Page 133: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (September 1997)

(Continued from page 131)

Inmarsat E system are: Raisting (Germany), which covers the

Atlantic Ocean East and Indian

Ocean region satellites; Perth (Australia) which covers the

Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean satellites; and Niles Canyon (U.S.) serving the Pacific and

Atlantic Ocean West regions.

Inmarsat is currently negotiating for a fourth LES installation to provide duplicated cover in the

Atlantic East and West regions. "This will give the system the added security of double coverage in every region," said Mr. Fuller. "But in fact, even now with three stations operating, there is only one small section of the Pacific without double coverage."

Like Inmarsat, the LES opera- tors — Deutsche Telekom in

Germany, Telstra in Australia and IDB in the U.S. — are all providing their Inmarsat E ser- vices free of charge.

Each LES is connected to its national rescue authority via a dedicated link. In Germany this

Is the Bremen rescue coordina- tion center; in Australia it is a similar RCC in Canberra and in the U.S. it is the U.S. Coast

Gluard data network. These authorities will deal with an emergency themselves or pass ;he information on to an appro-

Driate RCC, usually the one learest the source of the distress alert and therefore in the best position to coordinate rescue efforts. A range of Inmarsat E float free and personal portable

EPIRBs is being marketed by four manufacturers: Nortel Dasa

GmbH;, OHB System GmbH;

Nokia; and Kreiger Gesellschaft

GmbH. As an affirmation of

Inmarsat's commitment to safety services, the Inmarsat E EPIRB has "real benefits over those that we've seen up till now," said

Peter Goldsmith, Inmarsat's market manager for merchant shipping. "It's much faster than previous systems ... as soon as the button is pressed, there's a record of that in the RCC, rather than the ship in distress having to wait for a satellite pass, which could mean up to a couple of hours. So speed of response is dramatically enhanced."

In tests carried out shortly before its introduction, Inmarsat

E proved to be 100 per cent reli- able in delivering a comprehen- sive distress message to LESs, typically within two minutes of an initial alert. "This is a great improvement on current satellite and radio systems, which can take hours to deliver an alert," said

Goldsmith. "As we have seen recently, if such alerts are not sufficiently comprehensive they often raise as many questions for rescuers as they provide answers."

Goldsmith also stresses the accuracy of the position report- ing. "It's much, much higher ," he said. "Earlier alerting sys- tems were accurate only to with- in four or five kilometers;

Inmarsat E is accurate to within 200 meters. If an aircraft is look- ing for a person in the water, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack. "After all, just three weeks before we launched

Inmarsat E, the British yachts- man Tony Bullimore was lost in the Southern Ocean for five days during the Vendee Globe race. It's very difficult to find a hull 60 feet long in the sea, espe- cially if it's upside down as his was ... an aircraft's pilot would be lucky to see it. When you're searching for someone lost in the sea and you have Inmarsat E, you can home right in on that person and check the accuracy of the position reporting."

Bethlehem Steel To Sell

Shipyard

Bethlehem Steel Corp. report- sdly agreed to sell BethShip Inc.'s

Sparrows Point Yard in Baltimore to the private investment firm

Veritas Capital Inc. of New York.

The deal is reportedly subject to

Veritas completing a revolving credit agreement, but Bethlehem said it expected to close the sale before September 30. 5&l Insurers Confident Of

Zountering EU Objections

The London P&I Club says it is :onfident that marine Protection ind Indemnity insurers can over- :ome EC objections to the sector's :urrent liability pooling agree- nent. "The (Commission's) statement of Objections was writ- en by a middle-ranking bureau- rat who had not fully considered he February 20 agreement," iraham Edmiston, chairman of he London Club's managers, told

September, 1997 a news conference. The European

Commission has given the

International Group of P&I Clubs until September 16 to respond to its call for greater competition.

Under the February 20

Agreement, P&I Clubs work together to provide high levels of liability cover in the event of marine pollution and other claims on shipowners. They represent 90 percent of world shipping.

The agreement also means that a shipowner must pay the same level of premium for the first year after moving from one club to another, a clause which has attracted particular criticism from

Brussels.

The London Club and its man- agers do not expect the

International Group of P&I Clubs to split over this issue because of the benefits to their owners, the shipping industry.

One P&I source said reinsurers had received few P&I claims in recent years and could afford to see the premium cut to $150 mil- lion.

Siemens makes Inmarsat E Beacon.

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