You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘technology’ category.
Most of you know that dawn is my favorite time. Yesterday dawn–between 0545 and 0645–was quite busy; two of the five vessels that transited the KVK were among the largest–so far–that call in the sixth boro.
Pink sky with gradations, faded purple Brooklyn, huge but silent shapes, and spots of artificial lights.
Birds silhouetted and reflections in the still water make the scene as one point over by central western Brooklyn turns a deeper shade of red.
When the ship blocks the blinding rising sun, its name becomes legible.
Once CS Rose passes my vantage point, all that light illuminates the details. Three tugboats along her starboard, one on stern, and one on the far side, the port side.
Not much later–another smaller container ship has passed–the next hulking shape appears, and the light has already turned gradations of yellow.
When CMA CGM Mexico blocks the rising sun, details become available . . .
By now, 0645, the light suggests the sun has created daylight.
Tugboats on Rose include James D, Mary Turecamo, Kimberly Turecamo, and Kirby. Tugboats on Mexico include Marie J Turecamo, JRT, Kimberly Turecamo, and Miriam.
All photos, WVD.
…you know. . . superlative like newest, biggest, fastest, most powerful, most teu. . . it’s a series I should have started long ago, but tugster is a public work-in-progress. And I’m skeptical of superlatives… since they change regularly.
A quick post today, but this is a story I need to find more out about. See those orange slings hanging from a buff framework? I’d noticed it several times recently but never paid attention until yesterday. It’s not an art installation.
Notice the fine print in blue: Bayonne Drydock and Repair Corp and Cimolai MBH 1280? Well, I read that is the current largest mobile boat hoist (aka travel lift) in the world, capable of lifting up to 1280 tons! That is a big a$$ boat lift! And Cimolai is building a larger one–a 1500-ton lift– in Florida.
Here’s more on Cimolai, with some NYC projects already completed. And one more site about Armando and Albina Cimolai . . . here.
Photos, WVD.
If you’ve never seen one of these lift or splash a boat, here’s a video.
Here were the first two installments of this series. And what prompts this post is the news yesterday about a $200 million structure in the assembly stages just four years ago. Click on the image below to see the post I did just four years ago.
It will be scrapped as announced yesterday here. The physical disassembled parts will be sold as will portions of it non-fungible tokens (NFTs), whatever they are; I can’t quite understand them even after reading this. Doesn’t that sound like eating your cake and still having it?
You can’t save everything . . . as the next two photos from Tony A show . . . relative to the 1907 Pegasus. For comparison, check out Paul Strubeck’s thorough cataloging of the many lives of Pegasus through the many years.
Here’s the engine that powered Pegasus for many years, originally from Landing Ship Tank, LST 121 , which itself lived only three years before being scrapped and the engine transplanted into Pegasus.
The next two photos come thanks to Steve Munoz. The 1945 USS Sanctuary (AH-17) looked shabby here in Baltimore harbor in 1997; it last until 2011, when it was scrapped in Brownsville, TX, then ESCO and now SteelCoast.
Another photo from Steve shows SS Stonewall Jackson, a Waterman LASH vessel in the Upper Bay; note the Staten Island ferries off the stern. Scroll through and see Jackson on the beach in Alang in 2002. Tug Rachel will arrive in Brownsville with Lihue, a very smiliar LASH vessel within a week; she’s currently approashing the strait between Mexico and western Cuba.
Here’s a photo I took of the beautiful NS Savannah; a recent MARAD public comment period on what should be done with her ended less than a month ago; I’m not sure when the results will be publicly commented on.
Sometimes preserved vessels change hands, as is the case with the 1936 Eagle, another photo from Steve Munoz taken in 1992.
More on this tomorrow. Many thanks to Tony and Steve for use of these photos.
Ship preservation is tough and costly. Turning an almost-new metal structure into NFTs . . . just mind boggling.
The erudite readers of tugster know Evergreen doesn’t have a single vessel, the one that caused some anxiety in Suez recently. In fact, the fleet comprises about 200 ships, of different sizes or classes. The L and F classes currently call in the sixth boro. The teu capacity for the F class is just over 12000. In other words, the vessel that departed the sixth boro this morning holds 8000 fewer containers than Ever Given, coming in over 20000 teu. Another way of visualizing it is this: add all the containers of this F class boat AND all from an L class vessel . . . and you’ll have one Ever G class. And consider this, an Evergreen A class is on the drawing board . . . coming in between 22k and 23k containers!
Enough alphabetizing . . . Ever Faith is currently on its way to Baltimore.
All photos, WVD, who had a hard time coming indoors today to download these photos and post.
The Soo is open, the SL Seaway is open, and now after 6 days, 3 hours, and 38 minutes of blockage . . . the Suez is open.
I’d started this post before Ever Given was freed and intend it as a survey of some of the tugs involved, here from largest to smaller. Obviously dimensions do not tell the whole story; in fact, dimensions tell only the story of length and width, but most of these are not harbor tugs. The largest is Alp Guard, 243′ x 69′ and generating just over 24000 hp.
Next are two quite similar Suez Canal Authority tugs, Ezzat Adel (226′ x 52′)
and Baraka 1, same dimensions, built in 1993 one year before Ezzat Adel.
Carlo Magno comes in at 180′ x 49′, still larger than anything in the sixth boro.
Now we’re at the scale of sixth boro tugs, although several in the boro are larger. Basel 2 measures in at 119′ x 38′.
Salam 8 and 9 were there, coming in at 115′ x 36′
Svitzer Port Said 1 and 2 measure 104′ x 43′ and generate 6772, very similar to the largest sixth boro assist tugs. For example Capt. Brian and Ava M. generate 6770 hp.
Mosaed 3 comes in at 98′ x 36′.
Of course, tugs weren’t the only factor. Someone like Resolve or Smit Salvage taking charge is needed to orchestrate the efforts, which include dredging as well. If you’ve not seen this interview with salvage master Nick Sloane, it’s an enlightening listen.
Credit for photos is embedded in the photos; click on each to see it.
Any errors, WVD.
Was this an event just waiting to happen? See here.
See the draft numbers? Here‘s a good definition of and discussion of their usages. I pay attention to these just because I’m a curious layperson. These appear in multiple locations around the hull because draft varies longitudinally. The markings here I’ve read near the stern, as below, or the bow.
This bulk carrier had discharged most of its load and not yet ballasted itself for sailing. The froth forward of the draft numbers comes from the cooling system. The two staples (or are they padeyes?) would be useful in the case of propeller work or other underwater repairs near the stern of the vessel. All those other numbers indicate info about the interior structure of the vessel, and are above my current paygrade.
The draft markings I read as 9.2. Some of you might read this with more nuance. These marks differ from payload to payload and are also used to measure air draft.
I’d read this as 10.8.
I read this as 11.
This starboard bow marking I’d call at 11.3. With this vessel underway, notice the physics causing the water to flow over the bulb and up the knife edge.
This . . .12.6.
Lots of info here, but the draft makings here say 13.4. The 90t on the recessed shell bitt indicates how much towing pressure this is capable of. The G and L on the load line disk indicates the Germanischer Lloyd classification society; an A and B here would mean American Bureau of Shipping.
Draft here looks like 14.4. The disk with four spokes indicates the location of the thruster.
I digress, but Hyundai Speed has two bow thrusters. Note also the info on the size of the bulb.
Note that two sets of draft markings (and two staples) here.
I read this as 14.4.
So how about this one? Is it the deepest of all?
Actually, Double Skin 509A has the least draft. This is feet and would convert to about a 5.2 on the same scale as the others shown above. Well . . . we have resisted much use of metric measures.
All photos, WVD, who alone is responsible for any errors here. For much more on ship classification societies, click here.
The photo below shows Neptune, a survey vessel doing wind farm related work. It was first posted here in late July 2019.
As of Monday morning, this vessel has been anchored in Gravesend for over 24 hours. Previously she was Neptune with that wilder paint job. EGS loosely expands to “earth sciences & surveying” and a little bit of Latin will get you to ventus as wind, a fitting name for this heavily equipped and much renamed vessel that started out as an ice class fishing trawler way back in 1977. From what I can tell, she fished until 2008. Now she’s contributing to the most thorough surveying of the New York Bight and surrounding waters to the east that has ever been done. I’d love to see some of the bathymetric images she and other exotics have generated in the past few years.
Fleetmate RV Ridley Scott sailed into the sixth boro a bit less than a year ago.
All photos, WVD.
Installment 1 was here. Guess the loa, breadth, and teu?
So far, I’ve seen Ever Focus and Ever Forward . . . although it appears I’ve not posted my Ever Forward photos. I do that sometimes by chance.
So Ever Fortune . . . entered service in November 2020.
It’s one of the newest vessels on the seas, with many superlatives in features.
Patrice sidled alongside to land the docking pilot and
Capt. Brian and Ava M. joined in the effort.
All photos, WVD, who offers proof for earlier statements here. Scrubbers remove the nitrogen oxide and sulphur dioxide. . . acid rain.
Loa, breadth, and teu? 1096′ x 158′ and capacity of 12118 teu. Not the biggest, but much bigger than anything here a decade ago, and she moves at max 23 kts! (26.5 mph).
It’s time to remedy my long having short-shrifted bulk carriers. One came in Saturday morning called Angelina the Great N. I missed it because I estimated timing wrong. I hope someone got photos of the bulker with that incomparable name . . . Angelina the Great N. What’s “N,” I wonder…, but what a great Name!! Maybe you have a sense of what the “N” stands for?
But to bulkers . . . often they’re exporting scrap, and Denak Voyager is a common visitor to Claremont. Notice Rebecca Ann along the left margin of the frame?
Johanna C was in the same berth, Claremont, some time back. Also, notice that Johanna C has cranes, swung out of the way, which Denak Voyager does not.
Ditto Nordic Barents, and again notice Rebecca Ann. In this case, Nordic Barents is using its cranes and orange peel grab buckets to transfer scrap from scows alongside.
Fu Quan Shan has cranes stowed and clamshell buckets at the ready.
Spar Indus is using its crane to lighter salt, as
is Kodiak Island over by the salt pile. Because of the so-far mild winter, it’s been a while since a salt ship has discharged there.
Here’s a closer up view of Denak Voyager, seen above, its decks sans cranes, making it less versatile.
Nord Pacific is discharging salt via its cranes.
And finally, Alerce N appears to have log racks as well as cranes and buckets.
I’m starting to wonder if this is a bulkers post or a cranes post. Check out the cranes on
Curacao Pearl, a 1984 vessel previously known as Crane Arrow. I’m not sure the name of this type of crane, but I’ve seen them before on her sister vessel, Atlantic Pearl here.
All photos, WVD, who knows that even more types of cranes exist, like these automated ones on Evans Spirit. I’m not sure how they work.
What’s this?
I’m just trying to figure this out. My best guess is that suspended from a 20-ton capacity A-frame is a set of underwater hands, a sampling device, a seafloor-drill, all tallied 14 tons of instruments and tools in a seafloor frame.
I can’t tell you the division of labor between the equipment lowered/raised through an approximately 10′ x 10′ moon pool by the 90′ derrick and the seafloor drill. My guess is the the seafloor drill can function at great depth. Note the Panamanian registry.
All those portlights . . . relate to the 50+ crew the vessel can accommodate.
The helideck . . . 62′ diameter, can accommodate helicopters of the Bell 412 type, i.e., up to about 3.5 tons.
If you didn’t click on the equipment and specifications link earlier, my source for all I pretend to know here, you can click here now. Since she was anchored in Gravesend Bay yesterday, the tide pushing her stern toward shore, I managed to get my first photos of her stern. I have seen the vessel, working to amass wind farm bottom terrain data, several times since January 2018. With the green light to transform South Brooklyn Marine Terminal into a dedicated wind farm construction hub, I suspect some interesting and exotic vessels will be transiting the Narrows in the next few years.
All photos and attempted interpretation, WVD.
Maybe a reader out there can explain how this equipment really works and what super-detailed examples of bathymetric chart of the New York Bight look like.
Recent Comments