Picture of the Day
Here is the Salveritas alongside in Valetta harbour, Malta. It is a 12000 bhp anchor-handler owned by POSH Terasea of Singapore, built in Japan in 2007. At the moment it seems to be gainfully employed dragging old oil rigs in the direction of the breakers. Actually there seem to have been less of this happening in the last few weeks. Has all the old stuff been weeded out now?
Photo by Gaeetano Spiteri and posted here on 8th June 2016.
With the stream of exotica still appearing in the media despite the low oil price and the resulting downturn on the offshore business, we tend to forget the workhorses which have been the backbone of supply operations for years. One of these types is the VS470 MkII of which the Troms Fjord is one. This ship entered service in 2005 for Troms Offshore, although since then the whole organisation has been bought by Tidewater.
A nice little ship, the VOS Star, described by the owners as a "subsea support vessel" seen entering the Malta Harbour of Valetta only the other day. It still has to have the crane fitted you will see. I note that it has some sort of Wave piercing bow, but almost no freeboard if it is down to its marks. So it would be pretty wet on deck anywhere North of Great Yarmouth.