Photo : General Dynamics/NASSCO
NASSCO Shipyard in San Diego delivered Isla Bella, the world’s first LNG-powered container ship to TOTE Maritime. The 3100 TEU 764-foot long ship, the first of two 764-foot long Marlin Class container ships, should dramatically decrease emissions and increase fuel efficiency when compared to conventionally-powered ships, the equivalent of removing 15,700 automobiles from the road. The ship was delivered nearly two months ahead of schedule.
“Successfully building and delivering the world’s first LNG-powered container ship here in the United States for coastwise service demonstrates that commercial shipbuilders, and owners and operators, are leading the world in the introduction of cutting-edge, green technology in support of the Jones Act,” Kevin Graney, vice president and general manager of General Dynamics NASSCO, said in a press release. The Jones Act requires that all domestic shipping — shipping from one American port to another — be carried out by American-made and operated ships.
Isla Bella will be the newest Jones Act vessel in service. Tragically, TOTE Maritime’s El Faro, which was one of the oldest operating Jones Act ships, sank in Hurricane Joaquin, with the loss of 33 crew, on October 1.
The Preliminary Report of the NTSB investigation into the “affair El Faro” was published in today’s “Miami Herald”. It does not show TOTE, ABS, or USCG in a good light. The fact that this 44 year old well worn vessel was passed to sail is a great disgrace to U.S. Flag vessels and those concerned with their operation.
Good Watch.
Perhaps I spent too many years working around old steam ships, but I do not necessarily fault the various inspectors. I am bothered by the report that there was a hull breach, particularly given that Great Land, a sister ship of El Faro, had problems with hull cracks when operating to Alaska on the West Coast until she was scrapped in 2013.