Marine accident round-up : 29th April 2021

Outgoing global head of marine broking at Willis Towers Watson David Ripton is set to join Lockton, Insurance Insider has reported. Ripton’s resignation from WTW was reported earlier this month.

Ripton joined WTW as Head of Broking, Global Marine in its Corporate Risk and Broking (CRB) unit in March 2019, having previously been at Marsh, where from 2014 to 2019 he was CEO for Marine UK.

General cargo ship Croatia (IMO 7920479) suffered an engine failure during the night of April 26th while transiting the Bosphorus Straits, Istanbul, in a southerly direction, en route from Nikolayev, Ukraine to Hekere, Gulf of Izmit, Turkey, with a cargo of steel. The ship was taken under control by two Traffic Control tugs and towed to Ahirkapia Anchorage, in the Marmara Sea, Istanbul. As of April 28th the ship remained at Istanbul anchorage.

1979-built, Tanzania-flagged, 2,319 gt Croatia is owned by Croatia Trading Ltd care of manager Safe Sea Services Sarl of Jounieh, Lebanon.

Jan Janse, Chief of the Seaport Division of Rotterdam police, has said that methods used by drug trafficking rings to smuggle drugs into the EU had included deep infiltrations of both shipping companies and companies operating in ports. This meant that drug smuggling did not always consist of hiding drugs in containers, but also, with crew assistance, a “drop-off”. That system saw one or several crew members drop cocaine packages into water in prearranged positions in EU waters, to be picked up by land based members of drug ring.

Interview at:

https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2021/04/25/het-probleem-is-infiltratie-in-de-bovenwereld-a4041256

General cargo ship Alexander Tvardovskiy (IMO 9057290) was searched by Portuguese police on April 23rd at Viana do Castelo port, northern Portugal, after a tip from an unnamed foreign agency. The ship had arrived at Viana do Castelo on April 20th from Turkey via Gibraltar, reportedly carrying a cargo of blast furnace slag.

1996-built, Russia-flagged, 2,319 gt Alexander Tvardovskiy is owned and managed by Harvest Ltd of St Petersburg, Russia. It is entered with Hydor AS. As of April 25th (last AIS available) it remained moored at Viano do Castelo.