editorial
A glimpse At A point in history It’s not often that I travel 7,000 miles to watch an engine demonstration. Okay, I’ve never done that. Most days, it’s hard to just get me off the couch. But when I received an invitation from MAN Diesel & Turbo to go to Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding in Tamano, Japan, for a full-scale demo of a slow-speed, electronically controlled, gasinjection engine, well, I couldn’t pass it up. It’s not because I like sushi, although I do. (Nor, for that matter, flying in a pressurized tube for 14 hours eating bad food.) Rather, the answer was simple: I thought I was going to get to witness an important piece of history. And, I think I did. The two-day event involved a Mitsui MAN B&W 6S70MEC that had been temporarily converted to an ME-GI to demonstrate the two-stroke engine’s seamless switchover from fuel oil
to gas and back again. The second day was an overhaul inspection of the engine, allowing guests an opportunity to have full access to the engine, including an examination of the cylinder heads and liners, cylinder covers with the gas blocks, adapter blocks and chain pipes. The engine demonstration and overhaul inspection drew about 150 ship owners and operators, naval architects and marine engineers. What spoke volumes to me was the turnout of U.S.-flag vessel operators: Crowley Maritime, Horizon Lines, Matson, Pasha, and Seacor Ocean Transport. Others on hand included Seaboard Ship Management, Anglo-Eastern Technical Services and Hebert Engineering. Obviously, I wasn’t the only one that thought this was important enough to travel thousands of miles. Clearly that says to me that the question
John R. Snyder, Publisher & Editor jsnyder@sbpub.com
is not “if U.S. ship operators are going to switch to LNG,” but rather, “when will they switch to LNG.” The argument for using LNG as marine fuel is too compelling to ignore. The feeling here is that over the next few months, we’ll be reporting on some big announcements regarding LNG. I wouldn’t be surprised if those announcements involve Crowley or Pasha or perhaps even a tug or two from someone else. The much-maligned Jones Act fleet could well be in the vanguard of the LNG switchover. Stay tuned. Also this month, John Graykowski, former Deputy and Acting Maritime Administrator (wouldn’t it be nice to have John back in office?) writes about the critical lynchpin in making LNG work in the marine market, namely bunkering infrastructure and regulation. Read John’s insightful comments in “LNG: Breaking the chicken and the egg.”
MaritiMe trivia trivia Question #2 Where is zero sea level officially registered in North American waters? Email your guess to: marineart@jclary.com The first sailor or lubber who correctly answers the Maritime Trivia question will receive a color J. Clary collector print. Paul Sinz, Concord, CA, was the winner of last month’s trivia question, “Where and when was the lowest barometric pressure ever recorded?” Answer: 25.69 inches recorded during Typhoon Tip in the Pacific, October 12, 1979.
4 MARINE LOG May 2013