Encounter Bay class
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The 1968/69 as Encounter Bay class built, partly as Moreton Bay class designated ship class was a series of turbine ships of the shipping company Overseas Containers . The container ships of the second generation introduced at that time is the world's largest ships of this type.
history
The series consisted of five units that were ordered in 1967 from the Hamburg shipyards Blohm + Voss , Howaldtswerke and Deutsche Werft , as well as one unit from the Scottish shipyard Fairfield Shipbuilders from Govan .
The six ships were part of a total package worth the equivalent of DM 462 million, with which the shipping consortium OCL began the containerization of the Europe-Australia voyage. In addition to the ships, OCL invested in the acquisition of the necessary containers and the necessary port facilities in Australia. Several shipyards from Great Britain, Japan and Germany applied for the largest shipbuilding contract ever awarded abroad, valued at around DM 275 million. One of the decisive reasons for producing the majority of the ships at German shipyards was their promise to deliver the series in the exceptionally short time, one per month. The favorable financing conditions also played a major role. 80 percent of the construction cost was advanced and should be repaid within six and a half years at an interest rate of 5.5 percent. This meant that conditions could be offered that were otherwise only offered by Japanese shipyards at the time.
The ship design of these first newbuildings of the OCL was carried out by Marshall Meek, the chief marine engineer and director of the OCL's Blue Funnel / Ocean Fleets design department . The shipbuilding implementation, also a novelty at the time, was carried out jointly by the construction departments of the three Hamburg shipyards in cooperation with the shipping group OCL. Each of the shipyards was responsible for certain sub-areas and also assumed responsibility for the other shipyards in the respective area. Shortly after the order was placed, in 1968 the Deutsche Werft and Howaldtswerke Hamburg and Howaldtswerke Kiel merged to form Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW). The Flinders Bay , Discovery Bay , Encounter Bay and Botany Bay were therefore officially listed as newbuildings of the Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft, despite the different building numbers referring to the respective shipyard.
The first ship of the class to be delivered was Encounter Bay , which opened the Europe-Southeast-Australia liner service on March 6, 1969 and first called at Australia in early April 1969. The service initially generated heavy losses for the first few years, but was also considered a pacemaker and market leader in the region.
Building on the experience gained with the construction of Moreton Bay , the Blohm + Voss shipyard delivered the Sydney Express in 1970 .
In 1980/81 the propulsion systems of all six ships were converted to diesel engines. Three of the ships that Moreton Bay , the Discovery Bay and Jervis Bay ran from May 1980 on the conversion now than Govan Shipbuilders the former shipyard of firmierende Fairfields shipyard, Jervis Bay on.
The ships
| Ship name | Shipyard / construction no. | Launching / delivery | Whereabouts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flinders Bay | HDW / 826 | 1969 | Canceled from November 1996 |
| Discovery Bay | HDW / 827 | 1969 | Canceled in Alang from August 1999 |
| Encounter Bay | HDW / 1000 | 1969 | Canceled January 1999 |
| Botany Bay | HDW / 1001 | 1969 | |
| Moreton Bay | Blohm + Voss / 859 | August 22, 1968/13. June 1969 | Canceled in Alang from August 1999 |
| Jervis Bay | Upper Clyde Shipbuilders, Govan | 1969 |
literature
- Prager, Hans Georg: Blohm + Voss . Ships and machines for the world. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1977, ISBN 3-7822-0127-2 .
- Linde, H .: Transport of refrigerated cargo in containers on board container ships . In: Yearbook of the Shipbuilding Society . Vol. 65, 1971, pp. 197-223 .
- Cudahy, Brian J .: Box boats . How container ships changed the world. Fordham University press, New York 2006, ISBN 0-8232-2568-2 .