''Cosmo Ace'', formerly ''A Whale'' and ''Madison Orca'', is a

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

n- flagged ore-oil carrier built in 2010 by

Hyundai Heavy Industries Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (HHI; ) is the world's largest shipbuilding company and a major heavy equipment manufacturer. Its headquarters are in Ulsan, South Korea. History HHI was founded in 1972 by Chung Ju-yung as a division of the ...

, Ulsan, South Korea for TMT Co. Ltd. (formerly Taiwan Maritime Transport Co. Ltd.) from the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

( Taiwan). She has seven other

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...

s 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 Skimmer may refer to: Animals *Skimmer (bird), a common name for birds in the genus ''Rynchops'' *Skimmer (dragonfly), a common name for dragonflies in the family Libellulidae *Water strider or skimmer, a common name for insects in the family Ge ...

to assist in the cleanup of the BP ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill in Gulf of Mexico, near the

Mississippi River Delta The Mississippi River Delta is the confluence of the Mississippi River with the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana, southeastern United States. The river delta is a area of land that stretches from Vermilion Bay on the west, to the Chandeleur Isla ...

, Louisiana. The ship's owners stated that ''A Whale'' is capable of separating of oil per day, while storing the crude and returning the processed

sea water Seawater, or salt water, is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5% (35 g/L, 35 ppt, 600 mM). This means that every kilogram (roughly one liter by volume) of seawater has approx ...

to the

sea The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean 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 Es, ES, or similar may refer to: Arts and entertainment * An alternate name for the musical note E♭ (E-flat) * ''E's'', a manga series by Satoru Yuiga * ''Es'' (film), the German title of ''It'', a 1966 West German film directed by Ulrich Scham ...

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, it is in active service as the ''Cosmo Ace''.

References

External links

''Cosmo Ace'' (IMO: 9424209)
at ''VesselTracker'' {{Deepwater Oil tankers Ships built by Hyundai Heavy Industries Group Deepwater Horizon oil spill 2010 ships

Oil skimming experiments

Service history

See also

References

External links