LNG

An LNG carrier is a tank ship designed for transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG). As the LNG market grows rapidly, the fleet of LNG carriers continues to experience tremendous growth.

The first LNG carrier Methane Pioneer (dwt 5034 tons) left the Calcasieu River on the Louisiana Gulf coast on 25 January 1959. Carrying the world's first ocean cargo of LNG, it sailed to the UK where the cargo was delivered. Subsequent expansion of that trade has brought on a large expansion of the fleet to today where giant LNG ships carrying up to 266,000 m3 are sailing worldwide. At the end of 2005, a total of 203 vessels have been built, of which 193 are still in service.

The success of the specially modified C1-M-AV1-type standard ship Normarti, renamed The Methane Pioneer, caused the Gas Council and Conch International Methane Ltd. to order two purpose built LNG carriers to be constructed: the Methane Princess and the Methane Progress. The ships were fitted with Conch independent aluminum cargo tanks and entered the Algerian LNG trade in 1964. These ships had a capacity of 27,000 cubic meters.

In the late 1960s opportunity arose to export LNG from Alaska to Japan, and in 1969 that trade was initiated. Two ships, each with a capacity of 71,500 cubic meters, were built in Sweden. In the early 1970s, the US Government encouraged US shipyards to build LNG carriers, and a total of 16 LNG ships were built. The late 1970s and early 1980s brought the prospect of Arctic LNG ships with a number of projects being studied.

With the increase in cargo capacity to approximately 143,000 cubic meters, new tank designs were developed, from Moss Rosenberg to Technigaz Mark III and Gaztransport No.96.

In recent years, the size and capacity of LNG carriers has increased greatly. Since 2005, Qatargas has pioneered the development of two new classes of LNG carriers, referred to as Q-Flex and Q-Max. Each ship has a cargo capacity of between 210,000 and 266,000 cubic meters and is equipped with a re-liquefaction plant.

According to a presentation by Golar LNG Partners, in June 2012 there were 72 new builds on order. Today the majority of the new ships under construction are in the size of 120,000–140,000 m3 But there are orders for ships with capacity up to 260,000 m3. As of end of 2011, there are 359 LNG ships engaged in the deepsea movement of LNG

In the case of small scale LNG carriers (LNG carriers below 40,000 cbms), the optimal size for the new buildings will be determined by the project to which they are built against. This optimal size will be calculated considering volumes, destinations and vessels characteristics.

TSUNAMI

A tsunami also known as a seismic sea wave or as a tidal wave, is a series of waves in a body of water caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explosions (including detonations of underwater nuclear devices), landslides, glacier calvings, meteorite impacts and other disturbances above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami.In being generated by the displacement of water, a tsunami contrasts both with a normal ocean wave generated by wind and with tides, which are generated by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun on bodies of water.

Tsunami waves do not resemble normal sea waves, because their wavelength is far longer. Rather than appearing as a breaking wave, a tsunami may instead initially resemble a rapidly rising tide, and for this reason they are often referred to as tidal waves. Tsunamis generally consist of a series of waves with periods ranging from minutes to hours, arriving in a so-called "wave train". Wave heights of tens of metres can be generated by large events. Although the impact of tsunamis is limited to coastal areas, their destructive power can be enormous and they can affect entire ocean basins; the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was among the deadliest natural disasters in human history with at least 230,000 people killed or missing in 14 countries bordering the Indian Ocean.

The Greek historian Thucydides suggested in his late-5th century BC History of the Peloponnesian War, that tsunamis were related to submarine earthquakes, but the understanding of a tsunami's nature remained slim until the 20th century and much remains unknown. Major areas of current research include trying to determine why some large earthquakes do not generate tsunamis while other smaller ones do; trying to accurately forecast the passage of tsunamis across the oceans; and also to forecast how tsunami waves would interact with specific shorelines.

Tornado

A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as twisters or cyclones, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology, in a wider sense, to name any closed low pressure circulation. Tornadoes come in many shapes and sizes, but they are typically in the form of a visible condensation funnel, whose narrow end touches the earth and is often encircled by a cloud of debris and dust. Most tornadoes have wind speeds less than 110 miles per hour (180 km/h), are about 250 feet (80 m) across, and travel a few miles (several kilometers) before dissipating. The most extreme tornadoes can attain wind speeds of more than 300 miles per hour (480 km/h), stretch more than two miles (3 km) across, and stay on the ground for dozens of miles (more than 100 km).

Various types of tornadoes include the landspout, multiple vortex tornado, and waterspout. Waterspouts are characterized by a spiraling funnel-shaped wind current, connecting to a large cumulus or cumulonimbus cloud. They are generally classified as non-supercellular tornadoes that develop over bodies of water, but there is disagreement over whether to classify them as true tornadoes. These spiraling columns of air frequently develop in tropical areas close to the equator, and are less common at high latitudes. Other tornado-like phenomena that exist in nature include the gustnado, dust devil, fire whirls, and steam devil; downbursts are frequently confused with tornadoes, though their action is dissimilar.

Tornadoes have been observed on every continent except Antarctica. However, the vast majority of tornadoes occur in the Tornado Alley region of the United States, although they can occur nearly anywhere in North America. They also occasionally occur in south-central and eastern Asia, northern and east-central South America, Southern Africa, northwestern and southeast Europe, western and southeastern Australia, and New Zealand. Tornadoes can be detected before or as they occur through the use of Pulse-Doppler radar by recognizing patterns in velocity and reflectivity data, such as hook echoes or debris balls, as well as through the efforts of storm spotters.

There are several scales for rating the strength of tornadoes. The Fujita scale rates tornadoes by damage caused and has been replaced in some countries by the updated Enhanced Fujita Scale. An F0 or EF0 tornado, the weakest category, damages trees, but not substantial structures. An F5 or EF5 tornado, the strongest category, rips buildings off their foundations and can deform large skyscrapers. The similar TORRO scale ranges from a T0 for extremely weak tornadoes to T11 for the most powerful known tornadoes. Doppler radar data, photogrammetry, and ground swirl patterns (cycloidal marks) may also be analyzed to determine intensity and assign a rating.

The Flying Dutchman is a legendary ghost ship that can never make port and is doomed to sail the oceans forever. The myth is likely to have originated from 17th-century nautical folklore. The oldest extant version dates to the late 18th century. Sightings in the 19th and 20th centuries reported the ship to be glowing with ghostly light. If hailed by another ship, the crew of the Flying Dutchman will try to send messages to land, or to people long dead. In ocean lore, the sight of this phantom ship is a portent of doom.

Ghost ship with 11 petrified corpses washes up in Barbados

The white ghost ship rolled in the Atlantic swell as the rescue boats approached it 70 nautical miles off Ragged Point, one of the most easterly places on the Caribbean island of Barbados.

The yacht was unmarked, 6 metres (20ft) long, and when Barbadian coastguard officers boarded it, they made a gruesome find. The boat's phantom crew was made up of the desiccated corpses of 11 young men, huddled in two separate piles in the small cabin. Dressed in shorts and colourful jerseys, they had been partially petrified by the salt water, sun and sea breezes of the Atlantic Ocean. They appeared to have come from far away.

The sea-battered yacht, identified by one local ship's captain as of French design, was towed into the port at Willoughy Fort, Bridgetown, and the bodies, by now wrapped in plastic bags, were heaved on to the quay.

In a part of the world where legends and myths have often been furnished by the sea, the mystery of the dead men soon provoked curious speculation.

An air ticket from Senegal Airlines and a tragic note written by one of the men as he was preparing to die have, however, helped investigators from several countries set about unraveling the mystery.

For, although the floating coffin appeared off the coast of the Americas, those on board had set off four months earlier from the Cape Verde islands, off the African coast, and had been heading for the European soil of the Canary Islands.

The evidence reportedly points to them having been cut adrift in the Atlantic and left to drift off to a slow, painful end. Barbados police have said the cause of the deaths was starvation and dehydration.

'Please excuse me'

"I would like to send to my family in Bassada [a town in the interior of Senegal] a sum of money. Please excuse me and goodbye. This is the end of my life in this big Moroccan sea," the note said, according to a Barbados paper, the Daily Nation. Relatives of those aboard have been contacting the Barbadian authorities from as far afield as Senegal, Spain and Portugal. They have added pieces to the puzzle - based on telephone calls with relatives before they boarded, and with people who stayed in contact with the boat during the first stage of the voyage.

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The story of the 11 dead and some 40 other would-be immigrants from Guinea Bissau, Senegal and Gambia starts on Christmas Day last year at Praia, a port in the former Portuguese colony of Cape Verde. There, for €1,300 (£890) each, they were promised a trip to the Canary Islands by a mysterious Spaniard.

Their boat was to be a motorized yacht, recently repaired but bearing no name and no flag. They paid to make the voyage, assuming that the Spaniard - a mechanic based in the Canaries - would be skippering the boat. At the last moment, however, a Senegalese man took over and the Spaniard disappeared. Several then refused to make the journey. One, according to the El Pais newspaper yesterday, jumped from the yacht as it set sail. It is by no means clear what happened next.

Somewhere near the Mauritanian port of Nouadhibou the yacht ran into trouble. Another boat was sent to its aid, apparently after the skipper had contacted the Spaniard. The yacht was towed but, at some stage, the line was severed. El Pais reported that it had been hacked with a machete. With no fuel left and food and water running out, the migrants' fate was left in the hands of the sea, the weather, and luck. The latter soon ran out.

The yacht drifted into the stormy Atlantic and, it is assumed, people were tossed or washed overboard as they died.

The 11 last survivors, huddled together against the elements, were reported to have died by the end of January. At that stage their yacht became a ghost ship, battered by storms or winds until it appeared, 2,800 miles away, on the other side of the Atlantic. A Barbados fishing boat was the first to sight it on April 29, 135 days after it had set sail. The coastguard vessel HMBS Trident was sent to discover its awful secrets.

Anxious phone calls from relatives to the Daily Nation have turned up some of the names of those on the boat. They include a Gambian, Bouba Cisse, whose cousin Abdou Karime, now in Portugal, saw the case reported on TV. "We've been watching it [the story of the 11 bodies found] on Spanish TV and a lot of family members I know would have wished for the bodies discovered to be returned to our country," he told the newspaper.

Immigrant route

The 11 bodies now in a Barbados morgue, along with those presumed dead, add to a growing death toll on the newest immigrant route into Europe from Africa.

This route, from the west African coast to Cape Verde, opened up late last year. By March Spanish authorities claimed more than 1,000 had drowned.

That has not stopped the flow. Three vessels carrying 188 African migrants reached Tenerife yesterday. The number of immigrants to have reached the Canaries this year is close to 7,000.

Interpol, meanwhile, has asked police around the world to locate the mysterious Spaniard who took some €50,000 from the immigrants before they sailed to their death.

Last letter

I am from Senegal but have been living in Cape Verde for a year. Things are bad. I don't think I will come out of this alive. I need whoever finds me to send this money to my family. Please telephone my friend Ibrahima Drame.

Signed Diaw Sounkar Diemi.

El Pais's account of note found on boat

Malaysia Submarine Capabilities

With a coastline of 4,700 km, an exclusive economic zone covering an area of 598,540 km, and a geostrategic location overseeing the sea lines connecting the Indian and Pacific Oceans, Malaysia has extensive political and economic maritime interests. Owing to its critical geostrategic position bordering the northern reaches of the Malacca Straits, security analysts consider Kuala Lumpur as "the most important player in the multi-national effort to keep the waters of the Straits of Malacca open for safe-passage.

Additionally, with claims over neighboring islands and perennial piracy problems, the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) has an overarching imperative to develop a "flexible and balanced naval force to provide Malaysia with the widest range of power projection options,an objective that led to the development of a small submarine force. In explaining the rationale behind the program, then Malaysian Defence Minister Najib Razak noted in 2002, "We (Malaysia) have such a large body of water to police. We need submarines because it is a force multiplier. They can appear anywhere and because they are stealth, they are hard to detect. That makes our deterrent value much higher."

Malaysia's Submarine Table

Malaysia Active Duty Submarines

In 2002, Malaysia signed a contract with France for acquisition of two Scorpène-class submarines; additionally, since 2005 Malaysia has been using a refurbished Agosta 70-class boat (ex-Ouessant) based in France for training purposes. The RMN operates seven operational commands, including one fleet and two regional commands (to oversee the four naval areas). The two Scorpènes are stationed at the newly constructed submarine base in Sepanggar, Sabah.[4] The first boat, Tunku Abdul Rahman, was launched in October 2007 and commissioned in January 2009. The second boat, Tun Abdul Razak, was launched in October 2008 and commissioned in November 2009.

In Malaysia, the Scorpènes are classified as Perdana Menteri-class submarines.This class of boats emphasize underwater maneuverability and stealth, with design features including a teardrop or "Albacore" hull form (with fin-mounted hydroplanes and cross-configuration tailplane), and very low acoustic, magnetic, electromagnetic and infrared signatures.Other than "tropicalisation," of the boats involving installation of additional systems to enhance the submarines' ability to operate in the warmer and more saline waters of Southeast Asia, the Malaysian submarines include many of the same features of the earlier boats of this class, though without AIP systems. They are fitted with SUBTICS integrated command and UDS International-supplied weapons control and sonar systems. Another feature that makes these submarines a potent weapons platform is their ability to launch anti-ship SM 39 Exocet missiles (with a range of 50 km/27 n miles) from the 533 mm torpedo tubes while staying submerged.

Malaysia has multiple territorial disputes, most of which are in the maritime domain and bilateral in nature. Malaysia's relations with Singapore-its former province-have been characterized by mutual animosity and suspicion. The islands of Pulau Batu Puteh (Singaporean name is Pedra Branca); Middle Rocks; and South Ledge; which are located at the eastern entrance of the Singapore Strait, have been a further issue of contention. In 2008, the International Court of Justice declared that Pedra Branca belongs to Singapore and Middle Rocks to Malaysia. Over time, however, economic interdependence has tempered the relationship. Singapore relies on Malaysia for basic resources such as drinking water, and Malaysia is seeking to profit from Singapore's economic successes. Territorial differences with Indonesia, Thailand and Brunei have also been peacefully resolved. However, Malaysia's claims over the small islets/reefs within the Spratly Islands region are a potential 'flashpoint. The Spratlys are a group of small islands, coral reefs, and shoals covering 250,000 square kilometers (155,000 square miles) in the southern part of the South China Sea. These waters are home to some of the most fertile fishing grounds in the world, and the seabed is believed to contain massive reserves of fossil fuels and other natural resources.

Similar to most Southeast Asian countries, currently the main security concern for Malaysia emanates from piracy. The 2012 Q3 International Maritime Bureau report codes the Southeast Asia region and the South China Sea as 70 and 1 for piracy incidents in 2012 (January-September), compared to 54 and 13 incidents in 2011 (January-September). Similarly, another report published by ReCAAP noted that "piracy has tripled in the South China Sea, reaching 30 attacks in the first nine months of the year (2010).

Apart from France, Malaysia also evinced interest in cooperation with submarine forces of other major navies. In September 2007, RMN held talks with the U.S. Navy for possible cooperation in advanced submarine training and participation in future exercises. The head of the Malaysian delegation First Admiral Dato Jamil Osman noted that RMN is also conducting separate talks for cooperation with the Royal Australian Navy. Further, in January 2008 during the visit of Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony to Malaysia, the two countries deliberated on the possibility of extending the bilateral naval cooperation to include submarines forces.The RMN is keen to engage India in submarine operations and training given the Indian Navy's vast experience operating the Scorpène-class boats.

In October 2012, RMN announced that it was building a second Scorpène simulator training facility at the Kota Kinabalu Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) base, which would be open to foreign military personnel to use for training. The new facility is in part a way to reduce costs, since the RMN will no longer need to send its sailors overseas for submarine training.

A modern sailing ship is any large wind-powered vessel. Traditionally a sailing ship (or simply ship) is a sailing vessel that carries three or more masts with square sails on each. Large sailing vessels that are not ship-rigged may be more precisely referred to by their sail rig, such as schooner, barque (also spelled "bark"), brig, barkentine, brigantine or sloop.

There are many different types of sailing ships, but they all have certain basic things in common. Every sailing ship has a hull, rigging and at least one mast to hold up the sails that use the wind to power the ship.

The crew who sail a ship are called sailors or hands. They take turns to take the watch, the active managers of the ship and her performance for a period. Watches are traditionally four hours long. Some sailing ships use traditional ship's bells to tell the time and regulate the watch system, with the bell being rung once for every half hour into the watch and rung eight times at watch end (a four-hour watch).

Ocean journeys by sailing ship can take many months, and a common hazard is becoming becalmed because of lack of wind, or being blown off course by severe storms or winds that do not allow progress in the desired direction. A severe storm could lead to shipwreck, and the loss of all hands.

Sailing ships are limited in their maximum size compared to ships with heat engines, so economies of scale are also limited. The heaviest sailing ships (limited to those vessels for which sails were the primary means of propulsion) never exceeded 14,000 tons displacement. Sailing ships are therefore also very limited in the supply capacity of their holds, so they have to plan long voyages carefully to include many stops to take on provisions and, in the days before water makers, fresh water

In 1902 the sailing vessel Preussen was the first to assist handling of sails by making use of steam power without auxiliary engines for propulsion. The steam power was used to drive the winches, hoists and pumps. A similar ship Kruzenshtern, a very large sailing vessel without mechanical assists, had a crew of 257 men, compared to the Preussen, which required only 48 mens

The brig Niagara was the flagship of Commander Oliver Hazard Perry in the War of 1812, and is famous as the origin of the phrases "We have met the enemy and they are ours," and "Don't give up the ship

In 2006, automated control had been taken to the point where sails could be operated by one person using a central control unit, DynaRig. The DynaRig technology was first developed in the 1960s in Germany by W. Prolls as a propulsion alternative for commercial ships to prepare for a possible future energy crisis. The technology is a high-tech version of the same type of sail used by the Preussen, the "square-rigger". The main difference is that the yards do not swing around a fixed mast but are rigidly attached to a rotating mast. DynaRig along with extensive computerization was used in the proof-of-concept Maltese Falcon to enable it to be sailed with no crew aloft.

As of 2013, with increasing restrictions on use of bunker fuel, attempts were underway to develop hybrid sailing ships using automated sail and alternative fuels.