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A heavy-lift ship is a
vessel designed to move very large loads that cannot be handled by normal ships. They are of two types:
*''Semi-submersible'' ships that take on water ballast to allow the load—usually another vessel—to be floated over the deck, whereupon the ballast is jettisoned and the ship's deck and cargo raised above the waterline.
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*''Project cargo'' ships that use at least one heavy-lift crane for handling heavy cargo and sufficient ballast to assure stability and sea-keeping properties.
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Description
There are several types of heavy-lift ships:
Semi-submersible ships
Semi-submersible heavy-lift ships have a long and low well deck between a forward pilot house and an
aft machinery space. In superficial appearance, it is somewhat similar to a dry
bulk carrier
A bulk carrier or bulker is a merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo — such as grains, coal, ore, steel coils, and cement — in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrier was built in 1852, econom ...
or some forms of
oil tanker
An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crud ...
. Its
ballast tank
A ballast tank is a compartment within a boat, ship or other floating structure that holds water, which is used as ballast to provide hydrostatic stability for a vessel, to reduce or control buoyancy, as in a submarine, to correct trim or list, ...
s can be flooded to lower the well deck below the water's surface, allowing
oil platform
An oil platform (or oil rig, offshore platform, oil production platform, and similar terms) is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platfor ...
s, other vessels, or other floating cargo to be moved into position for loading (float-on/float-off). The tanks are then pumped out, and the well deck rises to shoulder the load. To balance the cargo, the various tanks can be pumped unevenly.
[
Float-on/float off vessels transport oil drilling rigs. Such ships can carry the rigs from their construction site to a drilling site at roughly three to four times the speed of a self-deploying rig. Rapid deployment of the rig to the drilling site can translate into major savings. They also transport other out-sized cargo and ]yacht
A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...
s.
The U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...
has used such ships to bring damaged warships back to the United States for repair. The first was the guided missile frigate , which was nearly sunk by a naval mine
A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, any ...
in the central Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...
on 14 April 1988. The frigate was towed to Dubai
Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...
, then floated home to Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, ...
, aboard .
Eleven years later, transported the U.S. guided missile destroyer
A guided-missile destroyer (DDG) is a destroyer whose primary armament is guided missiles so they can provide anti-aircraft warfare screening for the fleet. The NATO standard designation for these vessels is DDG, while destroyers who have a prim ...
from Aden
Aden ( ar, عدن ' Yemeni: ) is a city, and since 2015, the temporary capital of Yemen, near the eastern approach to the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden), some east of the strait Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000 people. ...
, Yemen to Pascagoula, Mississippi
Pascagoula ( ) is a city in Jackson County, Mississippi, United States. It is the principal city of the Pascagoula Metropolitan Statistical Area, and is part of the Gulfport–Biloxi–Pascagoula Combined Statistical Area. The population was 22 ...
, after the warship was damaged in a bombing attack on 12 October 2000.
was transported from Japan to Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...
after its 2017 collision with .
The U.S. Navy has also chartered other heavy lift ships to carry smaller craft, usually mine-countermeasure craft, or other patrol craft
A patrol boat (also referred to as a patrol craft, patrol ship, or patrol vessel) is a relatively small naval vessel generally designed for coastal defence, border security, or law enforcement. There are many designs for patrol boats, and the ...
. Since there are no US-flagged heavy float-on/float-off ships, the U.S. Navy normally relies on its Military Sealift Command to charter them from the world commercial market.
In 2004, ''Blue Marlin'' carried the world's largest semi-submersible oil platform, BP's , from the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering
Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Ltd ( ko, 대우조선해양; abbreviated DSME) is one of the "Big Three" shipbuilders of South Korea, along with Hyundai and Samsung.
History
On 21 February 2011, the A. P. Moller-Maersk Group (M ...
shipyard in South Korea to Kiewit Offshore Services in Ingleside, Texas
Ingleside is a city in Nueces and San Patricio Counties in the U.S. state of Texas. Its population was 9,519 at the 2020 census.
Ingleside was the home to Naval Station Ingleside. On August 24, 2005, the BRAC Committee voted to close the base. ...
.
Many of the larger ships of this class are owned by the company Dockwise
Dockwise was a Netherlands-based holding company in the marine transport industry. It was acquired by Boskalis in 2013 and was merged into the Boskalis brand name in 2018.
History
Dockwise was formed in September 1993 by the merger of two compleme ...
, including , ''Blue Marlin'', and . In 2004, Dockwise increased the deck width of ''Blue Marlin'', to make it the then-largest heavy transport carrier in the world until it was surpassed by the launch of in 2012. One of the company's vessels, ''Mighty Servant 2'', capsized and sank after hitting an uncharted
''Uncharted'' is an action-adventure video game franchise published by Sony Interactive Entertainment and developed by Naughty Dog. Created by Amy Hennig, the ''Uncharted'' franchise follows a group of treasure hunters who travel across the wo ...
single underwater isolated pinnacle of granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
off Indonesia in November 1999.
Project cargo ships
Project cargo ships are non-submersible ships that load large and heavy cargo items with one or more on-board cranes. Such vessels have between 13,000 and 19,000 deadweight tonnage
Deadweight tonnage (also known as deadweight; abbreviated to DWT, D.W.T., d.w.t., or dwt) or tons deadweight (DWT) is a measure of how much weight a ship can carry. It is the sum of the weights of cargo, fuel, fresh water, ballast water, provi ...
(DWT) capacity. Examples of cargo transported includes container cranes, bridge sections, and suction piles.[
]
History
In the 1920s, the Bremen
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
-based shipping company DDG Hansa
DDG Hansa, short for Deutsche Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft Hansa (German Steamship Company Hansa; in modern orthography, Deutsche Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft Hansa) was a major German shipping company specialising in heavy freight and schedul ...
saw a growing demand of shipments for assembled locomotives to British India. That led to the construction of the world's first heavy lift vessel, with a derrick. After World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, DDG Hansa became the world's largest heavy lift shipping company. In terms of lifting capacity it reached its peak in 1978 with refitting the Japanese-built bulk carrier MV ''Trifels'' with two Stülcken derricks. Shortly after that, in 1980, DDG went bankrupt. With that, only the Dutch shipping companies Jumbo
Jumbo (about December 25, 1860 – September 15, 1885), also known as Jumbo the Elephant and Jumbo the Circus Elephant, was a 19th-century male African bush elephant born in Sudan. Jumbo was exported to Jardin des Plantes, a zoo in Paris, and t ...
, BigLift Shipping (until 2001 named Mammoet Shipping) and SAL Heavy lift were left as heavy lift shipping specialists.
See also
* Semi-submersible naval vessel
A semi-submersible naval vessel is a hybrid warship, that combines the properties of a surface ship and submarine by using water ballast to partially immerse and minimize its above-waterline profile, thereby improving its stealth characteristics wh ...
References
External links
Description of military heavy lift ships
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heavy-lift Ship
Ship types
Submersible ships