Simon and Garfunkel … original release date 1966 . . . now paraphrased, “Slow down, we move too fast. We got to cut the greenhouse gas. Just kicking down the rpms. We’re steamin’ slow and feelin’ green, we.”
OK, here’s a visual/auditory aid, and alas . . . I have no future as a lyricist, but can I convince you to scan this Elisabeth Rosenthal article from the 2/16 NY Times about Ebba Maersk, taking a week longer now than it did two years ago on the run to Guangdong from Bremerhaven, a week more at sea deliberately . . . as a means to increase efficiency and thereby reduce carbon emissions.
Some statistics: “halving the top cruising speed reduces fuel consumption and carbon emissions by 30%.”
Interesting, but it makes me wonder whether crew compensation would decrease on a per-day basis? The article says Maersk saved more than enough on fuel to pay the crew.
“Driving on the highway at 55 instead of 65 miles per hour cuts carbon dioxide emissions of American cars by about 20 percent.”
But it might get you rear-ended quickly as well. And I’ll be honest, I speed whenever I forget that the journey trumps the arrival.
“Transport emissions have soared in the past three decades as global trade has grown by leaps and bounds, especially long-haul shipments of goods from Asia. The container ship trade grew eightfold between 1985 and 2007.”
“Today more than 220 vessels [worldwide] are practicing ‘slow steaming’ — cruising at 20 knots on open water instead of the standard 24 or 25 — or, like Maersk’s vessels, ‘super slow steaming’ (12 knots)”
I’m no expert on this complex topic, but
“slow steaming” seems to make sense.
Ships shown from the top:
Turkon Line Kasif Kalkavan (I had fotos with surprises of another Turkon boat here –second half of post)
MSC Carla, NOT the one built in 1972.
NYK Daedalus
By the way, NYK Daedalus left New York on 9 February for Taiwan. Will leave Taiwan on 16 March for arrival back in New York on 9 April. I don’t think that’s slow-steaming.
For thoughts on sailing (v. petro-powering) from very different blogs (though locked in delightful squabble) see ODocker and Tillerman.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
“feelin’ green, we.” I hope you like my nod to cajun english dialect, there, you.
Related: from today’s NYTimes, “Clearing the Air at American Ports.”
tugster: a waterblog 
4 comments
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February 26, 2010 at 10:21 am
Michael
“the run to Guangdong from Bremerhaven…”
Of course. The ol’ B to G.
The world is infinitely stocked with adventures. I must remember to marvel at them as often as possible.
February 26, 2010 at 10:38 am
Rick Spilman
Hey Will. Like so much in life, slow steaming makes sense, except when it doesn’t.
The liner business is defined by ships running on a schedule. If the customer is happy with a minor delay in transport time, then the savings in fuel costs minus the modest increase in crew costs and reduction of ship utilization can make a lot of sense. This is especially true when a ship is running near its top speed where the resistance curve starts getting very steep. Dropping from 25 to 20 knots (or 22 to 18) can save a lot of fuel for a manageable increase in transit time.
On the other hand Maersk’s running their ships at half speed, 12 knots, is not so obviously a good idea. (It must make sense for Maersk. They are generally pretty smart ship operators.) Nevertheless, as a customer I would not necessarily be happy to have my container take twice as long to cross an ocean, particularly if it was loaded with higher value cargo. Also Maersk has had to add ships to its longer runs in order to maintain sailing schedules. This does nothing to decrease the transit time of any one container but does add to the fuel and crew cost of the entire system.
Maersk has an advantage now in that they have taken delivery of some very large ships, upwards of 15,000 TEU, which are themselves inherently more fuel efficient per container than smaller ships. Their real secret in saving costs may be in running the large ships slowly rather than just by slow-steaming.
A very interesting but complicated topic. No easy answers unfortunately.
February 26, 2010 at 3:36 pm
O Docker
Thanks for the shoutout.
Odd that our two posts should have such similar themes on the same day. I’m curious if ships are taking other measures today to increase efficiency, or if new technology is being developed.
When shipping transitioned from sails to engines, for a while some ships carried both. I wonder if we won’t see ‘hybrid’ ships again some day.
Or will carriers follow delivery services like FedEx and UPS, and offer customers a sliding scale of rates based upon speed of service?
February 27, 2010 at 2:33 am
Jed
Here’s some ‘hybrid’ technology:
http://www.skysails.info/