Container ship APL MEXICO CITY broke off her mooring at Doel, Antwerp, in the afternoon Dec 9, drifted across harbor and contacted DP World pier crane. Crane collapsed and was totally destroyed.

UK's Marine Accident Investigation Branch has published grounding and recovery of a container feeder vessel and a tug in the approaches to the Humber Estuary in storm force conditions on 15 December 2018.

A bulk carrier was departing port with a pilot on the bridge to assist with the undocking and manoeuvre downriver. The operation was also assisted by two conventionally propelled tugs, one forward and one aft.

To monitor the vessel’s progress, the pilot had set up his portable pilotage unit (PPU). He had connected the rate-of-turn generator to the vessel’s pilot plug and had set a variable range marker on the radar with a radius of 0.5 nm.

The pilots say that Port Tampa Bay leadership is leaning on them to change policies in ways they say would be less safe.

Conversion work is nearly completed of the former Oil Spill Response Vessel OSRV MAINE RESPONDER to a Pilot Station Vessel for Sandy Hook Pilots Association of Staten Island, NY. The conversion work contract was competitively awarded to Feeney Shipyard of Kingston NY.

Clear statements from Fremantle Pilots and Fremantle Ports to ensure the safety of pilot transfers.

Based on MAIB Safety Digest 1/2025, Case 12, published April 2025 by the UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB).

photo and article by Luis Vale, Portugal