Over the past several decades cargo ships have changed considerably, with a variety of factors influencing new designs. Part one of our survey of modern cargo ships (SM, May) covered container ships, con-ro carriers, ro-ro vessels, multipurpose ships and car and vehicle carriers. This part covers deck carriers, heavylift ships, bulk carriers, Capesize bulkers, crude carriers, parcel tankers and gas tankers.
DECK CARRIERS
The continuing development of multipurpose ships has been driven somewhat by the need to accommodate wind energy cargoes, including towers, turbines and blades, but such has been the growth of these components in size and weight that a completely new ship type, the Deck Carrier, has been introduced.
Classification society DNV created a new class notation for these ships just over a year ago once it was seen that no existing ship class described them adequately. The new notation covers their typical features, which include a front deckhouse, a large open aft deck with no cargo holds, and a strongly built hull with substantial deck reinforcement.
The first and , were built by China’s Zhejiang Shipbuilding for Germany’s United Wind Logistics and are being operated for Denmark’s Vestas on long-term charter agreements, primarily between the Vestas rotor blade factory at Nakskov, Denmark and various wind farm support and construction locations.
