Herft

The herft is a longitudinally or transversely arranged carrier in the plane of the hatch coaming of a ship .

details

A herft is a fixed or detachable support that is installed as part of the upper hatch construction. On the one hand, a hull is used to ensure sufficient rigidity of the ship's construction in the area of the hatches and the surrounding deck construction, and on the other hand, it is used to hold the hatch covers of a ship.

In the case of the hatch cover construction of inland vessels, longitudinal herfts are used as central longitudinal beams on which hatch covers or their substructures are stored with an outward slope.

Particularly in the development of the conventional general cargo ship via ships with a high degree of deck opening to full container ships , longitudinal herfts took on an important task in the construction of large hatch opening (s). If two or three hatches were arranged transversely next to each other in hatch-only ships such as the Del Rio class , longitudinal herfts of completely open ships connected the leading and aft edge of the hatch opening as a carrier in the direction of the ship's longitudinal axis.

The further development finally dropped the longitudinal herft. The necessary strength of the ship's hull was ensured in a different way and new hatch cover systems no longer need supports arranged amidships. The first Panamax container ships without a longitudinal hull were the ships of the Hanover Express class .