Welcome to Tug and Salvage Week!

In this time of phenomenal output from shipyards building vessels for the wider workboat, passenger vessel, and maritime security industry, the tug sector stands out as one of the busiest. Hardly a day goes by without news of a new tug being launched. World trade continues to grow and the ships that carry it get bigger and always seek faster turnarounds. Bigger and more powerful tugs are required to facilitate that.

While few new tugs could be described as radical, almost all incorporate refinements at least. Obviously, some all-electric or unmanned tugs are highlighted but, in the main, most tugs look generally similar and perform much the same functions of those that are twenty or even thirty years older. They simply do it better and more powerfully.

Tugs • Towboats • Pusher Tugs • ATBs • Salvage • Autonomy • Marine Environment

They simply, though, do their work more efficiently, cleanly, capably and economically. That is where their refinement comes to the fore. The decreasing number of naval architects who specialise in tugs and the similarly declining number of shipyards that build them improve their products seemingly incrementally. Specialisation has largely become the name of the tug game. Tug owners and their customers are getting steadily better boats.

The tug sector has become a very mature part of a similarly maturing general maritime industry. While Baird Maritime has nothing really radical to present to our readers this week, there is plenty to show that the tug sector continues to progress and to thrive.

Vessel Reviews:

• Svitzer Suez 1 – Versatile escort tug for Svitzer’s operations in Egypt
• Jared Phillips – Barge assist towboat for Mississippi River sailings
  
• Jhara – Firefighting and general support tugs delivered to Pakistan Navy

News and Gear:

• Svitzer’s UK tugs to undergo biofuel refit
• Indian Navy orders two tugs from local yards
• Ports of Jersey adds newbuild to towage and maintenance fleet
• Seabulk’s newest hybrid tug floated out
• Partnership to explore low-emission propulsion technologies for future tugs
• 33 rescued after tour boat sinks off Cartagena, Spain
• Maersk, Svitzer to develop methanol fuel cell-powered tug
• Builder’s trials begin for fourth Project MPSV12 salvage vessel for Rosmorrechflot

Recent Important Features:

FEATURE | Demonstrator tug completes 1,000-nautical-mile voyage on fully autonomous mode

– “The journey spanned 129 operational hours over 13 days and was commanded by licensed mariners remotely stationed 3,000 miles away in Boston.”

COLUMN | What kind of tugs should we be building? [Tug Times]

– “It will be difficult for the shipping lines to keep using conventional tugs when a non-polluting option is available, even if it costs more.”

– by Alan Loynd, former General Manager of the Hong Kong Salvage and Towage Company

Remember to come back every day to see the latest news, opinion and vessel reviews!

Call for content!

Any news or views about the global tug and salvage sectors? Send it through to [email protected] ASAP (between now and November 26), so we can add it to this current edition of Tug and Salvage Week!

We are after:

• Vessels – Orders, new deliveries, under construction
• Gear – Latest innovations and technology in the tug and salvage sector
• Interviews – Owners, operators, builders, designers, etc.
• Reminiscences – Do you have any exciting, amusing or downright dangerous anecdotes from your time in the tug and salvage world? (example here)
• Other – Any other relevant news

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