Traditionally, ships in port use auxiliary generators to power shipboard electrical systems. APL, the Singapore based container lines, is now going “cold-iron,” shutting down the auxiliary generators on their ships docking when calling on Oakland, California and using shore power instead to meet the their electrical needs. They expect to reduce emissions by 50,000 pounds of nitrogen oxides and 1,5000 pounds of particulates from its ships annually in Oakland. The State of California has mandated cold-ironing for container ships by 2014. APL is several years ahead of schedule.
A maritime first: APL ‘cold-irons’ ships in Oakland to clear the air
Archeologists cannot say for sure what the lead pipe which penetrates the hull of a nearly 2,000 years old wreck of a Roman ship off the town of Grado in Italy was used for. Some think that it was a supply line to an onboard tank which carried live fish to market. If so, the approximately 55′ ship may have carried on one the earliest onboard fish tanks.
June 25th of this year is being celebrated as the “
The 31-meter Turanor, a catamaran yacht fitted with 536 square meters of photovoltaic panels, has successfully sailed halfway around the world, from Monaco to Brisbane, Australia, powered solely by the sun. The Turanor‘s captain and crew are half way toward completing their goal of piloting the first solar powered vessel to circumnavigate the world.
ead zones are areas where there is too little oxygen in the water to support fish and other aquatic life. They are usually caused by fertilizers and/or other organic materials causing algae blooms which deplete the oxygen in the water. Dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico from the run-off from fertilizers and chemicals flowing into the Mississippi have been forming yearly since the 1970s. Now there is serious concern about the impact this year’s flood in the Midwest may have on the waters of the Gulf.
Last July 
The good news is that the events were more like the 
Victor Hugo wrote, “Nothing is stronger than an idea whose time has come.” There are some ideas whose time always appears to be coming but somehow never quite arrive. As a young naval architect in the 1970s, I recall predictions that tug boats would be towing icebergs to areas where fresh water is in short supply. On Sunday, Time magazine posted an article asking, “
An explosion in a fuel tank on the cruise ship docks in Gibraltar today injured several on the dock and over twelve passengers on the 3,634-passenger Royal Caribbean cruise ship, 