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Displaying items by tag: Irish ships

Cork Dockyard's latest client is the Irish Naval Service's OPV90 /P60 series LÉ Samuel Beckett (P61) which berthed in the graving dock previously occupied by another Irish flagged ship, the general cargo containership Huelin Dispatch, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The facility (were ship's were built) in Cork Harbour, is these days part of the Doyle Shipping Group (DSG) and where leadship of the series also known as the 'Beckett/ Playwright' class is undergoing work. According to the INS this planned maintenance is for below the waterline.

It is an extremely busy time for the entire ship’s crew (44 incl. 6 Officers), as the process of dry-docking the Offshore Patrol Vessel of 90m in length, offers a rare opportunity to conduct work on the hull where otherwise underwater fittings and fixtures are usually inaccessible.

LÉ Samuel Beckett was one of several in the naval fleet that was often in the news headlines of recent years haven taken part in humanitarain missions in the Mediterranean Sea. This involved rescuing thousands of migrants/ refugees under dire circumstances when in unseaworthy craft deployed by people-smugglers off north Africa.

At the same time these deployments also proved to be challenging for the crew.

Such experiences have also helped those personnel in the Naval Service to assist in the recent Covid-19 testing centres that have since been stood down in Dublin Port and Galway Harbour.

In fact the leadship LÉ Samuel Beckett also became the first of the fleet to fight against Covid-19 as part of Óglaigh na hÉireann’s efforts to generate additional capacity for the HSE. This first took place from mid-March when berthed in the Irish capital.

Published in Navy

#PORTS & SHIPPING - Seven-crew have been saved from Florece (PHOTO) an Irish managed general cargoship which sank off the UK, following a collision with a Greek owned chemical tanker on Friday, according to www.tradewinds.no

The accident took place in the Bay of Biscay, approximately 250 miles from Land's End, the UK's Maritime and Coastguard Agency said. The Dominican flagged Florece (1990/1,960grt) which is managed by Greystones based Berg Maritime Management, sank after the 88m vessel was in collision with the 53,081-dwt tanker Afrodite, operated by Tsakos.

The crew of the Florece abandoned ship, taking to two life rafts, before being rescued by the 8,040 containership capacity Ocean Titan, operated by Pacific-Gulf Marine of the US.

Afrodite had attempted to deploy a rescue craft but was unsuccessful because of the sea swell. Falmouth Coastguard helped co-ordinate the rescue operation with Spanish counterparts to rescue the crew of Florece, a mix of Russians, Polish and Ukrainians. The 187m Afrodite was not reported as taking on water.

Published in Ports & Shipping

Galway Port & Harbour

Galway Bay is a large bay on the west coast of Ireland, between County Galway in the province of Connacht to the north and the Burren in County Clare in the province of Munster to the south. Galway city and port is located on the northeast side of the bay. The bay is about 50 kilometres (31 miles) long and from 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) to 30 kilometres (19 miles) in breadth.

The Aran Islands are to the west across the entrance and there are numerous small islands within the bay.

Galway Port FAQs

Galway was founded in the 13th century by the de Burgo family, and became an important seaport with sailing ships bearing wine imports and exports of fish, hides and wool.

Not as old as previously thought. Galway bay was once a series of lagoons, known as Loch Lurgan, plied by people in log canoes. Ancient tree stumps exposed by storms in 2010 have been dated back about 7,500 years.

It is about 660,000 tonnes as it is a tidal port.

Capt Brian Sheridan, who succeeded his late father, Capt Frank Sheridan

The dock gates open approximately two hours before high water and close at high water subject to ship movements on each tide.

The typical ship sizes are in the region of 4,000 to 6,000 tonnes

Turbines for about 14 wind projects have been imported in recent years, but the tonnage of these cargoes is light. A European industry report calculates that each turbine generates €10 million in locally generated revenue during construction and logistics/transport.

Yes, Iceland has selected Galway as European landing location for international telecommunications cables. Farice, a company wholly owned by the Icelandic Government, currently owns and operates two submarine cables linking Iceland to Northern Europe.

It is "very much a live project", Harbourmaster Capt Sheridan says, and the Port of Galway board is "awaiting the outcome of a Bord Pleanála determination", he says.

90% of the scrap steel is exported to Spain with the balance being shipped to Portugal. Since the pandemic, scrap steel is shipped to the Liverpool where it is either transhipped to larger ships bound for China.

It might look like silage, but in fact, its bales domestic and municipal waste, exported to Denmark where the waste is incinerated, and the heat is used in district heating of homes and schools. It is called RDF or Refuse Derived Fuel and has been exported out of Galway since 2013.

The new ferry is arriving at Galway Bay onboard the cargo ship SVENJA. The vessel is currently on passage to Belem, Brazil before making her way across the Atlantic to Galway.

Two Volvo round world races have selected Galway for the prestigious yacht race route. Some 10,000 people welcomed the boats in during its first stopover in 2009, when a festival was marked by stunning weather. It was also selected for the race finish in 2012. The Volvo has changed its name and is now known as the "Ocean Race". Capt Sheridan says that once port expansion and the re-urbanisation of the docklands is complete, the port will welcome the "ocean race, Clipper race, Tall Ships race, Small Ships Regatta and maybe the America's Cup right into the city centre...".

The pandemic was the reason why Seafest did not go ahead in Cork in 2020. Galway will welcome Seafest back after it calls to Waterford and Limerick, thus having been to all the Port cities.

© Afloat 2020