I know that most of you already read La Gazette de Bigbull, but I cannot resist providing a link to a recent issue, which reports that the U.S. Army's venerable ST-482 is moored in the Seine near Paris.  Read the story here.  See her from the air on Google here.  She was built in 1944 by American Machinery Corp., in Orlando FL, and spent most of her life in service to the Port of Le Havre.  Note that the same issue also reports that ST 732, which was retired in Brittany, is going to have to be scrapped.  How many more US-built boats are hiding in France?  May 7, 2013.

Maersk Line Limited, the US-flag operation, revealed today that it has begun replacing the eight containerships that it employs on its service linking the U.S. East Coast with the Mediterranean and the Middle East.  Read the announcement here.  The old ships are about 3,300 teus and are, on average, about 15 years old, while the new ships are about 4,800 teus and are, on average, about 5 years old.  First up is the ship pictured on the right, built as the Maersk Kuantan and now the Maersk Chicago: she joined the US-flag fleet last week.  Good for Maersk.  I guess I'm still waiting for them to show us how to revitalize the Jones Act container trades.  May 7, 2013.

Now here's an interesting development.  You remember (yes, you do) that back in 2008, a Polish-built cargo ship was confiscated in a drug bust, sold at auction, modified for Jones Act service, renamed the National Glory and put into operation between Houston TX and Eddystone PA.  Well, that didn't work out and recently the National Glory has been doing duty for APL in its US-flag Baltic Sea service.  (Yes, APL has a US-flag Baltic Sea service, employing three US-flag containerships on a route that links Hamburg and Bremerhaven in Germany, with Tallinn, in Estonia.  You knew that.)  The National Glory has now been released from that trade, however, and, according to Caribbean Business, is about to start serving Puerto Rico from Houston, on a biweekly schedule.  Excellent timing, seeing that the inimitable Horizon Lines recently cut their Houston-to-Puerto Rico service from weekly to biweekly.  What next in the strange world of non-contiguan trade?  May 6, 2013.

Irving took a full page ad in the Halifax Chronicle on Saturday to rebut CBC's suggestions concerning the AOPS program.  Read it here.  Somehow I doubt that this row is over.  The folks up north can recognize a boondoggle when one crosses their path.  May 6, 2013.

The Baltimore Sun reports that the Kaleen McAllister sank on Saturday, at its pier in the Locust Point section of Baltimore.  Read the story here.  The Kaleen McAllister is the former Pontiac, (YTB 756), built by Southern Shipbuilding, in Slidell LA, in 1961.  She's 52 years old.  Yes, I know you can keep a well-built boat going almost indefinitely if you look after it, and McAllister is undoubtedly a responsible operator, but they've got a whole lot of these old ladies.  Wouldn't it be nice if they were to build some new ones?  Look at their fleet: they have close to 100 tugs with an average age that's over 40.  They should be building three boats a year just to maintain that average, more to lower it.  May 6, 2013.

There's always something interesting going on at Harvey Gulf International Marine.  This week they tell us that they are buying seven recently built DP-2 PSVs, including two that are still under construction, and four DP-2 FSVs from Gulf Offshore Logistics, thereby reducing the size of GOL's fleet from 31 boats to 20.  In addition, they are ordering two 340-foot STX-designed construction vessels from Eastern Shipbuilding and another LNG-fueled PSV from TY Offshore.  The total tab for the three deals is said to be $540 million.  Read the press release here.  May 3, 2013.

More terrible numbers from Horizon Lines, which all on its own makes you want to give up on the Jones Act.  In the first quarter, they lost $20 million on sales of $244 million.  Read their announcement here.  The unavoidable fact is that Horizon Lines has absolutely no way of getting out of the bog in which it has become stuck.  None.  Chapter 7, here they come.  Then somebody competent can buy their terminals and take over their cargoes.  May 3, 2013.

Dreadful news from the Coast Guard.  Chuck Hill's excellent CG Blog reports that the shipbuilding program has been royally messed up.  Read the story here.  The slow and expensive NRC program has been expanded to the original eight ships, at the expense of the urgently needed OPC program, for which proposals were recently submitted, and the FRC program, which was humming along nicely.  The OPC program has been put back by two years and the FRC program reduced to two ships a year.  Whose brilliant idea is this?  How can funding two more NRCs that take four years to build possibly be preferable to funding the OPCs and FRCs?  Brainless!  May 3, 2013.

You have to like a company whose motto is "Strength in Diversity".  Seacor has ordered two 84,000-cm LPG carriers from HHI, with options for three more.  Read the announcement here.  Another new business activity.  Excellent!  Others seem to approve too: the company's stock is already up about 2% and it's not even 11 o'clock yet.  May 3, 2013.

CBC News has published a special report on the ridiculous sums that the Canadian Government is throwing at the National Shipbuilding Procurement in general and the Arctic Offshore Patrol Ship in particular.  Read it here.  Interesting comparisons with the costs reported of other nations' procurement of similar ships. And the Canadian Government's responses are really pathetic.  They really need to bite the bullet, close the whole program down and buy the boats competitively.  May 2, 2013.

US Shipping has completed a refinancing that, they say, gets them moving forward again.  Let's hope so.  Read their press release here.  May 2, 2013.

Back in August, Signal International signed a contract with Great Lakes Dredge & Dock for an ATB hopper dredge, a totally new concept.  Since then, it seems that this project has been beset by design changes, with the usual negative impacts on both cost and schedule.  Anyway, Signal announced today that they were suspending work until these problems can be resolved: read their release here.  According to Signal, GLDD's response was to terminate the contract and to seek another shipbuilder.  (Some chance that they will find anyone who can build it for less money or in less time!)  As a result, Signal is demanding arbitration.  OK, far be it from me to attempt to be judge and jury in this case but three things seem to be obvious.  First, it sounds as though this contract was signed before the design was anything like complete, which is always a bad idea.  Second, the lead time from contract to the start of construction was only 4-5 months, which doesn't sound like it was ever going to be enough.  And third, if the contract calls for arbitration of disputes, then the disputes should be arbitrated, shouldn't they?  Well, we will see how things develop.  April 15, 2013.

Back in November, we reported that BAE Systems had reached an agreement with American Maritime Holdings for BAE to acquire MHI, the well-known Norfolk shiprepairer formerly known as Marine Hydraulics (pictured on the right).  So here we are five months later and the Department of Justice has not yet approved the deal, apparently because the Navy has not yet approved the deal.  By contrast, the Navy had no problem with GD buying Metro and Earl Industries.  So what's the difference in this case, Mr. Stackley?  How long are you going to keep these guys in limbo?  If you're worried about competition, you should have thought about that before you approved the Metro and Earl deals.  April 15, 2013.

The Secretary of the Navy has revealed seven new names for ships under construction, all of them, amazingly, consistent with their classes.  Read the announcement here.  In brief, JHSVs 5, 6 and 7 will be Trenton, Brunswick and Carson City; LPD 27 will be Portland; LCSs 13 and 14 will be Wichita and Manchester; and AGOR 28 will be Sally Ride.  April 15, 2013.

In the joint Tidewater Leevac announcement referenced below, everybody involved is either pleased or excited, if not both.  These days it seems that everybody quoted in every press release is pleased and excited.  Of course, none of these people actually said they were pleased and excited: their PA people invented their words, and one might think that PA people would know more than two verbs.  So, note to PA people: use some imagination.  And note to management: if your PA person writes a press release in which you are quoted as saying you're pleased and/or excited, suggest that they either rewrite it or transfer to the warehouse.   April 13, 2013.

Tidewater Marine, which already has two PSVs under construction at Leevac and two more at Bay Shipbuilding, has returned to Leevac for two more, plus an optional second pair.  These will be of Leevac's own design, the LDS 300 DE, pictured on the right.  Read the joint announcement here.  April 13, 2013.

A quick look reveals that the DoD is asking for two SSNs (plus what looks like enough in Advance Procurement funds for two more), one DDG, four LCSs and one AFSB.  No money for CVNs and no money for JHSVs.  The total request is $14.7 billion for only eight ships.  April 10, 2013.

Line Item Title	Cost Type Title	Quantity	Amount
Carrier Replacement Program	Subsequent Full Funding (CY)		944,866
Virginia Class Submarine	Weapon System Cost	2	4,718,516
Virginia Class Submarine	Less: Advance Procurement (PY)		-835,073
Virginia Class Submarine	Less: Subsequent Full Funding (FY)		-952,739
Virginia Class Submarine	Advance Procurement (CY)		2,354,612
CVN Refueling Overhauls	Subsequent Full Funding (CY)		1,705,424
CVN Refueling Overhauls	Advance Procurement (CY)		245,793
DDG 1000	Weapon System Cost		231,694
DDG-51	Weapon System Cost	1	1,729,712
DDG-51	Less: Advance Procurement (PY)		-114,148
DDG-51	Advance Procurement (CY)		388,551
Littoral Combat Ship	Weapon System Cost	4	1,793,014
Afloat Forward Staging Base	Weapon System Cost	1	524,000
Joint High Speed Vessel	Weapon System Cost		2,732
Moored Training Ship	Advance Procurement (CY)		183,900
Outfitting	Weapon System Cost		450,163
LCAC SLEP	Weapon System Cost	4	80,987
Completion of PY Shipbuilding Programs	Weapon System Cost		625,800
Completion of PY Shipbuilding Programs	LHA R (MEMO NON ADD)		37,700
Completion of PY Shipbuilding Programs	CVN (MEMO NON ADD)		588,100
		12	14,703,604

Sad to report that one of the gurus of the Jones Act, Bruce Wilson, left us in January.  His quarterly report on the coastwise petroleum products trades was required reading.  He was very good at what he did and he was a classically idiosyncratic maritime industry personality: he will be missed.  Fortunately, Dave St. Amand, of Navigistics Consulting, has stepped in and taken the reins of Bruce's business - Wilson, Gillette & Co. - so all that knowledge and experience will not be lost.  April 9, 2013.

WPBS in San Diego reports that the Commanding Officer, the Executive Officer, the Assistant Navigator and the Officer of the Deck of the USS Guardian, (MCM 5), have all been relieved.  Read the story here.  The rest of the crew have been reassigned to the USS Warrior, (MCM 10), which had been in Bahrain and was headed home to San Diego but which has now been reassigned to replace the Guardian.  April 7, 2013.

I'm sure that most of you are following the salvage of the Costa Concordia.  If not, check out the Parbuckling Project web site, which you can find here.  Terrific stuff.  April 5, 2013.

OSG has fired its CFO, Myles Itkin.  Read the announcement here.  Yes, that's the same guy who got a retention bonus of $1.5 million only nine months ago.  It's a strange world.  Almost as strange, he is being replaced by Ian Blackley, who is a merchant mariner through and through, trained in Glasgow at the legendary Stow College of Hairdressing (Scotland's version of Kings Point, now the City of Glasgow College) and then with P. & O.  I'm all for Captain Blackley but how exactly does he qualify for the position of CFO of a publicly traded company?  Boy, I'm glad I sold my OSG stock when I did.  April 5, 2013.

WKRG in Mobile reports that the notorious Carnival Triumph has broken loose from its mooring in the BAE shipyard and taken an unscheduled cruise across the Mobile River.  Read the story here.  Other sources report that she has rammed the Corps of Engineers dredge Wheeler, which is in the Signal Ship Repair yard, causing significant damage to both ships.  More to come probably.  April 3, 2013.

P.S.: It seems that most of the damage was done on the BAE side of the river, where she appears to have bashed one corner of BAE's big floater.  April 4, 2013.

P.P.S.:  In addition, while this mishap is primarily BAE's problem - obviously - it will inevitably result in more cancelled cruises for Carnival.  April 4, 2013.

Where would we be without them?  Read today's cringe-making press release from SECDOT here.  I'm not sure where the figure $2 billion comes from: the table below shows Title XI activity in this Administration.  April 2, 2013, which is, incidentally, the quincentenary of the discovery of continental North America by Ponce de Léon, who came ashore in Melbourne Beach, Florida, on April 2, 1513.

The 12,000-ton dock around which VTHM plans to develop its new ship repair operation has left the Keppel Philippines shipyard where it's been undergoing some modifications.  It's on one of Zhen Hua Shipping's semi-submersible heavy-lift ships and is due in Pascagoula next month.  Looks good.  April 1, 2013.

The Anchorage Daily News reports that the Matanuska-Susitna Borough has received only one bid, of only $751,000, for their $80 million ferry-to-nowhere.  The bidder was Workships Contractors, the well-known Dutch firm, who would use it as an offshore wind farm support vessel.  Read the story here.  Everybody involved in promoting this joke of a boat must be so proud.  April 1, 2013.