With about four feet to spare, a 16-story crane sneaked under the Columbia River bridge at Astoria Bridge on Thursday. For a few bleary-eyed onlookers, a glimmer of light atop the Chinese ship Zhen Hua 17 gave the only indication of just how close the crane came to scraping the span. Three Port of Portland engineers perched on the 185-foot crane measured just four feet of clearance. “They high-fived the beam as they went underneath it,” said Capt. Mike Tierney, one of the Columbia bar pilots who specialize in taking oceangoing ships in and out across the dangerous mouth of the river. As Tierney and colleague Gary Lewin steered the ship toward the bridge, they had to speed up to beat a wall of fog rolling in. (Source | Via gCaptain Maritime News)

Maritime Academy Training Ship - T/S Empire State VI  is the training ship of the State University of New York [SUNY] Maritime College a four-year college located at Fort Schuyler, NY. Travel on TS Empire State VI is an essential component of the Maritime experience. Throughout the academic year, Maritime cadets train to operate the Empire State VI, using the ship as a living laboratory for the college’s various Engineering, Naval Architecture, Marine Environmental Science, and International Transportation and Trade programs. Each summer, college cadets travel across the world, learning about the maritime industry and the operations of the ship while acting as the ship’s crew. (source - Global Security)

Fleet Ocean Tugs are operated by Military Sealift Command and provide the US Navy with towing service, and when augmented by Navy divers, assist in the recovery of downed aircraft and ships. Fleet tugs are used to tow ships, barges and targets for gunnery exercises. They are also used as platforms for salvage and diving work, as participants in naval exercises, to conduct search and rescue missions, to aid in the clean up of oil spills and ocean accidents, and to provide fire fighting assistance. (Source - Global Security)

The Sea Barge (SEABEE) can carry the aircraft of Army units without extensive sectionalization. The 200- by 100-foot (61- by 30.5-m) deck area between the deckhouse and smokestacks provides a suitable landing area for fly-on/fly-off operations. The SEABEE barges are stored horizontally on 3 decks, 12 each on the main and lower decks and 14 on the upper deck.

The watertight, double-hulled SEABEE barge is the same width and one-half the length of the standard US commercial river barge. It is slightly larger, but has approximately twice the cargo-carrying capacity of the LASH lighter. The barges are readily accessible during the voyage by catwalk in the ship and by manhole hatches in the barges. Each barge is fitted for smoke monitoring and has water fire-extinguishing systems. Forced draft ventilation while underway is also provided. (Source Global Security)

From historic beginnings in 1945 as a carrier of immigrants from war-torn Europe to the nascent state of Israel, ZIM has become one of the world’s largest shipping companies with operations throughout the world. (Source: gCaptain Maritime Monday)

Headquartered in Brest, the main tasks are: the tracking of ballistic missiles or tactical, the continuation of satellites and the implementation or continuation of aerial targets for the training of forces. Son système de mesures, articulé autours de radars de poursuite et d’analyse ainsi qu’un ensemble de calculateurs performants, comprend également un système complet de télémesures, un module d’analyse météorologique, un système de poursuite optique et des équipements de télécommunications. His system of measures, articulated around radars continuation and analysis and a set of powerful computers, also includes a comprehensive system of telemetry, a weather analysis module, a system of optical and telecommunications equipment. Le Monge apporte son soutien à la Direction des Centres d’Essais (DCE) entité de la Délégation générale pour l’armement (DGA). The Monge supports the Direction des Centres d’Essais (DCE) entity of the General Delegation for Armament (DGA).  (TRANSLATED VERSION)

Dole self-sustaining fully cellular vessels combine a hatchcoverless configuration, with a record-breaking concentration of perishable cargo carrying capacity. Dole Chile has a capacity of 1,000 40ft containers or 2,000 TEUs. This equates to approximately 2m cbf, making the Dole sisters the largest cold storage vessels in the world. Dole Chile was built by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) in Kiel for Dole Fresh Fruit International, and delivered in 1999. The vessel is deployed primarily in transporting bananas from Costa Rica to the east coast of the USA.  Ship Technology - Dole Banana Ship 

The concept involves a series of supertankers specially designed and constructed for the carriage of potable water. The water is transported onto land through small, offshore facilities known as Single Point Moorings (SPMs). Using unique Solar Wing sails with solar cell array technology reduces fuel consumption and emissions by nearly 50% on the voyages compared to the conventional tanker of this size and hydrodynamic characteristics. Solar Powered Ship - gCaptain

The Research Icebreaker AURORA BOREALIS will be the most advanced Polar Research Vessel in the world with a multi-functional role of drilling in deep ocean basins and supporting climate/environmental research for the next 40 years. The new technological features will include azimuth propulsion systems, satellite navigation, ice-management support, deep-sea drilling under a closed sea-ice cover and the deployment and operation of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) from one of the two moon-pools. Aurora Borealis Drillship Research Vessel gCaptain

Shaped like a giant baseball bat, the 700-ton FLIP, or Floating Instrument Platform, is a Navy barge operated by Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego. Once towed to a site, the vessel flips to vertical. “It was built in 1962 to refine acoustic targeting for submarine rockets, but scientists quickly realized that it would be useful for all kinds of research,” says Bill Gaines, FLIP’s program director. “So 45 years later, FLIP still serves the oceanographic community.” And it is still one of a kind. - Scripps FLIP, gCaptain