Safety and Security

The captain of a Maltese freighter was taken into custody by Coast Guard officials in Astoria, Oregon, Tuesday.The captain of the 738-foot motor vessel Laconia was taken into custody after his blood-alcohol level was found to be in excess of the legal limit for commercial vessel operators.The 1987-built, 68,283 dt bulker is managed by Athens-headquarter ...

The Costa Crociere cruise ship Costa Allegra is under tow for the main island of the Seychelles by the Trevignan, a 300-ft French tuna seiner owned by Compagnie Francaise du Thon Oceanique. The fishing vessel's role pulling large, full fishing nets gives it ample towing capacity to pull the cruise ship and, according to Costa, the tow is proceeding at about 6 knots. ...

Costa Crociere executive VP Manfred Ursprunger is among seven Costa Cruises employees added yesterday to the investigation of the Costa Concordia sinking by the prosecutor in Grosseto, Italy. They join Captain Francesco Schettino and first officer Ciro Ambrosio as suspects. Italian media say the seven may face charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and failing to communi ...

Divers have found four more bodies on Deck 4 of the submerged Costa Concordia, according to Italy's National Civil Protection Agency. One of the bodies was that of a five year old girl, according to media reports. With today's announcement, 21 bodies have been recovered, with another 11 ...

Two Italian marines have been remanded to police custody by an Indian magistrate following an apparent breakdown in negotiations between Italian and Indian authorities. The two - named as Latore Massimiliano and Salvatore Girone - were part of a six member security team provided by the Italian government to protect the Italian-flag 104,255 dwt tanker Enrico Lex ...

The Nautical Institute has issued "Industry Recommendations for ECDIS Training," a guidance that helps interpret IMO requirements for ECDIS (Electronic Chart Display and Information System) training. Last month, ECDIS training became required under amendments to the STCW convention and from July this year mandatory ECDIS carriage requirements start to be phase in. ...

More Costa Concordia passengers have joined a lawsuit filed in Florida state court in Miami against Carnival Corporation, Carnival Cruise Lines Inc., and Costa Crociere SPA by law firms Napoli Bern Ripka Shkolnik and Proner & Proner.The suit was originally filed as a $460 million class action suit. But the amended suit filed Monday on behalf of 39 plaintiffs is ...

According to the UK P&I Club, Egypt has made changes to its regulations governing the carriage weapons and armed guards on foreign flagged vessels transiting Egyptian waters. The Egyptian Government forbids the presence of any Weapons / Armed Guards on board commercial vessels. "In case of the presence of weapons on board commercial vessels ca ...