Refrigerated cargo services from the Hamburg-Süd shipping company
Using the example of the refrigerated cargo services of the Hamburg-Süd shipping company , various developments are illustrated which, in addition to the ships, particularly affect the interplay between cargo and technology.
Summary
In addition to the general developments, caused by the progress made in converting the ship's propulsion system from the steam engine to the diesel engine , the transition to the container and the growth in size of the ships, the influence of the special cargo on the technological development is to be worked out.
The improved technologies from coal to oil between the world wars and the transition from manual operation to progressive automatic operation around the period from 1965 to 1975 led to a significant reduction in the crews of the ships. The size growth of the ships from 1930 by 3,000 to 4,000 NRT, ( Parana, Belgrano ) over the 1960s, with the 5,000 to 6,000 NRT ships of the Cap-San class is clear. The appearance of the 10,000 to 15,000 NRT ships of the Monte class and, by 2010, the 25,000 to 30,000 NRT reefer container ships of the Rio class , is not a peculiarity of these north-south services. Between 1930 and 2010 the size of the ships increased by a factor of 10, while the crew (1930 by 40–50; 2010 by 20–25) changed by a factor of 0.5. This means that 20 times the load can be transported per person. The factor increases to 40 to 50 times if the speed of the ships and the extremely shortened port times due to container handling are taken into account.
Step 1
Although refrigeration technology has been used on ships for fifty years, modifications were made in this service by Hamburg Süd around 1930 in order for the first time to transport simple refrigerated cargo , fruit in the temperature range above 0 ° C. Demanding fruits like bananas could only be transported with the fastest ship in this service, the 20- knot ship Cap Arcona . A few years later, other ships were converted to transport frozen meat in the range of minus 10 degrees Celsius, i.e. deep-freezing. Today this cargo is transported at minus 18 ° C. This means that the refrigeration technology of that time was, in contrast to today, limited to one temperature range (plus charge; minus charge).
2nd step
The second technological step took place in 1961 with the ships of the Cap-San class , whose refrigeration systems were able to provide the temperatures, their fans, the air circulation rates and fresh air quantities, and their measurement and control technology, the required temperature accuracy depending on the cargo.
3rd step
The international containerization that began in 1966 required new solutions in north-south services with a high proportion of refrigerated loads of up to 50 percent and more. This resulted in the third technology step at Hamburg Süd around 1970, porthole technology with ship-mounted refrigeration systems and cooling air distribution (cooling rods). First in the USA-Australia service, then around 1980 also in traffic from Europe to South America, such reefer container ships were used by Hamburg Süd.
4th step
Around 2000, Hamburg Süd introduced integral refrigerated container technology in a fourth step in the north-south shipping areas. In the meantime, the reliability of these refrigerated containers has been sufficient for these services and automatic, low-personnel monitoring systems are available.
The fact that today fresh pineapples, bananas or fresh orange juice are offered at the same prices as apples or apple juice can largely be attributed to shipping and these maritime technologies. Hamburg Süd was significantly involved in all of these technical developments, and pioneering work was carried out on some innovations, as can be seen in the following sections.
Europe-South America (1929-1949)
Cold rooms for fruit cargo
Around 1929/30 the cargo supply shrank due to the global economic crisis . Too many departures from Europe to South America led to an intensified battle for cargo. For this reason, the Hamburg South American Steamship Company (HSDG) was looking for Hamburg Süd niches for short and cargo cooling rooms were provided for refrigerated cargo. Six cargo ships were given cold stores for citrus fruits, mainly oranges. For bananas whose sea voyage is max. Was allowed to take 15 to 18 days, only the Cap Arcona (2) was considered due to the speed . Here, cold rooms for 12,000 bunches of bananas and special handling facilities were installed on board but also in the Hamburg-Süd shed in the port of Hamburg .
Cold rooms for frozen meat (1936)
In the mid-1930s, the freighters Parana, Espana, La Plata, Buenos Aires, Belgrano, Montevideo and Rio Grande were converted or equipped to transport frozen meat. This cargo was transported at minus 10 ° C in the approximately 6000 m³ refrigerated hold. These ships with measurements from 3,000 to 4,000 NRT had steam engines, steam turbines or even diesel engines, ran at 3,000 to 4,000 hp at speeds of 13 knots and had a crew of 40 to 50 people.
Europe-South America (1950–1980)
In 1950 Hamburg Süd was converted from a stock corporation into a limited partnership, the OHG Dr. August Oetker KG participated with 49.4 percent. When Eggert and Amsinck resigned as personally liable partners in 1955, Rudolf August Oetker took their place and the OHG Dr. August Oetker took over all of the commanders' facilities.
Cap- class (1955)
The shapely, 13 to 14 knot fast Santa ships , which were built from 1950 onwards, did not have any cooling rooms. It was not until the outwardly white Cap class , the first was the Cap Blanco (1955), that refrigerated cargo services to South America began again after the Second World War . These ships were given 450,000 cbft (1,2750 m 3 ) holds, of which 120,000 cbft were refrigerated. A total of eight ships of this class were put into service at speeds of 17.5 knots from 1955 to 1956.
The cold store capacity was increased to 240,000 cbft in 1959 due to the increasing refrigeration load. In addition to the seasonal cargo such as apples, pears, peaches and grapes from Argentina as well as citrus fruits and orange juice concentrate from Brazil, the chilled beef to be transported hanging was transported. As Chilled beef chilled beef in the temperature range of minus 0.5 is referred to minus 1.5 degree Celsius, in contrast to minus 15 to minus 20 degrees Celsius or frozen frozen frozen meat . That is a very valuable and profitable load. Their successful transport required technically very sophisticated systems and a well-coordinated team, especially the refrigeration engineer ( polar bear ) and the cargo officer. This is particularly to be seen against the background of the measurement and control technology of the time. The systems were largely "operated by hand".
Cap-San Class (1961)
The Cap San Lorenzo (July 1961) and Cap San Nicolas led the Cap-San class with a deadweight capacity of 10,670 dwt, of which six ships were ordered with 150,000 cbft cold storage capacity. They replaced the cap ships, which were largely used in the Columbus services. The speed increased to 20 knots was the answer to the growing proportion of refrigerated cargo. As early as 1963, the cold store capacity was increased by around 95,000 cbft due to the increasing refrigeration load. These ships remained in service in South America until the mid-1980s, when they were sold. The Cap San Diego from this class of ship is now a museum ship in the port of Hamburg.
Reefer ships (1958-2000)
In 1958 three reefer ships (i.e. ships whose holds are all insulated and can be cooled) were put into service. They were temporarily used in the Columbus service, but mainly chartered out. Now the shipping company or RA Oetker is more involved in refrigerated shipping and has also taken over shares in the small refrigerated ships (670–2,000 tdw) from the HC Horn shipping company , which experts call the Hörnchen and are chartered worldwide.
Three series of reefer ships continued this development, the Polarlicht and Polarstern (6510 tdw) delivered in 1964 with the beginning of automation. The larger, a total of six Polar country ships (around 8,000 tdw), which were delivered from 1967 , were designed and built with a different philosophy, which caused great problems for the shipping company and especially the shipyard. The Polar Honduras and Pola Cost Rica (10.9000 dwt) that followed in 1979 took a technological step back in several respects and again showed a conservative silhouette on the outside.
Hamburg Süd later concluded a joint venture with the English Blue Star Lines, which operated as a Star Reefers Pool with up to 35 reefer vessels. These were own and chartered refrigerated ships that were used worldwide.
In the mid-1990s, six Stocznia Gdanska B369 reefer vessels built in Poland were purchased from Norway, which could be described as the polar country class (2). They are still in use today, but have all been sold again.
Columbus Line
Brazil - United States (1912)
In 1912 Hamburg Süd took over a line between Brazil and the United States. It was the New York-New Orleans-Brazil service originally founded by Sloman. This was the first time Hamburg Süd was involved in cross trade, which was discontinued during the First World War.
East Coast Service (1957)
In 1957, an American line was taken over by the Du Pont Group and in 1957 the Columbus Line was created, connecting the La Plata area and Brazil with the east coast of North America and Canada. Since meat and fruit are also important cargoes here, the seven ships in this service were equipped with cold storage rooms. This service had to be temporarily suspended in 1967 due to the Equal Access Agreement negotiated between Brazil and the USA . In 1987 the east coast service was resumed, now with container ships. In addition to charter ships, there were the 940 TEU ships Columbus Ohio and Columbus Olinda . In 1990 the Columbus Olivos (ex Monte Pascoal ) and Monte Cervantes (2) with 1200 TEU also came into this service. When the Brazilian shipping company Aliança took part in this service with two 1000 TEU ships in 1991 , the departure frequency was reduced from 15 to 9 days.
West coast USA / Canada - Australia / New Zealand (1961)
In addition, another Columbus Line service between the west coast of the USA / Canada and Australia / New Zealand was started in 1961 with two reefer ships. This service was also carried out with reefer container ships from 1976 onwards. The 750 TEU ships Columbus Victoria , Columbus Virginia and Columbus Wellington from AG Weser , Seebeck plant ran 19 knots with 13,800 HP.
East coast USA - Australia / New Zealand (1963), from 1971 reefer container ships
In 1963 the east coast service followed from the USA through the Panama Canal to Australia / New Zealand.
From 1971, Hamburg Süd began using refrigerated container ships in this traffic, a pioneering achievement. The first container ship, the Columbus New Zealand (1971) , was a new build by Howaldtswerke - Deutsche Werft AG in Hamburg. This turbine ship had two steam turbines with a total of 25,000 hp, ran 22 knots and was equipped with a gantry crane for cargo handling. It had a loading capacity of 758 TEU and 454 PR-TEU. PR stands for Porthole Reefer TEU with a cooling capacity of around 1,000 cbft .
When it was commissioned, this ship was the largest reefer container ship in the world, with a capacity of around 450,000 cubic feet. Only classic refrigerated ships offered more space for refrigerated cargo. In 1986, due to the extremely high fuel costs, the ship's boiler and steam turbines were removed and a slow-running MAN two-stroke diesel engine with 12,000 hp was installed instead. This greatly reduced fuel consumption, and the speed dropped to 18.5 knots. The Columbus Australia and Columbus America were sister ships that were used in the same service.
Container ships in Europe-South America service (from 1980)
Monte- class (1981)
In 1980 the Santa Rosa , built in 1976 as a general cargo ship, was converted into a container ship. As Monte Sarmiento (15,000 tdw), it opened the container journey to South America. This comparatively late changeover to container traffic was due to the lack of infrastructure in the ports in southern America. Already in 1981/82 the Monte Rosa (2) and Monte Cervantes (2) were the first container ships to be built on the Europe-South America voyage, they had a carrying capacity of 23,500 dwt. They were container ships from the Bremerhaven Seebeck shipyard with refrigerated container connections based on the porthole principle . These ships were equipped with spaces for 20-foot porthole refrigerated containers.
Cap class (1990)
From 1989/90, the Cap class from the Flender shipyard, also equipped with spaces for porthole refrigerated containers, strengthened this service with 33,000 tdw. This porthole technology was gradually converted to the technology of integral refrigerated containers at the Hamburg Süd shipping company from 2001 . The refrigerated container ships of the Cap-San class (2001), which were integrated into the South America West Coast Service of Hamburg Süd, were the first newbuildings to have refrigerated container sockets for integral refrigerated containers instead of refrigerated rods.
Cap San class (2001)
With the reefer container ships of the Cap San class (3800 TEU), Hamburg Süd saw a paradigm shift in the transport of reefer containers in 2001. The principle of porthole containers was abandoned and the following container ships were set up for integral refrigerated containers. In the case of integral refrigerated containers, the cooling system, the air circulation system and the entire control and documentation for fully automatic operation are integrated in the refrigerated container. On the ship side, only a socket is required for the electrical power supply, and the data required for monitoring are also transmitted through the power cable (power cable transmission).
Monte- class container ships
The Monte Cervantes is the first ship of the Monte class , but the third ship of the Hamburg Süd to bear this traditional name. It was acquired by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. Ltd. built in Geoje (South Korea) and has been in service since 2004. The ships with a carrying capacity of 64,730 tdw are among the container ships with the world's largest cooling capacity with a container capacity of 5,552 TEU and 1,365 reefer container connections for up to 2,450 TEU storage spaces for reefer containers. Instead of the originally planned six identical 5,550 TEU container ships, ten ships were ultimately built. The tenth ship, the Monte Aconcagua , was christened on Friday, May 29, 2009 in Hong Kong .
Rio class (2008)
Since 2008, the Rio class has been the ninth container ship class of Hamburg Süd, taking into account the modifications from 1979 onwards. It largely corresponds to the last Monte class, but has been extended by one container bay and therefore has a container capacity increased to 5,900 TEU. The ships in this class are Hamburg Süd's largest container ships in 2009/10.
Explanations of the units of measurement
- 1 cubic foot is equal to 0.028317 cubic meters.
literature
- Otto J. Seiler: Course South America. Verlag ES Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 1996, ISBN 3-8132-0523-1 .
- Otto J. Seiler: South America trip. 2nd Edition. Verlag ES Mittler & Sohn, Herford 1993, ISBN 3-8132-0415-4 .
- J. Cooper, A. Kludas, J. Pein: The Hamburg America Line. The World Ship Society, 1989, ISBN 0-905617-50-9 .
- H. Linde: For transporting refrigerated cargo in containers on board ships. In: Hansa. No. 24, 1971.
- K.-H. High-rise: German refrigerated shipping. Hausschild Verlag, Bremen 1996, ISBN 3-931785-11-4 .