TOWLINES

The vessel was offshore Finisterre when it called for assistance following the unplanned interruption to its voyage. Gigilinis Salvage & Towage’s 63tbp tug Spartan was previously an ETV chartered to the French government as Abeille Bretagne and therefore suited to the task and after towing the disabled vessel to a sheltered area was able to rig a more secure towage connection for the journey. Despite the passage being interrupted on a number of occasions due to bad weather the vessel was handed over to its owners at Istanbul Turkey one month later.

Iskes Towage & Salvage has been making news of late taking delivery of new tugs and it has now been reported that it has sold one of the older units in its fleet. The 1976 built Voith Schneider powered tug Hercules (30tbp) has been sold to Unterweser Reederei GmbH (URAG) of Germany to operate under the name Ronnebeck.

The tug has a long history with various owners, after being built in Germany as the Herkules and managed by Hapag-Lloyd Transport & Service it saw service in the UK for Alexandra Towing and subsequently Howard Smith Towage and Adsteam (UK) Ltd. It then transferred to Smit Harbour Towage Liverpool before its last but one move to Iskes in 2007.

Progress is now underway with the building of six new tugs at the French shipyard Piriou for the fleet of Boluda France. MJ reported recently on progress with Boluda’s order for six Advanced Voith Water Tractors and this latest order is part of their programme of fleet expansion and renewal.

The Piriou tugs will be 30m in length with main engines developing 5,300hp and a bollard pull figure of 75 tons, their specification also including fire-fighting capability, oil recovery and escort notation.

Finally it is with sadness that we report a crewmember of a tug has lost his life when he was crushed between two tugs while working at Royal Portbury Docks Bristol UK. The accident happened as a tug was preparing for a towing operation.

It is reported that port authorities asked that an unmanned tug be moved from one berth to another and that while the first tug was mooring alongside the unmanned one the crewmember was caught between the two hulls. Emergency services were quickly on scene but despite their own and the tug crew’s efforts were unable to save the man.

The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch have launched an investigation into the accident and the deceased man’s employers have set up a local crisis management team with the family of all those affected by this tragic incident being offered support and counselling.

By Peter Barker