Cargo Ship

Coast Guard helicopters delivered three water pumps to assist a 372-foot Panamanian cargo ship that called for help yesterday after it began taking on water in 15-foot seas, 30-knot winds and snow squalls about 26 miles east of Barnegat Light. The ship, the Star of Puerto Rico, was carrying automobiles from New York to the Dominican Republic and had 18 people aboard, officials said. Forced to turn around, it was able to continue back toward New York at 6 knots as pumping began.

And then there was one. The Khian Sea once again is the only ship at sea with unwanted incinerator ash from Philadelphia, now that a second floating ash pile has returned home. The massive cargo ship Banya rests today in the shadow of the Girard Point Bridge. The Khian Sea has vanished. The Banya arrived Friday at Pier 2 on the Schuylkill with 15,000 tons of char-broiled ash that had crossed the Atlantic twice and sparked an international incident in Guinea. The 535-foot Banya moved up the Delaware River without protest or fanfare, in contrast to the uproar that surrounded the attempted March return of the Khian Sea. The hapless Khian Sea, which has now wandered for nearly 23 months in search of a dump, got no closer to Philadelphia than an anchorage in Delaware Bay. The rusty-hulled vessel, rejected by five nations, retreated to the ocean in May after its agents were unable to work out an unloading deal.

One ship proposal has encountered smooth sailing, but another has run into some turbulent water with the Delaware River Port Authority. DRPA is expected today to sign a deal that will give FastShip Atlantic Inc. $7 million to complete its design of a high-tech cargo ship that it says will cut trans-Atlantic travel time in half. "This is the beginning of a whole new era for the port, and it will be just an immense success," said Peter Hearn, FastShip's local general counsel.

The beautiful lady is really a tramp - an elegant tramp steamer. There is nothing like it on the seven seas. It is the 19,500-ton Americana. Three-quarters of its 578-foot length is an honest, hard-working container cargo ship that plies trade routes to South American ports. It delivers and picks up cargo during its 48-day round trips from New York to ports in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. Its stern quarter is a magnificent white five-deck liner with luxury accommodations challenging those of the Queen Elizabeth 2. The designer-crafted, temperature-controlled cabins and suites can accommodate 108 passengers.

Eight Turkish sailors remain stranded on a cargo ship detained along a bank of the Delaware River in early June, victims of a legal tug-of-war between the ship's owner and a German bank. Twenty-one crew members were originally aboard the Istanbul-based Ahmetbey, which was unloading cargo in Bucks County when a federal judge in Philadelphia ordered it "arrested. " Thirteen have been allowed to go home in the last month, but only after more than two months of confinement on the docked ship, questions of port safety and immigration stalling their return to Turkey.

A dramatic rescue effort was under way early today after a Coast Guard search plane spotted people waving flashlights from a life raft in stormy seas 200 miles off the New Jersey coast, near the site where a 250-foot cargo ship had capsized. As of 2 a.m., one crew member had been rescued and taken on board the merchant ship Eagle, which was assisting the Coast Guard in the rescue effort. The life raft was spotted about 12:15 a.m., five hours after the Lloyd's Bermuda captain radioed a distress signal, saying that the ship was sinking and that the 11 members of the crew were piling into two life rafts.

With speakers touting the importance of American commercial shipyards to the nation's economy and security, the six-year-old Kvaerner Philadelphia Shipyard christened its second ship yesterday. The Maunawili, which means "winding mountain" in Hawaiian, was built for the 122-year-old Matson Navigation Co., a subsidiary of Alexander & Baldwin Inc., of Honolulu. During its expected 30 years in service, the 712-foot cargo ship will travel three million miles "and provide a vital lifeline to Hawaii, which are the most isolated populated islands in the world," said James S. Andrasick, president of Matson.

Wearing ski masks and bandanas to hide their faces, picketing longshoremen shut down Philadelphia's busy Packer Avenue Terminal for the second day yesterday, forcing a containerized cargo ship to sail to Baltimore for unloading. The ship was part of the Columbus Lines' steadily growing scheduled service between Philadelphia and South America. But the news of the day was not all bad for Thomas J. Holt Sr., the target of the International Longshoremen's Association wrath. A federal court arbitrator ruled that Holt could lease his Gloucester City terminal, directly across the river from Packer, to another company and, thus, avoid using ILA labor.

A Honduran cook aboard a cargo ship that docked in Gloucester City this month was arrested after customs officers said they had found 8.7 kilograms of cocaine in his cabin. A federal grand jury in Camden yesterday indicted Santos Sanchez-Arevalo, 48, on a charge of importing more than 5 kilograms of cocaine. He could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Sanchez-Arevalo was a cook aboard the Snow Bird, which arrived July 12. Customs and homeland security officers reported finding cocaine in several bags in his quarters.

If salvage workers ever succeed in pulling the hapless Tricolor cargo ship out of the frigid depths of the English Channel, they may want to consider rechristening it the Calamity Jane. Three weeks ago, the Norwegian cargo ship, carrying 2,900 luxury cars to the United States, collided with a Bahamian-registered cargo ship in heavy fog. The Tricolor, on its way from Zeebrugge, Belgium, to Southampton, sank in 90 minutes, taking with it a brand-spanking new array of BMWs, Saabs and Volvos.

The Seamen's Church Institute has been a fixture on the Philadelphia waterfront for nearly 170 years, providing friendly help each year to 40,000 seafarers whose ships dock in ports along the Delaware. Soon, the interdenominational ministry will have a new head chaplain and executive director: the Rev. Peter B. Stube, 61, an Episcopal priest who served 13 years as rector of the Church of the Redeemer in Springfield, Delaware County. For the last decade, he has been rector of Christ Church of New Bern, N.C., the second-largest parish in the Diocese of East Carolina.

Nations willing to take Assad WASHINGTON - The Obama administration said Wednesday that several countries in the Middle East and elsewhere have informally offered to grant asylum to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his family. Administration officials also said they were continuing to encourage those close to Assad to defect and said they believed that Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi, who disappeared this week, is currently in London. The State Department said it couldn't vouch for the sincerity of the Assad asylum offers and noted that they raise serious questions of accountability for abuses committed by his government.

Two cargo ships originally bound for the Port of New York and New Jersey will unload instead at Packer Avenue Marine Terminal in South Philadelphia because of lingering power outages, flooding, and potential damage to the New York harbor caused by Hurricane Sandy. The vessels will unload here temporarily. One shipper currently serves the Philadelphia port in addition to New York, said Tom Holt Jr., who runs the terminal at Packer Avenue and Columbus Boulevard. Agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers, have been surveying channels in the New York harbor, looking for underwater obstructions and damage to terminals and berths caused by the storm.

CAM RANH BAY, Vietnam - U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta used a visit Sunday to Vietnam to make clear Washington's intent to aid allies in the Asia-Pacific region develop and enforce maritime rights in the South China Sea, which Beijing largely claims. On a historic stop in Cam Ranh Bay, the strategic deep water port that was a U.S. base during the Vietnam War, Panetta could gaze out from the flight deck of the USNS Richard E. Byrd toward the sea and reflect on the significance of the harbor, which represents both a painful past for the American military and a challenging but hopeful future.

ROME - British and U.S. forces freed an Italian cargo ship hijacked by Somalian pirates in a dramatic rescue Tuesday after retrieving a message in a bottle tossed by hostages from a porthole alerting ships nearby the crew was safely sealed inside an armored area. All 23 crew members of the Montecristo cargo ship were brought to safety, the Italian Foreign Ministry said. The 11 pirates were taken into custody. The crew - seven Italians, six Ukrainians and 10 Indians - locked themselves inside an armored area of the vessel when the pirates boarded the ship Monday, Italian Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa said.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A Russian space-station supply ship failed to reach orbit Wednesday and crashed with a thunderous boom into Siberia, rattling NASA and others in this new era without any shuttles to bail out the orbiting outpost. The launch failure came barely a month after NASA's final shuttle flight. While the International Space Station has more than enough supplies, the rocket accident threatens to delay the launch of the next station crew just a month away. The upper stage of the Soyuz rocket that failed is similar to the ones used to launch astronauts.

DeWitt Holt Jr., 87, of Bryn Mawr, a retired salesman and volunteer, died of complications from diabetes Tuesday, Sept. 21, at Bryn Mawr Hospital. Mr. Holt had a 40-year career in the paper and packaging industries, initially with Smythe Paper and later with Automated Packaging Systems. While working, he attended Villanova University at night. After retiring in 1992, he and his wife, Rosemary Valentine Holt, a teacher, made nine trips out West to volunteer at Hopi and Navajo schools in Utah and Arizona.