Maersk-Rickmers U.S. flag heavy-lift project carrier recently lifted and moved two 100+ ton range support craft for the U.S. Navy. The largest craft weighed in at 220 metric tons; both watercraft were lifted by Maersk Texas’ powerful onboard cranes (photo). The vessels were loaded on the U.S. West Coast and traveled across the Pacific to their destinations.

Maersk Texas will soon transport U.S.-manufactured power plant equipment destined for Turkey. The equipment was financed by the U.S. Export-Import Bank and will be a critical component for a Turkish power generation project led by the industrial company Habaş. When it comes online, the Habaş 800 megawatt combined cycle power plant will be capable of providing power to approximately one million homes. Turkey is one of nine growth countries on which Ex-Im has focused U.S. exports in support of infrastructure investments.

“In addition to Ex-Im Bank projects, the two heavy-lift ships support a variety of U.S. flag customers, including the U.S. military. We’re pleased to move military craft and support Ex-Im financed projects all over the world. The ships’ value to customers is evident in the business we’re receiving,” said Gordan Van Hook, Senior Director at Maersk Line, Limited.

Van Hook added,“We’re also excited about our upcoming journey to Antarctica.”

This winter Maersk Illinois will pay a special visit to the men and women stationed at the McMurdo Station research center in Antarctica. The ship will bring vital supplies to the teams stationed there in support of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) U.S. Antarctic Program. The voyage is a part of an overall operation known as Operation Deep Freeze and was chartered by the U.S. Military Sealift Command in support of NSF.

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• U.S. merchant mariners and stevedores carefully lift and secure watercraft in preparation for its voyage across the Pacific Ocean.

The Coast Guard cutter ‘Block Island’ has completed a 150 miles tow over a 32-hour period of the disabled 54-foot yacht ‘Zulu’ with 3 persons on board during bad weather off the coast of North Carolina.

The captain aboard the Zulu initially contacted Coast Guard Sector North Carolina watch-standers via satellite phone to report that the sailboat was disabled and adrift with three people aboard approximately 100 miles east of Oregon Inlet, N.C.

In early course the Coast Guard Cutter Block Island arrived on scene, but due to heavy weather could not take the Zulu in tow until conditions had improved. Eventually the cutter succeeded in getting a line across and towed the yacht to the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, where a 45-foot Response Boat-Medium crew from Coast Guard Station Little Creek took up the tow and moored the vessel at Cobb Marina in Norfolk.

“This multi-day response illustrates the absolute dedication of Coast Guard crews to the safety of mariners in distress,” said Capt. John Little, commander of Sector Hampton Roads