Heavy lift vessels can be divided into two types, ie semi-submersible and conventional heavy lift vessels. The semi-submersible ships can lower their main cargo deck below the water line and large floating objects such as oil drilling rigs or damaged ships can be floated on or off the vessel. The conventional carriers are loaded and…
The reefer or refrigerated cargo carrier is basically a general cargo vessel with well insulated holds. The cargoes carried are those requiring refrigeration, ie fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, etc. The cargo is usually packaged in boxes and palletted. It has small hatches, its own cargo handling gear and is fast. This type of vessel is…
There are basically two types of liquefied gas carrier: One to carry natural gas such as butane (LNG – liquefied natural gas). LNG is carried by reducing the temperature to -160° C when it is carried in fast well insulated and expensive ships or by converting it (expensive process) into methyl alcohol and carrying it…
More than half the cargo carried by sea is oil carried in tankers. Since an oil cargo can be pumped on and off a tanker at a much higher rate than dry cargoes, tankers spend less time in port and in the space of one year can carry more cargo than a dry cargo ship…
A bulk carrier is a large single deck ship, which carriers unpackaged cargo. The cargo is simply poured, tipped or pumped into the holds or tanks of the ship. The dry bulk carrier has been one of the largest growing types of ship outside the tanker fleets. The main cargoes carried are iron ore, coal,…
Ro-Ro ships include car ferries, specialist vehicle carriers and general cargo vessels having Ro-Ro capabilities. They are expensive to build (a 15 000 dwt size costs twice the price of a conventional ship of the same size) and there is a considerable amount of wasted space, but their productivity is very high and they are…
The concept behind containerisation is the packing of cargo into uniformly sized boxes (containers) and then designing all carrying vehicles (road, rail and ship)for the swift and efficient transport of these “boxes”, ideally from “door to door”. In order to make this feasible, it was necessary that an internationally accepted standard be adopted with respect…
General cargo ships have not changed very much in the past 50 to 60 years. They remain multi-deck vessels of between 6 and 15 000 tons and are capable of loading dry cargo in either packaged or bulk form. Except that the superstructure has been moved aft, there is little difference fundamentally or functionally between…
Before World War 2, the main means of international passenger travel was by sea. It was also the main means of getting post (letters, documents, parcels, etc) from one continent to another. Hence the name “mail ship”. After the war, with the rapid development of aircraft, sea travel was replaced by air travel. The main…
Introduction. There are many different types and class of vessels that make use of South African ports, ie naval vessels, fishing craft, trawlers, dredgers, cable layers/repair vessels, ocean research vessels, tugs, etc. In this section however, we will be looking at the commercial types only – namely: Passenger ships. General cargo ships (break bulk). Container…