Container Ships

Chapter – 1

INTRODUCTION TO CONTAINERISATION

Concept of containers:

The ordinary general cargo ship, also known as break bulk vessel, suffered from a number of
disadvantages such as:

 Loading and discharging operations took longer time in ports.

 Increased operational cost of the vessel.

 Increased cost of handling cargoes.

 Multiple handling of cargoes not only resulted in damage & pilferage but also increase
cost of cargo insurance.

These disadvantages naturally led to a continuous study by research & development people
to cut down the cost, increase efficiency and the profitability of the voyage. Such R& D efforts
concluded that this could be achieved by:

1) Upgrading the construction of vessels and their equipment including machinery and
main auxiliary engines.

2) Upgrading the methods of handling cargoes so that cargo operations are done with
efficiency and minimum damage to cargo.

It is in this context that the unitisation & palletisation of cargoes were taken up as a first step.
This followed with lash barge vessels, container vessels & Ro-Ro- vessel.

Unitisation meant bundling the cargo in a convenient way. In this method the cargo is put in
slings before it is brought along side the vessel, thus saving time.

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Palletisation meant the cargo is arranged on pallets, which are wooden platforms provided
with slinging arrangement and facility for using fork lifts.

In the late 1950s container ships set the pattern for technological change in cargo handling
and linked trucking industry to deep-sea shipping. These highly specialised ships could carry
large trucks and boxes. They could discharge and load cargoes in one day in contrast to the
ten days required by conventional ships for the same amount of cargo on a ship of the same
size.

The rapid development of the container ship began in 1956, when Sea-Land Service
commenced operations between New York City and Houston, Texas.

Containerisation is here to stay. The sizes of containers & container vessels may change
from time to time to economise the cost of operations. Simultaneously ports & their
infrastructure would be modernised to keep pace with overall upgradation of the container
trade.

The concept of containerisation was developed as follows: -

1) The container is rolled on a trailer. It is then loaded or stuffed at the customer’s

godown, locked and sealed by authorities and carried back to the ship. This meant that the
container could be taken right to the door of an exporter for loading and to the door of the
importer for discharging. This is termed as “Door to Door Delivery”.

2) The container through minimum handling ensured that cargoes were transported safely
in a sound condition. This ensured reduction in both the cargo damages as well as the
insurance claims.

3) As the container was sealed at the shipper’s door and opened again at the consignee’s
godown, pilferage of cargo in transit was largely avoided, if not totally, thus reducing
insurance claims to a larger extent.

4) Under the multi modal transportation, the bill of lading could, under certain conditions
be issued by the haulage contractor allowing the shipper to realise his money almost the day
the cargo left his premises.

Types of container vessels

The container vessels are mainly of three types as under: -

 Cellular container vessels (Which may or may not have gear to handle containers)

 Vessel without cell guides

 Hatch coverless vessels.

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Cellular Container Vessels:

These are specialised ships in which the holds are fitted with cell guides. Cell guides are
vertical steel members, which guide the containers as they are stowed. The containers are
loaded into the holds with the help of these cell guides and do not require any positioning or
locking at the corners. All modern vessels are fitted with Cell Guides. This ensures faster
Loading & discharging of containers.

Cellular container vessels are either geared or gearless – depending upon the facilities
available at the ports they are expected to ply. Ships designed for trading in less developed
areas normally have their own gear with which they can load and discharge in ports which
may not have the requisite shore cranes. Larger cellular container ships on the other hand,
are almost always gearless as they always call at modern, developed ports, which have
shore gantry cranes.

Geared Vessel or Self contained Geared Vessel:

These vessels are provided with movable Gantry or Swinging Crane capable of Lifting
containers from & into the hold of the vessel. The gantry is also capable of lowering the
container on the trailer or Rail wagon standing by the Quay. The Swinging cranes are
mounted either on the side of the weather deck of the vessel or on the central line of the
weather deck of the vessel. The safe working load of these gantry/cranes is normally 40/50
tones. The loading/unloading rate of gantry is about 20/25 moves per hour and
loading/unloading rate of the crane is about 10/15 moves per hour. The vessel is kept upright
by adjusting ballast tanks while loading and unloading

The cranes or gantry are fitted with automatic adjustable spreaders with automatic
interlocking & unlocking systems to lift 20/40 feet containers. Some of the vessels do carry
manually operating spreaders but the operation slows down and is labour oriented resulting
in loss of time and higher costs.

Gearless Container Vessels:

Theses vessels are without loading / unloading gear as the name suggests. Such vessels
are berthed in ports where movable shore gantries are available on the berths. Container
berths are normally equipped with sufficient number of movable gantries. The loading /
unloading rate of these cranes is between 25 and 30 moves per gantry per hour.

The efficiency of the crane or Gantry depends upon the efficiency of a crane operator & also
on the continuous supply of trailers or rail wagons on the quay. The operation can also be
expedited by employing additional toplifters or transtainers either on the quay or at the
backyard of the container berth.

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Containership Evolution

In the beginning of the container era, smaller ships of 100/1000 TEUs were built. As the
container trade increased, the ship owners felt the necessity to build larger and larger
vessels to meet the needs of the International Trade. This has brought the word “Generation”
which is used to indicate the size of the ship and also the capacity of the ship.

We have to day the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and 6th generation existing in the world
market and the order for 7th generation vessels and even larger vessels have being
considered by some of the leading container ships.

The eighth generation is the Triple-E’ class vessel for constructed for three main purposes—
economy of scale, energy efficiency and environmentally improved — the ships set a new
industry benchmark for size and fuel efficiency. They carry 18,000 TEU on board. Specially
designed port facilities relating to discharge of containers and the deeper drafts are required
to be made by ports who expect these ships to call at their facility

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Triple ‘E’ class container ship

Vessels without Cell Guides:

The containers are loaded one on top of other so that the corners of the container rest on the
corners of the container below with interlocking system consisting of stacking cones or

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twistlocks. This process of positioning and interlocking takes longer and hence results in slow
loading.

Container Vessels with hatch covers:

Hatches on container ships had large openings so that every container could be loaded
below without dragging. Containers were also carried on top of these hatches. The older
generation of Container vessels had adequate number of hatches with covers. With increase
in size of the ships the covers on these large hatches became too big to handle
conventionally by mechanical or even hydraulic systems. As such individual pontoons were
provided which could be lifted by shore Gantries. The weight of each pontoon had to be less
than the maximum lifting capacity of the gear available. The size of the pontoons was
therefore reduced and numbers of pontoons per hatch were increased.

In large container ships there are as many as 60 such pontoons to be lifted off and placed
back. The effect of this is an increase in overall cargo handling time and an increased
number of crane movements.

The containers on deck are exposed to racking stresses especially during rolling and
pitching. Larger Container ships carry around 8 tiers below decks and 5 tiers above decks.
The deck load is exposed to weather and must be adequately secured which involves
expensive lashing material and twist locks. In spite of this several containers are often lost
overboard causing damage to the ship and increasing operating cost of the ship, reducing
returns and causing concern to the ship owner and his insurers.

The cell guide system, which obliterates the need for container lashing, is unsuitable on deck
due to the need for opening the hatch covers. The transversal lashing system is not effective
due to the absence of a strengthened ship structure on deck. In addition the lashing and
unlashing of containers involves substantial workload and cost of labour.

Refrigerated containers are normally carried on deck. Such containers have their self-
contained refer machinery and the ship provides the power through electrical plugs fitted on
deck.

Container ships with open hatches

The Hatch coverless container ship design arose of a need to increase the cargo carrying
capacity of a container ship. This capacity could be increased in two ways:

1. Increasing the depth so that more containers can fit into the holds.

2. Increasing the number of containers stowed on deck.

Design parameters of a hatch coverless ship.

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1. In its basic concept a hatch coverless ship is a ship with its side extended to a height
to which the containers would have been stowed on deck. The ship has no deck and all
the containers are loaded in cell guides.

2. The depth of the ship results in a greater draft available to the ship and hence a greater
cargo carrying capacity. (This increase is not in the same proportion due to the correction for
depth given in the Load Line Regulations, which increases the freeboard slightly and reduces
the available draft.) However this increase in draft has both advantages and disadvantages
as explained in the following paragraphs.

3. The ship will be subjected to draft limitations in certain ports. In practice this is not much of
a problem. The greater cargo capacity is mostly required by main line vessels, which call at
major ports where draft is not a limitation and feeder vessels thereafter tranship the
containers to smaller ports.

4. As the depth of the ship increases the strength and thickness of hull and scantlings also
increase leading to an increase in steel weight and extra costs during construction.
Consequently it also means some reduction in deadweight due to an increase in lightship
weight. However this is compensated with the elimination of the deck. (In fact, elimination of
deck in any case requires additional scantling).

5. The ability to carry extra containers on deck required an increase in the load bearing
capacity of the deck and hatch covers. This increased weight of the deck on the top part of
the ship results in reduction in stability to an extent where it may become necessary for the
vessel to take in liquid or solid ballast for an adequate metacentric height (GM).

6. The hatch coverless container ship concept envisages the total elimination of hatch
covers and coamings with a view to overcoming many of the constraints mentioned earlier in
the ship, which are with hatches and covers.

7. The sides of the ship are extended upwards to almost the top of the topmost container
tier. This protects the ship from entry of seas. The side tanks have the effect of a girder,
which provides strength and permits a reduction in scantling. Construction is simplified
because of absence of deck stiffeners, coamings and hatch covers. The reduction in steel
and simplified construction makes the cost of construction compare extremely favourably
with that of a conventional container ship of similar size.

8. While the side tanks have been extended upwards to prevent the entry of seas, water will
definitely enter through rain, the shipping of spray and seas. The water collects in a sump,
which extends transversely along the after part of each hold. The sump tanks are drained by
duplicated automatic bilge pumps and are connected to the ballast pumping system as well,
in case of excess accumulation of water or flooding of the holds due to damage. Flooding of
the hold is prevented beyond the notional deck level by providing freeing ports, which run

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through side tanks from the shipside to the hold at the level where the deck of a conventional
ship would have been. Any water beyond this level will drain back to the sea through non-
return valves. Free surface effect inside the holds is restricted by fitting longitudinal vertical
plates with face bars between each row of containers.

9. Cell Guides improve cargo-handling efficiency because of easy accessibility to the cells,
which provides flexibility. Loading and unloading can be carried out at the same time
because as the cell is emptied, the crane can load a container on return in available cells.
Overstowed container is reduced, late containers can be accommodated, and heavy
containers can be given bottom stowage etc. as a result of which port time, stevedoring costs
and delays can be reduced and flexibility & efficiency improved.

10. Prefabricated cell guides provide flexibility of carrying a mix of 20 ft or 40-ft containers.
They can allow even larger sizes of containers, which are now in use. Viz. - 45 ft or 52 ft or
57 ft.

Cell Guide of Hatchcoverless Container Ship

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Pumping System of Hatchcoverless Container Ship

Work out any two of the following in your journal

1. Why is it necessary to unitise or palletise the loose cargoes?

2. What is containerisation? What are the advantages of the containerisation to the

Shippers and the Shipowners?

3. Write a brief note on different types of Container Ships?

4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of Hatchcoverless Container Ships to the
Shipowner?

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