logo
Jersey Ports to sell workboat Duke of Normandy to Caribbean firm

Jersey Ports to sell workboat Duke of Normandy to Caribbean firm

BBC Newsa day ago

Ports of Jersey has agreed to sell one of its workboats to a Caribbean shipping hire company.Ports has agreed to sell the Duke of Normandy to St Lucia-based Lead Marine Contractors after an initial two-year charter to the company.The 26m (85ft) boat, which was built in 2005, has been in service for nearly two decades, providing a "range of marine services" including towing, maintaining moorings and levelling the seabed.Ports said the deal would generate a "short-term income" allowing for its "planned retirement" of the vessel, with money from the sale being reinvested into its fleet.
A spokesperson said: "The Duke will be delivered to the Caribbean in June and re-flagged under Panama, a widely used international ship registry."Ports said it had acquired a new tug boat, which would be renamed Fleur de Lis, to take over the Duke of Normandy's tug boat duties.Ports' marine services division operates a fleet of five vessels, it said.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Cuba's students call for resignations and strikes after brutal internet price hike
Cuba's students call for resignations and strikes after brutal internet price hike

The Guardian

time14 hours ago

  • The Guardian

Cuba's students call for resignations and strikes after brutal internet price hike

Having endured electricity blackouts, water shortages, transport failures and the spiralling cost of food, Cuba's students appear to have finally lost patience with their government over a ferocious price hike for the country's faltering internet. Local chapters of Cuba's Federation of University Students (FEU) have been calling for a slew of measures, including attendance strikes, explanations from ministers and even the resignation of their own organisation's president. Trouble began when Etecsa, Cuba's state-owned communications monopoly, recently increased prices for its mobile data without giving notice. While it offered 6GB a month at a subsidised rate of 360 pesos (about $1 at black market rates), prices would rise to 3,360 pesos ($9) for the next 3GB. There was immediate uproar across a country where monthly state wages start at 2,100 pesos ($5.70) and the internet has become the route by which much of the population hears news, buys necessities, runs small businesses and communicates with relatives abroad. The average Cuban uses 10GB a month, according to the government. The students, some of whom called their protest 'brave, revolutionary and respectful', said that while the internet was the trigger, real anger is aimed at Cuba's communist government's increasing reliance on US dollars. In recent months, state supermarkets have opened across Cuba that only accept hard currencies. Gasoline stations are switching away from the peso. There are rumours electricity is about to follow. Each of these measures comes with foreign packages that encourage Cubans to ask their relatives abroad to pay. 'The ultimate responsibility for the problem falls not on the managers and employees [of Etecsa] but on those who implemented a chaotic, if not non-existent, economic model,' read a statement from the Telecommunications and Electrical Engineering department at CUJAE, one of Havana's universities. Tania Velázquez, Etecsa's president, tried to explain on state television. 'We find ourselves in an extremely critical situation due to the lack of foreign currency and the significant reduction in revenue in recent years,' she said. But the student body of Havana University's mathematics and computer sciences faculty (Matcom), swiftly expressed a widely held skepticism that any new money raised would lead to improvements. It asked for a meeting with 'those primarily responsible for the measures taken, where the context under which they were taken is clarified in details and transparency'. Meanwhile, it called for its students to stay away from classes. The government blamed the six-decade old US embargo but, clearly concerned, responded. Miguel Diaz Canel, Cuba's president, called the students 'beloved', organised meetings with students, and suggested the error had been one of communication. A concession was offered: a second highly subsidised package for university students alone. This was met with scorn by the engineering students from CUJAE, who called it 'an attempt to silence the student vanguard'. The protests have left the government's usual critics in Miami wrong-footed as well, as they do not conform to the left/right debate that rages across the Florida Straits. Many student bodies made it clear they felt Etecsa's move does not conform to the principles of the Cuban revolution, quoting revolutionary heroes including Fidel Castro. It reflects a growing sense on the island that the government is moving away from its socialist principles, while not liberalising the economy enough to allow people to earn the money now needed to live. Founded in 1922, the FEU once fought against Cuba's pre-revolutionary dictatorships, but has been quiet since. Michael Bustamante, chair of Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami, said: 'I don't think there is any comparable pushback to a government measure on this scale since university autonomy ended as it existed prior to the revolution.' But the measures do come at a tough time for final year students, with only about two weeks of the semester to run, followed by important exams. On Monday, Matcom voted to return to their classes, despite the new rates 'not being validated by real and convincing data'. Transgressions in Cuba, political or otherwise, can lead to lifelong consequences for students, losing not only the ability to graduate, but also to find jobs. A mother of a psychology student expressed her fears: 'I support my daughter in whatever she decides,' she said. 'But I feel her ambivalence and anguish. Her heart wants to be involved, but common sense tells her that she has to graduate.' But another student, who asked to remain nameless, said a precedent has been set: 'This has awakened something historic,' she said. 'We have gained confidence and organisation for everything that troubles us in the future.' Eileen Sosin contributed reporting

Jersey Ports to sell workboat Duke of Normandy to Caribbean firm
Jersey Ports to sell workboat Duke of Normandy to Caribbean firm

BBC News

timea day ago

  • BBC News

Jersey Ports to sell workboat Duke of Normandy to Caribbean firm

Ports of Jersey has agreed to sell one of its workboats to a Caribbean shipping hire has agreed to sell the Duke of Normandy to St Lucia-based Lead Marine Contractors after an initial two-year charter to the 26m (85ft) boat, which was built in 2005, has been in service for nearly two decades, providing a "range of marine services" including towing, maintaining moorings and levelling the said the deal would generate a "short-term income" allowing for its "planned retirement" of the vessel, with money from the sale being reinvested into its fleet. A spokesperson said: "The Duke will be delivered to the Caribbean in June and re-flagged under Panama, a widely used international ship registry."Ports said it had acquired a new tug boat, which would be renamed Fleur de Lis, to take over the Duke of Normandy's tug boat marine services division operates a fleet of five vessels, it said.

Chaos as US airline suddenly halts operations and warns people with tickets not to come to the airport
Chaos as US airline suddenly halts operations and warns people with tickets not to come to the airport

Daily Mail​

timea day ago

  • Daily Mail​

Chaos as US airline suddenly halts operations and warns people with tickets not to come to the airport

A US regional airline announced Wednesday that it was shutting down all operations, issuing an ominous warning to ticketholders to not to come to the airport. Silver Airways, which had a hub in Fort Lauderdale, flew routes in Florida, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico and to various airports in the Caribbean. Within Florida, Silver flew to Tampa, Tallahassee, Key West and Pensacola. In the Bahamas, customers could go to Bimini, Nassau and Freeport. The struggling flight carrier recently announced it had declared bankruptcy. 'In an attempt to restructure in bankruptcy, Silver entered into a transaction to sell its assets to another airline holding company, who unfortunately has determined to not continue Silver's flight operations,' the company said. The airline urged passengers with tickets or booked flights not to go to the airport. Instead, it advised customers to get their credit card purchases refunded through the credit card company or their travel agency. Silver filed for bankruptcy in December, which began a slow wind down of its business. In March, it suspended all its flights from Orlando International Airport. And in early June, the airline held a bankruptcy auction that attracted no bidders. On Wednesday, private equity firm Wexford Capital bought the airline, which marked its official end. 'It is with a heavy heart that I share the difficult news that, after months navigating through Chapter 11 bankruptcy, our journey at Silver Airways is coming to an end for most of us,' CEO Steven Rossum wrote to the company's 350 remaining employees in a letter obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel. 'Wexford Capital — our [debtor-in-possession] lender — has informed us they will no longer support operations or, except for a few, retain our employees,' he continued. Wexford had provided $5.5 million in financing in April to keep Silver aloft, the Miami Herald reported. 'A small group will be asked to stay on temporarily to assist with asset management and records. Those individuals will be contacted directly. Seaborne will continue to operate as scheduled,' he concluded. Seaborne is a small airline that has been a subsidiary of Silver since 2018. Silver is a relatively young airline, being founded in late 2011 off the back of bankrupt Gulfstream International Airways. It upgraded at the time by purchasing six Saab 340Bplus turboprop planes. The planes had 34 seats and the exteriors were painted bright pink. Silver's original CEO Dave Pflieger frequently called back to the nostalgic early days of air travel, when people dressed up to go on airlines like Pan Am and TWA. 'It's almost sort of nostalgic-days-of-old flying, the Elizabeth Taylor era of walking on the tarmac, getting on the airplane, looking at the window and seeing the propellers,' he told the Herald in 2012. 'Our flying hearkens back to the age-old flying.' Silver used to fly passengers to nine Cuban cities outside Havana on 34-seat planes but ceased service to the island in 2017 because of weak demand.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store