The image below makes “hermetically sealed” come to my mind. A hospitable captain says, “it makes a barge look sweet.” But it is functional. Fully loaded, Heroic Ace can carry over 4000 automobiles. And offload in less than 12 hours. I’m interested if anyone can confirm this and describe what it’s like to drive cars off such a vessel. Longshoreman or friends of? I saw this around 10am and around 8 pm a very similar vessel was outbound through the Narrows.
Sister ships–all with the “last name” Ace–have such first names as Utopia, Splendid, Progress, Prominent, Paradise, Euphony, and Freedom. All those listed are less than five years old. Can anyone speak to the evolution of the design of these vessels sometimes called “pure” (as in “dedicated”) car/truck carriers?
No pun intended with the word “listed,” but a similarly sized (18000+ dwt) slightly older cousin named Cougar Ace (built 1993 according to World Shipping Register) capsized off Alaska last summer. Read the story here. Very interesting photos at BYM Gallery and Duivendijk.net.
When I learned of the Cougar Ace mishap last summer, I assumed the hold was a mess afterward; what surprised me in my research is that this was not the case. Only 41 cars of the 4700 onboard broke loose. Follow the efforts that led to re-righting the ship here.
Unrelated, check these posts from gowanus lounge: besides this on the sugar factory, scroll down on the right side for “another perspective…” and “underneath a 613-ton…” Fablog!! But Red Hook is changing fast.
tugster: a waterblog 
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February 16, 2007 at 4:43 am
A seafarer who worked on the Heroic Ace
Yes – at most car carrier berths, stevedores discharge cars at the rate of 150 cars per hour (depending of course, on number of gangs, number of longshoremen, the location of car decks, etc) – this would theoretically allow 400 cars to be offloaded in just around 12 hours.
The fastest drivers I have seen are in South Korea and Japan – true professionals, they whiz around at high speeds (the safe limit inside the ship is 20 kmph). A car carrier is like a giant car park with slopeways inside connecting decks.
All Mitsui (MOL Japan) car carriers end with “Ace” – there are currently 92 of them. There are 11 other sister ships of Heroic Ace (built between 2005-2008). But most car carriers look very similar to each other. NYK has teh largest car carrier fleet (110 vessels), MOL and K-Line are neck to neck with 92 car carriers. Hoegh autoliners, Wallenius Wilhelmsen, UECC, Eukor etc have fewer car carrier vessels.