Weekly News Summary For June 2-8, 2008:
After 50 days of directing vessel traffic, the Baton Rouge Vessel Traffic Coordination Center (VTCC) closed May 19 with no major incidents reported that resulted from the high water.
Staffed by industry volunteers with Coast Guard oversight, the center is mandated by the High Water Action Plan and requires industry to provide assist boats at Wilkerson Point above the Upper Baton Rouge Bridge and at the Port Allen Lock. Watch standers direct traffic around Wilkerson Point, maintaining a safe spacing.
“Thank you all for a truly outstanding job and for volunteering your time away from your families on holidays and weekends,” wrote Raymond Butler to industry participants. Butler is executive director of the Gulf Intracoastal Canal Association (GICA). “The entire inland barge industry owes you a great deal.”
Cmdr. Shannon Gilreath, commander of the Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit in Baton Rouge, was equally appreciative of the efforts of industry.
“This was an outstanding example of an industry and Coast Guard partnership,” Gilreath said. “Together we moved 2,700 tows and 19,000 barges safely through one of the most dangerous sections of the Lower Mississippi River during the highest water in a decade with no major incidents. Most of the credit goes to the professionalism of the mariners and their companies.”…
The Maritime Administration released a study this week of the ongoing labor shortage in the maritime industry.
MarAd Administrator Sean Connaughton told WJ, “Since I first took office, we’d been hearing anecdotal reports about this issue. We tasked our staff to do a survey to get some indication of the magnitude of this problem.” The figures in this study are the hardest numbers so far, he said.
MarAd sent a questionnaire to 850 maritime employers, including many inland companies.
“We got 154 back—that’s a 22 percent return rate, very high for this type of survey,” said Connaughton. About one-third of the responding companies were inland companies, he said.
The results were striking.
“Fully 89 percent of the responding companies had attempted to hire mariners during the past year, and 71 percent of them said they had trouble finding qualified personnel.”
One figure in particular jumped out, said Connaughton.
“A total of 88 percent of respondents who experienced difficulty recruiting mariners said it was impacting the ability of their company to operate.”…
Ambassadors International Inc. announced that it intends to sell Majestic America Line, which operates river cruise passenger vessels, including the Delta Queen.
In a press release, Ambassadors vice president of corporate development Joseph G. McCarthy said, “the formal process has commenced and Confidential Information Memorandums on Majestic America Line have already been sent to qualified interested buyers…the sale process will be handled by the Company.”
The plan of Majestic Line “is to operate the vessels throughout the 2008 season,” said Ambassador financial officer Blake T. Burnett in a May 6 conference call to industry analysts. A Majestic spokesperson confirmed that the Delta Queen, in particular, will continue on its previously scheduled stops for 2008. Majestic currently will take no 2009 cruise bookings.
Ambassador ’s other businesses include event planning and employee incentive programs. It also operates the luxury line Windstar Cruises….
Martin Marine, based in La Porte, Texas, has completed the renovation of its second towboat, the Marie C. The petroleum transporter bought the vessel from Martin Marietta Materials Inc. at the end of last year. R & R Marine Fabrication & Drydock in Port Arthur, Texas finished work on the boat last month.
The Marie C was built in 1959 by St. Louis Ship as the mv. Girlie Knight for Mid-South Towing Company. It measures 156 by 35 feet and is powered by twin GM 16-567C diesels with a total of 3,800 hp.
R & R disassembled and rebuilt the drive train and the steering system. Workers sandblasted and coated all tanks and void spaces, installed new Fernstrum Gridcoolers and modernized the interior.
Martin wanted to keep the boat’s classic lines basically the same, but at the same time bring it up to today’s standards, said Ed Grimm, senior vice president. The shipyard removed the original awnings, replaced all exterior doors and windows with new ones from Dale’s Welding & Fabricators, and took out the window air conditioning units in favor of a Mitsubishi internal system that allows each room individual temperature control.
In partnership with the Texas branch of Telemar USA LLC, Martin is using the Marie C as a test bed for inland marine electronics, Grimm said….
Pasadena (Texas) Towing Service recently auctioned off its last two towboats, leaving its owner, Leroy Stanley, without a boat for the first time in 40 years. At one time, the company operated 17 boats on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and might have been the largest independent contractor on the GIWW.
The last two vessels were the small boats Pasadena Express and Whitman. The company that bought them intends to use them on the Lower Mississippi River, Stanley said.
Stanley, now fully retired, began as a deckhand, worked his way up to being a captain on a 3,200 hp. vessel and, then, in 1968 bought his first boat, mv. Helen G, which went to work for Alamo Barge Line….
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