Sunday, February 12, 2023

Denmark Awards First CO2 Storage Licenses Seeking to Build Industry

Denmark offshore CO2 storage licenses — (Photo by Michael A. Orlando - CC BY-SA 3.0)

Denmark selected projects from Total Energies, INEOS E&P, and Wintershall DEA to receive the country’s first full-scale CO2 storage permits for projects in the North Sea. The recommendation from the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities marked the conclusion of the first of an annual tender for licenses for the exploration of full-scale CO2 storage on the Danish continental shelf as the country looks to the development of a new industry that will contribute to meetings its goals to reduce emissions.

The licenses pave the way forward for Denmark as an important puzzle piece in realizing the growing demand for CO2 storage capacity in Northern Europe the agency said in announcing that it had completed evaluating the applications. The Danish Energy Agency (DEA) reported it received two applications in the first round of licenses for CO2 storage in the Danish North Sea and that they had both met the requirements evaluated the technical and financial capacity as well as the technical content of the work programs presented by the companies in their applications. The final awarding of two licenses to TotalEnergies and one to the partnership between INEOS and Wintershall DEA will take place after a report is presented to the Climate, Energy and Utilities Committee of the Danish Parliament.

“Granting the first exclusive permits for full-scale CO2 storage in the North Sea is an important step into the future. CO2 capture and storage is an important element in the green transition. Today’s licenses are the result of effective implementation of the first Danish political agreements on CCS," says Kristoffer Böttzauw, DEA’s director.

Denmark believes that there are strong opportunities for this developing industry. The Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) has previously demonstrated that the Danish subsurface is particularly suitable for CO2 storage, both offshore and onshore, thus enabling the opportunity for Denmark to serve as a commercial hub for CO2 storage from all of Europe. They estimated that the Danish subsurface theoretically can store up to 22 billion tons of CO2. They said that would be equivalent to between 500 and 1000 years of total Danish emissions at current levels.

All the licenses contain the necessary geological structures that are suited to serve as permanent CO2 storage locations in the future. Under Danish regulations, permissions can initially be granted for exploration for up to six years, during which the exploring company has exclusive rights to the area. If a suitable location for CO2 storage is found, the permit can be extended for up to 30 years for storage operations. The specific storage projects must be approved by the DEA.

Denmark highlights that full-scale storage of CO2 offshore is a known technology that has been in operation in Norway since 1996. In Denmark, the technology will be tested in connection with Project Greensand, which is a pilot and demonstration project by INEOS E&P funded by the EUDP. Test licenses have previously been granted with the first injection programs being conducted in the first months of this year.

By 2025, INEOS and Wintershall expect that they can commence full operations at the Greensand project. Initially, they expect to inject up to 1.5 million tons of CO2 annually and by 2030 increase to an annual capacity of eight million tons. TotalEnergies' Bifrost project is expected to be operating by 2027 with an initial capacity of up to three million tons and expanding by 2030 to inject up to five million by 2030.

Nordsøfonden, the Danish national oil and gas company, will represent the interest of the state and participate with a share of 20 percent in each of the new licenses.

Top photo by Michael A. Orlando (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Alarm as Cases of Seafarers Abandonment Hit New Highs in 2022

crew abandonment — Crew abandon in Taiwan in 2022 receiving help from local charities (Stella Maris photo)

The commercial shipping industry is grappling with growing condemnation after the number of abandoned seafarers continued to surge, hitting a new high of 103 in 2022. The trend is growing with the number of seafarers abandoned fast approaching the 10,000 mark in a span of two decades with just over 700 vessels involved according to a new report from the ESG platform RightShip.

Just a day after four seafarers were forced to seize a cargo ship off the port of Dakar in Senegal after months without pay and mounting danger to their lives, RightShip is reporting that 2022 saw the highest number of seafarers’ abandonment with 103 cases reported involving 1,682 seafarers. Equally concerning is that the growth is part of an ongoing trend over the past five years. In 2021, the number of reports stood at 94, up from 77 in 2020, 51 in 2019, and 50 in 2018. It has been five consecutive years of increases coming up from a low of mostly under 20 cases a year between 2000 and 2016.

The group reports that abandonment rates remained high in 2022 despite the resumption of access to global ports and the smoother movement of cargo as the disruptions created by COVID-19 eased. However, the fact that especially smaller shipping companies are still recovering from the pandemic’s impact as well as the collapse of freight rates in some segments while costs skyrocketed means that smaller ship owners and managers are still struggling financially and cannot meet their financial and welfare obligations to seafarers.

According to RightShip, the financial cost is mounting with the group estimating that over the past 20 years, unpaid wages to seafarers amounted to nearly $40 million. They noted that the current upward trend is similar to 2009, immediately after the global financial crash, when due to deep financial problems in the maritime markets when vessel and freight prices plummeted cases jumped to 65 in one year.

They also contend that the 2017 Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) rules, which empower seafarers abandoned and unpaid for two months to claim their wages via mandatory insurance, have also contributed to the rising cases. The rules compel shipowners to have insurance to assist seafarers if abandoned.

“When seafarer abandonment still happens, it is largely down to the ruthlessness of capitalism. Wanting to eliminate the issue means putting in place your best management practices to stop it. You can do this,” said Steen Lund, RightShip CEO.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) defines abandonment as when a shipowner can’t cover the cost of a seafarer’s repatriation or fails to pay wages and provide maintenance and support for at least two months. RightShip, however, highlights that the consequences can be far more dire. The reality they report is that crewmembers are being left without food, water, supplies, or medicine and are often cut off with little ability to communicate.

According to the report, a total of 106 countries across the globe and 85 flag states have been involved in the abandonment cases with the United Arab Emirates being the worst offender with 89 cases. It is followed by Spain at 45, Turkey at 37, Iran at 34, and Italy at 25. RightShip’s data also shows that the most people abandoned by nationality are from India, with 1,491 seafarers. Ukraine and Russia are also recording a hike in the number of abandonment due to the current conflict.

General cargo ships at 31.2 percent, bulk carriers at 8.2 percent, and chemical product tankers at 7.2 percent have been identified as the worst offenders topping the list of 60 vessel descriptions cited as being involved with abandonment. In terms of age, vessels between 26 and 30 years constitute 16.7 percent of the total 703 abandoned vessels.

RightShip contends that with abandonment cases rising each year, the pressure is increasing for the IMO to come up with solutions that align with the MLC and go further to help seafarers. They note that the rising number of cases has led to a backlog of cases before the IMO. They report that a total of 247 cases are awaiting resolution. For 2022, 34 remain open, 17 are in dispute, and 41 were resolved.

RightShip wants to drive meaningful change calling for a better sharing of data while also citing the new efforts from the joint International Labor Organization–IMO Tripartite Working Group. RightShip has also launched its Crew Welfare Self-Assessment as a tool for companies to access and improve their crew welfare standards while they also call on charters to review a ship and owner's records and factor that into their business plans.

Seafarers Seize Ship Over Owed Wages and Owner Neglect

ITF image of a freighter — Image courtesy ITF

Four seafarers, with assistance from the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), have seized a cargo ship off the port of Dakar in Senegal after months without pay and mounting danger to their lives.

The four crew of the MV Onda (IMO 8912467) had been battling to have the engine of their vessel repaired. Port authorities have ignored their requests for help for more than a year.

Acting on behalf of the four crew, the ITF went to a Senegalese court to have the ship legally seized, as its ongoing position near a busy shipping lane left crew and others vulnerable to collision at night, with no engine to power the vessel’s warning lights.

The vessel remains seized until the owners pay the more than USD $84,000 owed in wages to the beleaguered crew. Seizing the vessel means the ship cannot be used by its owner until the debts are settled.

The ITF is also claiming costs from the owners as they left the ship at anchor for lengthy periods without providing adequate provisions for the crew, as a shipowner is obliged to under the Maritime Labour Convention and most seafarer contracts. The ITF has stepped in on several occasions to ensure the seafarers did not starve.

The ITF has confirmed that Mr Nguetsop Pierre Robinson, of Cameroon, has presented himself to the crew as the new owner of the ship. He has attempted to trick the crew into putting the vessel back into operation in exchange for empty promises that they will be paid at some point in the future. The crew have been advised that they stand very little chance of recovering what they’re owned if they accept this kind of deal.

In late January, the lawyers of the owner made a new approach, upping their offer to get the Onda moving. In trying to cut a deal with the Master of the vessel to get the vessel moving, they offered him a paltry USD $33,000. Well short of the $55,000 in wages the captain is owed. With his consent, the ITF rejected this insulting offer on behalf of the captain.

Senegal violates international law

However, the crew find themselves in limbo because they cannot leave the ship to go home while the dispute continues and port authorities have refused help despite clear obligations under the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC 2006) which Senegal has ratified. The MLC is also known as the 'Seafarers’ Bill of Rights'.

However, the authorities in Dakar refused to allow the ship into the port, claiming the port was too busy. The officials have persistently ignored requests from the ITF to intercede on behalf of the seafarers. They are effectively violating the terms of the MLC which gives them a clear responsibility to protect seafarer welfare when neither owner nor flag State steps in. In this case, the owners allowed registration of the ship to lapse some time ago, meaning there is no flag State.

Video footage from French journalist Hugo Clement of TV Station France 5, who visited the ship in the last few weeks, shows it in an unsafe state of repair with dangerous control systems and unusable life boats. As the ITF reported last year, the ship is in a busy anchorage and has intermittently been left without lights at night putting the crew, and the crews of any ship that might collide with the Onda, in peril.

“The Onda has been described as a ghost ship,” said Steve Trowsdale, Inspectorate Coordinator at the ITF, “left to its fate by the owners and authorities. Both have completely neglected their responsibilities to look after the crew. They seem not to care that four human beings have been left to rot with inadequate food and water and no way off the ship.”

“The ITF has seized the ship and is demanding that the owners pay the crew what they are owed, together with expenses the ITF has incurred, and the cost of getting the seafarers home. If they don’t respond, the next stage will be to go back to court to have the ship auctioned off to recoup this money," said the ITF's Trowsdale.

"The owners have been put on notice. These seafarers have suffered for long enough. I will have no hesitation in taking that step if they do not respond promptly," he said.

The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Maritime Executive.

Claims of U.S. Involvement in Nord Stream Attack Draw Scrutiny

A U.S. Navy EOD diver participates in the Baltops 2022 exercise, June 2022. Seymour Hersh's new report alleges that a U.S. covert operation used the exercise as cover (U.S. Navy file image)

Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Seymour Hersh has self-published a bombshell report suggesting that the Nord Stream pipeline attacks were carried out by the U.S. government, using a NATO minehunting exercise as cover. Russia and China have embraced the allegations and called for a closer investigation, while the Biden administration and U.S. security services have denied involvement.

Hersh has spent most of his multi-decade career studying sensitive national security secrets. He won a Pulitzer for breaking the story of the My Lai massacre in 1969, published extensive details on Israel's covert nuclear weapons program in 1991, and exposed the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in 2004, with many highlights in between. He has been lauded as a "quintessential investigative reporter" for his work, but in recent years he has also attracted criticism for his sourcing - in particular, a heavy reliance on a single anonymous source.

His latest report, released on his personal Substack page, suggests that the high-profile attack on the Nord Stream pipeline system was orchestrated by the Biden administration. Drawing primarily on information from a single anonymous source in the intelligence community, Hersh asserts that Biden's White House and the CIA planned a covert, time-delayed attack on the pipeline complex, executed months before the actual explosions.

According to Hersh's source, an elite U.S. Navy dive team placed the explosives on all four Nord Stream pipes during the NATO BALTOPS 22 exercise in June 2022, with cooperative assistance from the Norwegian Navy. The source claimed that the detonators were fitted with hydroacoustic receivers, and on September 26, a Norwegian aircraft flew over and dropped a sonobuoy to trigger the blasts. Three out of four pipelines were destroyed, but the fourth remains intact; Danish and Swedish investigators have not released any conclusions as to the identity of the culprit, but have confirmed that the attack was sabotage.

Few leading American news publications have covered Hersh's independently-published report, and the reception has not been positive in Washington. The White House dismissed Hersh's allegations as "utterly false" on Wednesday, and the Pentagon told reporters that “the United States was not involved in the Nord Stream explosion." Hersh also quoted a CIA spokesperson as responding that his report was "completely and utterly false."

The report received a somewhat warmer reception in Russia. On Wednesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told state-owned RIA Novosti that the report generally aligns with Russia's perspective, and said that there would be "consequences" for the pipeline attack. "By and large, [Hersh's] publication confirmed a conclusion we made for ourselves—the official representative of the foreign ministry said yesterday that we never had any doubts that the United States, possibly other NATO countries, were involved in this outrageous sabotage," Ryabkov said.

In Beijing, the story made the top page of state-owned China Daily. The Global Times, an English-language division of the People's Daily, made an in-depth review of Hersh's report its top story on Thursday. "Given previous US behaviors, Chinese experts believe that the Hersh report is highly credible and Washington's denial cannot hinder Russia's determination to dig out more evidence," Global Times assessed.

The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Maritime Executive.

Why ESG Matters for the Decarbonization of Shipping

The Potential for ESG Strategies in Shipping’s Decarbonization

With shipping companies making ambitious investments in decarbonization, the debate around creation of robust ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) strategies for the industry has become imperative. New regulations - such as the inclusion of shipping in EU’s Emission Trading Scheme (ETS), as well as IMO’s EEXI and CII ratings - are also pushing shipping lines to consider sustainability.

It is apparent that sustainability has shifted from just a positive differentiator to increasingly becoming tomorrow’s license to operate. As a result, shipowners and operators face mounting pressure for environmental compliance from customers, regulators and investors.

Indeed, the shipping industry continues to lag behind other industries, with limited environmental transparency and climate actions largely in their infancy. Only 46 percent of the largest shipping companies have made pledges in line with IMO net-zero commitments and only 41 percent have GHG and sustainability reporting.

To navigate the changing business landscape, some industry stakeholders believe it is time for the shipping industry to embark on the ESG journey. This is the argument embodied in a new ESG Playbook for Shipping prepared by the Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

“ESG compliance can drive commitment and action towards decarbonization and help shipping companies meet the rising request from customers and investors to deliver on environmental, social and governmental practices,” said Bo Cerup-Simonsen, CEO of Maersk- McKinney Moller Center for Zero Carbon shipping.

While the ESG concept may be relatively new in the shipping industry, it is a common feature of corporate disclosures, especially for listed companies. Essentially, ESG was born from UN Principles for Responsible Investment in 2004. The climate crisis has fueled popularity of ESG policies, mainly seen as an investment risk management framework and tool to encourage responsible investing. Thus, the Environmental, Social and Governance factors have become critical in investment decisions.

The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) is the agency charged with the mandate to develop standards for ESG frameworks, but a customized industry-specific format - as provided for in the new ESG Playbook for Shipping - is highly beneficial.

As shipping grapples with decarbonization, an ESG strategy is a concrete approach to identify the most valuable focus areas, set specific targets and ensure organizational readiness to a new business landscape of sustainability.

There is a significant decarbonization potential in wider adoption of ESG practices in shipping. Thousands of vessels, millions of seafarers and gigatons of CO2 are currently not covered by any ESG ambitions.

“Those who do not act are leaving value on the table and will face mounting pressure from the entire shipping ecosystem, including customers and regulators, to act. They are at risk of deteriorating their current value by facing unmitigated risks while others unlock new value pools from ESG,” noted Peter Jameson, Partner and BCG’s global lead on maritime sustainability and decarbonization.

Michelin Receives Design AiP for First Inflatable Wing Sail

Michelin inflatable wing sail — Michelin is developing an inflatable wing sail for commercial vessels (Michelin)

France’s Michelin Group has been awarded an Approval in Principle (AiP) for its design for a wing sail system designed for commercial ships and pleasure crafts. Unlike other sail concepts, the Michelin design is an inflatable wing sail that is automated and full retractable. The design approval comes as Michelin is moving forward with tests of the system on an in-service Ro-Ro operating in Europe.

Introduced in 2021, the system which is known as WISAMO (Wing Sail and Mobility) was developed jointly by Michelin’s research and development department in collaboration with two Swiss investors and involves famed French long-distance sailor, Michel Desjoyeaux, the only person to twice win the Vendée Globe race. They said the design is suitable both for retrofits and new construction and especially suited to ro-ro ships, bulk carriers, and oil and gas tankers.

The initial tests of a WISAMO sail were carried out on a sailing yacht in late 2021 and early 2022. In the second phase of the testing, they are installing a 100 sq. meter prototype which will help them to refine the technical aspects of the concept.

The first technical tests demonstrated, Michelin reports, that the wing sail system offers a wide range of use, including “close-hauled” (headwind), providing what they believe is one of the widest operating ranges for modern sail technology. They project that it can be used on all maritime routes and because it is retractable, it provides easy access for navigation in ports and under obstacles such as bridges. The company expects to achieve up to a 20 percent energy saving from the use of the sail and reduce emissions.

“We are very pleased to receive this AIP for the WISAMO solution,” said Gildas Quemeneur, Initiative Leader at Michelin. “It is a very important step forward the further development of this innovative solution to contribute to maritime transport decarbonization. We are now ready for the wing sail usage on MN Pelican Ro-Ro that will allow experimental tests in heavy maritime conditions. All returns of experience will now contribute to build the larger WISAMO wing sail.”

The first installation on a commercial vessel, the 8,600 dwt Compagnie Maritime Nantaise ro-ro cargo vessel Pelican began in late 2022. The 508-foot-long vessel operates under charter to Brittany Ferries and sails between Poole, Great Britain and Bilbao, Spain. This installation will allow testing of the system under commercial maritime navigation conditions.

UK Grants Protection to Wreck of 19th Century Emigrant Ship

19th century emigrant shipwreck — Among the wreck divers found rare examples of Victorian export ceramics (© Stefan Panis courtesy of Historic England)

The wreck of a 19th-century wooden sailing ship that represents the emigration and trade between the United Kingdom and New Zealand is set for long-term preservation after being listed for protection, some 167 years after it sank off the Kent coast. Historic England announced that the wreck Josephine Willis, which sank in 1856 killing 70 people including its captain, has been granted protection by scheduling by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in part because it has a cargo of exceptionally rare ceramics on board.

The British packet boat foundered approximately four miles south of Folkestone Harbour in Kent following a collision with the steamer Mangerton on February 3, 1856. Today the ship lies in two parts on the seabed approximately 75 feet below the surface. The wreck was identified by divers from Folkestone 501 diving club in 2018 and reported to Historic England via Wessex Archaeology.

Historic England explains that medium-sized packet ships were commonly used in the 18th and 19th centuries for transporting people, mail, and freight to Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand.

Accounts by the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand show that Josephine Willis, a new 1,000-ton vessel, met its tragic fate during its second voyage to Auckland. Its first trip was also eventful, characterized by a mutiny by the crew, before the second trip ended in tragedy colliding with the Mangerton.

Protection of the wreck and its large cargo of ceramics, many of which are unknown in current museum collections, now means that recreational divers can dive to the wreck but its contents cannot be touched or disturbed.

The Josephine Willis featured in Illustrated London News 1856 - courtesy of Historic England

“The sinking of this passenger ship is a sad story of ordinary people being lost to the sea while taking the risk of a long journey to New Zealand in the search for a better life,” said Duncan Wilson, Chief Executive of Historic England. “The other side to this story is of the rare cargo on board which gives us clues to help improve our knowledge of the Victorian export ceramics industry in the mid-19th century. The Josephine Willis fully deserves protection by scheduling.”

Despite sitting at the bottom of the sea for more than a century and a half, some of the ship’s cargo of ceramics are still in their crates and several unknown patterns have been discovered on cups, plates, and bowls which have no equivalents within museum collections. There are also examples on the seabed of other patterns which were previously only known from ceramics that had been discarded at the kiln after becoming damaged or deformed during the firing process. The ceramics are all close in date and can be traced to three Staffordshire-based potteries namely Mexborough, Charles Meigh, and Davenport.

Although no plans of the ship have been found to date, documentation relating to the role of the vessel as an emigrant packet is known to survive within the National Library of New Zealand.

James Canney, a great, great, great, grandson of Captain Canney who died in the sinking, has been carrying out research into the construction of the ship and the people who chartered it. “I’m pleased the story of the loss of the Josephine Willis is being told and that the shipwreck is being protected,” he said.

According to Graham Scott, a Marine Archaeologist at Wessex Archaeology, most of the ceramics being carried by ship were ordinary, affordable, mass-produced goods that most European settlers in New Zealand could at least aspire to own. However, by being relatively plain they tended to be of little interest to collectors and are often absent from museum collections.

“So, these ceramics are both ordinary and special. Not only do they help shine a light on Victorian industry and trade and the lives of emigrants, but they also help fill important gaps in the collections that those museums preserve and display for us,” he noted.

Historic England said that only one other record for a ship of this type is held on the National Record of the Historic Environment, the 1877 wreck of the iron-hulled sailing vessel Avalanche, which is located outside territorial waters off the coast of Dorset.

The wreck of the Josephine Willis together with the scheduled wreck of the clipper ship South Australian, located in the Bristol Channel off Lundy, hold the potential to add to the knowledge of emigration to Australia and New Zealand during the second half of the 19th century.

Photos: Wreck of X-Press Pearl Lifted from Ocean Floor off Sri Lanka

removal of X-Press Pearl — Stern section of the X-Press Pearl was lifted in mid-January for transport to a recycling operation (MEPA)

Officials from Sri Lanka’s Marine Environment Protection Agency (MEPA) are reporting that they expected the remaining components of the containership X-Press Pearl which burnt and sunk off Colombo to be removed by this week. The second phase of the salvage operation was due to conclude with the removal of the wreck and a final clearing of remaining debris from the ocean floor.

The 37,000 dwt containership was anchored off Colombo in May 2021 when crews were unable to stop the spread of a container fire believed to have been caused by leaking or improperly packed chemicals. The fire burnt for days and the vessel sunk in an attempt to move it out to sea away from the anchorage causing one of the worst environmental disasters in history. Plastic nurdles washed ashore and chemicals were released into the ocean.

The China-based Shanghai Salvage company was hired to undertake the second phase of the salvage operation which began in November 2022. During this phase, the crews successfully cut the 610-foot hulk into two sections while also clearing equipment and debris from the deck. A previous operation headed by the American Resolve Marine had cleared loose debris, containers, and equipment that had fallen to the ocean floor.

The lifting operation was carried out in two phases with the aft section of the vessel with accommodation block lifted onto the Chinese Fan Zhou 10. That lift took place in mid-January and the aft section has now been transported to Singapore. It will be dismantled and recycled. The second lift of the forward section of the vessel was scheduled to take place last week.

As part of the removal effort, the salvage companies were tasked with surveying and clearing a more than half-mile radius around the wreck site. While the wreck has now been cleared from the site, the environmental damage is expected to last for years.

"The MEPA prepared the first interim environmental damage report in 2021. The second interim report was prepared this January and handed over to the Justice Minister,” said Mrs. Dharshani Lahandapura, Chairman of the Marine Environment Protection Authority. She said the second report set the preliminary damage estimate at $6.5 billion. A final report will not be completed until all the removal operations were finished and a further study was conducted on the condition of the water and ocean floor in the area around the wreck site.

(Photos courtesy of the Marine Environment Protection Agency)

Photos: 150-Year-Old Shipwreck Discovered in Lake Superior

Wreck of wooden ship underwater — ???????All images courtesy Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society has discovered the remains of one of the oldest vessels to sink in Lake Superior, the sailing barquetine Nucleus.

The wreck was found in 600 feet of water about 40 miles off Vermilion Point, Wisconsin, on the lake's hazardous "shipwreck coast." The area is known to contain about 200 wrecks from different eras of Great Lakes shipping history.

Nucleus went down in a storm on September 14, 1869, but the vessel already had an ill-starred reputation before her loss. The barquetine had sunk twice previously and been refloated, and it had collided with and sunk a sidewheeler in Lake Huron in 1854.

On her final voyage in Lake Superior, Nucleus began to take on water. The master decided to abandon ship into the barquetine's lifeboat, and the crew all safely got away before the Nucleus went down. They were picked up by the schooner Worthington a few hours later (though another vessel simply passed them by first).

The find is the latest in a series that the society has revealed from the results of a sonar survey program conducted in the summer of 2021. The wreck's identity was confirmed in 2022 using an ROV. The inspection revealed that a good part of its structure had survived the sinking, including the bow.

"This is a pretty significant shipwreck . . . considering its age, the fact that it is a barquentine and we can’t overlook the vessel’s checkered past. The wreck site is littered with shovels too . . . and a few dinner plates, which speaks to their work and shipboard life," said Bruce Lynn, the society's executive director.

All images courtesy Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society

IMB Calls for Vigilance While Highlighting Drop in Piracy in 2022

drop in global piracy — IMB calls for vigilance citing the success due to efforts by navies and others to reduce piracy (EU-NAVFORCE file photo)

The ICC International Maritime Bureau (IMB) is once again highlighting the continuing decline in global piracy incidents against vessels while also calling for sustained efforts to maintain the progress seen in 2022. They are reporting that overall, the volume of incidents declined as well as a reduction of severity with fewer armed incidents, kidnappings, or hijackings. They are however highlighting that five areas, and in particular the waters around Singapore, are accounting for two-thirds of all the incidents reported last year.

“The IMB calls for efforts to be sustained worldwide as maritime piracy and armed robbery attacks reached their lowest recorded level in almost three decades,” the group said in announcing the summary of 2022 incidents.

Michael Howlett, IMB Director said, “The IMB applauds the prompt and decisive actions of the international navies and regional authorities in the Gulf of Guinea which have positively contributed to the drop in reported incidents and ensuring continued safety to crews and trade.” He pointed out that it illustrates both the success as well as the need to maintain security efforts in the region and elsewhere.

Worldwide, the IMB said that it received reports for just 115 incidents in 2022, including piracy and armed robbery against ships. That compared with a total of 132 incidents in 2021 and further illustrating the progress their data shows that the level of incidents was near 200 per year in both 2020 and 2018.

While the rate of incidents has fallen, they, however, noted that 95 percent of the vessels attacked in 2022 had been boarded. They said there were 107 vessels boarded during the year with five additional attempts. Only two vessels were reported hijacked and only one was fired upon. The incidents were nearly evenly split between vessels either underway or at anchor while vessels at berth were far less likely to be attacked.

Geographically, however, the IMB points out that the waters of Southeast Asia and in particular the Singapore Straits are both the most dangerous and the area where the number of incidents was still on the rise. In five years, the number of reported incidents in the Singapore Straits skyrocketed from just three in 2018 to 38 in 2022. All of the vessels had been underway in the Straits last year when they were boarded.

Incidents in the Singapore Straits are considered to be opportunistic, low-level crimes. The IMB however highlights that they are armed robberies with two crews threatened and four others were taken hostage for the duration of the incident. In only three of the incidents, however, was a gun reported, and often the boarders leave when they are discovered.

While they consider the Singapore Straits the most dangerous with 38 incidents, they point out that there were also 10 reports in Indonesia and 12 in Peru. Adding in Bangladesh and Ghana, these five locations accounted for 64 percent of the total incidents in 2022.

The organization highlights the progress in the Gulf of Guinea where the incidents fell from 82 in 2018 and 84 in 2020 to 19 in 2022. Using the region to highlight its message of the need for sustained efforts to combat these crimes, the IMB pointed out that there were two incidents in the fourth quarter of 2022 in the Gulf of Guinea. In one instance, a Ro-Ro was commandeered with the crew taken hostage until they could reach the citadel and the authorities in Sierra Leone recaptured the vessel. They also highlighted reports of shots fired at a Suezmax tanker near Equatorial Guinea.

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