The Bees, these ocean-going tugs which intervene in particular in the event of damage to get merchant ships out of perilous situations, are a centerpiece of safety at sea. But faced with the increase in the size of merchant ships, in particular container ships which now transport up to 24,000 containers, the Bees reach the limit of their towing capacity.
After forty years of activity, the Flanders bees and Languedoc arrive at the “end of life”. These tugs will soon be replaced by two new models currently in preparation at the German shipyard in Kiel, Germany. It will simply be of the two most powerful tugs in the world. The question that arises is where they will be positioned.
Favor Cherbourg and Brest for the most powerful tugs in the world
The boats they will replace are now based in Toulon and Boulogne-sur-Mer, but for the Mor Glaz association, for the protection of the sea and sailors, it would be inconsistent to position the new vessels in these two ports. For its president Jean-Paul Hellequin, “the new tugs, more powerful, better armed and equipped than the others, have _intended to be deployed at sea from the ports of Brest and Cherbourg_, quite simply because maritime traffic in the Channel and the North Sea is constantly increasing, leading to increased risk of damage to giant ships “.
For the time being, there has been no communication on the allocation decisions of the next tugs. In Cherbourg, the maritime prefecture simply specifies that theBee Liberty currently in service is not the only tug available since the’Argonaut, an anti-pollution vessel is also based in Cherbourg, since January 2020.