Shipping

[Bicycle Bill]

How many shipping ships could a shipping ship ship if a shipping ship would ship shipping ships?
Regardless, that's a hull lot of hulls going to who the hull knows where.

-"BB"-

[kmccune]

Not doubting you or anything like that ,but as much as these hulls weigh and looking at the way they are stacked ( I am aware of the laws of buoyancy ) is the picture real ? It would take a pretty hefty crane to set those ships .

[RayThom]

Is it real... or is it Memorex?

[kmccune]

Wow ,is that the same ship BB showed ?How many of these transporters exist ? Sort of puts me in mind of the huge Russian Jet . Thanks

[No Greater Fool]

IIRC it's the same ship used to transport the USS Cole after it was damaged by terrorists in Aden.

[datsunaholic]

MV Blue Marlin (the ship in the pic and vid above) was the ship used to transport the USS Cole. Blue Marlin has since been widened, but it's not the largest Heavy Lift Ship in the world- that would be the MV Dockwise Vanguard, which is 70% larger by deck volume.

Heavy lift ships, particularly semi-submersible Heavy Lift Ships, are typically used to transport oil rigs. By ballasting down, they become float on/float off ships. Unfortunately there have been a few disasters with them. Mighty Servant 2 (which is the ship that transported the USS Samuel B Roberts back to the US after it hit a mine in 1988) capsized in 1999 after hitting an uncharted rock, killing 5 crewmen. Mighty Servant 3 sank while unloading a drilling platform, though with no casualties and was salvaged, repaired, and put back into service. Some early heavy lift ships were built from tankers, and are still used today, especially for transporting the large gantry cranes used for loading/unloading cargo containers.






Imaging trying tosee where you're going with THAT cargo.

[kmccune]

I'm still in awe of the Glomar Explorer ,Thanks .

[datsunaholic]

Unfortunately the Glomar Explorer (renamed GSF Explorer) was scrapped starting last year.

It makes for a bizarre story though. The ship was built by the CIA to recover K129 under “Project Azorian”. The cover story was that it was a mineral exploration vessel (to explain the huge derrick structure that was part of the lifting apparatus) to mine "manganese nodules". After Project Azorian the ship was mothballed, being little use for it due to the maintenance cost. Uses tried to be found, but it wasn't until 1997 that Global Marine leased the ship from the US government and converted it into a dynamically-positioned deep-ocean drill ship. Not a bad idea, considering the ship was built with very sophisticated self-positioning systems. So, the cover story of being a mineral exploration ship ended up becoming true. The company ended up buying the ship in 2010, but in 2015 with the global oil prices dropping they decided to scrap it in China. Thus ends the existence of another snippet of history. (I will note that the ship had been heavily modified so little to no trace of its original mission equipment was still present, including the moon pool which made the ship quite unique for its time).

[Jarlaxle]

Suggested reading: Red Star Rogue by Kenneth Sewell.

[kmccune]

Sorry to hear that ,I kinda fell in love with its team and original mission ,just another example of can do ,which we seems to be in short supply nowadays .

[MG McAnick]

I suspect the ships loaded on the transporter are bound for a scraping facility, quite possibly in India. That has become a BIG industry there, although with the price of scrap WAY down it's not what it used to be. It's like mining steel without having to go through taking iron ore out of the earth. Much cheaper.

[datsunaholic]

Not quite. They're brand new.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... -back.html


They're barges built in Korea, being shipped to Rotterdam for completion. Most are canal barges (Kiel Canal, etc).

[wesw]

man , building thos structural supports and jigs for loading and stacking those tubs would have been a challenge that I would have savored. so many variables , and there are ALWAYS un anticipated challenges to handling and supporting such huge loads.

the actual loading would have been better than sex and twice as dangerous.

[oldr_n_wsr]

the actual loading would have been better than sex and twice as dangerous.

Maybe your type of sex.

[Bicycle Bill]

the actual loading would have been better than sex and twice as dangerous.

Maybe your type of sex.

If sex isn't dirty and a little bit dangerous, you're not doing it right.

And speaking of sex:

A Greek and Italian were sitting down one day debating who had the superior culture.
The Greek says, "We have the Parthenon."
The Italian says, "We have the Coliseum."
The Greek says, "We had great mathematicians and philosophers."
The Italian says, "We had the Roman Empire and provided the basis for many of the rules of law in the world."
And so on and so on.

Then the Greek says:  "Ah — We invented sex!"
The Italian says, "That is true, but it was the Italians who introduced it to women... "

-"BB"-