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A Whale (ship)

Field	Value
display_title	ital
section1	{{Infobox ship/image
image	A Whale.jpg
image_caption	A Whale conducting a test run of its oil skimming capabilities as part of the Deepwater Horizon response July 4, 2010.
section2	{{Infobox ship/career
name	Cosmo Ace
renamed	*A Whale (2010–2014)
owner	Oriental Fleet Tanker 19, Ltd.
operator	*Suntech Ship Management
registry	, Monrovia
builder	*Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd
yard_number	2045
launched	25 Sep 2009
in_service	6 Jan 2010
identification	*Call sign: A8UA7
status	Active as of 2020
notes
section3	{{Infobox ship/characteristics
class	Lloyds Register: 100A1
type	Ore-oil carrier
tonnage	,
length	340 m
beam	60 m
draught	22.3 m
speed	13.7 kn
notes

Madison Orca (2014–2020)
Monarch Vessel Holdings Corporation
TMT Co. Ltd. (formerly Taiwan Maritime Transport Co. Ltd.), Taipei
Republic of China (Taiwan)
Ulsan, South Korea

Cosmo Ace, formerly A Whale and Madison Orca, is a Liberian-flagged ore-oil carrier built in 2010 by Hyundai Heavy Industries, Ulsan, South Korea for TMT Co. Ltd. (formerly Taiwan Maritime Transport Co. Ltd.) from the Republic of China (Taiwan). She has seven other sister ships in the fleet, built in 2010-2011 and named in succession: B Whale, C Whale etc., to H Whale.

Oil skimming experiments

She was refitted and converted in Portugal into a skimmer to assist in the cleanup of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in Gulf of Mexico, near the Mississippi River Delta, Louisiana. The ship's owners stated that A Whale is capable of separating 300000 to of oil per day, while storing the crude and returning the processed sea water to the sea.

A Whale arrived in the Gulf of Mexico on 30 June 2010, while financial agreements were yet pending. However, in two weeks of testing A Whale collected virtually no oil. TMT stated that the ship's poor performance was due to the dispersion of oil in the Gulf.

On July 16, the Coast Guard announced it would not be authorized to join the containment process because tests had shown that its oil skimming capabilities were "negligible" in comparison to the other more nimble and much smaller skimmers in the containment.

Service history

In early 2013, the A Whale became stranded due to a technical problem off Suez. The ship's crew remained stranded for six months without pay, exacerbated by owner TMT's bankruptcy filing in June, before eventually receiving supplies and some of their backpay in July. That August the ship was allegedly fired on by Libyan Marine Special Forces, according to a video posted on their Facebook page, as it attempted to enter the Es Sider terminal.

In 2014 the ship was renamed to Madison Orca and transferred to Monarch Vessel Holdings Corporation. As of December 2020, operated by Suntech Maritime, she is in active service as the Cosmo Ace.

References

(2010). "Vessel's Details and Current Position: ''A WHALE'' - 9424209". MarineTraffic.
(1 July 2010). "A Whale". Auke Visser's International Super Tankers.
(29 November 2020). "COSMO ACE, Crude Oil Tanker - Details and Current Position". VesselFinder.
(18 June 2010). "Our Fleet". NOS Management.
McClay, Rebecca L.. (4 July 2010). "BP tests Taiwanese oil-skimming ship". MarketWatch.
Froomkin, Dan. (29 June 2010). "Gulf Oil Spill: 'A Whale' Of A Skimmer Offers Up Its Services". The Huffington Post.
(16 July 2010). "Giant 'super skimmer' no help with Gulf oil spill". Reuters.
(17 July 2010). ""A Whale" Operational Review Completed". Deepwater Horizon Incident Joint Information Center.
(12 July 2013). "Flag-State Liberia Helps Out Stranded 'A Whale' Crew". Tradewinds.
(22 August 2013). "Libyan Forces Alleged to Have Fired at Oil Tanker". Wall Street Journal.
"Our fleet". Suntech Maritime.

Info: Wikipedia Source

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