Three people, including an Indian national, are now confirmed dead and two remain missing after the Prospector 5 jack-up rig sank off Mayumba, Gabon, in the Gulf of Guinea. Gabon has ordered a technical investigation into the rig’s stability during preload operations.
The Tanzanian-flagged cargo ship AS Dream sank on the evening of 30 October about 90 nautical miles west of Paphos, Cyprus, in the eastern Mediterranean. All ten crew were picked up by the passing container ship MSC Hannah III and landed safely at Limassol.
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and CMB.TECH have named three ammonia-fuelled Capesize bulk carriers at CSSC Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding in Qingdao, China, described as the first of their kind. The first ship is due in early 2027, and MOL is preparing safety procedures for handling the toxic fuel.
Underwater archaeologists working off Adrasan, on Türkiye’s Antalya coast about 30 km west of Kekova Island, have recovered thousands of plates, bowls and trays from a ship that sank about 2,100 years ago. The cargo was packed so carefully that much of it survived unbroken.
The IMO, Peru’s maritime authority DICAPI and Spain’s Jovellanos Centre have held a five-day regional workshop in Lima, Peru, on ships’ routeing and ship reporting systems. It trained Latin American officials to prepare routeing proposals that help reduce collisions and groundings along the region’s coasts.
The ro-pax ferry MV Virgen de Peñafrancia II listed heavily about 10 metres from Real Port in Quezon Province, on the east coast of Luzon in the Philippines, early on 30 October. All 40 passengers and 18 crew were evacuated safely, and oil-spill booms were laid as a precaution.
The Liberian-flagged container ship Contship Jet has sunk about 21 nautical miles southeast of Shabla, near Cape Kaliakra in Bulgaria’s Black Sea waters, after three sea drones struck it on 28 October. All 18 crew, 14 Filipinos and four Ukrainians, had already been rescued and taken to Varna.
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines has taken delivery of Maizuru Kazenomai at Oshima Shipbuilding in Japan, the country’s first coal carrier with a Wind Challenger hard sail. Running on LNG and built for Kansai Electric Power, the ship is expected to cut CO2 emissions by up to about 30%.
Iran’s IRGC Navy says three oil tankers hit naval mines on a southern route through the Strait of Hormuz, between Iran and Oman’s Musandam Peninsula. UKMTO separately reported a tanker struck by an unknown projectile off Oman on 29 October. None of the ships has been named or verified.
Russia says regular year-round shipping on the Northern Sea Route, along its Arctic coast from the Barents Sea to the Bering Strait, will begin in early 2027. Rosatom plans to use winter-ready Arc7 LNG carriers, faster convoys and nine nuclear icebreakers once the new Chukotka enters service.
A tanker was reported burning and mostly submerged nine miles north of Khasab, on Oman’s Musandam Peninsula in the Strait of Hormuz, after an apparent attack on 28 October. The same day, US naval forces advised ships to avoid unnecessary transits and to expect questioning and boarding checks.
The Port of Aarhus, on Denmark’s Jutland peninsula, has tested the country’s first shore power system for container ships with Eimskip’s Dettifoss. Daily use is planned from January 2027, and up to four ships will be able to connect at once ahead of EU rules for 2030.
Carabinieri divers have rediscovered a Roman shipwreck site off Punta Chiappa, near Camogli in the Portofino Marine Protected Area of Italy’s Ligurian Sea. Nine wine amphorae from the 2nd to 1st century BC were mapped, possibly from a wreck first reported in 1959 and then lost.
A Norwegian consortium led by Emerald Nuclear will test a full-scale nuclear ship propulsion system at Stette, near Ålesund on Norway’s west coast, in 2027. Backed by the Research Council of Norway, the MarNuPS pilot will check crew interaction, with a first offshore vessel planned for 2031-32.
The Liberian-flagged container ship Contship Jet was struck by drones in the Black Sea about 17 miles off Cape Kaliakra, near Varna, Bulgaria, on 28 October. The Bulgarian Navy rescued all 18 crew, 14 Filipinos and four Ukrainians. It is the ninth ship hit in the western Black Sea this month.
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