The great success of the "F" series ship types produced since 1968, in particular the demand for the Fortune units on the tramp ship and bulk market, prompted Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries and the design office Algonquin International to design the larger one on the Further develop dimensions of the St. Lawrence Seaway tailored type Fortune. The ships had five holds and a volume of 30,500 m³ (bulk goods) or 29,000 m³ (general cargo). Unlike the Fortune with its rectangular top side tanks arranged next to the hold, the Friendship type was designed as an open ship with a particularly large degree of deck opening of over 60%. Two holds were particularly suitable for holding long goods. The small room 3 was designed in a box shape with a double outer skin in order to simplify the grain transport, it could also be used as a ballast room. Optionally, hanging decks could also be ordered for the transport of vehicles. Two mobile gantry cranes, each with a capacity of 22 tons, replaced the electro-hydraulic loading gear on the Fortune ships. The versatile design for the transport of ores, bulk goods, wood and semi-finished products, but also containers, the simple design and the automated machine system made it possible to operate the ship with a crew of only 15 seafarers, which made operations easier for the rather small shipping companies with limited resources . The shipyard's focus was precisely on these small shipping companies, for whom it would have been difficult to finance newbuildings of a more complex type of ship at the time.
As with the previous types, the ships of this type were mainly handed over to Greek owners from 1977. When production started, the order backlog was already 21 units. A ship should be launched every month. Even today these ships can still be found in isolated cases, especially in ports in Asia and South America .
Individual evidence
↑ Rolf Schönknecht / Uwe Laue: Ocean Freighters of World Shipping, Volume 1 . Transpress VEB Verlag for Transport, Berlin, ISBN 3-344-00182-5
swell
Yoshiyoki Abe: The "Friendship" type cargo vessel . In: Ship and Harbor . Vol. 29, No.8 , August 1977, p.729-730 .
