On board the Edith Maersk

Daydream believer said:
We joined the EU
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As did Denmark.
Maersk are just a company that has been well managed who put the right investment into the right ships and infrastructure,thus remaining ahead of the game.Compare and contrast with what happened to the British shipping industry,and many other British industries too.
 
Biggles Wader said:
As did Denmark.
Maersk are just a company that has been well managed who put the right investment into the right ships and infrastructure,thus remaining ahead of the game.Compare and contrast with what happened to the British shipping industry,and many other British industries too.
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The British shipbuilding industry killed itself. Greedy, arrogant and highly conservative yard owners closed their minds to even home grown design development, and to a great extent provoked their labour force into the worst excesses of union militancy and job protection. BTW, at the height of WW2, a deputation of major shipyard owners demanded the sacking of a senior naval architect at the Admiralty for having the temerity to insist that they build destroyers with welded hulls to save time, money and materials. They failed.

Then, of course, both sides of the industry turned to taxpayer subsidy to keep their dinosaur practices viable, and it appears to have been thought in some quarters a great political crime to have turned them down.
 
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Grumpybear said:
The British shipbuilding industry killed itself. Greedy, arrogant and highly conservative yard owners closed their minds to even home grown design development, and to a great extent provoked their labour force into the worst excesses of union militancy and job protection. BTW, at the height of WW2, a deputation of major shipyard owners demanded the sacking of a senior naval architect at the Admiralty for having the temerity to insist that they build destroyers with welded hulls to save time, money and materials. They failed.

Then, of course, both sides of the industry turned to taxpayer subsidy to keep their dinosaur practices viable, and it appears to have been thought in some quarters a great political crime to have turned them down.
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Yes.Followed by too little too late.By the 1970s it was all nationalised and some good investment went in.Modern covered yards at Sunderland with floodable building docks,and fully computerised fabrication pioneered on the Tyne.But British shipowners were still ordering the wrong design of ships and only half heartedly jumped on the container waggon in the 80s.By then we had a government interested only in service industry and manufacturing has been in decline ever sinse.A few short term bungs from the EU saw the closure of Sunderland and others and down it all went.We suffer the results today.
 
Biggles Wader said:
Yes.Followed by too little too late.By the 1970s it was all nationalised and some good investment went in.Modern covered yards at Sunderland with floodable building docks,and fully computerised fabrication pioneered on the Tyne.But British shipowners were still ordering the wrong design of ships and only half heartedly jumped on the container waggon in the 80s.By then we had a government interested only in service industry and manufacturing has been in decline ever sinse.A few short term bungs from the EU saw the closure of Sunderland and others and down it all went.We suffer the results today.
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Still wouldn't have worked unless we'd got wages and manning down to somewhere nearer Far Eastern levels. And, just perhaps, the attitudes and performance of British manufacturing industry generally in the 70s, plus visceral and at times hysterical left wing hatred, went some way to convincing the Conservative government that it was a lost cause?
 
Grumpybear said:
Still wouldn't have worked unless we'd got wages and manning down to somewhere nearer Far Eastern levels. And, just perhaps, the attitudes and performance of British manufacturing industry generally in the 70s, plus visceral and at times hysterical left wing hatred, went some way to convincing the Conservative government that it was a lost cause?
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The Emma Maersk was built in Denmark. They don't have far eastern wages!
 
michaelchapman said:
The Emma Maersk was built in Denmark. They don't have far eastern wages!
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True. But how many British shipping lines in the 70s were buying British? How many were there at all? We come back to quality, flexibility, vision and all the other things Britain had thrown away in the aftermath of Suez etc....
 
The methods of construction of ships in sections was I believe pioneered in the UK. Everything else aside the big disadvantage for UK ship builders is space with most of them crammed into tidal river banks. The Hyundai yard in South Korea is massive, spread over a huge area of flat land (reclamation of the sea and hill sides levelled off). The ships are built exactly in the same modular style. Where Hyundai wins hands down though is that they can construct 15 to 20 full ships in sections at any one time, thus benefiting from the economy of scale, something the UK could never do. I visited the Hyundai yard and it was quite amazing: sheds full of bow sections, stern sections, bridge sections, middle bits of hulls. All these sections were complete with wires, pipes, machinery, equipment, furnished and painted. Each section was delivered to a dry dock on a massive trolly where it was lifted into place and welded to the next section. Apparently there are only a few hull designs that Hyundai offer, the buyer specifies whether it is to be a bulk carrier, tanker, container ship. One other interesting thing was that teams who had infringed safety regulations had to stand at the entrance to the yard and shift change over holding a large banner which had an apology written on it to their fellow workers. I believe that the Hyundai workers are paid well for their efforts. One other thing, the yard is surrounded by beautiful, lush forest and hills. I always thought that Ardlamont Point at the South end of the Cowel Peninsula would have made a super location for a modern, large scale ship yard on the Firth Of Clyde. The NIMBY's would have been up in arms.
 
BlowingOldBoots said:
The methods of construction of ships in sections was I believe pioneered in the UK. Everything else aside the big disadvantage for UK ship builders is space with most of them crammed into tidal river banks. The Hyundai yard in South Korea is massive, spread over a huge area of flat land (reclamation of the sea and hill sides levelled off). The ships are built exactly in the same modular style. Where Hyundai wins hands down though is that they can construct 15 to 20 full ships in sections at any one time, thus benefiting from the economy of scale, something the UK could never do. I visited the Hyundai yard and it was quite amazing: sheds full of bow sections, stern sections, bridge sections, middle bits of hulls. All these sections were complete with wires, pipes, machinery, equipment, furnished and painted. Each section was delivered to a dry dock on a massive trolly where it was lifted into place and welded to the next section. Apparently there are only a few hull designs that Hyundai offer, the buyer specifies whether it is to be a bulk carrier, tanker, container ship. One other interesting thing was that teams who had infringed safety regulations had to stand at the entrance to the yard and shift change over holding a large banner which had an apology written on it to their fellow workers. I believe that the Hyundai workers are paid well for their efforts. One other thing, the yard is surrounded by beautiful, lush forest and hills. I always thought that Ardlamont Point at the South end of the Cowel Peninsula would have made a super location for a modern, large scale ship yard on the Firth Of Clyde. The NIMBY's would have been up in arms.
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Harland & Wolff, Belfast were the largest boat builders in the world in the immediate post-war period with up to 50000 employees. In the 60's they built a dry-dock which had the capacity to accommodate a 1 million ton ship. The two Goliath cranes were built especially to use prefabricated sections, and H&W were pioneers in the field.

However it came too late as the union practices effectively killed off ship-building in Belfast. My late BIL was MP for East Belfast at the time and militated for the investment in the above assets.

As far as shipbuilding is concerned one should not forget France where 4 of the five largest ships ever were built - at St Nazaire.
 
I thought it was the Americans who were the experts at building ships in sections
They used the system to build the liberty ships in WW2
Using it they actually got it down to 3-4 days to assemble a ship
The design of the ship was A British cargo ship but I do not know the name of the design
Some on the forum might

It was interesting to go through the lock at Zebrugge to see sections of the Tricolour ( sank in the channel)
Being delivered & cut up for scrap
There was a giant floating crane(3000 tonne) picking the sections off the barge onto the dock side
Complete with bits of Volvo dump truck on some of the 14 decks
The cuts were as a knife through butter. Clean as a whistle
Dismantling in sections rather than assembling in sections!!
 
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Daydream believer said:
I thought it was the Americans who were the experts at building ships in sections
They used the system to build the liberty ships in WW2
Using it they actually got it down to 3-4 days to assemble a ship
The design of the ship was A British cargo ship but I do not know the name of the design
Some on the forum might

It was interesting to go through the lock at Zebrugge to see sections of the Tricolour ( sank in the channel)
Being delivered & cut up for scrap
There was a giant floating crane(3000 tonne) picking the sections off the barge onto the dock side
Complete with bits of Volvo dump truck on some of the 14 decks
The cuts were as a knife through butter. Clean as a whistle
Dismantling in sections rather than assembling in sections!!
Click to expand...

No doubt to be used again tor the car carrier sunk off of Maas Entrance in December
 
Daydream believer said:
Is it still there & do you have a position please. I am going that way soon so would prefer not to hit it!!
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There is a Guard ship on Stn

AIS4.png
 
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