Shipyard Cos., New Orleans, and chair of the Waterways Council Inc.

In addition, stubborn, pandemicrelated supply chain problems have made it more dif cult to source parts

COVER STORY Yearbook

for maintenance and repairs, including engines, paint, and replacement windows. “We’re seeing delays of 18 months for delivery of things that before were in inventory and we could get off the shelf,” said Buckley McAllister, president, McAllister Towing and Transportation Co., New York.

A dip in demand for grains and soybeans from China due to an illness among hogs and a declining human population could mean less demand for grain barges going forward, and there is the possibility that continued severe weather could produce more punishing hurricanes, droughts, and coastal erosion.

MARINER SHORTAGE

But the most nagging concern remains the dif culty hiring and retaining workers and creating an employment pipeline as senior mariners retire. Like many other industries during this na-

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In all sizes & diameters, our materials always have 100% original class certifi cates

tional labor shortage, the barge industry has gotten creative, reaching out more on social media, hiring full time recruiters, improving training programs, expanding geographic recruiting, attending job fairs, visiting schools, and revising salaries and bene ts. Success has been limited and some companies have had to turn down business opportunities.

“We absolutely have had to say no,” said McAllister, whose company is bene ting from a surge in cargo volume coming into the New York area. “We’ve had to turn them down because we don’t have enough mariners” to crew the vessels.

“Some of our mariners retired during the pandemic, and this being a heavily regulated workforce, it takes time to build up licenses, especially a towing endorsement,” he said. “As the industry rebounded [from Covid)], you couldn’t just make sailors appear for licensed

positions.”

Many of these challenges will not go away soon, especially supply chain and recruitment problems, predicts Ken Ericksen, a senior vice president at S&P Global Commodity Insights, who follows agriculture and the barge industry. “I see this going well beyond 2023,” he said.

Tugs: More hybrid electric and improved crew comfort

By Michael Crowley,

Correspondent Tugboat designs continue to evolve with an emphasis on propulsion efciency coupled with improving onboard working conditions. The commitment to hybrid-electric propulsion units is growing after a slow start due to the technology’s capital cost.

It’s “picked up quite heavily with more hybrid tugs and battery-electric tugs,” said Lawrence Best, director of design development at Robert Allan Ltd., Vancouver, British Columbia.

An example is the Robert Allandesigned 98'6"×43'×17'6" Seabulk tug Spartan, which operates in Port Arthur, Texas. The Spartan is powered with a Berg Propulsion package comprised of twin 2,550-hp Caterpillar 3512E main engines matched up with twin Cat C18s generators and one Cat C7.1 generator, enough power to generate 12.6 knots running speed. The Spartan was built by Master Boat Builders, Coden, Ala., and was said to be “the most advanced hybrid electric package ever delivered by Berg Propulsion.”

The 5,100-hp Spartan runs on main engines only, gensets only or a combination. Switching from one operating mode to another is accomplished by pushing a button. In hybrid mode, power is balanced between diesel and electric motors to optimize fuel consumption and bollard pull.

Daniel Thorogood, Seabulk president and CEO, said the Spartan represents “a new generation of vessels whose exibility is proving that hybrid tug technology is our choice for the future.”

ELECTRIC TUG

Not to be outdone is Crowley Engineering Services, Seattle (formerly Jensen Maritime Consultants), which oversees construction of a vessel that has the attention of most of the tugboat

industry. It’s the eWolf, which will be the rst fully electric ship-assist tug in the U.S. and is designed to be the rst zeroemission tugboat. Small gensets will be available if needed, but the eWolf is expected to operate primarily on batteries that are recharged at night at a dock in San Diego. The 82'×40' harbor tug

was designed by Crowley Engineering and is being built at Master Boat Builders, Coden, Ala., for Crowley Marine Services.

When it comes to improving energy ef ciency and reducing greenhouse gases, the American Waterways Operators emphasized in a memo to its members that based on empirical data, the tug, towboat, and barge industry “is the most environmentally friendly, fuel ef cient mode of freight transportation, with both lower greenhouse gas emissions per-tonmile and a substantially smaller carbon footprint than competing modes.”

On another design level, the eWolf, with a projected 70-ton bollard pull, will be the testing platform for some of Crowley Engineering’s next-generation tugboat designs. As fuel ef cient and powerful as a tug might be, if the crew doesn’t like the living and working conditions, some of them might not stick around for any length of time, and

Robert Allan Ltd.

The Robert Allan-designed Spartan.

COVER STORY Yearbook

suddenly the tugboat operator nds itself shorthanded. Thus, an important eWolf design focus is an emphasis on crew comfort that aims to provide “people their own personal space that can be uniquely updated for each person on the vessel, to give us a completely fresh look inside the vessel to anyone stepping on aboard,” said Bryan Nichols, director, business development, Crowley Engineering Services. Elements in that design were arrived at after Crowley engaged noise consultants and interior designers and sent engineers out on vessels to understand what life is like on a tugboat.

Other eWolf innovations include the bow staple, which is pushed into the bulwarks to keep crewmen from getting caught between the staple and the line going out to a ship, and a step that’s been traditionally in the deck was eliminated. Perhaps the most innovative feature is a rescue ladder built into the port and starboard sides of the tug, about amidships, making it much easier for someone who falls overboard to haul himself back aboard. The eWolf is scheduled to be operational in 2023. But even before it’s been launched there’s already talk that the next eWolf generation will have a 90-ton bollard pull.

Nevertheless, there does continue to be plenty of demand for more conventionally powered tugs. That includes the Robert Allan-designed, 77' Athena, a Tier 4 ship assist and harbor escort tug for Brusco Tug & Barge, Longview, Wash. It was built at Diversi ed Marine, Portland, Ore., and out tted with a pair of 3,400-hp Caterpillar 3516 Tier-4 compliant engines generating 96 tons of bollard pull. Crowley Maritime chartered the tug and claimed it is “the most powerful tug for its size in the U.S.” The Athena also came with remote monitoring.

Main Iron Works is building a 5,000hp tractor tug for Bisso Towboat at its Luling, La., shipyard to be powered with a pair of 2,500-hp Caterpillar 3516E diesels. The estimated bollard pull will be 66 tons. This will be the sixth azimuth stern drive (ASD) tractor tug Main Iron has built for Bisso in the past nine years. The previous one was the

100'×38'×13'6", 6,008-hp Capt. Joseph Bisso delivered in early 2022.

Master Boat Builders will build its rst tugs for Moran Towing, New Canaan, Conn. The 86'×36' tugs will have a bollard pull of over 55 tonnes, and each will be out tted with twin Caterpillar 3512E main engines, producing 2,549 hp each. The tugs will also feature Kongsberg thrusters and a Markey bow winch.

The Army Corps of Engineers will increase its presence on the Great Lakes with a pair of 1,600-hp 76'×25'×10'8.5" CELRE Detroit ice-class tugs to be designed and built by Conrad Shipyard, Morgan City, La.

Offshore oil, wind on different tracks

By Jim Redden, Correspondent

For now, the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico is in the driver’s seat, as prices are poised to return to triple-digit highs, with recent gains attributed in no small part to the OPEC cartel’s April decision to cut production, which threatens to leave an estimated two million bbl/d gap in the supply-demand ratio. The U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil price closed at $71.66 /bbl on May 2. The picture is quite different in the

Northeast, where the edgling offshore wind market is sustaining heavy blows from in ation, infrastructure limitations and, more recently, judicial scrutiny. An unworkable cost imbalance has forced the temporary scrapping of at least one developing wind farm, while developers also must face something oil and gas operators have been all too familiar with over the years: lawsuits.

Concerns over energy security and affordability have of late overshadowed transition to offshore wind and other renewable energy sources. To point, in what is described as a “short-term course correction,” BP, which holds a 50% interest with partner Equinor in the Beacon Wind and Empire Wind offshore wind farms off New York, dialed back its widely proclaimed renewable investments in favor of capturing the exponentially higher returns from core oil and gas assets. “We plan to invest up to $8 billion more this decade in our transition growth engines and about $1 billion more each year in today’s energy system, which depends on oil and gas,” said CEO Bernard Looney.

MORE OIL PRODUCTION

To that end, BP on April 13 began owing rst oil from the “digitally advanced” Argos oating production system (FPS), the centerpiece of the $9 billion Mad Dog 2 deepwater Gulf development. It’s estimated that the eld will produce up to 140,000 bbl/d from 14 wells in roughly 4,500' of water. Shell Offshore, which likewise holds

Thetwo-pronged offshore energy sector appears to be playing off the real estate adage “location, location, location.”

In what could later be a scene in the Gulf of Mexico, the Burbo Bank wind farm off the UK shares the Irish Sea with an oil and gas production platform.

a stake in a Northeast offshore wind farm, entered 2023 with the start-up of the Vito FPS in Mississippi Canyon, which at its peak will produce an estimated 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe/d) from four blocks in 4,000’ of water. Vito serves as the design standard for the Whale production system, which is expected to begin production next year in Alaminos Canyon.

These and other developments are expected to increase Gulf of Mexico oil production by 120,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) this year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), which reported average 2022 production in the Gulf of 1.78 million bbl/d.

At last count, 21 deepwater drilling rigs were active in the Gulf, according to S&P Global’s MarineBase, helping signi cantly increase higher day rates across the board, from rigs to support vessels. “The fundamental setup for our industry is arguably the best that it has

looked in the past 20 years,” said Robert Ei er, president and CEO of drilling rig contractor Noble Corp., which has four deepwater rigs averaging $377,500/day at work.

Transocean Ltd. has 11 active ultradeepwater drillships at work in the Gulf, commanding average day rates of $439,000 and as high as $480,000. Those include the eighth-generation ultradeepwater drillships Deepwater Atlas and Deepwater Titan, which were commissioned in 2022.

Contract rates for the latest generation platform and drilling support vessels (PSV/OSV), likewise, are on the high end, said Richard Sanchez, S&P Global’s senior marine analyst. As vessels complete long-term charters and go on the spot market, 320' PSVs up to 6,000 tons deadweight (dwt) are getting from $30,000 to $55,000/day, he said, with rates for long-term charters ranging from $40,000 to $47,000/day.

Meanwhile, the rst Gulf of Mexico oil and gas lease sale in nearly 18 months drew nearly $264 million in high bids on March 29 for 313 blocks covering 1.6 million acres in the Gulf’s Western, Central and Eastern Planning Areas.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) also is expected to soon announce the date for the Gulf’s rst federal wind lease offering. The precise date for the landmark offshore wind sale was to be set following the 60-day public comment period that ended on April 22.

While the Gulf Coast holds a signicant advantage for wind developers, given its extensive oil and gas infrastructure, the region is not invulnerable to the high costs that have hampered Northeast developments. Spiraling in ation rates forced Avangrid Inc. to temporarily abandon the 1,232 MW Commonwealth Wind farm off Massa-

chusetts after state of cials declined to renegotiate the original power purchase agreement (PPA). The developer planned to rebid at a subsequent lease sale in hopes of signing a more workable nancial agreement.

Also off Massachusetts, Shell New Energies US LLC and Ocean Winds North America have expressed concern over the economic viability of the 1,200-MW SouthCoast Wind Energy project. The partners’ request for more time to evaluate the current “microeconomic and supply chain” situation, was turned down.

Legal challenges by sheries and other interests have also thrown wrinkles into developers’ plans, specically targeting 806-MW Vineyard Wind, which nonetheless remains on track to be the nation’s rst commercial offshore wind farm this year. Partners Orsted and Eversource Energy likewise are scheduled to begin generating 132 MW

of rst power this year at the South Fork Wind farm off New York.

Even the Department of Defense has raised concerns, saying in April that the push to build wind farms along the central Atlantic coast could con ict with military operations.

Another good year expected for passenger vessels

By Betsy Frawley Haggerty, Correspondent

Assummer approaches, many passenger vessel operators are looking at the year ahead through rose-colored glasses.

“I talk to a lot of people, East Coast, West Coast and Midwest,” said Capt. Alan Bernstein, past president of the Passenger Vessel Association (PVA) and

owner of BB Riverboats, Newport, Ky. “Many people are having a good start to the season and reporting very good advance sales for tours and charters.”

BB Riverboats operates two sternwheelers on the Ohio River, the 1,000-passenger Belle of Cincinnati, and the 500-passenger River Queen The company operates out of Newport, across the Ohio River from downtown Cincinnati. “Unless there is a dramatic change, we are going to have a good year,” Bernstein said.

John Groundwater, PVA’s executive director, said travel experts are projecting strong consumer demand for travel this year. “As a result,” he said, “U.S. passenger vessel operators are optimistic about business prospects from domestic travel in 2023. But international travel to the U.S. is not expected to grow because of unusually long bottlenecks in processing visa applications.”

SLOW RETURN FOR FERRIES

Commuter ferry ridership is slowly coming back in some markets, but it is nowhere close to pre-pandemic levels. Changed work patterns from being in the of ce full time to working remotely have reduced ridership on all public transportation.

For example, New York Waterway, which began running commuter service between New York and New Jersey in 1986, has been hit hard by the new work patterns. In late February Capt. Alan Warren, senior vice president of operations, told WorkBoat that ridership was about 45% of what it had been pre-pandemic. Maritime staff, including captains and deckhands, had dropped from 300 before Covid to 120 in February.

In late April, Warren said that ridership had been slowly increasing and becoming more stable, but it was still signicantly below pre-pandemic levels. As of May 1, the company was running just 16 of its 38 boats on multiple trips on seven commuter routes. The others were operating for tours and special events and standing by for more commuter service as business grows.

The 599-passenger Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the company’s newest and most environmentally friendly ferry, has taken on a new role as the agship vessel of an innovative tourism initiative. The FDR, which rescued 568 passengers stranded on Staten Island Ferry’s Sandy Ground in December after an engine room re, will now be running 75-minute tours of New York Harbor.

On March 30, New York Waterway announced a partnership (details undisclosed) with Big City Tourism, a small, black-owned company with a mission to showcase New York City in a new way. “We came to them with a business plan,” Big City Tourism founder and President Kareem Holmes said, “and they immediately embraced what we set out to do.” All tour narrators will be native New Yorkers who will offer new insights into the city, while passengers ride from Pier 38 at West 38th St. and the Hudson River to Brooklyn Bridge and back with a photo-op pause at the Statue of Liberty.

Both companies hope that the new venture will be a winwin arrangement that will bolster business for the two strug-

gling companies. The 109' FDR, its hull now navy blue, aqua and hot pink, was built by Yank Marine, Tuckahoe, N.J. It is powered by twin, low-emission 2,000-hp EPA compliant Tier 3 engines and operates at a speed of 21 knots.

Of course, the wild card in forecasting how the season will go is weather. Hurricanes devastated Florida and other parts of the South last year, bringing a temporary halt to operations and requiring extensive rebuilds of passenger vessel facilities in many locations. Many determined marine businesses were up and running in a matter of months.

The Mississippi River experienced a major drought with water so low in places sunken boats were beginning to emerge. Tug and barge traf c piled up at locks, and some river cruise lines had to change itineraries.

Thanks to unusual snow totals and the melt that has followed, the river is high and ooding again. “It might hit the third high of all time,” said Bernstein, who has been working on riverboats for 53 years. “Most of the problem now is in the upper part. It will take some time to get down here, but it will affect the lower river as well.

“Part of being in the passenger industry is you must be able to take the good times with the bad,” Bernstein said. “You can’t mess with Mother Nature. She is going to do exactly what she is going to do. You have to be prepared in a business model to handle the changes that come at you.”

NY Waterway

The Franklin D. Roosevelt, New York Waterway’s newest and most environmentally friendly ferry, has taken on a new role as the flagship vessel of an innovative tourism initiative.

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Safeguard

To improve safety, find out what happens on your vessel.

By Michael Crowley, Correspondent

Aquick way to understand what occurs on your vessel when critical maritime safety issues are ignored, forgotten, or never understood in the rst place is by reading the Safer Seas Digest.

Since 2014, the National Transportation Safety Board’s Of ce of Marine Safety has published the Digest, an annual publication organized around NTSB marine investigations completed during the previous calendar year. The Digest shares safety issues identified and recommendations developed during these investigations with the marine community. It also highlights lessons learned that can prevent or mitigate future losses. The 2021 edition looked at 31 marine accidents with an informative lessons-learned section that focuses on hazards critical to each accident.

The 2022 edition has yet to be published but the following are several accidents based on NTSB reports that might be included. The accidents include a sinking, probably due to a misplaced deck plate; the meeting between four

empty barges and a coal train due to the improper reading of an electronic chart; an engine room re with faulty fuel tank ventilation; and a fatigue-induced collision with an oil and gas production platform.

SINKING

The Proassist III sank on Dec. 24, 2020. The 111'× 27'6" towing vessel, which was built in 1949 by the Nashville Bridge Co., in Nashville, Tenn., was steaming three miles off Puerto Rico, enroute from Laguna de la Mareas to Yabucoa. Shortly after departing, the vessel encountered deteriorating conditions, with gusty winds and 5'-to6' seas. A captain and two deckhands were onboard. One of the deckhands was also the engineer.

The Proassist III was pitching and rolling when a deckhand noticed the stern was “riding a little low” with water in the anking rudder compartment. An attempt to empty the compartment using an emergency, diesel-powered pump failed when the pump was hit by a wave. Shortly after, the Proassist III was down by the stern with about a foot

of water on deck, with winds increasing and more waves coming over the stern.

At 1742, the captain radioed the Coast Guard to tell them they were abandoning ship.

However, the attempt to abandon the vessel became complicated when the straps around the center of the life raft canister failed to break upon launch, restricting expansion of the raft. The captain went into the water and cut the straps, but then decided the crew should remain on the Proassist III and await rescue as the engine room had not yet ooded.

Around 1840, about an hour after sunset, a 15' Good Samaritan shing boat, responding to a call from the Coast Guard and the Proassist III owner, rescued the crew and took them to Puerto Yabucoa. Ten minutes later, the captain said, he could see the Proassist III sinking by the stern. The vessel came to rest upright in 30' of water, some 450 yards off the coast.

The Proassist III was re oated and taken to Puerto Yabucoa on Sept. 27, 2021. It was determined that unsecured or open aft deck hatches caused ood-

ing of aft compartments and progressive ooding of other compartments though openings in bulkheads, including nominally watertight bulkheads. Additional causes of ooding were the “owner’s lack of an effective hull inspection and maintenance program.”

The NTSB report’s conclusion emphasized that an effective hull maintenance and inspection program should identify steel wastage and watertight integrity issues and ensure that corrosion issues are addressed.

PLATFORM COLLISON

If fatigue was a contributing factor in the Mary Lynn’s re, the NTSB found it was the sole reason the 150'×36' offshore supply vessel Elliott Cheramie collided with the oil and gas production platform EL-259A, 77 miles southwest of Port Fourchon, La. The Elliott Cheramie was built in 1998 by Bollinger Shipyards,

There was eight-nautical-mile visibility with a full moon on June 25, 2021, when the Elliott Cheramie left Port Fourchon at 2000 with four crew and ve offshore workers, heading for the oil and gas production platform VR-397A. At 2345 the mate, who had worked for 41 years in the maritime industry, relieved the captain in the wheelhouse. The mate had been awake for 19 hours.

The deckhand, the other member of the watch, along with the mate, had set his alarm for 2344 but did not wake up and was not woken by the deckhand coming off his watch turn. The Elliott Cheramie was on autopilot, while the mate, “more tired than usual” walked the wheelhouse and bridge wings to stay awake. Once he sat in the wheelhouse chair, though, he fell asleep. Neither the radar nor electronic navigation chart had audible alarms. When the mate woke, platform EL-259A was “dead ahead.” Pulling back on both engine throttles didn’t help. At 0245 the Elliott Cheramie struck the EL-259A.

The NTSB determined the probable cause of the collision was the owner/operator not adhering to the company’s 12hour work-hour limit policy. The mate had worked 19 hours the day before the accident, 16 hours the day before that, and 14.5 hours the prior two days. That contributed to a very fatigued mate falling asleep while on watch.

There were four minor injuries and $363,000 in damage to the Elliott Cheramie, the EL-259 platform, and pipelines.

TOWBOAT, TRAIN COLLISION

On Nov. 13, 2021, the 120'×35', 3,600-hp towboat Baxter Southern was

BOATS & GEAR Safety

pushing four empty barges down the Upper Mississippi River. At the same time a BNSF coal train, comprised of two locomotives and 10 hopper cars loaded with coal, was coming upriver on tracks along the shore.

The towboat, owned by Southern Towing Co., and its barges encountered strong gusts of wind that day, leading the towboat’s captain and pilot to determine it was no longer safe to continue downriver. The towboat’s electronic chart system seemed to show an area along the riverbank where it would be safe to push the barges up against and get out of the wind. That’s what they did, pushing the forward port barge up on the shore, with the rest of the tow and the tug at about a 45° angle to the riverbank.

Then the Baxter Southern’s pilot saw the light of an approaching train and attempted to move the tug and tow away from the riverbank, while the train’s engineer activated the emergency brake. But it was too late to avoid the forward barge, which was a foot over the railroad ties. When the barge and train met, both locomotives and 10 hopper cars loaded with coal derailed. Six hopper cars ended up in the river.

The probable cause of the crash was the towboat captain and pilot not being pro cient in using the electronic chart system, the NTSB said, leading them to put the barges against a shoreline that was identi ed on the electronic chart as a caution area. The collision resulted in $1.9 million in damages to the locomotives and freight cars. Two of the train’s crew received minor injuries. The barge only had minor scrapes.

Lockport, La., for Cheramie Marine LLC, Larose, La.

Two locomotives and several hopper cars loaded with coal were derailed after encountering a barge resting against the shore that was too close to the train tracks.

Failure of the 150' offshore service vessel Elliott Cheramie to adhere to the company’s limit on working hours led to its collision with an oil and gas production platform, the NTSB said.

BNSF

Cheramie Marine / Cox Operating

BOATS & GEAR Safety

ENGINE ROOM FIRE

Another Upper Mississippi River incident involved the Mary Lynn, a 141'×35' towing vessel owned by Missouri River Towing. On May 18, 2021, after the towboat had just fueled up with 25,500 gals. of ultra-low-sulfur diesel for its two 3,800-hp, 16-cylinder EMD 645-D3A supercharged diesels, the Mary Lynn connected with two barges and headed three miles upriver to pick up more barges. But just after getting underway at mile 176 near St. Louis, the starboard engine’s rpm level wasn’t increasing, so the Mary Lynn returned to its dock.

After the chief engineer informed the captain that the issue had been resolved, the Mary Lynn proceeded upriver at 0639. The engines were at nearly fullahead and the Mary Lynn was making 2.5 to 3 mph into the current when the chief engineer, working between the two main engines, heard a “pow” and saw

a glass bowl — the fuel supply bypass sight glass bowl — blow off the spin-on fuel lter assembly on the forward end of the port main engine. Fuel sprayed straight up “and it was all on re.”

The engineer was unable to reach the fuel shut-off valve before the engine room windows blew out. When the engineer reached the engine room’s upper deck “the whole area was in ames,” he said.

In the wheelhouse at about the same time (0652:46) the captain heard a VHF call stating, “Hey Mary Lynn’s on re.” About two minutes later, the Mary Lynn lost power, leaving it with no re ghting capability. About the same time Good Samaritan vessels came to the Mary Lynn’s aid to ght the re and help hold the Mary Lynn and its barges in place. At 0715 a reboat arrived and the re was extinguished at 0810. Mary Lynn’s damages were over $700,000. The NTSB found that the probable cause of the re was over-pressurization of the fuel day tanks — which did not have an independent vent — and the main engine fuel return system. Also, the NTSB noted that the fatigued chief engineer, who said he’d had less than ve hours sleep in the previous 24 hours, left the over ow valves to the storage tanks closed. That led to ignition of diesel fuel spraying onto an uninsulated engine component.

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Competitive wage/salary with medical/dental, 401K, paid holidays, sick-time and vacation accrual

For full job description go to:

https://www.workboat.com/resources/ jobs-marketplace/welding-supervisor

to:

WELDING SUPERVISOR WELDING SUPERVISOR julie@blountboats.com

 Captains: Need a minimum of 200 Ton Near Coastal License with Master of Towing, 1600 ton preferred, with a valid TWIC, USCG Medical Certificate, NY harbor experience is preferred. Coastwise towing experience on wire tugs and /or Tractor tug experience is a plus

 Mates: Need a minimum of 200 ton Near Coastal License with Mate of Towing, 1600 ton preferred, with a valid TWIC, USCG Medical Certificate, NY harbor experience is preferred. Coastwise towing experience on wire tugs and /or Tractor tug experience is a plus

 Engineers: Need a valid MMC, TWIC, USCG Medical Certificate, We prefer a Licensed Engineer with Tug experience, but will consider unlicensed personnel that have tug experience.

Send resumes to: revans@mcallistertowing.com or employment@mcallistertowing.com

Or apply online at: https://www.mcallistertowing.com/aboutmcallister/employment-opportunities

PORT OF CALL Employment, Equipment & Services

NOW HIRING!!!

CE 3000KW/ 4000HP

• ASSISTANT ENGINEER STCW lll / 1 OlCEW

• DECK FOREMAN 3+ Yrs experience in deck supervisory role

• BOSUN STCW II/4, II/5, VI/2, VI/6 AB Unlimited

• ABLE SEAFARER DECK STCW II/5, STCW II/4 AB Unlimited

• ABLE SEAFARER ENGINE STCW ll/5 , STCW II/4 Oiler/Motorman

• CRANE OPERATOR API Operator LicenseKnuckle Boom

• Wiper

with Current Certifications

Must have DP -2 DSV experience, current mariners’ credentials, certifications & physical. Send resumes & copies of credentials to: ssr2-jobs@hydrasubsea.com

Percy Ransome 215 350 1165 Percy.res@gmail.com

The Alutech and OP Series Chairs & Deck Rails

Greater Quality. Greatest Value.

Alu Design offers a standard product line in addition to the option for customization to suit specific needs. Sleek modern design and maximum utility and comfort are emphasized. No matter whether you call it a pilot chair, helm chair, navigator chair or operator seat, we have the chair for your application.

PORT OF CALL Employment, Equipment & Services

LOOKS BACK

JUNE 1963

• A new 300-hp, single-screw tug, the Ringpower, was recently delivered by Diesel Shipbuilding Co., Jacksonville, Fla, to Seminole Ninety Inc., St. Augustine, Fla. The tug is powered by a Caterpillar D-343 diesel engine and is equipped with U.S. Rubber fenders.

• The Patrol No. 2, a new 34' Uni ite patrol boat purchased from United Boatbuilders, Bellingham, Wash., was

placed in service recently by the Seattle Harbor Police force. The berglass patrol boat is powered by twin 260-hp Interceptor engines. The vessel is on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

• Four welded steel deck barges designed for transporting sand, gravel and general bulk cargo were delivered recently to Bleakley Transportation Co., New York. The barges were built at

JUNE 1973

• Dravo Corp. has acquired Joliet, Ill.-based A.L. Mechling Barge Lines and related companies for $3.96 million in cash and 165,514 shares of Dravo Cumulative Convertible Series B Preference Stock. A.L. Mechling was then consolidated with Union Barge Line Corp., a subsidiary of Dravo. The new company, Union Mechling Corp., will be headquartered in Pittsburgh.

• The Treasury Department announced recently that wire rope from Japan is being sold in the U.S. at less

JUNE 1983

• The American Commercial Barge Line Co., Jeffersonville, Ind., recently selected Krupp MaK heavy fuel engines to repower its triple-screw Mississippi River lineboat Bill Elmer. Three MaK 6M-453 engines — each producing more than 2,400 hp and designed to burn up to 3,500 sec (heavy viscosity) Redwood fuel — will be installed in the vessel by Jeffboat Inc., also of Jeffersonville. Work is sched-

uled to be completed by September.

• Peterson Builders Inc., Sturgeon Bay, Wis., recently laid the keel for the second vessel in a four-boat contract with the Navy for a 255' steel-hull rescue/salvage vessel. Hull ARS-51 will be named the Grasp. Peterson is also building a 217' prototype Navy mine countermeasure vessel and has laid the keel for the rst in a series of 108' wooden-hulled yard patriot vessels.

than fair value in violation of U.S. antidumping laws.

• The Louisiana Deep Draft Harbor and Terminal Authority has selected Kaiser Engineers to provide management and technical support services for a proposed deepwater superport off the Louisiana coast. No existing Gulf Coast port can handle the 100' draft requirements needed to handle larger oil carriers.

Dravo Corp.’s Wilmington, Del., shipyard.

“With more than 65 sets of Reintjes gears in service today, our business has continued to operate safely and efficiently with reliable and dependable service from Karl Senner, LLC. With Reintjes and Karl Senner, LLC. as our partners, we are confident that we will have many more years of operating success along America’s Inland waterways.”

- Clark Todd, President, Blessey Marine Services Inc.

Onboard Karl Senner, LLC supplied two REINTJES WAF 444 Reduction Gearboxes with internal hydraulic multi-disc clutches to operate the dredge pumps.

Karl Senner, LLC is proud to supply two REINTJES WAF 563 Gearboxes onboard the M/V Daniel Wisner.

Owner/Operator: Callan Marine, LTD. Shipyard: DSC Dredge, LLC

Owner: Blessey Marine Services, Inc. Shipyard: Verret Shipyard

Karl Senner, LLC is proud to equip the dredge General Marshall with REINTJES Gearboxes. We look forward to completing more successful projects with DSC Dredge and Callan Marine.