U.K. detains Aries Maritime Aframax

Britain's Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) announced today that it had detained the tanker Citius at Portbury Dock, Bristol on December 1, 2005.

The 43, 733 gt Citius (ex Carlisle) is controlled by Athens-based Aries Maritime Transport Ltd. (Nasdaq: RAMS).

The attending MCA inspector found the following detainable items:

Hull cracked in way of no. 3 starboard water ballast tank.

Deck cracked in way of no. 3 port water ballast tank.

Lack of training with regard to fire and boat drills.

Radio MFDSC not operational.

Failure of shipboard safety management system

This vessel was last inspected in the Paris MOU Region on July 8, 2004. The vessel was eligible for a mandatory expanded inspection as required by EU legislation brought into force in July 2003 as a consequence of the Erika and Prestige incidents.

Inspections of foreign flagged ships in U.K. ports are undertaken by surveyors from the MCA.

Where a ship is found to be deficient or lacks the required documentation, MCA surveyors can take a range of actions leading to detention in serious cases. The U.K. is part of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control (Paris MOU).

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