The Enrica Lexie Award Amid Jurisdictional and Law of the Sea Issues

This article analyzes the Enrica Lexie Arbitral Award, first of all, in relation to international law issues concerning the application of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The article then focuses on the question of the functional immunity of the two marines, from the point of view of the Tribunal’s assertion of its incidental jurisdiction to deal with the matter, as well as of the Tribunal’s affirmation of the existence of a customary international law rule applicable in the present case. Both conclusions appear unconvincing, also in light of the role of the two marines on board a merchant ship. In any case, the fact remains that the judgment has the merit of finally putting an end to a long-standing dispute, to the satisfaction of the two parties involved.

THE SHIP WRECK OF THE LATE 4th / EARLY 3rd CENTURY BC NEAR KINBURN SPIT

During the campaign of 2018 the international underwater archaeological expedition has explored the waters of Tendra Spit and Kinburn Spit on the shelf of the Black Sea, in Mykolaiv and Kherson regions of Ukraine. Underwater archaeological exploration focused on the waters near the northern tip of Tendra Spit, from both the Gulf of Tendra and the sea, and north-western tip of Kinburn Spit. In addition to the visual reconnaissance, divers were using sonar, profiler and side-scan sonar. As a result, the bathymetric map has been compiled. In the initial part of research the work was limited to mapping and taking photographs of the discoveries. During these works was discovered and cleansed the ancient Shipwreck of the late 4th — early 3rd century BC. It was possible to identify the well-preserved fragment of the hull of ancient Wreck of a length of 9.45 m in situ with ballast stones, ceramic material from the cargo, lead plating and him constructions elements. After clearing of the sand from the preserved part of the ship hull with the help of a hydro injector the video and photo documentation was carried out. As a result of these works, large-scale photo mosaic of the object and its 3D-model were made. The condition of the wooden hull is excellent, the technological holes, connections, bronze and iron nails are preserved. Outside of Ukraine several shipwrecks of the same period are attested. The best studied are the following: shipwreck of the 3rd century BC at Grand Congloue, France; the Mazotos shipwreck of the 4th century BC in Cyprus; the Porticello shipwreck of the end of the 5th or beginning of the 4th century BC in Italy; the Alonnisos shipwreck from the end of the 5th century BC, Greece; the Kyrenia shipwreck from the end of the 4th — beginning of the 3rd centuries BC in Cyprus. In the Black Sea, in 2011 a shipwreck from the end of the 4th — beginning of the 3rd centuries BC near Eregli, Turkey (ancient Herakleia Pontica) was discovered by a deep-sea expedition of the research vessel «Nautilus» under the direction of Michael Brennan at a depth of 101 m. Most of the known merchant ships of this period were small, ranging from 12 to 17 m (table). Boris Peters provides a reconstruction sketch of the Lake Donuzlav ship of the late 4th — early 3rd centuries BC. It is almost identical to the reconstruction of the Kyrenia merchant ship, based on its hull which was preserved by 75 %, The replica named «Kyrenia 2» was built and made several voyages. It can be assumed that the Kinburn Spit ship found in 2018 was of similar appearance but further research will provide more detailed information.

A second-hand shipwreck market: Salvage auctions in mid-eighteenth-century Helsinki

When a merchant ship was wrecked in the Gulf of Finland in the eighteenth century it was salvaged (mainly its running rigging), together with its cargo. In eighteenth-century Sweden, salvage was the monopoly of the Northern Diving and Salvage Company (1729–1802). In Helsinki, several salvage auctions were held each year. Salvage documents are useful sources not only for investigating the demand for ship parts, but also for identifying ships and explaining past marine accidents. The detailed technical knowledge provided by auction protocols offers insight into ships and their equipment in the early modern Baltic. Many ships were on their way to St Petersburg (established in 1703), the home port of European naval stores, but many of them were wrecked on the rocky coasts of Helsinki. This gave rise to a strange kind of shipping based on random imports and the use of recycled cordage, sails and anchors from the shores blessed by unfortunate ships.

Genetic Algorithm-Based Clustering Method to Formulate Standard Specifications for Merchant Ship Preliminary Design

In the preliminary design of merchant ships, shipbuilders generally modify some of the standard specifications to fulfill shipowner needs, which is time-consuming owing to the complex techno-economic constraints of ship design. Therefore, an appropriate standard specifications formulation method is necessary to improve the efficiency of the preliminary design. In this study, we performed genetic algorithm-based clustering to determine the subtypes of a specific type of merchant ship and formulated the standard specification for each subtype. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, experiments were performed using 98 specification documents to formulate the standard specifications. The results showed that feature relations among each determined subtype were significantly simpler than those of the main type; thereby, the formulated standard specifications were desirable in the preliminary design of merchant ships.

Potential advantages of molten salt reactor for merchant ship propulsion

Operating costs of merchant ships, related to fuel costs, has led the naval industry to search alternatives to the current technologies of propulsion power. A possibility is to employ nuclear reactors like the Russian KLT-40S, which is a pressurized water reactor (PWR) and has experience on civilian surface vessels. However, space and weight are critical factors in a nuclear propulsion project, in addition to operational safety and costs. This work aims at comparing molten salt reactors (MSR) with PWR for merchant ship propulsion. The present study develops a qualitative analysis on weight, volume, overnight costs, fuel costs and nuclear safety. This work compares the architecture and operational conditions of these two types of reactors. The result is that MSR may produce lower amounts of high-activity nuclear tailings and, if it adopts the 233U-thorium cycle, it may have lower risks of proliferating nuclear weapons. Besides proliferation issues, this 4th generation reactor may have lower weight, occupy less space, and achieve the same levels of safety with less investment. Thus, molten salt regenerative reactors using the 233U-thorium cycle are potential candidates for use in ship propulsion.