Surrounded by moving images on high-definition monitors, students at the prestigious Texas A&M Maritime Academy in Galveston train every day aboard ship simulators. They offer realistic and stomach-turning experiences from the bridges of several types of huge ships as they sail through various kinds of weather conditions and into dozens of ports.

UK towage company SMS Towage has purchased two tugs from Damen Shipyards. The first vessel, called Manxman, was handed over on 12 April, just seven days after contract signing. The contract for the second vessel, to be called Marksman, was signed on 1 May with a delivery date scheduled for 7 June. Both vessels are Damen ASD Tugs 2411, and mark the first Damen tugs for SMS Towage.

For (future) decision makers and their advisors in governments, port and harbor authorities, off-shore companies and other organizations that have to execute dredging projects, the International Association of Dredging Companies organizes a special 3-day International Seminar on Dredging and Reclamation. This time the seminar comes to Asia and will be held from 26 – 28 November 2019 at the Radisson Mumbai Andheri MIDC Hotel in Mumbai, India.

Survitec’s Novenco Fire Fighting (NFF) X-Flow water mist system will be retrofitted to Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND) 12-Kingston-class maritime coastal defence vessels (MCDV), to address a known firefighting deficiency.

Offshore accommodation specialist HB Rentals has secured a rental contract worth in excess of seven figures for the supply of a modularized temporary living complex for 28 people on an ABS classed subsea support vessel of a leading Danish offshore marine services provider.

On 15 May 2019, Damen Shipyards Group and De Beers Marine Namibia (Pty) Ltd participated in a special steel cutting ceremony to mark the beginning of construction on a new offshore vessel. In February 2019, De Beers Marine Namibia awarded a contract to Damen to build a new crawler diamond recovery vessel for offshore operations in Namibia.

Oil Spill Response Limited (OSRL), on behalf its Subsea Well Intervention Services (SWIS) members (which include BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxonmobil, Equinor, Petrobras, Shell, and Total) announces that it has entered into a license with Maritech Services Ltd (Maritech) for the provision of an offshore emergency response software tool: Sea/response.

Boston-based Sea Machines Robotics announces a new partnership with Hike Metal, a world-class manufacturer of workboats based in Ontario, Canada, to integrate Sea Machines’ SM300 autonomous vessel control system aboard commercial vessels tasked with search-and-rescue (SAR) missions. The collaboration will help develop and demonstrate the capabilities of autonomous marine technology for the purposes of increasing the productivity and safety of SAR operations.

Kongsberg Maritime has formed a partnership with DOF, SINTEF Ocean and NORCE, which aims to reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions for complex offshore operations, while streamlining fleet-wide maintenance.

UK shipbuilder Wight Shipyard Co (WSC)’s newbuild hybrid vessel promises to set new industry standards in the patrol and pilot sectors helping operators including port and river authorities, Police, MOD and Royal Navy meet strict new pollution standards.

Green Marine and Sustainable Marine Energy (SME) announces they have joined forces to provide clients with a range of proven anchoring and mooring solutions for energetic marine environments suitable for a range of applications including offshore floating wind, aquaculture, wave and tidal energy.

VDAB, the Flemish Service for Employment and Vocational Training, has chosen a unique dredging simulator developed by KONGSBERG on its state-of-the-art K-Sim Navigation technology platform.

Over four days in January, Damen Shiprepair Brest successfully carried out repairs to the hull of the 266-metre, 138,000m³, LNG Carrier LNG Methane Princess. In order to achieve this in the minimum time it was done while the vessel was both afloat and with the cargo tanks holding either some liquefied gas and gas vapour.

Last week the completion of the assembly of the screening installation of the CEMEX Go Innovation was celebrated at the Damen Dredging yard. The screening installation is designed for the aggregate dredger type MAD3500 currently under construction. This hopper dredger features several innovative elements, including the fully re-designed screening installation.

Topaz Energy and Marine, a leading offshore energy logistics company, is partnering with FUELTRAX, a market-leading smart, real-time marine fuel management solution, on advanced fuel tracking and reporting.

In April Damen and Wilson Sons Estaleiros completed the conversion of platform supply vessel Fulmar to a shallow dive support vessel (SDSV). For this, the vessel, owned and operated by Wilson Sons UltraTug Offshore, need an upgrade from DP1 to DP2 Class notation.