ASSIGNMENT

IN
CARGO HANDLING
AND
STOWAGE

SUBMITTED BY: BERNAL, LLOYD ANTHONY S.

1. Shipboard stowage limitations during bad weather condition

Cargo stowage consideration

The aim of ship’s officers and crewmembers on board should be to prevent damage or

deterioration whilst the cargo is under their care and to deliver it, as far as possible, in

as good condition and order as it was when received aboard. If unacquainted with a

certain type of cargo you should ascertain as to its nature and any necessary

precautions. Therefore, the Master and officers of all vessels require a good working

knowledge of the various kinds of cargo they are likely to carry: their peculiar

characteristics, liability to damage, decay, or deterioration, their measurement, and the

usual methods of packing, loading and discharging, stowage, dunnaging, etc., as the

Master is responsible for the safe loading of his vessel and the proper stowage of the

cargo. The actual handling of the cargo in loading and discharging is done by

stevedores, who are experienced men appointed for this purpose when a vessel arrives

at a port. This does not release the Master from the responsibility for the safety of the

ship and cargo, and he must supervise the work of the stevedores for general safety.

Therefore, during stowage the first consideration must be given to safety, i.e. the cargo

must be stowed so that the ship will be stable and seaworthy, and it must be secured in

such a manner that it cannot shift if the vessel encounters bad weather. The type of

vessel, the cubic capacity of her compartments destined for the cargo and the

appliances on board or on shore for loading or discharging, as well as the nature of the

cargo, affect the question of how to stow the cargo in the best possible manner. The
ship must be made neither stiff nor too tender. The next consideration is for the safety of

the cargo itself: it must not be damaged by shifting; certain commodities become easily

tainted by others, water might find its way into the hold and condensation or sweating

must be prevented. Valuable cargo may be stolen or broached.

Finally, the Chief Officer must bear in mind the various destinations of the goods the

ship carries, and arrange things, as far as he can, to see that the cargo for a certain

place can be lifted out without disturbing the other cargo. The Chief Officer must watch

closely the ship's stability (i.e. what the ship's trim is or how she is sitting).

Since a ship is supported by fluid pressure she will incline in any direction according to

the position of the weights placed on her. The trim, therefore, is the angle that a ship is

making, fore and aft, with the water. The levels are read by numbers painted on the

ship's stem and stem. These are called draught marks. Another word is heel. This

means a list or inclination from one side to another, caused by loading. The Chief

Officer must watch the load lines. They are welded or punched on and then painted.

Working stowage plans are draw up to assist in advance planning. Master plans

definitively document the positioning of containers on board.

Fore and aft stowage

Load stowed along the length of the container or the ship. Contrast athwartships

stowage. In the context of load securing, it is of utmost importance whether a container

is stowed fore and aft or athwartships on a ship. In the case of athwartships stowage,
the greatest acceleration forces act on the actual container longitudinally rather than

transversely. Load securing measures must then be taken with this in mind.

Container Stowage (DOORS AFT) Containers are whenever possible to be stowed with

the doors facing aft. However, reefer containers can be stowed doors facing forward as

per plug socket arrangements on a case by case basis.

Container Stowage (OPEN TOPS) Whenever possible, open top containers on deck are

to be stowed in such a position that for all sea passages a standard container is able to

be stowed on top of them. If this is not possible, due to overheights, etc, consideration is

to be given to stowing them with the maximum shelter and all tarpaulin lashings

checked and tightened by the stevedores.

Bay-tier-row system

Numbering system for the arrangement of containers on a vessel. In this numbering

system, the bay is specified first, then the tier (vertical layer) and finally the container

row, which runs the length of the ship. According to this principle, bays are the container

blocks in the transverse direction, rows are the lengthwise rows and tiers are the vertical

layers.
Cargo information

Goods can be rendered fit for container transport by taking account of the individual

transport information relating to loss prevention. Fitness for container transport may

depend on the season or the route the cargo will take over land or sea. It must be

adapted to the conditions of the transport route. The cargo information may also be

helpful when considering how best to utilize a standard container or the possible use of

other container types.

Transport requirement

Individual packages are known as general cargo, which may be divided, depending on

atmosphere requirements (natural, partially air-conditioned or temperature-controlled

atmosphere), into general cargo, general cargo requiring ventilation and refrigerated

cargo, which place corresponding requirements on containers (general purpose

container, ventilated container, refrigerated container), or indeed into further sub-

categories .

Compatibility characteristics

If goods are to be stowed together when packing a container, the interrelationships

between the transport properties of products must be taken into account, since

disregarding them may result in quality degradation and damage. Goods may react with

one another and possibly with their environment.

principles of stowage

When stowing and securing containers, the following points should be borne in mind:

a deck stack of containers is only as strong as the weakest component in that stack.

Premature failure of a component can cause loss of an entire stack. During loading,

containers should be inspected for damage and, if damaged, they should be rejected

twistlocks limit vertical and transverse movement. Diagonal crossed lashing rods,

placed at the ends of a container, can withstand large tensile loads outside lashings are

sometimes used. These are lashings that lead away from a container. However,

although this arrangement provides a more rigid stow than a combination of crossed

lashings and twistlocks, it is less common containers exposed to wind loading need

additional or stronger lashings. When carried in block stowage, it is the outer stacks that

are exposed to wind loading. However, when carried on a partially loaded deck, isolated

stacks and inboard containers can also be exposed to wind, in which case, additional

lashings need to be applied if containers of non-standard length, that is, 45, 48 or 53

feet are carried, the ship arrangement will need to be specially adapted 45-foot

containers fitted with additional corner posts at 40-foot spacing can be stowed on top of

40-foot containers. Lashings can be applied in the normal way. It should be noted,

however, that the additional corner posts may not be suitable for carrying the required

loads, either from the container itself or from those stowed above. Lashings should not

be applied to the overhang. The container specification and the Cargo Securing Manual
should be consulted 40-foot containers may be stowed on top of 45-foot containers.

However, this arrangement of stowage will present difficulties in fastening/unfastening

twistlocks, and it will not be possible to apply lashings to the 40-foot containers

when carrying over-width containers, for example 45-foot or 53-foot containers with

width 8'-6", adaptor platforms may be used. These must be certified by a class society

or an appropriate recognised body. The arrangement must be defined and approved in

the ship’s Cargo Securing Manual twistlocks should always be locked, even when the

ship is at anchor, except during container loading and unloading. Lashing rods should

be kept taut and, where possible, have even tension. Lashing rods should never be

loose nor should they be overtightened. Turnbuckle locking nuts should be fully

tightened as a ship rolls, pitches and heaves in a seaway, tension, compression and

racking forces are transmitted through the container frames, lashings and twistlocks to

the ship’s structure. However, clearances between securing components and the

elasticity of the container frame and lashing equipment produce a securing system that

forms a flexible structure. Thus, a deck stow of containers will move containers can be

held by only twistlocks when two or three tiers are carried on deck, depending upon

container weights arrangements with automatic and semi-automatic twistlocks are used

to reduce time spent securing the stow and to eliminate the need for lashers to climb the

stacks
Checks and tests during discharge and loading

Regularly examine lashing components, looking for wear and tear, damage or

distortion. Check that left-hand and right-hand locking twistlocks are not being mixed in

the same storage bin. Remove from the ship any lashing component found to be worn,

damaged or distorted make arrangements for some damaged or distorted lashing

components to be sent for non-destructive testing. This will determine their strength and

help to establish replacement criteria carefully check twistlocks that stevedores return to

the ship as the locks might not originate from your ship, that is, their strength and

locking direction could differ discourage stevedores from treating lashing equipment

roughly as this can induce weakness examine dovetail foundations, D rings and pad-

eyes for damage. Repair if damage is found observe the loading of containers to

determine if stowage is in accordance with the stowage plan and that best practice is

always followed observe the application of lashings to make sure that they are correctly

applied in accordance with the requirements set out in the Cargo Securing Manual
Checks and tests at sea

24 hours after sailing, examine, check and tighten turnbuckles. Check that lashings

are applied in accordance with the Cargo Securing Manual and that twistlocks have

been locked examine lashings daily. Check that they have not become loose and

tighten turnbuckles as necessary before the onset of bad weather, examine lashings

thoroughly and tighten turnbuckles, being careful to keep an equal tension in individual

lashing rods. If necessary, apply additional lashing rods to the outboard stacks and to

stacks with 20-foot containers in 40-foot bays re-check lashings after passing through

bad weather make sure that lashing equipment that is not in use is correctly stored in

baskets or racks make an inventory of lashing equipment and order spares before they

are needed check that refrigerated boxes remain connected to the ship’s power supply
2. Cargo test and examination

Sampling and testing procedures for bulk cargoes that may liquefy should be carried

out to international standards such as the test procedures described in Appendix 2

of the IMSBC Code.

Flow Moisture Point – the maximum water content, expressed as a percentage, at

which a sample of cargo will begin to lose shear strength. Cargoes with moisture

content beyond FMP may be liable liquefy.

Transportable Moisture Limit - is defined as 90% of the FMP. From the ship

operators and master’s perspective the important figures for the laboratory to

determine are the TML of a representative sample of the cargo to be loaded and its

actual moisture content. It is a requirement of SOLAS that the average moisture

content of any type of granular cargo in any cargo space must not be higher than the

TML. This is an important point; it is of little use to the vessel if an average moisture

content of all cargo is provided. This may lead to dry cargo in some holds and cargo

liable to liquefy in others which will put the vessel at risk.

In order to find the TML the laboratory must first determine the FMP of the sample

using one of the prescribed techniques.

Loading a cargo above, at or near its FMP represents an unacceptably high risk for

vessels and for this reason a safety margin is allowed – this gives the TML.
After determining the FMP the moisture content of the cargo is obtained by drying

samples of the cargo in accordance with Section 4.6.4 of the Code.

If the moisture content of the cargo sampled is below the TML then the cargo should

be safe to load.

However, there is no way for the vessel’s operators or master to determine whether

or not the sampling and testing procedures used by shippers are adequate and/or

accurate. In some cases such as with some nickel ore cargoes, the subject of their

own briefing, not only can the techniques used for testing be deficient, but also the

inhomogeneous nature of the cargo itself makes FMP determination using the

techniques described in the IMSBC Code problematic as they are designed for more

homogeneous cargoes.
3. Safe working load of heavy lift items

Safe working load

All cranes are designed to comfortably carry what is known as their , abbreviated to

SWL. This figure excludes lifting accessories such as grapples and lifting beams, so

their weight must be added to that of any load being carried. The SWL limit is so

crucially important that you will see it spelt out in large letters on the bridge of every

crane, in fact on both sides of the bridge. That way there is no excuse for anyone

trying to hoist a load which is too heavy. Apart from clearly advertising the SWL

there are a couple of other things that help ensure a crane is not inadvertently

subjected to demands beyond its lifting capacity. Firstly, as we would expect,

engineers must establish during the design stage what a crane's maximum credible

load will be when it comes into operation, including the weight of lifting beams,

spreader frames and the likes. However, this is not the load a crane is designed to

carry; to be on the safe side the SWL is set at 10% or so above that weight. But it

does not end there. Design codes incorporate an additional safety margin, effectively

an inbuilt overdesign that ensures EOT cranes are capable of lifting at least 25%

more weight than the SWL they are authorized to carry. I'll give you an example.

Let's say engineers have done their homework and concluded the maximum load a

crane will carry during its operational life is 90 t. If you add 10% it brings the SWL to

99 t, but we are dealing in round numbers, as sensible engineers do, so will set the
actual SWL at 100 t. With the SWL established, crane engineers use statutory codes

to develop a detailed design and one fine day a shiny new crane gets installed in a

building. With a crane designed to carry 10% more than its maximum credible load,

you might reasonably assume its commissioning tests will be based on exactly the

same margin of safety, in our case a weight of 100 t. But no, before an EOT crane

can begin operating, it must be tested to ensure it complies with the additional 25%

stipulated by design codes, in this example 125 t. A 90 t load carried by equipment

with at least a 125 t capability is the kind of margin most of us would settle for. Even

my ultracautious safety specialist friends will accept percentages like that. Having

taken in those numbers you might be thinking something along the lines of, “Even

though a crane has ‘SWL 100t’ picked out in big letters on its bridge, we all know it

could really lift 125 t if it had to. So maybe we can bypass the SWL now and again?”

I was pretty sure the answer would be, “No” but checked it out, just in case. Sure

enough the stated SWL is a crane's absolute working limit. If operators find their load

demands are higher, then regulations dictate that a crane must be requalified and if

necessary upgraded to meet a new SWL. It just goes to show how important it is to

get that number right while a crane is nothing more than lines on paper, or an image

on a computer screen.
Initial tests and re-tests of derrick rigs

To comply with the national and class regulations, ships’ derricks designed to

operate as single swinging derricks are initially tested with a proof load that exceeds

the specified safe working load of the derrick by the following amounts:

SWL less than 20 tonnes—25% in excess of SWL

SWL 20–50 tonnes—5 tonnes in excess of SWL

SWL over 50 tonnes—10% in excess of SWL.

Heavy-lift derricks are tested at an angle of not more than 45° to the horizontal and

other derricks at an angle of not more than 30° to the horizontal. During the test the

boom is swung as far as possible in both directions, and any derrick intended to be

raised by power under load is raised to its maximum working angle at the outermost

position. Before the test for a heavy derrick it is usual to ensure that the vessel has

adequate transverse stability. Before, during, and after all tests it is necessary to

ensure that none of the components of the rig show signs of any failure, and it is

good practice to have a preventer rigged during the test as a precaution against any
of the span gear carrying away. On completion of the test the heel of the derrick

boom is clearly marked with:

1.Its safe working load in single purchase.

2.Its safe working load in double purchase, if it is designed for that purpose.

3.Its safe working load in union purchase, if it is designed for that purpose, the letter

‘U’ preceding the safe working load.

For example,

SWL 3/5 tonnes SWL (U) 2 tonnes and a certificate of test and examination is

issued in an approved form.Re-tests are required if the rig is substantially modified

or a major part is damaged and repaired. The International Labour Organization

(ILO) Convention, 152 adopted, 25 June 1979, requires thorough examination by a

competent person once every 12 months and re-testing at least once every 5 years.
4. Cleaning cargo hold of refrigerated cargoes and livestock

Prior to opening of the weather deck hatch covers, these have to be swept/mopped

in case they are wet. The tween deck hatch covers need to be swept, prior to

opening, as to avoid that debris and dirt may fall on the cargo in the compartment

below.Pulp or spike temperatures are to be taken and recorded so that documented

proof can be produced in case of claims lodged at a later stage. The hatch covers

are only to be opened shortly prior to commencement of the discharge operations

and are to be closed during stevedores' breaks. It should be considered, and

sometimes this is mentioned in the carriage instructions, to have the reefer

installation in a working condition with the fans at slow speed as stevedores may

complain regarding the noise produced by the fans at middle or high speed.

General In case the stevedores have to walk on top of the cargo during loading and

discharge operations so-called walking boards have to be used to protect the cargo.

At any stage, smoking in the cargo holds is not allowed. The same goes for glass

bottles and any other foreign matter that people may bring with them into the holds.

Most reefer vessels are fitted with deck cranes, which may be used for loading

and/or discharging. The lights fitted on such cranes should be protected in order to

avoid that broken pieces may contaminate the cargo. In case of leakage from the

hydraulic hoses and equipment of the cranes it has to be avoided that hydraulic oil

will contaminate the cargo.

#5 reasons why cargo hold cleaning matters

1. Inadequate cleaning can cause cargo contamination, leading to cargo damage

claims from the receivers. For instance, if contaminated by residues, cement

loses its binding capacity, salt becomes liquid and sugar can ferment. A single

piece of coal left behind can get the hold failed.

2. The consequences of non-compliance can be costly. Vessels may be held in

port until surveyors are satisfied, but a ship is only earning while at sea and not in

port, meaning that time in port must be kept to minimum.

3. Insufficient cleaning of the intended cargo and not meeting the charterer

requirements can lead to delays and charter party disputes, which can lead

even to the risk of off-hire. An off-hire clause is providing for exceptions from the

obligation for charterers to pay hire from the time of delivery until redelivery.

4. Except from these, failure to carry out a sweep-up of cargo debris, even when

loading the same type of cargo, could hide fresh damage which may also lead

to a claim.

5. Remaining residues may not only damage the next cargo, but also affect the

painted surfaces and increase corrosion, posing an additional threat for the hull

along the sea water.

It becomes understood that a thorough cargo hold cleaning is vital for the whole

transport operation to run smoothly. This is why personnel onboard and onshore,

involved in cargo holds preparation and in fixing vessels respectively, should be familiar

with the whole range of issues surrounding the cleaning of holds.

Tips for proper cargo hold cleaning

 Prior to commencing the operation, a risk assessment and a tool box talk should

be carried out, to identify potential risk areas for everyone involved.

 Cargo residues contained in hold wash water should be disposed in line with

MARPOL Annex V or any local requirements.

 There should be sufficient fresh water to enable a final thorough fresh water rinse

of all holds to remove all traces of chlorides.

 Typical water washing should be conducted from the top down, commencing with

the hatchcovers and coamings, moving on to the underdeck area, then the

bulkheads and finishing with the bilges.

 Chemical cleaning should be conducted from bottom to top, commencing with

the bilges, with the underdeck area, hatchcovers and coamings washed last, to

prevent residues from streaking on the vertical surfaces.

 In cases where holds are to be cleaned while cargo remains onboard in other

holds, extra vigilance is needed regarding the ingress of wash water into holds

containing cargo via the cargo hold bilge system.

 Crew should check that cleaning chemicals are compatible with the paint system

and the next cargo to be loaded.

 Holds and bilge wells should be completely dry prior to loading the next cargo.

 If there is a delay between completion of cleaning and loading, holds should be

regularly checked for ship sweat.

 Upon completion of the cleaning, all the holds should be inspected by a

responsible officer before arrival of the shipper’s hold surveyor.

 ASSIGNMENT
IN
CARGO HANDLING
AND
STOWAGE

SUBMITTED BY: AUNZO, KEVIN P.