InformatIon from Briese Office to Briese fleet.

Briese news

Issue no. 01-2014

“No oNe will be left behiNd at sea”

NatioNal hero alexaNder Chumakov

Interview with Captain Norbert Hermes about rescue operation of refugees from Syria

Ex. 2nd Mate on board of MV BBC Polonia has been invited to the tenth ceremony of awarding the winners of the “Proud of the Country”

IN ANtArCtICASPECIAl ProjECt

BBC DANuBE: SHIPS IN oPErAtIoN

Editorial

dear CaptaiNs, offiCers, eNgiNeers aNd Crew,

page

we are glad to present to you a new edition of our briese News. this time i have the honor to address the editorial to you. as many of you may have never heard about me, i would like to provide a short glimpse of my background: after graduating in Naval architecture & ship engineering i worked 2 years with shipping company bernhard schulte in hamburg before returning back to our small hometown in leer. here i have been working in briese Chartering and since beginning of the year 2014 i took over the management position for our crewing department. but still, the market situation is of course very important to be followed.

last year our project & heavy lift market again has come under further pressure as the world economy was stagnating. even other vessel types such as open hatch bulkers or container vessels due to their likewise poor situation are loading our typical project cargoes. however, with our purpose-built ships, a strong crew & shore staff performance and a motivated world-wide chartering team of bbC and briese Chartering we can attract the world’s industry to book cargoes with us and not with our competitors. in contrast to other organizations, we have our shipmanagement, crewing and chartering operations working closely together un-der one roof to deliver a super service for our customers as we could recently prove for ex-ample in our antarctic mission of mv “bbC danube”, see our article in “ships in operation”.

in the year 2013 our company also reached a milestone with the completion of our large newbuilding program. since 1999 we have built 81 new vessels in China and 8 coaster vessels in viet-nam. the last vessel delivered was a 9.500dwt heavy lift vessel with 2x350t cranes named “bbC xingang” (see picture) named

and giving some tribute to the shipyard in tianjin (China) which was building many vessels of our modernized fleet. also our competitors in our segment have finished their newbuilding activities. only very few market players (we have recently become one of them) dare to order new vessels presently in this low market so we believe demand and supply for ships will come to a balance in the nearer future. our very recent order of 2 x 12.000dwt heavy lift vessels is still very fresh; we will cover the new vessel types in detail in our next edition.

despite our optimism for the future, the financial situations of our vessels have suffered and the cash reserves have become small over the last years so we have to run them on tight budg-ets now. many ships cannot afford bigger technical incidents anymore as we have suffered recently on our mv ”fletum”

where a heavy crankshaft damage led to the first bankruptcy of a vessel in our 30 year com-pany history unfortunately. we shall demonstrate we can run vessels also during difficult times to keep all our vessels and seafaring positions within our company.

besides the business fluctuations and the market instability we know and shall remind our-selves at times that our family’s health and security cannot be taken for granted as we unfor-tunately have witnessed last year with the typhoon Yolanda affecting so many families’ lives within a few hours. many of our seafarers and shore staff were donating part of their salaries to support the victims as you can read in our article. i want to thank everybody who partici-pated in this.

i wish you will have a successful year 2014 both in your professional and private life and hope to have the chance to see you on board of our vessels!

best regards from leer/germany,

Wilke Briese

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editorial

briese offiCeNew employees 2013

briese offiCe New office branch in italy briese Chartering gmbh & Co.

briese offiCebriese swallow st. petersburg (bsp)

briese swallow sevastopol (bss)

rules & regulatioNs serious incident on river-type vessel

briese offiCe briese swallow st. petersburg: office moving

shot bY a member of the briese fleet

ships iN operatioN a master’s Job: mastering the Job

CrewiNg mattersNautical seminars

briese researChopen ship on board of rv ‘maria s. merian’

briese offiCe armed guard forces

fleet update

briese offiCelong lasting engagement: 15th anniversary

CrewiNg matterstraining program for Junior officers and Cadets

ships iN operatioNmv „bbC danube“ - special project in antarctica terra Nova bay

ships iN operatioNChristening of mv bbC kibo

briese posterissue No. 01-2014

ships iN operatioN“No one will be left behind at sea”

CoNteNt

CoNtENt

briese researChrv meteor - 100th research Journey

briese offiCe super typhoon Yolanda raged through the philippines

2Briese Group

3Briese Group

briese NEWS 05-2014 our oBjECtIVE Charterer´s Happiness

BriESE oFFiCE

MArkuS BuurMANNin february our workshop department was de-lighted to welcome markus buurmann as a new colleague. before he started to work as an elec-trician at briese shipping, he completed his ap-prenticeship as an electrician at the bundeswehr.

jAN jANßENend of November 2012 Jan Janßen joined our workshop team. maybe you have already wel-comed him on board during an engine overhaul or similar.

lISA HArMSlisa harms started her apprenticeship in group 3 of the inspection department at the first of au-gust 2013. before she started working here, she visited the gymnasium of economy at the bbs i in leer.

olEkSIy DAVyDENkooleksiy davydenko joined the briese group in april 2013. he was working as an engineer for dif-ferent companies beginning with ex sovetic, than since 1993 for foreign companies. this year he decided to work for briese company and joined the technical department. before he was in po-sition of Chief engineer of our heavy lift vessels.

DIrk ErIk StIEGErt dirk erik stiegert went to school for 12 years and finished this year on the gymnasium treckfahrt-stief in emden. in august 2023 he started his apprenticeship in the administration department.

NICk VoSkAMPin may 2013 Nick voskamp started to work for the briese group. he was employed as a project manager logistics at enercon gmbh before. Now he is working in our chartering department.

SANDrA koSlItzsandra koslitz started to work for briese in au-gust 2013. until summer 2013 she did an ap-prenticeship as an office clerk at interseroh evert heeren gmbh & Co. kg. Now she is working in the purchase department.

VErA VEltHAuSalso in may 2013 vera velthaus joined the briese group. she has been employed by a small new arising company in hamburg (nautical/inspec-tion department) besides doing avocational academic studies. Now she is looking forward to new opportunities in the operating department at briese shipping.

MArCEl BIrkHofErmarcel birkhofer joined our briese group in sep-tember 2013. he is driver of briese and leda shipping and responsible for the safe crew trans-portation to and from our office and delivery of urgent spare parts.

SEBAStIAN SCHlAtoWsebastian schlatow is working for our it depart-ment since may 2013. he studied „informatics“ at the university of lübeck and finished his studies at the end of last year.

NIkItA BlACkoWSkINikita blackowski started his apprenticeship on the first of November 2013. he is from omsk, russia. at the moment he is working in the crew-ing department.

MArEN SCHENDzIElorzin may our administration department was de-lighted to welcome maren schendzielorz. before she started working there, she studied “busi-ness management” at the university of applied sciences in emden.

lArS lEHNErtlars lehnert worked as a Communication engineer at Neumayer 3 / antarctica before he started to work as a technical superintendent Communica-tion & it in the research department in June 2013. after 14 month antarctica he is finally settled into normal live and civilization and happy to bear a new profession challenge at briese.

helene de wall; 15th anniversary

NIkolA tIjANICsince June 2013 Nikola tijanic has been work-ing for briese in the accounting department. he worked in a tax consulting firm for several years. Currently he is doing training as an accountant in his spare time.

GErjEt GErjEtSgerjet gerjets became a member of the work-shop team in June 2013. before he was sailing on vessels like bbC elbe, bbC fuji and oster-marsch as a ship mechanic trainee.

ENNo frEESEenno freese is working in the Crewing account-ing department since June 2013. before that, he achieved his bachelor´s degree in “business ad-ministration” in summer 2013.

tHoMASz MAlAk thomasz malak became member of group b of leda shipping in June 2013. he is taking care of our heavy lifter and german flagged vessels as crew superintendent. after having been gradu-ated from maritime university in szczecin (wsm) in 1999 thomasz began his career connected to maritime administration and shipping.

jENS WüBBENSJens wübbens started to work for briese in July 2013. his previous activity was as a chief mate on a dragger of the company bohlen doyen. his current activity is ism/isps auditor.

MArC rIxEour chartering department was delighted to wel-come marc rixe as a port Captain in october 2013. he will also support the fleet as a natuical officer on a regular basis. untill 2012 marc studied „Nautical sciences“ in leer. afterwards he decid-ed to do further studies in liverpool(uk) which he recently finished with a master of science degree in marine and offshore engineering.

ArNE SEESEMANNarne seesemann joined the briese holding‘s management team in august 2013. he will work on general group projects. he came to us with experience in ship financing with a banking and advisory background.

joACHIM NorDBroCksince the first of august Joachim Nordbrock is working for briese in the fundmanagement/sale/shareholding department. his previous job was at basf Coatings, oldenburg in the Controlling section.

loNg laStiNg ENgagEmENt

15th aNNiversarY

Now looking back at 15 years of experi-ence in the crewing sector I am thinking: “15 years! time flies!”

i moved to germany in 1996. after the first steps in the new country and after all ad-ministrative and private arrangements were solved i was ready to start my career in the new homeland.

at that time i did not know so much about shipping business. be-ing open for new challenges and ready to learn something new i decided to start working with leda shipping.

i was lucky to meet valuable people, who supported me very much in the beginning and taught me a lot.in 1998 we were 7 colleagues in the office of leda shipping and were dealing with a little bit more than 30 vessels.

then during the period between 1998 and 2007 our company started to grow rapidly. due to very high professional level of the company’s management and the head of the company mr. roelf briese, the company achieved a safe reputation on the international market.

the number of the vessels increased, so i was responsible for 25-30 vessels with more than 350 crew members on board.

Company’s development, changes in the international and flag state regulations asked for more knowledge. to improve this, i had attended several trainings and courses in regard of maritime and labor law like “international maritime rules and regulations”, “hu-man resources management”, “internal auditor ism-isps-mlC for shipping Companies” etc.

in 2009 i was offered to take the duty of the Crew manager. it was quite a challenge for me. i continued my career in the new position, based on experience i gained when working in the leda shipping.it may seem that the office job is only administration work, but this is only a part of it. the most important part for me is working with people: my colleagues, captains, seafarers, their families. there is a piece of my heart in all things that i do.

looking back at the last 15 years one can say the Company went through good times and difficult times.

today we still have to deal with consequences of the crises, and thanks to right policy of our company we have been successful. there is one more special moment i will remember all my life: the christening of mv bbC bulgaria. it was great honor for me and i am very proud of it.

once again I would like to thank everybody, with whom I have been working in our company all these years, and I hope to re-main part of this company through many years to come.

within the past year the briese ashore team has been increased a lot, that’s why we’d like to introduce and welcome our new colleagues, who joined our company in 2013.

dear seafarers,

New emploYees 2013

4Briese Group

5Briese Group

our oBjECtIVE Charterer´s Happinessbriese NEWS 05-2014

BriESE oFFiCE

I work for Drum Cussac Maritime Security uk and have been for-tunate enough to have worked on at least five of your BBC ves-sels transiting the high risk area covering the red Sea, Gulf of Aden and the Indian ocean.

on all the ships i have worked on, all have managed a safe passage through waters where pirates are known to operate. i would just like to say it has been a privilege to have worked with your officers and crew.

Captains, officers and crew are very professional and have a very re-laxed approach when outside security come on board.

the welcome and hospitality shown by the ships’ crew are second to none and it has been a great pleasure working with briese.

YoursNigel McHughteam memberdrum Cussac maritime security uk

the following vessels have been handed over to external management:mv mittelplate and mv saxum have been outsourced to messrs. intertrade while mv bbC Jade and mv bbC Nordland have been outsourced to messrs. winter in december 2013.

briese Chartering has opened up a new office in genoa to be closer connected to our valued customers in the mediter-ranean sea. briese Chartering genoa office with agustin traba

below we have depicted for you the present structure of briese Chartering. as briese Chartering has meanwhile 32 vessels under management, we have decided to split the operating department into two groups headed by friedo busemann and kai groen running our gearless tweendeckers in european waters with you.

New offiCe braNCh iN italY

briese CharteriNg gmbh & Co. kg

armed guards oNboard

fleet update

BriESE oFFiCE

friedo Busemannoperating team for mila, anna, amke, berum types

kai Groenoperating team for Cimbris, mittelplate & saxum types

In order to stay competitive on the market, here are the vessels sold last year:

Jessica Bruns

Briese Chartering Genoa office

Agustin Traba Lopez

Briese Chartering Genoa office

lopez and Jessica bruns is sharing office space with the bbC Chartering team in genoa.

bbC seattle

dollart

bbC ukraineeiland

alta mar

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our oBjECtIVE Charterer´s Happinessbriese NEWS 05-2014

BriESE oFFiCE

on the 9th of August 2013 MV BBC Magellan passed MlC inspection at her call in St. Petersburg, russia. the staff of Briese Swallow Spb visited the ship to familiarize themselves with this procedure of MlC 2006 certification.

the procedure of certification was lead by representative of the germanischer lloyd in russia - mr. alexey rodionov. he had audited ship documen-tation, made conversation with the crew of the vessel (person-ally with each seafarer) and in-spected accommodation, cab-ins of the crew, galley, engine room and bridge.

all above mentioned was found in a good condition and well organized.

discussion with crew passed in a good way which did not give a reason for any claims or deficiencies of the inspector. the au-

We received information that Chief Mate Alexander Chumakov /Briese-Swallow Sevastopol ltd was invited to the tenth ceremony of awarding the winners of the “Proud of the Country”

how it happened: in July 2010 multipurpose vessel bbC polonia (was transporting anchor chains for drilling plat-forms from the port of gävle (sweden) to the Nigerian port bonny. the multinational crew consisted of thirteen seafar-ers: germans, ukrainians, russians and lithuanians. aleksandr Chumakov filled position of the second mate.

briese swallow st. petersburg (bsp)

briese swallow sevastopol ltd (bss)

mlC CertifiCatioN of mv bbC magellaN

“NatioNal hero”: ukraiNiaN seamaN alexaNder Chumakov / 2Nd mate bbC poloNia

BSP SuPPort

BSS SuPPort

it was necessary to take the vessel to a safe place which was duly controlled by Nige-rian military. it was necessary to do it quick as pirates could come back any time on board of the vessel. to do it, it should pass the narrow channel and go up the river to the nearest port.

up to the present time no-body can believe and under-stand how alexander man-aged to take the vessel to the port alone. as you know, at

least 12 people are to perform a safe control over a dry cargo ship of the polonia’s class in accordance with the requirements. alex-ander managed to do it alone! “to do that i had to “run” between the bridge and the engine room all the time” said alexander.

“the skills i acquired in high school, when i studied in sevastopol military academy named by admiral Nahimov, helped me to sur-vive in the emerged situation” said alexander.

for alexander it took twenty-four hours to get to a safe place. only after the vessel’s main engine was stopped and the military guards came on deck, the seaman agreed to go to a hospital.

dit showed high professionalism of master of mv bbC magellan mr. prialgauskis and ship’s crew in preparation for certification procedure. the representatives of bsp office also got a good experience in the certification process of the vessel mlC 2006. P.S. Successful certification was ended by friendly lunch with the Captain of the Ship and Inspector.

tatyana garnovskaya and anna bystrova in front of mv bbC magellan during her call at st. petersburg.

alexander Chumakov was voted by ukrainian people on web site gordist.org for nomination “ukraine National hero”.

suddenly two high-speed boats attacked the vessel in coasted waters of Nigeria and pirates managed to board the vessel.

“we were watering the pirates using the fire pumps not to let them approach the vessel but they began to shoot from machine guns” alexander Chumakov says. all crew had been gathering by pirates on the bridge and forced to leave the vessel on boats to the pirate’s camp.

alexander managed to escape from pirates and left on vessel alone.

when everything around calmed down, alexander got to the vessel’s hospital, redressed his wounds, found and took some antibiotics. then he began to examine the damaged equipment. having connected satellite communication, he contacted the shipowner company and reported about accident.

“the company representatives got in touch with me on the phone and informed that the pirates had been very surprised not to find the vessel bbC polonia on left position and decided to cooperate with Nigerian authorities and Company representatives to release the crew” alexander said.

the shipping company managed to release the crew from Nige-rian pirates during 48 hours.

after having been discharged from the hospital alexander was in-vited by mr. roelf briese to visit Company office in leer for award and personal meeting.

alexander’s relatives met him as hero in simferopol airport with warm words and flowers.

after a short vocation and rehabilitation alexander decided to join mv bbC volga as 2nd mate and had been promoted on board to chief mate position after been two months on board. alexander said that “during the last year i was in the gulf of aden twice where the pirates happen to attack the vessels but i did not feel any fear”.

few months ago alexander had been in kiev at the tenth cer-emony of awarding the winners of the “proud of the Country” Campaign, the project of viktor pinchuk’s fund.

8Briese Group

9Briese Group

our oBjECtIVE Charterer´s Happinessbriese NEWS 05-2014

traiNiNg programfor JuNior offiCers aNd Cadets

rv meteor - 100th researCh JourNeY

How can we best prepare for the future? Having this ques-tion in mind, we realized that we need to invest our time and money in a training program designated both for junior offic-ers and cadets. therefore we have set high goals for the future to match our expectation of what we would like to achieve in terms of quality and retention for our seafarers. And the train-ing program sounded like a natural step forward.

therefore we have continued our program with the university from Cebu and selected deck cadets and at the same time we have started a new program with the university from sevastopol where we recruited engine and electrical cadets. the marlins english test was also implemented as an essential part of our recruitment pro-cess and we will continue to do so for all ranks.

what can the junior officers ex-pect from this training? the jun-ior officers who apply and get selected for such training shall benefit from continuous employ-ment, safe environment and con-stant access to onboard training and also the necessary exposure

to the best working practice and regulations in the maritime indus-try. it is our shared responsibility to ensure that the trainees get the full support and direction towards to successful senior officers we would like to have onboard in a certain timeframe.

what is in it for the shipboard management responsible for the training of the junior officers and cadets? the masters and Chief engineers will have the possibility to develop and direct the junior officers according to the highest standards of responsibility and

engagement, thus ensuring that they will have the best trained and qualified seafar-ers to sail with. we do realize that it is a tremendous re-sponsibility; however we are positive that the efforts will

eventually pay off and they will have onboard the quality desired by the most demanding senior officers.

the ultimate goal of this development program is to ensure a renewing supply of skills and experience to the fleet and prepare for the future. at the same time it is our Company’s philosophy to expose talented individuals to all parts of the business which pro-vides opportunities to expand their personal skills and profession-al expertise. therefore the junior officers and cadets shall expect to be assigned on various types of vessels so that they can become familiarized with the specific related activity of each vessel.

we need to look ahead and start preparing for the future as from today ensuring that we will keep the leading position in the mar-ket on the segment we operate. each step counts, even a very small one in order to achieve this goal and to be regarded as the preferred employer for the seafarers where the high standards of quality and responsibility have been adhered to.

the offsigning cadets and junior officers have now been planned one year in advance to ensure a natural flow in their career and easiness to follow up on their performance. we are looking forward to keeping you fully updated with the progress of these programs to the satisfaction of the entire fleet.

from left to right: Ch. engineer oleksandr podkhomutnikov, mr. konstantin fedorovsky, mr. wilke briese, Captain maxim Nester, mr. vitaly dushko, mr. oleg azhmyakov

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our oBjECtIVE Charterer´s Happinessbriese NEWS 05-2014

CrEwiNg mattErS BriESE rESEarCH

super tYphooN YolaNda raged through the philippiNesIn September 2013 there was a very special anniversary on

board of the research vessel MEtEor.

under the direction of Captain klaus bergmann (briese ship-ping) and the expedition leader professor dr. friedrich buch-holz (alfred wegener institute awi / bremerhaven) the vessel started its 100th research journey on the 1st of september 2013 in walvis bay.

since the commissioning in 1986 the research vessel meteor thereby covered a distance of more than one million nautical miles. about 7,500 scientists collected at 20,000 stations sam-ples of the air, water and seabed and analyzed them.

due to the continuous adaption to the needs of the scientists and their equipment the rv meteor, despite its age of 27 years, still belongs to the most modern research vessels of the world.

since 01.01.2013 rv meteor is managed by briese schif-fahrts gmbh & Co. kg research vessel department.

our picture (photographer: dieter peterke) shows the scientists under the direction of professor dr. friedrich buchholz and the ship’s crew of rv meteor under the command of Captain klaus bergmann.

In November 2013 one of the four most powerful storms ever raged through the Philippines and caused a huge chaos, damages and took human lives. More than 600.000 people had to leave their homes around of Philippines coast area and more than 5.200 casualties were counted.

especially the island leyte has been involved: earth slip’s, flying roofs and disrooted trees were the result. as all of you know a lot of our seafarers are coming from the philippines and also many of them suffered losses and damages of their homes and homes of their families’.therefore on 11th November 2013 we started a donation action to collect financial means to help. many emails with donations were received from the vessels so that an amount of uSD 10,900 could be collected from following vessels:

in addition to this our colleagues ashore and briese schiffahrts gmbh & Co. kg increased this amount that we could count a donation in total amount of uSD 17,700.we are very proud that briese seafarer’s and staff showed that much social engagement and responsibility and would like to say thank you very much for your donation!the donated amount was forwarded to gma kapuso foundation which is a non-government organization. this philippine founda-tion appropriated our donation to provide the victims of typhoon Yolanda with nutrition, health & medical means and projects and help wherever it is needed.

furthermore also briese Cadets from our branch office heavy lift manila participated in relief operations by transferring sacks of rice or packing relief goods for the victims of typhoon Yolanda.

the scientific crew under the direction of professor dr. friedrich buchholz and the ship’s crew of rv meteor under the command of Captain klaus bergmann.

rv meteorfrom left to right, d/C gucor, adrian Carlo, e/C manlongat, Zynyl d., d/C Jovero, Juliemar and e/C estremos, marwin d.

andantebbC bahreinbbC CongobbC marmarabbC rheiderlandbbC weseranmirobbC belem

bbC elbebbC mississippibbC scandinaviabbC xingangannabbC bulgariabbC gangesbbC Neptune

bbC shanghaipeter rönnaathosbbC bundebbC icelandbbC NordlandbbC schwedenschillig

bbC angliabbC CanadabbC kibobbC olympusbbC switzerlandsjard

BriESE oFFiCE

(in case you are not mentioned on above list we apologies and kindly ask you to let us know accordingly.)

SHipS iN opEratioN

“No oNe will be left behiNd at sea”

on the 24th September 2013 discharging operations on board of BBC fujI were completed and the vessel was already heading her passage to Gibraltar, when a distress message was received from MrCC roma (Maritime res-cue Coordination Center) indicating that a boat is in dis-tress with about 130 persons on board.

the given position was only 50 nm ahead, in the south of sicily. “the position was not far away and i decided to proceed to same imme-diately,” explained Capt. hermes.

at 03:12 utC a distress message from mrCC rome was sent directly to bbC fuJi with the order to proceed to the given po-sition. the details of the distressed boat and the situation of the people were unknown but it was said that women and children were supposed to be on board and that people needed water.

“there is no standing order what to do in such a situation but we did our utmost to reach the boat as fast as possible,” said Capt. hermes, “i informed the crew about the situation and we tried to have all necessary equipment ready at hand. the rescue boat was prepared; a pilot ladder was rigged on starboard side, ropes, life belts, stretcher and fresh water were put on deck.”

at 07:10 utC bbC fuJi found a rubber boat. “at first we couldn’t see the object. but then we found a boat overcrowded with people. it was impossible for the refugees to sit, everyone was standing upright,” remembered Capt. hermes.

immediate assistaNCe for the refugees

seeing the physical condition of the refugees, Capt. hermes immediately decided to let them all on board the bbC fuji. there were also some babies amongst the fugitives. to bring them on board safely, the crew members used a strong sports bag as a baby basket which they pulled up.

the embarkation took about one hour and in total 117 refu-gees (95 men, 16 women and 6 children) transferred to the bbC fuJi. there was a pregnant woman on board of the rub-ber boat even.to accommodate the refugees on board, the crew arranged some space between poop deck and cargo hold which pro-vided some shade. also the suez cabin was opened for the sick and for the women with their babies. water and food were supplied to the weak fugitives.

“such an escape usually is a planned process. we learnt that some of the refugees paid to sail with this rubber boat,” knew Capt. hermes, “we noticed from their behavior that one of the refugees was their group leader who might have organized their escape.”

a New begiNNiNg

the morning of 25th september bbC fuJi reached the pilot sta-tion at augusta safely and without any incidents. “initially the refugees were scared because they thought that the coast in sight was the coast of tripoli, but the crew and the group leader assured them it was augusta, italy”, remembered the master of bbC fuJi.

after disembarkation medical assistance was given by the ital-ian red Cross and the Coast guard. from the italian Coast guard Captain Norbert hermes learnt that the refugees will stay at sicily for the time being.

Captain hermes was proud of the excellent job and team spirit of his crew: “that was a new experience for all of us as no one did such a sea rescue before. i’m happy that we have reached the port of augusta safely and i want to take the opportunity to thank bbC Chartering, the briese inspection, leda Crewing and all official parties involved for their support. also everybody’s solicitousness was very much appreciated”.

likewise we like to thank Norbert hermes and the crew for their outstanding conduct and we are proud that the crew impres-sively demonstrated the unwritten seafarer rule: “no one will be left behind at sea.”

bbC fuJi CaptaiN Norbert hermes oN the reCeNt resCue of 117 refugees

“one woman suffered of heart problems, one man showed shock symptoms and many people were complaining about strong pain in their feet”, remembered Captain hermes. in the meantime mrCC rome was informed about the situation and the vessel got the order to proceed to the port of augusta in order to disembark the refugees.

mrCC malta contacted the vessel and asked for health condi-tion of the fugitives. a rescue helicopter was sent and two para-medics winched down to examine the refugees. their health condition was assessed sufficiently stable so that all people were able to stay on board requiring no medical assistance prior arrival in augusta. also our mv “bbC iceland” took part in a resuce operation of 134 refugees in the mediterranean sea about one week ear-lier, on 13th of september 2013. therefore we also would like to thank the entire crew of bbC iceland for their professional behaviour in this unusual.

fears oN board

during the passage to augusta the crew tried to communicate with the refugees which proved very difficult – on the one hand due to the language barrier and on the other hand due to their fear concerning their future.

the crew observed that some refugees threw their papers/ id cards and other personal belongings over board. Nevertheless, some said they came from sudan, ethiopia and eritrea. they also said that they were originally stemming from two rubber boats, but further information on the second rubber boat and its whereabouts wasn’t available.

rescue operation: master and crew on board of mv bbC fuji helped to take the refugees on board.

Captain Norbert hermes was interviewed by bbC trainee lena pollmann when visiting the briese and bbC head quarter office in leer/germany.

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our oBjECtIVE Charterer´s Happinessbriese NEWS 05-2014

Briese news

Issue no. 05-2014 · www.BrIese.de

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ChristeNiNg of mv bbC kibo A group from Briese Schif-fahrt, BBC Chartering and “clients” took the great op-portunity to visit our nice lady m/v “BBC kibo”, which was as well built as her sister vessels at tianjin xingang Shipbuild-ing Heavy Industry Co. ltd. in rostock on 25.01.2013. this great occasion was also tak-en to celebrate her christen-ing by the Godmother Silvia Meyering, the guests and the good crew.

arriving at noon-time the visitors could watch a spectacular load-ing of heavylift cargo (liebherr cranes) before starting the chris-tening celebration.

after a warm welcome to the crew and the guests, silvia wished the crew and her godchild “always a safe voyage and enough water beneath the keel” and smashed at once the bottle of Cham-paign at the vessel’s bow.

on the bridge wilke briese took the chance to resume the cel-ebration and to thank Captain valery khalonen and his good crew for the great preparation of this pleasant solemnity.the christening was completed by an interesting and extensive tour on board by silvia’s father, Captain heinrich meyering and Chief engineer vladimir rybin.

the great day ended with a delicious meal at hotel “Hohe Du-ene” in rostock City. We would like to thank the Godmother, the crew and the participants who enriched this lovely day.

Crew and master of mv bbC kibo together with godmother silvia meyering.

godmother silvia meyering and Captain valery khalonen

Dear Captain khalonen,dear crew,dear guests,

With warm regards I welcome you to the christening of our vessel BBC kibo here in rostock.It is a great honour for me being chosen as a Godmother of our lady and on this special occasion I would like to thank our Briese management for the honour of allowing me to christen our beautiful BBC kibo.

Now I would like to take the opportunity to direct some words to my Godchild:

Dear Godchild,being your Godmother is even more than a great honour for me as my colleague Michael Mansholt and me are tak-ing care of crewing matters for your crew since launching and delivery from tianjin xingang shipyard.

you already completed successfully thousands of miles upon arrival in rostock for your christening.May your further voyages be successful as well and most important, may they be safe for you, for your crew and your cargoes.In cooperation with all parties in Briese Schiffahrt and BB Chartering and especially me as your Godmother, we will do our utmost to support you and your good crew.

My dear Godchild, I wish you and your crew always calm weather, a safe journey and one feet underneath your keel!

SHot By a mEmBEr oF tHE BriESE FlEEt

We would like to thank you for sending us such nice and impressive pictures. As follows we will present the most powerful photos:

for the next Briese News we kindly ask you to send pictures until May 2014.

the first price picture shows the rescue operation of refugees from syria on board of bbC ice-land in september 2013 near the italian cost. many thanks to Capt. david a. morgia and his crew for spending all their efforts to save the lives of so many people.

Congratulations to Chief mate alexander surkov who presented the second place picture:the “real” heavy lifters on board of mv bbC greenland!

the 3rd place goes to Captain alexey Zabegaylov who sent some ice pictures from bbC danube during calling antarctica.

maNY thaNks to all partiCipaNts aNd our best CoNgratulatioNs to all wiNNers!!!

like the colleagues from our briese office (photo on the left) we would like to see how you and your colleagues on board spend your time after work; which picture shows your most creative way of recreation.

A total prize money of 1000 uSD will be paid:1st place – 300 uSD2nd place – 250 uSD3rd place – 150 uSD4th to 6th place – 100 uSD

Please send some pictures until May 2014 to:Photo-contest@briese.de

aNd the wiNNer is...

Captain andrrey mizinov of mv bbC adriatic documented the uninvited guest – a bat during passing over the black sea.

during ism inspection and testing of fire line in the paint room our colleague thomas oberschelp was surprised by some unexpected dark liquids. therefore he deserves to be mentioned under the top 6!

konstyantyn Yaroshenko master of mv emma Janneke made above picture when travelling with some unusual pas-sengers.

rescue of “mermaid during” during last after office party.

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CrEwiNg mattErS SHipS iN opEratioN

bbC daNubeNautiCal semiNars

and earlier, when the vessel was not alongside yet, with a helicop-ter which belonged to the ice breaker “araon”.unfortunately, beginning of december an accident happened on “araon” when the helicopter tried to land on the deck of the ice breaker. during the approach one of the rotor blades collided with the vessel’s superstructure and a fire started. the helicopter pilot was heavily injured and an international rescue operation

was called to come for assis-tance. it was possible to deliver the injured helicopter pilot to an australian hospital. he still is alive and is now recovering from his wounds. presently “bbC danube” is un-

der loading operation. empty containers and other building ma-terial and equipment will be loaded whilst the vessel is at anchor of the meanwhile ice-free terra Nova bay. all together “bbC dan-ube” shall stay about 100 days at terra Nova bay. to realize this project a lot of efforts had been taken by all involved persons; on board and ashore! as there are still a few days left to complete the 100 days at the south pole for our mv “bbC danube” we keep the fingers crossed for the crew, the vessel and the whole pro-ject that all will be completed successfully and each of the crew members will return safely to their homes and families!

once the project is completed we hope to receive some good reports from the crew and maybe even some further photos from “down there” which we hope to publish within the next “briese News”.

trAItS of A lEADEr

speCial proJeCt iN aNtarCtiCa/ terra Nova baY

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In 2013 BBC Chartering has applied for a shipment from the South korean Government for one of our 18.000 DWAt ves-sels. After many negotiations finally BBC got the confirmation in summer 2013 to fulfill a voyage to terra Nova Bay to deliver cargo which is needed to build up a new government research station. once the approval was received our nice MV “BBC Danube” was nominated to perform this impressive and ad-venturous voyage.

this maps shows the very thick ice when mv bbC danube met ice breaker „araon“

the ice is now very thin again; nearly ice-free terra Nova bay

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before the voyage could start many things had to be arranged and to be taken into consideration. one of the items that had to be checked was the fuel specification that has to be used when sailing in antarctic waters and how we could ensure that enough bunkers will be on board. Not only the amount of bunkers was a critical point, but also the quantity of provision, fresh water and the supply of spare parts. additionally we had to negotiate an additional insurance coverage.

after many meetings between all involved parties the voyage itself started on 8th of october 2013 in pYeoNgtaek, korea where the first cargo was loaded. afterwards “bbC danube” proceeded to port kembla and horbart. the vessel finally left australia on 19th of November 2013 with the next stop terra Nova bay.

on 25th of November 2013 our nice lady met with the ice breaker “araon” which accompanied “bbC danube” until the ice berth in terra Nova bay was reached. on the way there we had to realize that it is not that easy as the vessel passed a distance of only 30sm per day through the thick ice. it even was the most thick ice since 30 years (2,30 m). due to the heavy weather, which means strong wind (167km/h) and low temperatures of up to -20°C it was very dangerous for the vessel’s hull. a lot pressure was carried out on the vessel and 37 times mv “bbC danube” stucked in the ice when underway to terra Nova bay. but luckily it was northwest wind so the situation turned out well.on 6th of december 2013 finally the vessel sent the report that the vessel safely arrived alongside ice berth.within about 16 days the cargo was discharged with ship’s cranes

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our oBjECtIVE Charterer´s Happinessbriese NEWS 05-2014

participants to the Nautical seminar, september 2013, odessa participants to the Nautical seminar, November 2013, leer

We are very happy to communicate with our crew and a seminar is always the best opportunity to do so.

a seminar will allow the chance to bring together senior offic-ers with different ranks and experience in our Company to get the full potential of sharing knowledge and interac-tion. therefore this year we have chosen to conduct a seminar in odessa in september and an-other one in leer in November and it was re-ally great that we were able to introduce our crew to the local man-ning office from odessa and also to our headquarters in leer.

why are the latest seminars different in terms of format? well, be-sides the necessary professional knowledge and qualification of our master, it is essential that we put more focus on the human element as this is the key to long term success.

the soft skills presentation offered a new perspective of how we can use our natural strengths and how we can educate ourselves in being very good leaders. why is it important to be also a leader and not only a master? how can we moti-vate our crew? how can we solve conflicts? why is it impor-tant to communicate clear goals? why do we need to build a relationship and what are the benefits out of it? how can we develop the others and why is it important to do so? why do we need to lead by example?

these are all questions that we discussed during our semi-nars and we are very happy to see that this

new approach had a very positive feedback from our crew. it was

very clear for us that the crew needed these tools

for their personal de-velopment and it was

the right time to in-clude same in our seminars.

it was also very interesting for our crew to e x p e r i e n c e a proactive and interac-

tive approach of the presenta-

tions where all the speakers put a lot

of efforts and time to prepare workshops and

various exercises where the seafarers could get useful infor-

mation and at the same time could in-teract with each other, share their knowledge,

learn from each other and deliver better results.

SHipS iN opEratioN

a master’s Job: masteriNg the Job It was in 2007 when Pavel Gonchar hired at leda Shipping, BBC Chartering’s crewing partner. In his six years of service, he has mainly worked on coastal tramp shipping services. recently, as a master of the MV SkAftAfEll he got involved in the world of pro-ject shipping, supporting the Congo river Crossing Project. Chris-toph krüder of BBC’s project division took the opportunity to talk to Pavel regarding his experiences on this assignment.

pavel, thanks for making the time. what were your immediate

thoughts when you heard your vessel would join a longterm “off-

shore” job for Saipem in west africa?

You are welcome Christoph. I got quite curios and thought that it

might be an interesting and challenging time for the crew and me.

I also thought it is a good opportunity to learn more about double

banking operations and offshore cargo operations also regarding the

handling and transfer of concrete coated pipes to PSVs.

How did you manage the strong HSEQ requirements and special inspections ordered by our client(s)? I felt well informed in advance about these requirements. It was enough time to organize trainings with the crew, to arrange an additional sup-ply of required personal protective equipment (PPE) as well as to make some arrangements like painting safety lines on the edges of the hatch covers and mooring stations etc.

Since this was the first time you executed such a project with BBC’s Project Division, can you tell how the communication worked out? The communication from BBC’s side was well organized, but there have been challenges regarding the client communication. E.g. we needed to deal with a lack of information regarding some cargo units changing destination just after completion of loading and with regards to a very long stay at Luanda.

Which was the most challenging situation during the project, and how did you manage it?Although we have filled up our provision and freshwater stock complete-ly upon our departure in Las Palmas, we ran short on provisions due to the long stay at Luanda anchorage. We needed to arrange provision and freshwater supply at Luanda roads. This proved to be a challenge as we had to deal with very long response times of local agents and suppliers. Eventually, we got great support from BBC and the client to arrange supplies at Luanda roads.

What is the best experience and memory you had during the pro-ject?On a very positive note, I was surprised how fast the response was from the local agency on my request of medical assistance for one of my crew members. He was delivered to the hospital in only 30 minutes after my first call.

Technically speaking I liked how we managed the double banking opera-tion and the transfer of pipes to the PSVs that served as feeding units.

How was the collaboration with the PSVs and their crews, as the “offshore-world” they work in is understood as a rather different work culture compared to the regular tramp shipping world?Working with PSVs, the discharging was a little bit slow in the beginning because of positioning of the first bay of pipes. After that we continued operations with a good discharging rate and I was very satisfied how the PSV’s crew was stowing pipes on deck of the PSV. For sure they did this job not the first time and have a good experience with this kind of operations. My crew did a very good, professional job as well, e.g. by crane driving and connecting pipes to slings.

How do you think West Africa is “different” compared to the other areas you’ve been, and how do you feel about Angola as a destina-tion in general? West Africa has always been “different”. It is a challenging destination because of comparably little degrees of organization and low business ethics and morale in the ports. However, there are differences; I have seen worse destinations in West Africa than Angola. Still in any case, it is our challenge to make the best out of each situation and make things work over and over again.

And after all, would you join us again for a “BBC project division job”? (Laughs) Yes, this will of course be very interesting and I would say it’s also a good opportunity for any crew member to gain ‘offshore experi-ence’; I think that’s also a plus in any seafarers CV.

Pavel, thanks for sharing your experiences with us. We hope to see you and your colleagues back soon.

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briese NEWS 05-2014 our oBjECtIVE Charterer´s Happiness

BriESE rESEarCH BriESE oFFiCE

opeN ship oN board of rv ‘maria s. meriaN’

In December 2013 our branch office Briese Swallow St. Petersburg moved into a new compact crewing office in St. Petersburg which is only 900m far away from the old one.

the new address is as follows:

briese swallow st. petersburg191180 bolshoy per., 8 office 5hst. petersburg, russia

at the present time rv ‘maria s. merian’ is considered to be the most modern german research vessel. since 2006 it is on its way through the many different operational areas worldwide.

in september the vessel came for a visit to germany and opened its doors on 21st and 22nd of september 2013 for the public.

about 3000 visitors took the chance to take a look on the ves-sel that weekend in bremen. an extensive program was await-ing the attendees. a tour on the ship gave an insight into the life and work on board of a research vessel. in the laboratories and on deck the scientists showed their work and gave short presentations about the current themes in marine research.

research instruments were presented and beyond that could be operated by the visitors in a simulation container. the pro-gram was topped off with films, a child program, and an art exhibition. research institutes as well as the shipping company briese (research vessel department) presented themselves in marquee tents in front of the ship.

many thanks to the crew for the very good preparation of the event and the perfect support during the open ship weekend.

briese swallow st. petersburg: offiCe moviNg

trainee florian küper and mrs. sabine kruse from briese research department. entrance

operating & planning office

meeting room

our bsp team is reachable under following telephone numbers; email addresses remain unchanged:

+7 (812) 458 03 03 +7 (812) 458 03 30

furthermore all seafarers can call below free number(calls from russia):

+8 (800) 333 62 42

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our oBjECtIVE Charterer´s Happinessbriese NEWS 05-2014

Hafenstr. 12

d-26789 leer

E-mail: info@briese.de

internet: www.briese.de

Briese schiffahrts GmbH & co. KG

we are thankful for any kind of thoughts, comments, questions, ideas etc. please send us a

fax: (*49) 491-9 25 20-28 or an

E-Mail: BrieseNews@briese.de

Attention: Mrs. jessica Boden

briese News is an internal Newsletter which should provide our fleet with needful information from and about us as well as

information we received from other companies, authorities, societies, organization and whatsoever should be brought to everybodys knowledge!

all details are given in good faith and without guarantee.