INGLÊS TÉCNICO MARÍTIMO 2

LICENCIATURA EM ENGENHARIA DE MÁQUINAS MARÍTIMAS

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LESSON 2 Module 1

Do you know how many types of ships exist?

There is a wide range of different vessels. Some of them follow standard designs and can carry a variety of cargoes while others are
more specialized and able to carry commodities, which the standard vessels cannot.

General Cargo Ships

In fact, there are thousands of cargo ships on the move around the world, transporting goods across the globe and are crucial for international
trade by transporting things such as food, petroleum, furniture, metals, clothes and machinery.

Bulk Carriers

Moreover, bulk carriers mainly carry bulk cargoes such as iron ore, coal crude and minerals, These large vessels are divided into several separate
holds covered by hatches and can be identifiable by the hatches raised above deck level which cover the large cargo holds. In port, cargo is
loaded by conveyor and spouts or by crane and grab. Some bulk carriers are geared; meaning that usually a crane is located between each hatch
to allow the loading and unloading of cargo at berths without the need for shore equipment.

Their hatches have very large openings and the holds are unrestricted and free of obstacles so that the vessel should be loaded and discharged
quickly. Due to the bulk nature of the cargo they load, the holds of these vessels have been constructed to be “self-trimming” to allow the easy
and rapid stowage and trimming of the bulk cargoes.
Illustration of a bulk carrier

In particular, during unloading, cranes with grabs are usually used although specialized equipment may be occupied for certain cargoes. Cargo
will usually be unloaded into hoppers and will then be transferred by conveyor to silos or open storage. Some smaller vessels can discharge
directly into road vehicles.

In contrast to the general cargo vessels which can load several different cargoes, cargo in bulk carriers is usually homogenous. There are several
different types of bulk carriers with the main distinction between each other being their size, i.e. Handysize, Supramax, Ultramax, Capezine, or
their trading area, i.e. Panamax, Aframax, Suezmax.
Container ships

Container ships have become the main way of transporting manufactured goods around the world. Namely, a container has a standard size to
simplify transportation and can be transferred between truck, train and ship relatively easily. In particular, containers can accommodate anything
from food to electrical equipment to automobiles. Containers are also used to transport bagged and palletized goods, liquids and refrigerated
cargo.
Container ships are made up of several holds, each equipped with “cell guides” which allow the containers to fit into place. Each container is
then attached to the vessel and to each other in order to provide stability. Once the first layers of containers are loaded and the hatches are closed,
extra layers are loaded on top.

Containers are usually loaded by specialized or general-purpose cranes with container lifting attachments, yet some small container vessels are
geared to allow self-loading and discharging.

Standard containers are measured as TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) and are generally 20 feet (1 TEU) or 40 feet (2 TEUs) long. All
standard shipping containers are 8 feet wide and 8 feet 6 inches tall. They may also be longer, taller or shorter standard sizes, but these are not as
common.

Container vessels are used predominantly on liner routes and are some of the biggest vessels afloat. Ultra Large Container Vessels (ULCVs)
such as the Emma Maersk, the lead ship of the Maersk E-Class vessels, can carry approximately 15,000 TEU, depending on container weight.
Large container vessels are restricted by their size to certain ports around the world and are also unable to transit certain areas due to draft or
other restrictions.

Reefer Vessels
Refrigerated vessels, also known as reefers, are indeed very specialized ships. Such vessels usually consist of perishable goods such as fruit or
meat and cargo is stowed in holds which are then sealed and temperature controlled. They have two or more decks and their holds are insulated
to keep the temperature in the holds at the cold level required by each cargo. Such vessels can achieve very high speed in order to reduce time
and their gears can operate fast enough so that the cargo is not exposed during the load and discharge operations.

Crude Oil Tankers

On the other hand, tankers are ships that primarily carry huge quantities of liquid and a wide range of liquid cargoes, such as oil, water, wine,
crude oil, chemicals and petroleum products and lots of different chemicals that need transporting. They come in many different sizes but some
of the larger vessels have the capacity to carry several hundred thousand tons. Tankers may look like bulk carriers, yet their deck is flat and
covered by oil pipelines and vents.

Like in the case of the bulk carrier, economies of scale have driven up the size of tankers and today the largest examples have a carrying capacity
or “deadweight” of over 400,000 tons.

In fact, the largest ships afloat are the Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) and the Ultra Large Crude Carriers (ULCCs). Their size ranges from
about 50,000 MT deadweight to more than 500,000 MT deadweight which is the size of modern ULCC. These ships are designed to load crude
oil and transport it to refineries around the world where it can be processed into petroleum products. The largest crude carriers often load and
unload at offshore buoys and terminals as are too large to enter most ports.

Whatsoever, when refined, crude oil separates into various oil products. Product Carriers which are generally smaller than crude carriers,
transport these refined products from larger terminals to smaller ports around the world. Products carried can include the gasoline, kerosene,
gasoil while the heaviest are the dirty products known as fuel oils or residual oils, petroleum, jet fuel, diesel, asphalt, lubricating oil and tar.
Smaller tankers are also used to transport non-petroleum bulk liquids such as molasses and palm oil. Product tankers vary in size from general
purpose tankers up to about 160,000 tons deadweight.

Chemical tankers
Chemical carriers usually have a deadweight of 5,000-40,000 tons and often have specialized cargo systems suited to the type of cargo carried.
These systems can include heating or cooling apparatus and advanced cleaning systems in order to ensure whether the purity of a cargo is
maintained when loaded into a tank that may have previously carried something different. Chemical tankers are mainly used either for the
carriage of oils which are extremely hazardous (IMO I); the carriage of edible and vegetable oils or very clean oil products (IMO II / IMO III),
such as palm, olive and sunflower oil, soya and fats. .

LNG and LPG Carriers

LNG and LPG Carriers are a highly specialized form of tankers that have started as converted oil tankers but then evolved into highly
specialized purpose-built vessels. They are designed to either carry Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) or Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) under
pressure; with LNG carriers usually being larger than those carrying LPG. In fact, the largest LNG carriers are the ‘Q-Flex’ vessels with a gas
capacity of up to 266,000 cubic meters.
Vessels for oil and gas exploration

Heavy-lift and Project Cargo Vessels

Moreover, heavy-lift or Project Cargo Vessels are mostly purpose-built vessels that specialize in the transport of extremely heavy or bulky
objects such as other ships and large industrial components. Some heavy-lift vessels are equipped with high capacity cranes to load at ports
without a heavy-lift capability. Other types are semi-submergible, which allows a cargo to be floated into position before the heavy-lift vessel
de-ballasts to lift the cargo out of the water.

Common project cargoes are wind turbine blades and towers, quay cranes and industrial machinery. Some project cargo vessels have been
adapted further to suit their role. For instance, ‘Jack up’ vessels can put down ‘legs’ to lift themselves out of the water. This is commonly used
by vessels installing offshore wind farms where stability is required during the placing of the turbine towers.

RoRo and Passenger ships

Roll on-Roll off or Ro-Ro vessels can come in many forms including vehicle ferries and cargo ships carrying truck trailers, but the major type
used for the transport of road vehicles is the car carrier. These slab-sided vessels feature multiple vehicle decks comprising parking lanes, linked
by internal ramps with access to the shore provided by one or more loading ramp. Cargo capacity of such vessels is measured in Car Equivalent
Units (CEU) and the largest car carriers afloat today have a capacity of over 6,000 CEU.
The two important measures indicating the size of Ro/Ro are the length of the marked parking lanes and the size of the entrance ramp. Once the
cars are aboard, they are braced to the ship’s deck to keep them from moving around while the ship is at sea.

Ro/Ro vessels are suitable for cargo which can be driven on/off the ship such as cars, lorries and cargo on trailers. This ship type is quite popular
to transport vehicles as it’s safer and much faster to just drive a car onto the ship instead of using a crane.
 A Ro-
Ro vessel/ Credit:

Passenger ships
Adding to this, passenger ships are officially defined as ships that carry more than 12 passengers up to cruise and holiday ships that can
accommodate more than 6,000 passengers. In fact, passenger ships can be the most specialized cargo of all; the needs and desires of passengers
have driven the design of the modern ferries and cruise vessels.
Notably, the demand for cruise ships expanded rapidly during the 1980s, leading to a new generation of large and luxurious ‘floating hotels’,
lavishly equipped with lounges, fitness centers, casinos, restaurants, shops, entertainment facilities and pools among others, particularly when
the ferry is on a relatively long route. The largest cruise vessels can be up to 360 meters long and 60 meters wide.

Fast Ferries

Additionally, high speed crafts, sometimes called ‘fast ferries,’ are mainly designed for civilian use as passenger ferries. They also include
hovercrafts, catamarans and hydrofoil boats. High speed crafts can go faster than other vessel types because they use air pressure and powerful
turbine propellers.

Tugboats
Tugs are also used to tow barges from port to port. These sea-going tugs are also employed for the movement of large structures such as offshore
platforms and floating storage units. Some tugs are utilized to push barges; this is particularly common on rivers where the tug can exert more
turning force on the tow.

There are also tugs that are designed to ‘slot’ into a barge or hull; once secured, this composite unit behaves and is treated like a standard
powered vessel. These composite units, like tugs employed to push the cargo, are mostly common on North American river and coastal trade.
Modern tugs are highly maneuverable with pulling power, or bollard pull, sometimes in excess of 100 tons, although harbor tugs are generally
much less powerful. Such vessels can be found in ports around the world in order to assist in the berthing, unberthing and movement of large or
less maneuverable vessels within port limits. Tugs are also used to assist the most maneuverable vessels during periods of bad weather or when
carrying dangerous or polluting cargoes.

Harbor tugs are also often employed to move barges, floating cranes and personnel around ports. Larger units are kept on standby in strategic
locations to act as deep-sea rescue and salvage tugs.

Fishing Vessels

Last but not least, fishing vessels are boats and ships designed to catch fish and marine wildlife. They can be used both for leisure purposes and
commercial fishing. There are millions of fishing vessels being used to catch fish around the world.

Some other specialist ships include anchor handling and supply vessels for the offshore oil industry; salvage tugs; ice breakers and research
vessels.