Mysore: Indian Destroyer leaves Malta March 13

Indian nationals from Sirte, Misurata, Benghazi and Kufrah have been pulled out. The Ministry is confident that almost all Indian nationals desirous of leaving Libya will have left. Naval vessels INS Jalashwa and INS Mysore are in the Mediterranean, just off the Libyan coast.INS Mysore (D60) is a Delhi-class guided-missile destroyer here

IONIAN SPIRIT: Greek ferries in Libya evacuation

IONIAN SPIRIT sailed Valletta March 4 for Sirte (Daewoo charter, to go to Chania)

Greek ferry companies can expect to make €15m-€20m from the evacuation to offset record losses last year helping to evacuate tens of thousands of thousands of Chinese, Brazilian and Venezuelan workers.

Three Greek companies are operating eight ferries on rolling round-trip charters between Benghazi in eastern Libya and the southern Mediterranean islands of Crete and Malta.

The average daily charter fee for vessels making the four-day voyage is €250,000 ($346,000.

The coastal ferry fleet undergoes surveys and repairs in February to prepare for the tourist season, so there were plenty of ships available.

Anek and Hellenic Seaways, both controlled by the Vardinoyannis group, chartered five vessels last week to the Beijing government. Agoudimos Lines, a small operator, provided one ship.

Two ships belonging to Minoan Lines, a subsidiary of Italy’s Grimaldi group, which can each carry 2,500 passengers are operating the route between Libya and Malta.

These ships usually operate between Greece and Italy but they’d been taken out of service for the winter.

About 18,000 out of an estimated 48,000 Chinese nationals working in Libya have so far disembarked at the ports of Souda and Heraklion in Crete, along with several hundred Europeans, according to Greek officials.

Only a handful of Chinese arrivals had passports and many carried no personal documents, said a port official at Heraklion.

Everyone got a four-day stay permit while the Beijing authorities arrange to take them home.

The ferry evacuation was expected to continue for another 10 days, following additional charter requests by the governments of Brazil and Venezuela.

Wen Jiabao, Chinese prime minister, sent a letter thanking his Greek counterpart George Papandreou for providing “support and mutual solidarity at a difficult time,”.
The 80-vessel coastal shipping fleet posted operating losses of about €250m in 2010, the Union of Maritime Enterprises said.

Passenger and vehicle traffic fell by 30 per cent as crews staged strikes amid a deepening economic crisis, while the cost of diesel fuel increased by 30 per cent.

IONIAN SPIRIT IMO number: 7128887


20/8/2007 Laid up for sale
15/11/2007 Sold to Agoudimos Lines, Greece, named Ionian Spirit, St Vincent and The Grenadines flag

Sisterships: Jamaa II Apollo Express O
Name Ionian Spirit
ex. Names Roslagen , Wasa Express , Viking 3

Imo Number 7128887
Call sign J8B3748
Flag St Vincent and Grenadines
Homeport Kingstown

Builder Jos.L.Meyer, Papenburg-Ems 16/4/1972 Launch 17.12.1971 Keel laid 19/7/1971
Hull number 565
Designer
Breaker

Operator Agoudimos Lines
Owner BLURAY MARITIME INC
Manager FLANMARE LINES SA

Length OA 108.67 m
Length BP 96.5 m
Length LL
Length Reg.


GT 6748
GRT 4300
NT 2025
NRT 1881
DWT
Displacement Tonnage

Classification Company Bureau Veritas
Classification I Hull MACH Ro-ro passenger ship Unrestricted
navigation ICE CLASS IA MACH

Ice class 1 A

CHOI YOUNG: ROKN destroyer to Tripoli

ROKN destroyer CHOI YOUNG changed plans and now due Tripoli to take evacuees to Malta back

ROKN Choi Young (DDH-981) s a Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin class destroyer in the South Korean navy
Class and type: Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin class destroyer
Displacement: 4,400 metric tons (4,300 long tons) standard
5,520 metric tons (5,430 long tons) full load
Length: 150 m (492 ft 2 in)
Beam: 17.4 m (57 ft 1 in)
Draft: 9.5 m (31 ft 2 in)
Propulsion: Combined diesel or gas
Speed: 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Range: 10,200 kilometres (5,500 nmi)
Complement: 200

Italian corvette FENICE is at Valletta.

Fenice (F 557)
Type: corvette
Displacement: 1285 tonnes
Length: 87 m
Beam: 10.5 m
Draught: 3.2 (4.8) m
Propulsion: 2 Diesel Grandi Motori Trieste BM-230.20 DVM outputting 11.000 HP (8.088 kW)
Speed: 25 knots
Range: 3,500 nm at 18 knots
Complement: 7 officers, 113 men
Sensors and
processing systems:

AA/ASu-Radar Selenia SPS-774 (RAN 10S) E/F Band
1 SMA SPS-728 Navigation radar
Sonar: Raytheon/Elsag DE-1167
Electronic warfare
and decoys:

Fire control: 1 Selenia SPG-75 (RTN 30X) for Albatros and 76mm
Communication: IPN-10 (Mini-SADOC), Link 11
Armament:

1 Otobreda 76 mm
Sea Sparrow or Selenia Aspide in a 8-cell launcher
6 × 324mm TLS ASW torpedoes
4 heavy machine guns

Maria Dolores: US charter reached Valetta

Philip J. Crowley, a State Department spokesman, said at least 167 Americans were on board the ferry Maria Dolores. The State Department has said 40 members of the United States Embassy as well as family members were among the passengers boatrded in Tripoli Libya which has now reached Valetta, malta.
Overall length
68.4m
Waterline length
58.8m
Beam moulded
18.2m
Hull depth moulded
6.3m
Hull draft (maximum)
2.6m
Deadweight (maximum)
260t
Passengers
600


earlier

Samho Jewelry: Serum, Ali, Brallat, Arai, arrested

The South Korean Busan District Court approved the issuance of arrest warrants in the hijacking of Samho Jewelry for the suspects ― identified as Serum Abdullah, Ali Abdullah, Ali Abukad-Aeman, Brallat Aul and Arai Mahomed ― on suspicions of maritime robbery and attempted murder.
“Many of them do not speak Arabic, which is widely used in Somalia. Since their country has been engaged in internal feuds for decades, there are barely any documents to certify their identification,” an official added.

Meanwhile, the government is planning to bury the bodies of the eight dead pirates at sea as the Somali government has been lukewarm in taking them. Seoul officials called the offered handover a humanitarian approach, but the Omani government, who stepped forward as a mediator, said it is yet to receive any response from the Somali counterpart.

Samho Jewelry, registered in Valletta, Malta [Malta-flag] by Global Shipholding 1, an investment product of Acta Holding ASA, Stavanger, Norway, with a bareboat charter back to Samho Shipping Company, South Korea, the disponent owner of the vessel.
see
compare
US Navy

Arctic Sea: underway

picture published upon arrival
picture published upon departure
The Maltese registered vessel Arctic Sea left the Grand Harbour 11 November headed towards its original destination port namely, Algerian port of Bejaia. It was not listed as scheduled to arrive at Bejaia as of 14 November.

Mr Victor Matveev
Director
Solchart

As you know the mv Arctic Sea left Malta on the afternoon of Wednesday 11 November 2009, after the necessary repairs and all surveys and a flag State inspection had been carried out in order to ensure that the ship is in conformity with national and international requirements.

The mv Arctic Sea had entered the port of Valletta on Thursday 29 October 2009, after she had been inspected in international waters off Malta and her safety ascertained by the Civil Protection Department, the Malta Police and the Malta Maritime Authority. The inspection revealed that the ship was not carrying any dangerous cargo or any cargo other than that appearing in the ship’s cargo manifest.

LC Vassallo
Registrar General of
Shipping and Seamen

Arctic Sea: Crewmembers ruled victims

Arctic Sea would proceed to its original destination to fulfill her obligations to her partners and deliver the overdue timber. A new crew of 14 sailors flew from Russia to Malta on 3 November to replace the captain and three sailors who had remained on the vessel.

Russia's special investigations committee announced 30 October that all 14 crewmembers of the Arctic Sea had been formally recognized as victims of a pirate attack.

Arctic Sea: Russian investigators still aboard

The captain and three crew members were still on board the MV Arctic Sea 30 October, along with Russian investigators. The ship berthed, 14 nautical miles east of Marsaxlokk, Valetta, Malta. The ship berthed early yesterday morning and not as expected last night. The ship had some steering gear problems which resulted in a slight delay in towing. “As we did not want the towing to take place in pitch darkness, we decided to wait an extra day,” said John Gatt, chairman of the National Maritime Security Committee.

Arctic Sea: Russian naval personnel disembarked

The Arctic Sea entered the port of Valletta the evening of 29 October and has been allocated a berth at Boiler Wharf. The ship was delivered back to its owners outside Maltese territorial waters in the afternoon.

The ship arrived, 28 October at 0700 hours, outside territorial waters under the tow of a Russian naval tug. The ship was handed over 29 October at 1330 hours by the Russian authorities to the owner. Soon after the tow was transferred from the Russian naval tug to the commercial tug boat Mari, operated by Tug Malta, and the Russian naval personnel disembarked from the ship.

Despite repeated promises to take it into port, the Russian Navy had held the Arctic Sea in international waters since seizing it from suspected pirates on August 17 off Cape Verde near West Africa, 2,500 miles (4,000km) off course.

The ship had been under guard by two Russian warships since then. The captain and three crew members, who are all Russian, had been on board throughout the voyage. It is unclear whether they will be free to return home to the Russian port of Archangel or be taken to Moscow for questioning.

The Moscow Basmanny District Court has extended the arrest of the suspected assailants of the Maltese-flagged Arctic Sea until 18 February at the request of the Russian Prosecutor General Office’s Investigation Committee. “The judge extended custody of Andrei Lunev and Vitaly Lepin for three months and 29 days, until 18 February,” said Moscow City Court press secretary Anna Usachyova on16 October. A similar decision was made for another six suspects earlier.