Lighter Aboard Ship
The term LASH (lighter aboard ship) represents a system in which loaded barge on ocean-going ships to be transported.
This article also covers similar but differently named systems.
development
The range of marine vessel types was expanded to include another type in September 1969. With the commissioning of the Acadia Forest , the transport of ships by ship to connect by seas separated inland waterways began. A large carrier ship accommodates ships designated as barges, booms, barges or barges without their own propulsion in the form of floating standardized freight containers. In the port of destination, the carrier ship separates from these vessels. There they are moved in the port waters, on canals and rivers as inland shipping vehicles in push convoys. The carrier ships are known as LASH carriers , barge carriers , kangaroo ships or lighter transport ships. Another name for this type of ship was lighter mother ship .
Economical meaning
Regardless of the respective port situation, each bar carrier should transport around five times more goods than the conventional general cargo ships that were common at the time . This was also the reason for the particular interest in this type of ship at the beginning of the 1970s and the optimistic prospects for the future. As early as the 1950s, general cargo transport by sea no longer met the demands of many sea transport customers. A rationalization of the general cargo handling at the time could only be achieved by standardizing the load sections, which were often very different in terms of their dimensions, shapes and external properties. The standardized ISO container only slowly gained acceptance worldwide in the 1960s . The large container terminals with their extensive conveyor systems and huge storage areas were still in the planning or development stage. Under these conditions, the LASH Carrier System with its barges , which can also be characterized as floating containers , offered itself as an alternative and supplement to the developing container traffic. At that time, transport experts were thinking of a future-oriented and rational transport technology. With the barges, there was no time pressure for unloading and loading. Inadequate handling equipment in the ports and a lack of quay berths had no impact on the operation of the carrier ship. While the barges were being unloaded and loaded, the carrier ship was already underway again with other barges. This made it possible for these ships to spend more than 80% of their annual operating time at sea. Conventional ships were often in port for half of their annual service life .
However, the ship type could not prevail. Lash barges were primarily used for heavy packages , various bulk cargo and for some bulk cargo that was not worth transporting with bulk carriers due to their relatively small quantities. On the other hand, they were rarely used for general cargo , which played a significant role in the planning. Ultimately, this type of ship was completely replaced by container ships .
The main transport routes were the routes between New Orleans ( Mississippi ) on one side and Rotterdam and Bremerhaven on the other side of the Atlantic.
building-costs
For the period at that time, the high throughput rates of more than 1500 tons per hour of the LASH and Seabee ships were impressive when you consider that the peak performance of conventional general cargo handling was barely 100 tons per hour. Even the modern container systems that were being built could handle just 1000 tons per hour. The enthusiasm for the Bargecarrier was dampened by the high investment costs. In 1972 the construction costs for a LASH ship in Belgium were still 50 million DM and in the USA about 25 million US dollars. A Seabee carrier ship was estimated to be around $ 35 million. The carrier ship also included the barges, of which, depending on the type, a barge cost between 40,000 and 100,000 US dollars. Since each ship required more than one set of barges and only several barges could be operated economically, an enormous investment had to be made. A fleet of three Seabee ships and the associated 246 barges cost around 125 million US dollars at the price and rate level of 1972.
history
The LASH system was developed by the American marine engineer Jerome L. Goldman in the 1960s . The world's first LASH carrier was the Acadia Forest (1969). This type of ship could accommodate 75 standardized barges, each with a load capacity of around 376 tons. On July 1, 1978, 29 light ships with a carrying capacity of 0.775 million GRT (GT) were registered. At the same time there were 69,020 ocean-going vessels over one hundred GRT (GT) worldwide. At the beginning of 1981 there were 34 bar carriers with a little more than 0.8 million GRT (GT). Worldwide in 1981 there were 73,864 seagoing vessels with more than 100 GRT (GT). The market share of light ships in 1981 was accordingly around 0.2% of transported cargo.
On December 15, 2007 the Rhine Forest , ex. Bilderdijk of the Holland America Line, for the last time in Rotterdam. She was a sister ship of the Munich . Due to the poor utilization, the LASH regular service between New Orleans and Rotterdam was discontinued. The Rhine Forest was scrapped in Chittagong from January 2008 .
The LASH lighter with the registration CG S 6013 (from the last Rotterdam voyage of the Rhine Forest ) was handed over to the De Binnenvaart Association in Dordrecht and is now part of the Inland Navigation Museum.
Technology LASH system
An important technical problem in the implementation of the new transport system was the handling of the barges. A distinguishing feature of the various projects and also the vehicles built was the way in which the barges were brought from or on board. The LASH system found the largest area of application. At the stern of the carrier ship, the barges were lifted individually out of the water by a very large gantry crane . This gantry crane could move over the entire length of the ship and thus stow the lifted barges several times on top of each other in the ship's hull and on deck. The cranes had a lifting capacity of more than 5 Giganewtons ( lifting around 500 t). The handling of a barge took an average of 15 minutes.
LASH ships built in Europe, Japan, the United States and the Soviet Union had almost uniform parameters.
Technical specifications
| Carrier type | LASH 1 | LASH 2 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Length over all | m | 262 | 250 |
| width | m | 32.50 | 30.50 |
| Draft | m | 11.30 | 10.70 |
| Load capacity | t | 43000 | 29600 |
| speed | kn | 19th | 22nd |
| Drive power | PS | 26000 | 32000 |
| Lighter type | |
|---|---|
| length | 18.70 m |
| width | 9.50 m |
| Side height | 4.00 m |
| Net weight | 80 t |
| Load capacity | 380 t |
| Draft | 2.60 m |
The German Hapag-Lloyd AG put a LASH ship - the Munich - into service in 1972 . This ship sank in the Atlantic in 1978.
Seabee system
The first ship in a series of three Seabee ships was the Doctor Lykes . A Seabee is a system in which a lifting platform is arranged at the stern of the carrier ship . This lift is also called Synchrolift . This has a lifting force of over 2000 Mp. The Synchrolift is lowered below the surface of the water. Two barges weighing up to 1000 tons are swum onto this underwater platform and lifted from there to the corresponding deck height. The barges are rolled lengthways to their stowage locations on special rail transport vehicles. 38 barges could be stowed on the three decks of the Doctor Lykes , 12 each on the lower decks and 14 on the upper deck. The dual function of the ship is remarkable. The side tanks and the unusually large double floor of the vehicle represented a tank capacity of almost 36,000 m³. The ship could therefore also be used as a product tanker. The lighter used in the Seabee system are significantly larger than the LASH lighter.
Technical specifications
| Seabee carriers | ||
|---|---|---|
| Length over all | m | 266.70 |
| width | m | 32.26 |
| Side height to lower deck | m | 9.70 |
| Side height to main deck | m | 16.10 |
| Side height to upper deck | m | 22.80 |
| Draft | m | 10.00 |
| Load capacity | t | 27500 |
| Displacement | t | 45400 |
| speed | kn | 20th |
| Drive power | PS | 36000 |
| Seabee lighter | ||
|---|---|---|
| length | m | 29.75 |
| width | m | 10.67 |
| Side height | m | 3.80 |
| Net weight | t | 150 |
| Load capacity | t | 850 |
| Draft | m | 3.25 |
BACAT system
At the end of 1973 a Danish project called BACAT (Barge Catamaran ) was presented. The plan was to transport several hundred thousand tons of cargo between the Rhine estuary / Rotterdam and Kingston upon Hull on the Humber . The BACAT system was similar to the Seabee system. The lighter ones, however, were smaller and only had a maximum load capacity of 140 t. The Bacat I was launched as the only ship of its type on September 5, 1973 at Frederikshavn Vaerft A / S and was completed on February 28, 1974. After about a year and 132 round trips, each including 60-hour barges, around 60,000 tons had been transported with the six existing barge sets. Problems with the English Dockers Union led to the termination of the service. The ship was initially launched and in 1976 sold 63 barges to the MacKinnon MacKenzie Company. It then went on a liner service between Bombay in India and the Persian Gulf , but was canceled again in Bombay in 1986.
Technical specifications
| BACAT carrier | ||
|---|---|---|
| Length over all | m | 103.50 |
| width | m | 20.70 |
| Side height | m | 10.50 |
| Draft | m | 5.40 |
| Load capacity | t | 2700 |
| speed | kn | 13 |
| Drive power | KW | 3,000 |
| Lighter | BACAT | LASH | |
|---|---|---|---|
| length | m | 16.80 | 18.75 |
| width | m | 4.70 | 9.50 |
| Draft | m | 2.45 | 2.50 |
| volume | m³ | 170 | 565 |
| own weight | t | 50 | 83 |
| Load capacity | t | 140 | 370 |
Ten of the BACAT barges could be transported on deck and either three LASH barges or eight BACAT barges in the catamaran-like hull.
Other Projects
In addition to the carrier types mentioned, there were other projects. There was a proposal to take over the barges at the bow of the ship. Another variant was to swim the barge in via a floodable chamber of the carrier ship through an opening in the ship's side .
A technically interesting idea was the system published under the name Stradler by the New York engineer Frank Broes. Between the hulls of a catamaran, ten motorized barges with a load capacity of around 12,000 tons were to be accommodated.
see also: Baco-Liner
Problems and Risks
With the use of bar carriers, problems arose that were previously unknown to the shipping companies. On board the carrier ship, the lighter is nothing more than a large cargo container. In the seaport and on the inland waterways it becomes a watercraft . This results in requirements for equipment regulations such as anchors, mooring devices, coupling devices, signal or. Position lights. So-called head barges had to be provided for pushed convoys . These regulations can be very different in different ports in Europe, North America and Asia. The transport system turned out to be complicated when operating waterways, which freeze over in winter and the inland shipping operations were stopped. This required a high investment outlay. This effort, combined with the risks for the economic operation of the carrier ships and their lighters, required conscientious economic studies that were much more complex than for conventional cargo ships or for the container ships conquering the market and their transport system. Bargecarriers and lighters represent a technologically interesting sea transport system. They are only economical if many specific economic conditions are met.
literature
- Hans Jürgen Witthöft: Piggyback across the sea. The barge carrier family . Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg 1987, ISBN 3-7822-0275-9 .
- Rolf Schönknecht: Yearbook of shipping . transpress VEB publishing house for transport, Berlin 1974, p. 35
Web links
- LASH Notes (English)
- Ship pictures (English)
- Ship example SS Cape Farewell (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Chittagong Scrapyard, Des navires en fin de vie au chantier de demolition de Chittagong pictures from April 18, 2008 of the scrapping in Bangladesh, ship data .
- ^ Peter Klaus, Winfried Krieger: Gabler Lexikon Logistik: Management of logistic networks and rivers . 4th edition. Springer Verlag, 2008, ISBN 3-8349-0149-0 , p. 41 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ De geschiedenis van de LASHbak CG S 6013. vereniging De Binnenvaart, Rotterdam.
- ↑ Rolf Schönknecht, Uwe Laue: Hochseefrachter der Weltschiffahrt , Volume 1, Transpress VEB Verlag for Transport, Berlin, ISBN 3-344-00182-5 , p. 154 f.
- ↑ miramarshipindex.org.nz ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Miramar ship side; Retrieved April 26, 2009
- ↑ Image of the Bacat I ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
