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Modern ships (since 1970 onward, generally) are square butt joints with tapered ends, joined by fillet welds. Plate edges are flat, ground to a bevel on one or both sides.

Coating colours are often truly different between the same ships due to a number of factors. Shipowners may not always use the same brand of coating exclusively. For example, one ship in dry dock may use Jotun paint, but a sister ship in dry dock one year later may use Sigma, Nippon, International, ...

Hatch clamps are usually ship to ship. On the Burns Harbor we did every clamp every run no matter weather or season, on the Roger Blough we did all the "short side" clamps (facing the P/S sides) and every other clamp on the long side (fore and aft) in the summer in all weather. On the Mun...

Great Lakes Fitted means it meets the requirements of the Seaway Corporation for vessels transiting the Seaway and Welland Canal. https://greatlakes-seaway.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/ship_transit.pdf The link outlines some of the requirements. Having a stern anchor is one example. This is compul...

So, do most of the self unloaders carry extra belts for the boom? Generally, no. The belts are designed to last many years - five or more is an average. If repairs are necessary during this time, they are repaired during the winter lay-up. Repairs are sometimes necessary during the season, in which...

It depends on the shipowner. All large ships carry critical spare parts, mandated by law or regulatory authorities. Depending on the type of engine, more or fewer spare parts will be carried. A single low speed engine ship will have a spare piston, liner, cylinder cover, and other essential parts li...

According to the News Channel, it will be about 450 days until a report is issued on the collision between these vessels. Is that typical? It would seem (to a inexperienced Boatnerd like me) that the information on what happened would be readily available. Are there other "hurddles" that ...

Guest from EU. When we were still at Oglebay we hosed the holds out no lining in them. QMED's did the ballasting and helped run gates 4 hours after each watch. Only the Fred White had the gates and ballast controlled from the boom cab. So that leads to the question if American Steamship invested in...

Correction on GuestfromEU and his post saying that "All footers from the American Shipbuilding Yard in Lorain, Ohio are fitted with the gas exhaust scrubbers." Almost, as the Edgar B. Speer is the only one built at the AmShip yard in Lorain to not be fitted at least so far with the gas ex...

The American Shipbuilding thousand footers are fitted with exhaust gas cleaners and burn heavy fuel oil. That means extra work in the engine room compared with the Bay Shipbuilding ships which burn only marine diesel oil, and have fewer maintenance requirements with EMD engines. Are the gates in the...

Doubt the Algoma enterprise is done after this season. What is your source? Pictures in her fleet history page here at Boatnerd show her in fresh paint in April 2015. Assuming she just had received her 5 year survey at that time, that puts her as now operating on her 1 year extension this season. A...

The Buffalo and Compass were acquired as stop-gap measures due to the Croatia shipyard not delivering the new ships on time. Fleet renewal plans were already in place, and not taking delivery of planned newbuilds disrupted the flowpath. For example, the Algorail and sisters were scheduled for retire...

With salties like the Lake Ontario at anchor for this length of time and the Juno in Duluth loading, how are these ships supplied as far as with both fuel and food? A better way to describe what I’m referring to is just how much fuel do each ship have and what do they do when they get too low and n...

So what does a typical crew do when waiting? Is there always scraping and painting and so on or are they for the most part idle with no work to do? If they are idle does the shipping company have a different [lower] wage rate they pay the crew for this waiting time? There is never a shortage of wor...

Fixing (booking) cargoes is a very different animal in the world outside the Great Lakes. Yes, every shipowner aims to always have cargo on board with zero delays. It is not always that simple, however. Some charters have specific laydays - for example, their cargo may not be ready to load until 20 ...

Are a General Alarm bell and blowing danger signals a thing of the past? The General Alarm signal can be heard from one of the ships in both videos. I cannot determine from which ship the signal is originating. It is not a bell, but a horn with intermittent on/off sound. This tone is quite universa...

Ocean ships use a combination of Fresh Water and Sea Water for all cooling. Different approaches are used, but most common is the Main Engine using a separate cooling water system for jacket water, often called HT (High Temperature). Another loop called LT (Low Temperature) is used for lub. oil cool...

Even though the cort is running checked down on its runs lately to save fuel aren’t they using more fuel with the longer route that they have been running instead of taking the shorter route running checked down. I realize they are trying to extend the trip so they can keep running. Sorry to keep b...

Guest is correct "Not sure how many times it has to be answered that they're running in economy mode. If she runs at full speed, there aren't going to be pellets for her, and she's just going to end up laying up early. Mittal is trying to fulfill the full season of charter." They are stea...

When these huge chunks of ship are joined together, are there many problems with things not fitting? How about with all those pipes? With modern CAD programs, it is surprisingly rare that major components do not line up. As described in the article, blocks are erected complete with pipe sections. T...