Enchanted Princess floated out at Monfalcone

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

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Published: 06 August 2019 06 August 2019

Enchanted Princess, the fifth Royal-class ship built for the ship operator Princess Cruises, a brand within Carnival Corporation & plc, floated out today at Fincantieri’s shipyard in Monfalcone. Interior fittings will now begin, leading the vessel to its delivery, scheduled in 2020, the shipbuilder said in a statement.

The 145,000 gross ton ship follows Royal Princess, Regal Princess, Majestic Princess and the upcoming Sky Princess, built and delivered in the same shipyard starting from 2013.

The partnership between the Monfalcone yard and Princess Cruises will continue with two next-generation cruise ships. These will be the largest built so far in Italy with a gross-tonnage of 175,000 tons, expected to be delivered at the end of 2023 and in spring 2025.

The vessels will accommodate approximately 4,300 guests and will be the first of the ship owner’s fleet to be dual-fuel powered primarily by Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).

 

Rolls-Royce to rebrand Power Systems units

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

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Published: 06 August 2019 06 August 2019

Rolls-Royce plc, the British engineering group, will rebrand parts of its Power Systems units, the company said in a statement.

“One of the first visible steps to be taken will be the renaming of four operating companies, which manufacture products and solutions: MTU Friedrichshafen GmbH will thus become Rolls-Royce Solutions GmbH in the Autumn 2019. This will be followed by MTU America Inc., which in future will operate as Rolls-Royce Solutions America Inc,” Rolls-Royce said.

“Today’s MTU Onsite Energy GmbH in Augsburg will become Rolls-Royce Solutions Augsburg GmbH and MTU Onsite Energy Systems GmbH in Ruhstorf will be renamed Rolls-Royce Solutions Ruhstorf GmbH. The remaining subsidiaries will successively be given new designations based on the above examples. The products of Bergen Engines will also be part of the new brand architecture,” the company continued.

Rolls-Royce Power Systems is based in Friedrichshafen in Germany and it employs 11,000 people, the company added.

 

 

 

Harland & Wolff that built Titanic and tens of other liners goes under

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

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Published: 06 August 2019 06 August 2019

Harland & Wolff (H&W), the Belfast based shipbuilder that built Titanic in 1912 and tens of other liners, has been placed into administration following the collapse of its principal shareholder, Dolphin Drilling of Norway, last month.

H&W employed just 120 persons at the time of its collapse, a pale shadow of the more than 30,000 that it had on its payroll in its post war heydays.

It has not built a ship since the delivery of a large roro vessel in 2002, but the shipyard has been used by e.g. the ferry industry for maintenance and refit work.

In 2018, the Northern Ireland based MJM Group used the shipyard to revamp the former P&O Cruises Adonia into Azamara Pursuit of Azamara Cruises in a project that took three months and was valued at about £50 million, according to media reports.

H&W had been active in the offshore work, a business that has been badly hurt by the sharp fall in the price of oil in late 2014. This forced its majority shareholder, Dolphin Drilling, into bankruptcy earlier this summer. The company was previously known as Fred. Olsen Energy.

H&W built all the newbuildings of White Star Line, which owned the Titanic, staring with the Oceanic of 1871 and ending with the line’s final vessel, the Georgic of 1932.

It also built most of the liners of Union Castle Line that served South and East Africa from the UK. However, a delayed delivery of Pendennis Castle in 1959 as a result of a strike terminated this relationship.

H&W is also remembered as the builder of Canberra, which was delivered to P&O in 1961. Originally a liner serving the Australian and Trans-Pacific trades,  the ship came to play a major role in the development of the UK cruise industry during its 36 year career.

 

Cruise ship and ferry crew members ‘unhappiest in industry’

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

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Published: 05 August 2019 05 August 2019

Seafarers working onboard cruise ships and ferries rank among the unhappiest in the industry, according to the latest Seafarers Happiness Index report, published by The Mission to Seafarers.

The report, which is produced in association with leading mutual P&I insurer the Shipowners’ Club, is based on the responses of thousands of seafarers across the global maritime industry. The latest report showed that cruise and ferry crews had an average score of 5.3/10 on their general happiness level - 15 per cent less than the global average across all vessel types, which stands at 6.27 this quarter, the London based organisation said in a statement.

Happiness levels for those working on tankers, bulk carriers and container ships were all close to the global average, coming in at around 6.3/10. Seafarers on dredgers were the most satisfied, according to the data. However, the percentage of respondents serving on this vessel type was relatively low.

Across all vessel types, four key issues emerged from the survey responses in this three-month period: delayed payment of wages; decreased shore leave; workload stress caused by smaller crews onboard; and a lack of understanding from shore staff with regard to seafarer welfare issues. At the same time, concern around seafarer abandonment continues to grow, with many seafarers expressing a sense of vulnerability following a number of recent incidents around the globe. The Mission also received a number of troubling reports of aggression, violence and bullying against female seafarers.

On the positive side, seafarers’ happiness levels with their ability to keep in contact with their family when at sea rose this quarter. This is an encouraging indication of the benefits to seafarers from improved connectivity at sea, as well as the importance of further improvements in both the availability and cost of communications to seafarers. In other welcome news, happiness levels among seafarers with their ability to keep fit and healthy onboard also rose. In responding to the survey, a number of seafarers also highlighted the importance of physical exercise as a factor in mental wellbeing