Page 12: of Marine Technology Magazine (July 2006)

news 12 MTR July 2006

The Marine Department of Malyasia took delivery of the 40 x 10-m buoy tender

Permata from the NGV Tech Shipyard near

Port Kelang. With a raised foc'sle and low midships deck the vessel is equipped for servicing navigational aides. A large crane mounted forward will be used to deploy and retrieve the buoys. A shallow two meter draft combined with a pair of electrically powered spuds located on the stern quarters can be used to create a stable working plat- form in shallower harbor areas.

A pair of keel-cooled Cummins KTA50

M2 engines, each rated for 1,875 hp (1,398 kW) @ 1,950 rpm, supplied by Scott and

English (Malaysia) provide main propul- sion power for the vessel. Large deck mounted cooling fans pump ample air to the engine room. The engines turn fixed pitch open propellers through ZF W7000 gears. Accommodation is provided for a crew of 17.

Tankage includes about 42,000 liters of fuel and about 23,000 liters of potable water.

Buoy Tender for Malaysia

Software Aids Ship Recovery

Ocean Technology Foundation historian

Peter Reaveley spent more than 30 years researching the battle between Bonhomme

Richard and Serapis, using everything from eyewitness and literary accounts of both the battle and damage to the ship found in archives and libraries all over the world.

Using these accounts, as well as wind, weather and tidal data from the time, OTF created a computer simulation to hopefully pinpoint the location where Bonhomme

Richard is located. Still, explained project manager Melissa Ryan, the data they're using is almost as old as the U.S. itself.

They're hoping that merging history, sci- ence and technology will give them an edge.

The software they used to select their search area, Ryan said, is the same software that the U.S. Coast Guard uses to find drift- ing vessels or, say, cargo containers that have fallen off ships. On July 17, researchers will take to the North Sea in a specially outfitted catamaran equipped with a side-scan sonar and magnetometer to map the ocean floor.

Information, will be gathered over a three- week period by a team of up to eight people both on the ship and ashore in England.

Ryan said that if the foundation is able to come up with an additional $150,000, they can spend another three weeks searching. In addition to funding, weather is also a con- cern. Ryan said there's only a two-month period in the North Sea in which the seas are calm enough for them to search for the ship. Once the data is collected and collat- ed, they can determine what objects are worth a further look. When they return next year, they will use remotely operated vehicles to visually inspect the objects, and if their science, history and technology worked right - and if luck is on their side - they'll find the Bonhomme Richard. (Source: Stars and Stripes)

Canadian Navy Loses Practice

Torpedo

The Canadian Navy reportedly lost a practice torpedo. The 3-m torpedo, con- taining no warhead or explosives, reported- ly sank unexpectedly in January after it was launched from a military frigate near

Victoria. The frigate spent three hours look- ing for the practice torpedo, known as a

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