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The Chinese are coming
With the announcement that the "Marine
Viking" was due in Aberdeen, the local ship watchers kept their eyes open for a new
edition of the black and yellow striped superships. But it was not to be.
The Marine Viking turns out to be an
anchor-handler constructed in Shanghai in 1999, and was formerly called the "De
Jin." The Seabrokers Monthly report says that it has been reclassified by Lloyds
Register and is Norwegian managed.
It is now becoming a familiar sight but it
still looks odd. It is almost as if some-one took a picture of a UT704 and attempted to
build a ship using it.
The Maureen Platform is towed away
On Monday July 2nd the Maureen platform
reached the sheltered waters of a Norwegian Fjord, handy to the Aker Maritime yard at
Stord. The process of cleaning it up both internally and externally commenced immediately.
The tow was undertaken by the Maersk
Assister, the Maersk Puncher, the Maersk Challenger and the Maersk Chancellor as well as
the Pacific Banner and the Pacific Blade over a distance of 190 miles. The Aberdeen Press
and Journal reported that the tow took between 70 and 80 hours which is not bad when you
think about it.
The Maureen Platform was originally
positioned in the same way, towed out upright supported by a number of large buoyancy
tanks around the lower parts of the columns. Once on location these tanks were allowed to
flood so that the platform gradually eased down onto the seabed. To get the thing to float
one assumes that the same tanks were pumped out so that it rose out of the water until
fully supported by the built in buoyancy.
No-one has get offered to buy the platform
which seems a pity considering the planning and effort taken in both the deployment and
the recovery.
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