Consistent high performance by the UK Ship Register has seen it rise four places in the world under standards set by the Paris Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
It means the UKSR is now fifth under an assessment based on the total number of inspections and detentions by the Paris MoU and is effective from next month. These are based on the total number of inspections and detentions over a certain length of time.
A British family has been rescued by the Falkland Islands Protection Vessel in the south Atlantic after their yacht hit an iceberg and began to sink. Carl Lomas and Tracey Worth, who are also known as Lord and Lady Hollinsclough, and their two daughters were sailing 300 miles north-east of South Georgia when their 18-metre boat hit the low-lying iceberg.
Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou and Premier Wu Den-yih praised the decision this week by an international court of arbitration to force French defence group Thales to pay Taiwan more than 591 million US dollars as a sanction for the payment of commissions in the purchase of Lafayette frigates from France.
A Korean jigger was arrested this week in the South Atlantic by the Argentine Coast Guard allegedly for illegal fishing and a catch of 80 tons of squid was seized.
Two former Royal Navy offshore patrol vessels built by Hall Russell in Aberdeen and which for years were on Falkland Islands service have been sold to Bangladesh's navy.
The Chilean Navy incorporated this week its largest unit, a 42.000 tons tanker, AO-52 “Almirante Montt” which will play a vital role in supplying the surface fleet. The tanker was purchased from the US Navy and will replace AO-53 “Araucano” decommissioned after forty years service.