THREE pioneering hatchcoverless containerships built for former Dutch container shipping line Royal Nedlloyd (Nedlloyd Line) in the 1990s are to be scrapped in India.
THREE pioneering hatchcoverless containerships built for former Dutch container shipping line Royal Nedlloyd (Nedlloyd Line) in the 1990s are to be scrapped in India.
The three ships to be scrapped are the 4,181 TEU, 1995-built Nedlloyd Honshu and Maersk Miami (ex Nedlloyd Hong Kong) and the 3,604 TEU, 1992-built Nedlloyd Oceania.
They belong to two different series of innovative hatchcoverless container vessels that were built by Japan's IHI shipyard in Kure and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) in Kobe, reports Alphaliner.
A further five 3,604 TEU units, known as the "Ultimate Container Carriers", were delivered in 1991 and 1992. Two larger vessels of 4,181 TEU were delivered in 1994 and 1995 respectively.
These hatchcoverless ships ended up in the Maersk network when the APM-Maersk Group took over P&O Nedlloyd in 2005. The current managers of the vessels are Blue Star Holding, a company formed after the shipmanagement activities of Reederei Blue Star were combined with those of ER Schiffahrt in July 2012.
The hatchcoverless design enables containers above deck to be stowed directly into the cell guides and therefore do not need any lashing, improving the safety of containers at sea.
But the concept failed to gain widespread acceptance due to a number of drawbacks and has since been abandoned.
One drawback concerned the stack heights, with the bottom container having to support the weight of up to 12 boxes stacked onto it, creating an additional constraint in stowage plans to avoid overloading bottom containers.
The three ships to be scrapped are the 4,181 TEU, 1995-built Nedlloyd Honshu and Maersk Miami (ex Nedlloyd Hong Kong) and the 3,604 TEU, 1992-built Nedlloyd Oceania.
They belong to two different series of innovative hatchcoverless container vessels that were built by Japan's IHI shipyard in Kure and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) in Kobe, reports Alphaliner.
A further five 3,604 TEU units, known as the "Ultimate Container Carriers", were delivered in 1991 and 1992. Two larger vessels of 4,181 TEU were delivered in 1994 and 1995 respectively.
These hatchcoverless ships ended up in the Maersk network when the APM-Maersk Group took over P&O Nedlloyd in 2005. The current managers of the vessels are Blue Star Holding, a company formed after the shipmanagement activities of Reederei Blue Star were combined with those of ER Schiffahrt in July 2012.
The hatchcoverless design enables containers above deck to be stowed directly into the cell guides and therefore do not need any lashing, improving the safety of containers at sea.
But the concept failed to gain widespread acceptance due to a number of drawbacks and has since been abandoned.
One drawback concerned the stack heights, with the bottom container having to support the weight of up to 12 boxes stacked onto it, creating an additional constraint in stowage plans to avoid overloading bottom containers.
how about the crew or seafarers working in nedlloyd honshu what is the status of their work now?
ReplyDeleteCame across this article as I wanted to know what happened to these vessels. Made several trips as captain on both Nedlloyd hongkong and Nedlloyd Honshu. Stil a great suporter of the design as it did away with manipulations of hatchcovers. Main reason why it never caught on that freeboard was much higher than an equivalent "normal" hatchcover vessel for obvious reasons. This made the harbour charges and suez canal charges much higher as the Gross Tonnage was much higher than normal. Pity as the system worked well, reduced the time in port. What happened to the crews? First step was bringing them from "P&O nedlloyd mangement" to "Reederei Blue Star" Hamburg, this changed not much for us, same crew. Then P&O Nedlloyd" was taken over by Maersk, still not much change. Then Maersk sold Blue Star and we lost the vessels. I am retired but the remaining people from P&O Nedlloyd now still sail on Maersk vessels, mainly ex P&O Nedlloyd but their number is getting less and less. Hopes this answeres your question
ReplyDeleteCapt Geert Koffeman - geert@koffeman.co.uk