On February 12, 2013, the world's largest heavy-duty vessel, the Dockwise Vanguard, embarked on her maiden voyage for the Gulf of Mexico, Texas, USA.
On board the vessel was the Jack / St. Malo, a 56,000 ton semi-submersible offshore oil platform for the Kiewit yard in Ingleside, which was built by Samsung Heavy Industries, Geoje, South Korea. However, the Dockwise Vanguard can carry cargo weighing up to 110,000 tons.
As a reminder, the Dockwise Vanguard IMO: 9618783, flag of the Netherlands entered service on February 1, 2013. Shipbuilder: Hyundai Heavy Industries, Ulsan, South Korea (building number 2511). The ship was laid down in December 2011. On October 7, 2012, it was launched, and on November 30, 2012, a baptismal ceremony took place. Owner and Operator: Dockwise Shipping, Breda, The Netherlands.
Main characteristics: Displacement 91,238 tons, deadweight 117,000 tons. Length 275 meters, width 79 meters, draft 9.5 meters. Maximum travel speed 14.4 knots, average 12.9 knots.
But for 2012, the largest operating ship, the dock, was the Blue Marlin.
Promotional video:
Blue Marlin is a ship with a huge deck area for transporting bulky cargo, including other ships. A special feature of this dock ship is the way of loading floating cargo.
If you need to load another ship onto the deck or a floating borough platform, then the Blue Marlin plunges into the input so that the deck on which the cargo will be located is below the waterline, then this ship-dock in a semi-submerged position is brought under the overall floating cargo and begins to surface. Ultimately, the floating cargo ends up on the deck of this floating dock and can be transported anywhere by water.
The dock ship is equipped with 60 cabins for the crew and persons accompanying the cargo, a gym, a sauna and a swimming pool.
It is not the only one of its kind, its predecessor, the Black Marlin, is built on a similar design.
Blue Marlin was built in 1999 and entered service on April 25, 2000, but in 2004 it underwent significant upgrades, in particular, new engines were added for maneuverability, the ability to dive to great depths increased and the deck area was significantly increased. The deck has been extended to accommodate large drilling platforms, with a 60,000 tonne Thunder Horse PDQ platform being the record in history.
Technical characteristics of the ship dock Blue Marlin:
(The ship received these characteristics after reconstruction in 2004).
- Gross lifting capacity 76,000 tons
- Deck area 11 227 m2 (63 mx 178.2 m)
- Ballast speed 13.3 knots
- Total length 224.8 meters
- The immersion depth of the deck is 13.3 meters
- Crew 24 people
- Diesel engine power: 17,000 hp
In November 2005, the Blue Marlin departed from the Port of Corpus Christi, Texas, to move the sea-based X-band radar to Adak, Alaska, through the southern tip of South America and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The vessel arrived at Pearl Harbor on January 9, 2006, having covered 15,000 miles. In January 2007, the Blue Marlin was hired to transport two jack-up rigs, the Rowan Gorilla VI and the GlobalSantaFe Galaxy II, from Halifax to the North Sea.
It is worth noting that the MV Blue Marlin has a twin vessel, the MV Black Marlin, and both of these vessels are owned by the Norwegian company Offshore Heavy Transport, which specializes in high-tonnage shipping. Naturally, both heavy-duty vessels, 217 meters long, 42 meters wide and capable of carrying heavy and oversized cargo weighing up to 56 thousand tons, were built by one manufacturer, the Chinese shipbuilding company China Shipbuilding Corporation.
A five-story "stack" of river vessels and pontoons was loaded onto a ship in the Shanghai port of Nantong, after which the MV Blue Marlin set sail and, 58 days later, on March 22, arrived in the Netherlands, at its destination port.
Of course, the "stack" of riverboats is the most unusual cargo that MV Blue Marlin has ever carried. But this cargo is not the heaviest cargo, here we show pictures showing how the MV Blue Marlin vessel is carrying an entire offshore drilling platform, a huge marine radar station and the USS Cole (DDG-67) missile ship, which was damaged as a result of a terrorist attack in one of the ports of Yemen.
The US Navy used the Blue Marlin to transport the destroyer USS Cole back to the United States after the ship was damaged by an al-Qaeda suicide bomber in Aden, a port. In the second half of 2003, the Blue Marlin underwent a refurbishment that increased her capacity and added two retractable thrusters to improve maneuverability.
In the summer of this year, to be precise, on July 25, Dockwise, the leader in the field of sea transportation and installations of heavy, oversized structures, announced its choice! From now on, Emerson Process Management will supply unique control systems for the Dockwise heavy-duty semi-submersible vessel. These systems are designed to provide complete stability and tightness of this "mega" -ship.
Why did Dockwise build this huge ship? It is intended for transportation of bulky cargo by sea. In addition, the Dockwise Vanguard - this is the name given to this heavy cargo - will now be used as a dry dock for the design and construction of even larger and heavier structures for work at sea.
The unique design of the vessel without a bow and a cargo capacity of 110,000 tons made it possible to make the construction of gigantic structures a reality, as well as their loading and the safest transportation to distant offshore wells. This aspect allows you to significantly reduce all types of costs in the field of oil production and oil refining. In addition, and importantly, the number of possible risks has decreased.
The ballast system, which helps the Dockwise Vanguard to submerge and ascend in full stability, will now be controlled by a system from Emerson. This control is based on a level measurement system. Such measurements provide high measurement accuracy for load calculation. The system provides an alarm for an increased liquid level and overflows.
Dockwise Vanguard uses Emerson's Smart Wireless technology to measure the level in the tank and to transmit the data to the wheelhouse.
Eugene van Dodeverd, director of Dockwise Fleet Management, noted that the vessel's unique cargo capacity and ability to use the vessel as a dry dock for repairs and new technologies for offshore facilities has been achieved thanks to the most reliable, unique technologies from Emerson. The company's cost-effective and precise systems have proven their worth in offshore conditions with many Dockwise vessels.
In turn, Steve Sonnenberg, President of Emerson Process Management, noted that he is pleased with the result of the joint work and is confident that vessels such as Dockwise Vanguard are the future of the industry.
Last year, 2012, the Dockwise Vanguard received an innovation award for the rapid growth of an industry called Spotlighton New Technology. This award was presented at the international Offshore Technology Conference.
Cruise ship "Costa Concordia" will be cut for scrap. This decision was made by the ship owner - Costa Cruises.
However, first, the liner, which was seriously damaged as a result of a wreck in January 2012 off the coast of the island of Giglia (Tuscany) and raised from the reefs in September this year, must be delivered to the dock. Costa Cruises announced a tender, which was won by Dutch firm Royal Boskalis on Thursday. The contract price is $ 30 million, according to Reuters.
The Dutch intend to use their unique ship Dockwise Vanguard. It is equipped with ballast tanks that allow the vessel to sink and surface like a submarine. The Dockwise Vanguard floats under a floating object intended for transport and then floats underneath. Dutch specialists have repeatedly performed similar operations with oil platforms. They recently transported a floating hotel in this way.
However, Royal Boskalis has never dealt with large properties like Costa Concordia. Let's remind that the liner weighs 114 thousand tons. It is twice as heavy as the famous Titanic. The operation to lift the vessel from the reefs has already cost more than $ 600 million. Now the liner is located on a horizontal platform, but it is not possible to tow it to the dock in the usual way.
The Dutch said the Dockwise Vanguard will do the job. The length of this vessel is 275 m. Some changes will be made to its design for the transportation of the Italian liner. The operation can be carried out in early 2014.