Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: Tanker discharge molasses

#TankerSnap – The above photograph is not of the red-hulled tanker Iver Ability which anchored in Dublin Bay for more than five months and in doing so drew much mainstream media attention, writes Jehan Ashmore.

So what is the identity of this tanker?... with this view overlooking the vessel's complex looking cargo tanks pipeline network. The answer to the vessel's identity is that of the MS Simon, a 40,000dwt Liberian flagged oil-chemical bulk liquids tanker.

The vessel had berthed in Dublin Port nine days ago with a cargo of molasses from Guatemala in Central America. This followed a crossing of the Atlantic, where MS Simon made an en-route call to Amsterdam prior to docking in Dublin Port.

The 176m long vessel discharged the molasses at a northside fuel jetty before shifting to the south bank along Deepwater Quay. 

At this same berth (No.47) is where previously Iver Ability made several calls during the prolonged anchorage that arose following a 'cargo reaction' incident in transporting bitumen in the port.

The final port call was prior to the festive season. On that occasion a change of certain personnel of the 129m vessel was undertaken. 

Late last month Iver Ability finally departed Dublin Bay bound for the Netherlands. 

On completion of duties that is of the MS Simon, the tanker departed the capital this week. On Thursday the ship was monitored offshore of the Scottish coast. At that stage the tanker was off Islay, the southernmost of the Inner Hebrideas.

Published in Dublin Port

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.