Chris771
New member
I'll Throw in my two penneth, though I'm a week after everyone else (having just got back from offshore in Africa where I did not have Internet).
My last few trips in the MN, now over 20 years ago were in the Panamax sized (maximum size for the Panama Canal 986' long by 120' beam) OCL Bay Class Container ships of 68,000 tonnes (the big green ones for Solent boaters). As far as I recall they were fitted with a pair of 60,000shp triple stage steam turbines which originally gave a service speed of 28.5 kts at a consumption of 600 tonnes of bunker oil per day. The fastest I ever recall going was a flat out race from Bremerhaven to Maas Center Buoy for a Europoort Berth with an Atlantic Containers ship, we averaged just over 31 kts. With the first oil crisis we were slowed down to a service speed of firstly 26 kts @ 480 tonnes per day and then even more to 24.5 kts at 400 tpd. To keep the precious new toys from Japan from being damaged the ships were fitted with gyro controlled active fin stabilisers which were retracted into the hull for berthing. The ships never rolled more than +/- 2 degrees, though the motion was twitchy in a rough sea.
Ultimately,after I left, the 5 ships were taken back to Blohm & Voss in Hamburg where the accommodation was cut off and the boilers and turbines removed and replaced by a pair of the largest diesel engines that Sulzer had ever produced at that time.
Apparently, according to a friend, they went from being completely vibration free steam turbine vessels to just ordinary rattly diesels with a maximum service speed of just 24 kts, the point of the exercise being to get the consumption down to 200 tpd.
They were the most luxurious ships I ever sailed in. I had a beautiful 3 room suite (dayroom, bedroom & bathroom) with a leather Parker Knoll suite and a pair of 4ft high picture windows.
In the tropics the stabilisers kept the swimming pool from sloshing about. I asked someone still at sea about them a couple of months ago, as I had not seen one in So'ton during the last couple of Boat Shows, and he said that they had needed to be scrapped as Japanese shippers will not trust their precious cargoes in ships over 20 years old, irrespective of condition.
Seems a shame such beautiful ships have gone. Recall a few anxious moments going round the bend into Southampton Water off Cowes. We needed to do 14-16 knots to get round sharply enough to stay in the channel and a lot of small boaters did not realise that in the early days, we had nowhere else to go and more than once had a small boat scraping down the side with gratuitous abuse coming over the vhf; cannot understand why same boaters never listened to the safety broadcast we used to give requesting a wide berth as we approached.
Supertankers, on the other hand, never needed speed and used to do about 14 to 16 kts, normally on a single screw, which explains a lot of strandings. A lot of them lacked backup steering gear control systems and also lacked emergency generating power.
Bulkers and general cargo ships mainly travelled at about 16 kts, though there were a few fast cargo vessels (pre container days) which did about 21 knots.
My first cargo/passenger ship the "Glenearn" was a Malta convoy veteran which did 18 kts on twin screws and used to run the gauntlet unescorted because of her speed and ability to outrun U Boats. That was another sad day when we left her in Kaohsiung, Taiwan to be made into razor blades & Daiwhatsu's.
Chris
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My last few trips in the MN, now over 20 years ago were in the Panamax sized (maximum size for the Panama Canal 986' long by 120' beam) OCL Bay Class Container ships of 68,000 tonnes (the big green ones for Solent boaters). As far as I recall they were fitted with a pair of 60,000shp triple stage steam turbines which originally gave a service speed of 28.5 kts at a consumption of 600 tonnes of bunker oil per day. The fastest I ever recall going was a flat out race from Bremerhaven to Maas Center Buoy for a Europoort Berth with an Atlantic Containers ship, we averaged just over 31 kts. With the first oil crisis we were slowed down to a service speed of firstly 26 kts @ 480 tonnes per day and then even more to 24.5 kts at 400 tpd. To keep the precious new toys from Japan from being damaged the ships were fitted with gyro controlled active fin stabilisers which were retracted into the hull for berthing. The ships never rolled more than +/- 2 degrees, though the motion was twitchy in a rough sea.
Ultimately,after I left, the 5 ships were taken back to Blohm & Voss in Hamburg where the accommodation was cut off and the boilers and turbines removed and replaced by a pair of the largest diesel engines that Sulzer had ever produced at that time.
Apparently, according to a friend, they went from being completely vibration free steam turbine vessels to just ordinary rattly diesels with a maximum service speed of just 24 kts, the point of the exercise being to get the consumption down to 200 tpd.
They were the most luxurious ships I ever sailed in. I had a beautiful 3 room suite (dayroom, bedroom & bathroom) with a leather Parker Knoll suite and a pair of 4ft high picture windows.
In the tropics the stabilisers kept the swimming pool from sloshing about. I asked someone still at sea about them a couple of months ago, as I had not seen one in So'ton during the last couple of Boat Shows, and he said that they had needed to be scrapped as Japanese shippers will not trust their precious cargoes in ships over 20 years old, irrespective of condition.
Seems a shame such beautiful ships have gone. Recall a few anxious moments going round the bend into Southampton Water off Cowes. We needed to do 14-16 knots to get round sharply enough to stay in the channel and a lot of small boaters did not realise that in the early days, we had nowhere else to go and more than once had a small boat scraping down the side with gratuitous abuse coming over the vhf; cannot understand why same boaters never listened to the safety broadcast we used to give requesting a wide berth as we approached.
Supertankers, on the other hand, never needed speed and used to do about 14 to 16 kts, normally on a single screw, which explains a lot of strandings. A lot of them lacked backup steering gear control systems and also lacked emergency generating power.
Bulkers and general cargo ships mainly travelled at about 16 kts, though there were a few fast cargo vessels (pre container days) which did about 21 knots.
My first cargo/passenger ship the "Glenearn" was a Malta convoy veteran which did 18 kts on twin screws and used to run the gauntlet unescorted because of her speed and ability to outrun U Boats. That was another sad day when we left her in Kaohsiung, Taiwan to be made into razor blades & Daiwhatsu's.
Chris
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