Tugs & Salvage

Salvage and wreck removal company Ardent has celebrated its second birthday reporting significant contract achievements while maintaining a zero lost time incident record since its inception.

The UKs Royal Navy has helped celebrate the 90th birthday of Portwey, one of the last coal-fired twin-screw steam tugs in the world which has a proud record of naval service during…

Shetland Islands Council has decided to proceed with the purchase of a chartered tug after the harbour board added an authoritative voice of support to acquiring the vessel outright.

German propulsion provider Schottel has marked up its first reference for a new thruster nozzle in the SDV45 VarioDuct design for a series of three Spanish-built dual-fuel tugs for Norway’s Østensjø Rederi.

The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has published its report into the loss of tow and subsequent grounding of the semi-submersible rig ‘Transocean Winner’ in August 2016.

Rolls-Royce has provided details of its current activities with Turkish shipyard Sanmar including the claimed first high-speed diesel engine provision for tugs with 90 tonnes bollard pull.

This month’s look at new arrivals to the tug world is as usual a global affair but with a European accent covering nine vessels, also with mention of two deliveries of note…

Last month ‘MJ’ took a break from reporting tug orders and deliveries; if just one month is an indication of the health of the industry, business appears good with three orders and…

HR Wallingford and its Australia Ship Simulation Centre in Fremantle have shed interesting light on the degree of planning involved in the towing and positioning of the largest offshore floating facility ever…

Svitzer has announced the signing of a fifteen-year deal to provide marine support services at Bangladesh’s first LNG import terminal.

The Netherlands-based Van Grevenstein’s Scheepswerf BV has completed the reactivation of a British-owned Shoalbuster following a period of lay-up.

Earlier this year SMS Towage took delivery of the 2014-built ‘Ulupinar’ class tug ‘Englishman’. The Hull-based company has now provided interesting background to the history of this particular vessel name.

Kotug Smit Towage has assisted the load out of two jackets from Heerema’s yard at Flushing bound for Maersk Oil North Sea Ltd’s Culzean field in the North Sea.

Technology group Wärtsilä has secured the first order for a tug featuring its recently introduced HY hybrid power module from Italian tug owner Rimorchiatori Riuniti.

Consolidation in the towage industry features regularly of late and the recent merger of some of the operations of Smit and Kotug has been followed with an agreement with a major shipping…

Boluda Corporación Maritima has presented a state-of-the-art silent tug to the technical committee of classification society Bureau Veritas (BV).

County Cork, Ireland-based Atlantic Towage & Marine Ltd has taken delivery of a powerful ASD previously owned by Norwegian towage service provider Østensjø Rederi.

Evolution or revolution? A fair question reviewing the past and looking to the future as Tugs & Towing considers the towage industry in ‘MJ’s’ 30th year.