A ship shipping ship shipping shipping ships - wow!

[vernon]

[QUOTE 2852642, member: 1314"]But... why can't the boats go by themselves?[/quote]

Where's the fun in that?

 

[Brains]

[QUOTE 2852642, member: 1314"]But... why can't the boats go by themselves?[/quote]
They are short haul river barges, also you would need crew on each one, whereas the Blue Marlin would have a crew of about 15 people, and one engine

 

[vernon]

They are short haul river barges, also you would need crew on each one, whereas the Blue Marlin would have a crew of about 15 people, and one engine

It has a crew of twenty four and a seventeen thousand horsepower engine.

 

[vernon]

And how many engines?

One main engine and a bow thruster.

Correction: Refitted with two bow thrusters.

 

[compo]

But how do they get them off at the other end, or even on at the port of loading. Do they have cranes that can lift 3000 tons?

 

[Glow worm]

Park the thing 12 miles off Frinton, stick a 100KW rig on top of the highest boat, jam the hell out of Radios 1 and 2 and we could have some decent music radio back again. And you could have loads of fun lobbing all sorts of crap at the DTI or whatever the hell the bar stewards call themselves these days as their mates illegally raid and smash up a ship in international waters like they did last time

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

But where are the lifeboats!?

 

[I like Skol]

Isn't this the ship that sinks itself? I think I saw it in a documentary where it was moving an oil rig. The transporter platform partially sinks itself until only the towers in each corner are left above the water. The load (or oil rig in this case) is then floated above the deck and then the transporter ship refloats with the load on board. Ingenious.

That doesn't explain how the barges get on board though, likely a few hefty cranes required?

 

[ColinJ]

Isn't this the ship that sinks itself? I think I saw it in a documentary where it was moving an oil rig. The transporter platform partially sinks itself until only the towers in each corner are left above the water. The load (or oil rig in this case) is then floated above the deck and then the transporter ship refloats with the load on board. Ingenious.

That doesn't explain how the barges get on board though, likely a few hefty cranes required?

Surely they would just do it in reverse? (Submerge the ship shipping ship, then float the first row of barges into place and so on ...)

 

[Stephenite]

I'd have thought more difficult to do that. As the ships/boats have to be placed precisely/to within an in inch or two on top of the other. I might be wrong though,

 

[Stephenite]

Should be start of a new thread 'How do they do that?'

 

[shouldbeinbed]

[QUOTE 2852642, member: 1314"]But... why can't the boats go by themselves?[/quote]
maybe they don't want to get them wet.

 

[snorri]

[QUOTE 2852642, member: 1314"]But... why can't the boats go by themselves?[/quote]
The hulls and superstructures are fabricated in China and craned on to two barges, these are floated over the submerged deck of the heavy lift ship which then deballasts and sails half way round the world to Rotterdam where the procedure is reversed. The superstructures seen on top of the left hand hull in the pic. are then fitted on the individual hulls, the vessels commissioned and then go on to trade on the inland waterways of mainland Europe.
Some pics of a similar ship, ballasting down.

 

[Gravity Aided]

The hulls and superstructures are fabricated in China and craned on to two barges, these are floated over the submerged deck of the heavy lift ship which then deballasts and sails half way round the world to Rotterdam where the procedure is reversed. The superstructures seen on top of the left hand hull in the pic. are then fitted on the individual hulls, the vessels commissioned and then go on to trade on the inland waterways of mainland Europe.
Some pics of a similar ship, ballasting down.

Mighty Servant 1, now in the Java Sea, heading in to Singapore from Capetown.

 

[Aperitif]

I think it was @Piemaster who published a link some time ago, detailing live ship movements. www.marinetraffic.com/ais/home which is a bit of fun.
Blue Marlin (lots of ships in that name!)
http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/306589000