Grimaldi Line - Regular callers to Cork Harbour

This is the first of a series in which ships which are regular visitors to Cork Harbour will be highlighted to give the reader an idea of the trade which is taking place in our port.

The first to be highlighted is the Grimaldi Line which has several ships which regularly ply their way between Cork Harbour and the European mainland carrying cars, vans and trucks.

The Grimaldi Line is a large shipping company based in Naples, Italy and operates various types of shipping services including freight and passengers. They have been in the roll-on roll-off (RoRo) business for more than fifty years. The ships which visit Cork and dock at the Ringaskiddy RoRo terminal are of the Grande Ellade class which include the Grande Europa, Grande Ellade, Grande Mediterraneo, Grande Scandinavia and Grande Bretagna (photo shows the Grande Scandinavia berthed at Ringaskiddy). They are each 180 meters long and can carry up to 2,500 cars. Top speed is 20 knots and they have a gross metric tonnage of 51,174. Their Cork agents are Ocean & General Ltd. Grimaldi have had their direct link with Cork since 1998.
As I write the Grande Mediterrraneo is on her way to Cork having left the Portuguese port of Setubal before which she came through the Mediterranean from Pireaus in Greece.

Grimaldi Ferries operates throughout the Meditteranean and Adriatic serving Italy, Greece, Malta, Spain and Tunisia.

No blogs at the Cabin, until now

Hardy visitors to the Old Blog Cabin may be forgiven for thinking I'd given up on the blog given it's two whole months since my last post was uploaded and there have been precious few updates of the site in the last five or six months. Well the blog has been on the rocks but not quite sunk and I've finally managed to put aside a few minutes to post an item here.

As always there's been a fair lot of activity around Cork Harbour in the interim, not least being the arrival finally of the ferry Julia which will go into service on the Cork-Swansea route next Spring, after it gets a refit. This is all thanks to the dedicated work put in by a group of people who just wouldn't take no for an answer after the scrapping of the route over 2 years ago by the previous operator Swansea Cork Ferries Ltd. Now we have the Fastnet Line and the Julia which is a fine ship which has been admired by thousands of people as she remains berthed at Horgan's Quay in Cork city. You can get more information about the Julia and the ferry, including booking and prices at the new Fastnet Line website at www.fastnetline.com


There will be another welcome visitor to Cobh cruise liner terminal next Wednesday (21/10/09) in the form of the Queen Mary 2 which is due to arrive in Cobh around 10.15am. Unfortunately this will only be a short visit but I'm sure that despite the time of day on midweek there will be large crowds in Cobh to view what is arguably the world's most prestigious cruise ship.

I'm glad to report that AIS coverage for Cork Harbour is now available online free of charge in real time on the site www.marinetraffic.com. AIS (Automatic Information Service) is now compulsory on all ships. It uses a radio signal to constantly transmit information about a ship's location, speed and direction as a safety measure. In most cases it also carries data on a ship's port of destination, tracking and on the dimensions of the ship itself. While this is a safety requirement to help avoid collisions, it is also a great tool for shorewatchers who can now find out about ship movements in their own area and indeed worldwide from their computer desktop. It can also be embedded into your blog or website and I will be doing this shortly on the Old Blog Cabin. You can now check on ship movements whether that ship is in Cork or Copenahen, Youghal or Yokohama (as long as the ship is in range of an AIS receiver attached to the Marine Traffic website.

Back again

In my last post six weeks ago or more I apologised for my failure to update the blog for some time. Unfortunately it happened again and I have had less and less time available (and perhaps a lack of inspiration) to keep it going.

Quite a lot has happened in the meantime including the government's decision to transfer ownership of Spike Island to Cork County Council, paving the way for the historic fortifications and jail into a major tourist attraction. Unfortunately it happens at a time when the Irish economy is in very serious trouble so a question mark hangs over the project in terms of funding and is likely to remain there for some time.

The hosting of the Tall Ships Race 2009 by Belfast, not long after a highly successful hosting by our neighbouring port of Waterford once again highlights Cork's failure to attract this prestigious event back to Cork where it made its only visit almost 20 years ago in 1991.

New electricity pylons with overhanging wires and a proposal for a new bridge near the Marina in Cork mean that the city is not in a position to host the largest of the ships - but the question I would ask is Why doesn't Cobh or a combination of Cobh and other Lower Harbour locations make a bid for the race to come here sometime in the next few years? The larger ships could be accommodated at the Deepwater Quay in Cobh with the smaller ones going to Crosshaven, Monkstown and Passage West.

Finally for now I see that the Port of Cork company has finally got its own You Tube account with promotional and port related videos. Here is one:-

Floating evangelists come to Cork

My apologies to all my regular readers (if there are any left) for my long absence over the past two months. I have been busy with other projects and neglected my maritime blogging. But now I'm back.

I was looking out my window yesterday looking over Cork Harbour when I spotted an unusual ship. It looked a bit small for a cruise liner of which many come to this port and while it was in good condition it wasn't the gleaming type of vessel you'd normally associate with that trade. It seemed more like a car ferry so my next thought was, has the Swansea-Cork replacement ferry finally arrived at last? Alas it was not for when the ship got nearer and I saw the name "Logos Hope" all hope receeded in that quarter. I quickly consulted an online shipping register and discovered that the Logos Hope is operated by a Christian group and travels around to different ports to spread the Gospel. She is in Cork until July 14th so presumably the evangelists will be in evidence around J.J. Horgan's Quay where she is berthed.

The ship has an onboard theatre which can seat up to 1,000 people at a time. I'm not sure whether they can expect to get crowds like that in Cork but apparently there is a demand for this kind of thing.

A former car ferry which previously operated between the German port of Travemünde and the Swedish port of Malmö she weighs in at 12,000 tonnes and currently flies the Faeroe Island's flag. She was built in 1973.

Horror ship due back in Cork

The Latvian owned, Cambodian registered cargo ship Defender is due back in Cork Harbour next week (6 May) less than a month after her departure after a lengthy stay during which crew members had to strike because of appalling conditions onboard and non-payment of wages for several months totalling over €80,000. The nine crew members on that occasion had to call in their union, the International Transport Federation which sought the arrest of the ship. During the dispute it emerged that there was not even enough food onboard ship to sustain the crew on her return voyage.

This is not of course the first time that this 40 year old vessel has been the subject of industrial action in Cork port. In 2008 a similar dispute broke out involving a different crew who were subjected to the same treatment by their Latvian bosses and only last January the Defender was detained in a British port for the same reason.

The Irish goverment has stated its desire to get tough on Flags of Convenience ships, that is ships registered in countries with little or no worker protection legislation, low wages and inadequate safety rules. Yet they allow ships like the Defender to re-enter our ports despite their appalling record.

The Old Blog Cabin calls on the Irish government to ban such ships from entering ports here (unless it is an emergency where lives are at stake). There is now urgent need to extend such legislation on an European Union wide basis.

We have seen countries take extraordinary measures to protect ships and their crews from piracy in recent times, but there is another type of piracy evident here where workers can be treated like slaves in dirty, dangerous and ancient hulks of ships while at the same time being denied their basic rights and conditions. The Defender is due at the privately owned Passage West dock next Wednesday.



http://www.itfseafarers.org/maritime_news.cfm/newsdetail/3126/region/6/section/0/order/1