A whale
 The A Whale during tests on July 4th 2010
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The A Whale is a bulk tanker of the Taiwanese shipping company TMT Group .
history
The ship was built in 2010 as a type of a series by Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan, South Korea for the TMT Group of the entrepreneur Nobu Su, it sailed under the Liberian flag . The ship was originally only intended to transport oil and iron ore and was converted into an oil suction vehicle in Portugal to combat the consequences of the oil spill caused by the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico . The ship was supposed to remove oil from 80 million liters (80,000 m³) of polluted seawater every day.
The "A" in the ship's name is a sequential alphabetical designation. The ship has seven sister ships , so the name goes up to "H". In addition to the A Whale , the sister ships B Whale and C Whale were converted to oil suction vehicles and should also be used in the Gulf of Mexico.
In the first half of 2013 the ship was at anchor off Suez with technical problems. At the end of June, the owner, whose crewing agency had not paid the 21-man crew since the beginning of the year, filed for bankruptcy. As a result, the crew, including 14 Indians, asked a seaman's organization in Chennai for help, as both the fuel reserves and the food ran out. A US court ruled in late June that Taiwanese banks had to give money to supply the ship with fuel and food. The ship's captain, Khan Jubair Niaz, won the Lloyds List Award for Seafarer of the Year for his role in the matter .
functionality
The polluted sea water is sucked in through twelve openings on both sides of the ship's hull and pumped into the interior of the ship. Here it runs through several tank systems in which most of the components of the oil collect on the surface of the water due to its lower density and can be skimmed off there (principle of the oil separator ). The remaining water eventually ends up back in the sea.
Calls
After the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform on April 20, 2010 and the subsequent oil spill , the A Whale was converted into an oil suction vehicle and could only be tested under real conditions on site. The ship reached the Gulf of Mexico on June 30, 2010. Since the first attempts at deployment were accompanied by unfavorable weather conditions and heavy seas, no objective assessment of the effectiveness of the A Whale was possible. If the tests had shown positive results, the ship should be used on and around the scene of the accident for a longer period of time. According to BP, the oil mixed with the water is “not thick enough” so that it can be separated cleanly in the ship. The US Coast Guard therefore piloted the tanker to a region in which the oil concentration is higher. The test phase was extended to July 8, 2010.
Admiral Paul F. Zukunft , who was entrusted with the cleaning work with A Whale , later described the ship as "unsuitable". It was therefore no longer used. The effectiveness compared to smaller ships is "negligible".
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Oil Prince. In: Badische Zeitung , July 6, 2010.
- ↑ a b Giant tanker supposed to suck oil out of the Gulf , Spiegel Online , July 2, 2010. Retrieved July 5, 2010.
- ↑ Our managed fleet ( Memento of the original from February 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , NOS Shipmanagement. Retrieved October 5, 2012.
- ↑ N. Anand; P. Oppili: 14 Indian sailors on stranded Liberian-flagged ship in Gulf of Suez. In: The Hindu , July 1, 2013 (English)
- ↑ A Whale SOS Distress. In: Ship to Shore. Winter Edition 2013, Mission to Seafarers, Victoria, pp. 1/2.
- ↑ Glittering night at Lloyd's List global Awards. In: Lloyd's List , October 2, 2013 (English)
- ↑ Giant skimmer 'A Whale' tested at BP oil spill site , BBC News , July 4, 2010.
- ^ Giant Oil Skimmer Being Tested in Gulf of Mexico , Fox News Channel , July 3, 2010. Retrieved July 7, 2010.
- ^ "A Whale": A Giant Fights Oil , Spiegel Online, July 2, 2010. Retrieved July 5, 2010.
- ↑ Fight against the oil spill in the USA - "A Whale" does not bring any salvation yet ( memento of July 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on May 9, 2015.
- ↑ Oil Spill Reaches Texas - Supertanker Still Unsuccessful , Die Welt , July 6, 2010. Retrieved October 5, 2012
- ^ Test halfway - seal holds , Süddeutsche Zeitung, July 17, 2010. Accessed July 17, 2010
- ↑ Giant tanker "A Whale" cannot extract oil , Welt Online, July 18, 2010. Retrieved July 18, 2010
- ↑ “A Whale” Operational Review Completed | Restore the Gulf . App.restorethegulf.gov. Archived from the original on July 20, 2010. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
