Elbe Maru
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The container ship Elbe Maru was built in 1971 for the Japanese shipping company Mitsui OSK Lines and was one of the fastest cargo ships in the world when it was built. It was the first full container ship of the third generation with a three-engine propulsion system.
history
Trio service
The Elbe Maru was ordered in 1970 by the Mitsui OSK Lines shipping company as hull number 903 from the Mitsui Zosen shipyard in Tamano . The Elbe Maru was initially planned as one of 17 new third-generation full container ships for use in the TRIO Container Service. The TRIO consortium consisted of Hapag-Lloyd , Overseas Containers Limited (OCL - again consisting of Ocean Transport & Trading Ltd, the Blue Funnel Line , P & O , the British & Commonwealth Shipping Company and Furness, Withy & Co. ), Ben Line Containers ( Ben Line Steamers and Ellerman Lines ), Nippon Yusen Kaisha and Messageries Maritimes . With the TRIO service, these shipping companies set up a container liner service from Europe to Kobe, Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong via the Suez Canal or Cape Town and the Panama Canal .
Working time
After delivery of the ship on March 24, 1972, the Elbe Maru was integrated into the trio service. From 1989 the ship was renamed by Mitsui OSK and continued to operate as North Sea . In 1994, the Danish shipping company AP Møller-Mærsk acquired the ship and used it as Maersk Tacoma . At the beginning of 1996, the Swiss shipping company Mediterranean Shipping Company took over the ship and operated it as MSC Insa until 2008 . In 2008 the ship was renamed twice, first on July 1 to the name MSC Koala and exactly two months later in H Reliance until it arrived in Alang, India on September 20, 2008, where it was finally canceled.
technology
The Elbe Maru's design was the world's first third-generation container ship with a three-diesel propulsion system. Shortly afterwards Mitsui designed the Toyama for the Norwegian shipping company Wilh on the basis of the Elbe Maru . Wilhelmsen whose superstructure was enlarged compared to the Elbe Maru and equipped differently in order to meet the demands of the Norwegian client. Together with a group of other ships such as the Selandia class (EAC) or the Nihon (SEA), the first very fast container ships with diesel propulsion came onto the market here. It was only in the course of the 1973 oil crisis that the large container ships, which had previously mostly been equipped with steam turbine drives, were completely converted to more energy-efficient propulsion systems.
The most outstanding detail of the ship was its propulsion system, which consisted of three B&W diesel engines arranged on starboard, midship and port. All three similar engines were built by the shipyard under license from the Danish manufacturer Burmeister & Wain, two-stroke diesel engines with a cylinder diameter of 84 centimeters and a stroke of 180 centimeters. The two side engines of the type B&W 9K84EF each had nine cylinders, developed around 23,500 hp and each directly drove a fixed propeller, the middle engine of the type B&W 12K84EF had twelve cylinders, an output of 28,000 hp and delivered this to a controllable pitch propeller . The total output of around 80,000 hp brought the ship to a test speed of over 31 knots. The ship's electrical supply consisted of five diesel generators with outputs between 1700 and 980 kilowatts.
The ship had eight holds with built-in cell guides and could transport 1842 TEU. There were connections for 160 refrigerated containers, loading gear was not installed.
literature
- Witthöft, Hans Jürgen: Container . The mega carriers are coming. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-7822-0882-X .
Web links
- Description at containership-info (English)