FPSO delivery photos from the gCaptain archives… enjoy!
Ever wonder how a huge FPSO is delivered to it’s destination? Shipspotting forum points us to Seven Marine’s photos of a recent heavy lift operation:
The FPSO Sevan Voyageur left Yantai Raffles Shipyard in China this morning. The FPSO is placed onboard a dry tow vessel and is on its way to the Keppel Verolme shipyard for topside hook-up and commissioning. FPSO Sevan Voyageur will be installed on the Shelley field in the central UK North Sea in 2008, under a five year contract with Oilexco North Sea Ltd.
Full sized photos HERE.
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Tags: · fpso, fso, Heavy Lift, Interesting, Photo, photos, rig, Sevan-Voyageur, Seven-Marine, ship, shipspotting, submersible
Chief Mate Andre van Schoonhoven of the new cruise ship Eurodam gives us the history of classifying anchors. He writes;
Traditionally ships were anchored using large hemp hawsers called cables. In 1836 the use of iron chains had become so common in the English merchant service and their superiority so well recognized, that the underwriters ceased to charge a higher insurance rate for vessels using iron chain. In 1840 side welding of chain was introduced in England, and from that time English chains of 1-7/8 inches and larger have been side welded.
Lloyd’s Register of Shipping augmented its rules in 1846 so that thereafter all chains of classed vessels were tested and stamped on each end to indicate load capacity. In 1853 Lloyd’s rules made it mandatory that, before a vessel could be classed, the test of the chain cable had to be certified, and in 1858 Lloyd’s issued rules regarding the length and size of chain cable. Lloyd’s progressively stiffened their rules regarding methods of manufacture and testing, resulting in the Anchors and Chain Cables Act of 1899, which with only a few amendments is still the basis of present-day testing procedures.
He also provides a timeline of anchor chain developments. Here’s an excerpt; [Continue Reading →]
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Tags: · anchor_chain, chief_mate, Cruise Ship, hemp, iron_chain, iron_chains, lloyds list, maritime history, merchant_service, newbuild, new_cruise_ship, ship, ship_anchors, test_load, wrought_iron
gCaptain searches the web each week to bring you the world’s most interesting and inspiring ships, but you don’t need to be a naval architect to design an imaginative vessel. The are the world’s best examples of buildings inspired by ocean going ships.
National Theater – Hungary
Japanese Maritime Museum
[Continue Reading →]
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Tags: · architecture, design, Maritime, ocean, ship
Have an Iridium, VHF or SSB
handheld radio aboard? What about a portable GPS? Create an Abandon ship electronics grab bag that is waterproof, floats and will survive a fire.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Buy a Pelican Case
- Stencil it with the ship’s Name
- Apply Solas Reflect Tape
- Laminate copies of the electronics’ manual
- Print and Laminate a list of emergency contact numbers
That’s pretty much it.
(This tip was suggested by Jean Pierre de Lutz. in his post “Sailing in Severe Weather Lessons Learned“.)
Video: [Continue Reading →]
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Tags: · abandon-ship, boat, boating, cfm, diy, Gear, kit, Maritime, safety, safety-at-sea, ship, solas, survival
Hot on the heels of our featured stories “5 Most Ambitious Bridge Designs of Today” and “Windoc Incident – Story Behind YouTube’s Most Chilling Video” our digg friend msaleem points us to this post titled. “Most Horrific Bridge Collapses of Past 100 Years”
The article contains many pictures and can be found HERE.
This article, is just one of thousands of interesting posts found in our maritime archives. Click HERE to browse the archive of articles gCaptain has published in the last three years.
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Tags: · Bridges, collapse, collision, fatalities, History, Marine Incidents, ship
This week’s vessel is the BEM Monge, a Measure and Test Ship of the French Navy. The ship is equipped with extensive tracking technologies as well as trajectory processing and radio-electrical analysis, and specializes in taking measurements, processing data, and conducting naval and air surveillance.
In addition to its military functions, the BEM Monge participates in civilian missions for surveillance, space observation, and trajectography. The French space agency CNES has also used the BEM Monge to gather and process the launching parameters for the Ariane 5 space rocket.
[Continue Reading →]
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Tags: · french_navy, Interesting, interesting_ship, ship
What happens when you let a comedian and elementary students paint a ship? No, the answer isn’t the Norwiegan Gem, it’s the Dream Tanker. Pink Tentacle tells us;
The Dream Tanker, one of the largest liquified natural gas (LNG) tankers in the world, now travels in style. Comedian-turned-painter Jimmy Onishi and 40 elementary school students have designed monster-sized psychedelic murals for the ship’s spherical tanks. The total area covered by the murals is large enough to cover 100 buses. The 120,000-ton Dream Tanker, owned by an affiliate of Osaka Gas, measures 289.5 meters (950 feet) long and 49 meters (160 feet) wide. With 4 independent spherical tanks measuring 43 meters (140 feet) in diameter, the tanker can hold up to 67,000 tons of LNG. Osaka Gas decided to decorate the tanker with graphics in celebration of the company’s 100th anniversary. The company asked Kansai-area elementary school students to draw pictures, which Jimmy Onishi then incorporated into his giant images of a fish, crab, shrimp and turtle. Sumitomo 3M Ltd. then used computers to process the images and printed them onto a special adhesive film, which was attached to the tanks. Read More…
Photos from her commissioning in 2006 can be found HERE.
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Tags: · artist, design, LNG, lng carrier, lng tanker, Maritime, ship, students, Tankers
National Geographic also brings us this week’s Interesting Ship of The Week. They tell us:
>> NAME: The Palmer is named for a U.S. seal hunter who sailed along the west coast of Antarctica in 1820 looking for seal rookeries. Many believe he was the first to discover the continent.
>> SIZE: Built in 1992, the Palmer is a 7,600-ton icebreaker capable of breaking 3 feet (1 meter) of ice at 3 knots. It is 308 feet (94 meters) long and has 12,720 horsepower.
>> CREW: The Palmer works year-round in the Antarctic. It has 22 crew members.
>> CABINS: Each cabin is outfitted with two bunks, a head (bathroom), a TV and VCR, a telephone, and a LAN jack for computers.
>> AMENITIES: A 24-hour mess hall provides meals to the around-the-clock researchers and crew. Several lounges have TVs, movies, and books, and there is a workout room.
>> COMMUNICATION: The scientists on board can send or receive e-mail twice a day. There are also telephones on board the ship.
Image source: davidcmartin.com
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Tags: · arctic, Icebreaker, interesting_ship, national_geographic, ship
(Image Source: blogimg.goo.ne.jp)
This week’s Interesting Ship of The Week was actually recently named Ship of The Year for 2007 by The Japan Society of Naval Architects and Ocean Engineers. Her name is Brasil Maru, a 320,000 DWT iron ore carrier operated by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL). The selection committee noted that the Brasil Maru is a pioneering vessel in reducing iron ore transport cost which will have a great effect on steel production. A June 18, 2008 press release from MOL reads:
Brasil Maru Vessel Characteristics
First of all, the Brasil Maru reflects the needs of the times, offering high efficiency thanks to its large size. With deadweight tonnage of 320,000 tons which is one of the world’s largest, it is the optimal size to transport iron ore produced in Brazil. MOL, with its customer (Nippon Steel Corporation), shipyard (Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., Ltd.), and shipowner (Tamou Line S.A.) spent a year and a half studying and designing the vessel. It was built in Japan, where such large-scale iron ore carriers had never been constructed, and is ideally suited to meet increasing demand for transport of iron ore from Brazil to Japan via shuttle service.
Starting with the Brasil Maru, more than 50 iron ore carriers in the 300,000 dwt class have been ordered around the world. The Brasil Maru is truly the forerunner of future iron ore transport.
The vessel’s design relied on the most advanced computer simulation to optimize environmental protection and safe operation. It offers high-performance course stability that takes water flow into account, and excellent maneuverability. In addition, UIT, a revolutionary method of treating steel surfaces, was used to more than double resistance to metal fatigue in the welded parts. [Continue Reading →]
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Tags: · bulker, Interesting, interesting_ship, Photo, ship
The Sea Barge (SEABEE) can carry the aircraft of Army units without extensive sectionalization. The 200- by 100-foot (61- by 30.5-m) deck area between the deckhouse and smokestacks provides a suitable landing area for fly-on/fly-off operations. The SEABEE barges are stored horizontally on 3 decks, 12 each on the main and lower decks and 14 on the upper deck. One hundred and sixty containers can be carried on 10 of the 14 barges on the upper deck. Barges are loaded aboard the SEABEE ship by a 2,000-ton-capacity submersible stern elevator. Under ideal conditions the SEABEE ship can load or discharge its load in 13 hours.
The dimensions and pertinent characteristics of the SEABEE ship areas follows: Length 874 ft (267 m) Width 106 ft (32 m) Deadweight (max) 38,410 LTON (34 000 MTON) Speed 21.7 knots Dry cargo 44,350 MTON Barge capacity 38 barges.
The watertight, double-hulled SEABEE barge is the same width and one-half the length of the standard US commercial river barge. It is slightly larger, but has approximately twice the cargo-carrying capacity of the LASH lighter. The barges are readily accessible during the voyage by catwalk in the ship and by manhole hatches in the barges. Each barge is fitted for smoke monitoring and has water fire-extinguishing systems. Forced draft ventilation while underway is also provided. The SEABEE barge, with the seven hatch covers installed, has a draft of just less than 2 feet (.6 m). The shallow draft allows the barge to be drawn very close to an unprepared river bank. No deck winches are installed on the SEABEE barge. However, sufficient cleats are available for securing the barge. The mooring lines must be kept taut at all times to prevent drift caused by tidal action or strong river currents. As the barge is loaded, the shoreside edge of the hull will settle firmly its full length on the river bank. The settling will add stability to the barge and aid in loading. Should high and low tidal conditions be expected along coastlines it will be necessary to prevent the barge from settling on shore. The loaded lighter can be moved off the river bank easily by crane or by a small harbor tug. (source: GlobalSecurity.org)
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Tags: · Heavy Lift, Interesting, interesting_ship, navy-ships, ship
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