Sugar freighter

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Sugar freighter or sugar transporter ( Engl. "Sugar Carrier" ) are specialized bulk carriers , which are used primarily for transport of raw sugar.

history

Sugar handling at the New Orleans sugar factory

Sugar cane contains a sweet juice that is squeezed out to produce sugar. Growing countries are Brazil , Cuba , USA , South Africa , Australia and others. The origin of sugar cane is in Polynesia . It has been used for agriculture in India since the 5th century . The crusaders brought the sugar to Europe, where Venice was the main hub . Back then, sugar was considered a luxury item, so the majority of the population continued to sweeten their dishes with honey .

In Sicily and southern Spain , sugar cane was first grown by the Arabs . After the Reconquista , the Spaniards relocated the cultivation to the Canary Islands , from where it came to the Caribbean and thus to Jamaica . The Portuguese brought the plant to South America and cultivated large areas in Brazil as early as the 16th century.

Sugar handling at the Chelsea sugar factory

During the industrial revolution , the industrial production of sugar also grew strongly, especially due to the increasing sugar cane cultivation, so that the transport of raw sugar in bulk began to be dealt with, initially using existing ships for the transport of sugar. Since the 1940s, however, new builds of sugar freighters have been built, mainly transporting raw sugar from the growing areas on the Caribbean islands to the sugar factories in the United States . Sugar freighters are usually not externally recognizable as such. Due to their relatively low structural specialization, such as the clearing adapted to the raw sugar and the construction as a self- trimmer , the transport of a large number of other bulk goods is also possible with these special ships.

Sample ships

BIBO sugar freighter CHL Innovator

The sugar freighter Sugar Crystal was built in 1968 as one of two sister ships at the Scottish Lithgows shipyard in Glasgow , sailed as Sounion from 1979 and as Med Vitoria from 1990 . He was from April 17, 1993 in the Indian Alang canceled . Both ships were in their dimensions to the in Silvertown on the Thames located sugar refinery adjusted. They had five holds with a capacity of 20,709 m³. Outside the sugar season, the ships could also load other bulk goods, whereby it was possible to fill two side tanks with grain through hatches provided for this purpose.

The so-called BIBO carriers (bulk-in, bulk / bag-out), which are operated by Sugar Australia , for example , are a special feature of the sugar freighter ship types . They load refined sugar in bulk and fill the cargo in bulk sacks on board on the journey to the port of arrival.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sárkarā is the Sanskrit term for semolina, pebbles or sugar. This gave rise to the Greek sákcharon , from which the Latin saccharon was borrowed, from which the technical term sucrose emerged.
  2. ↑ The Italian zucchero is derived from the Arabic sukkar , from which the German sugar was then borrowed.
  3. ↑ http://www.miramarshipindex.org.nz/ship/show/103321 (link not available)
  4. ↑ Page from CSR Sugar ( Memento from October 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive )

literature

  • Rolf Schönknecht / Uwe Laue, ocean freighters of the world shipping volume 2, transpress VEB publishing house for transport, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-344-00282-1

See also