Kawasaki Kobe Works Delivers World's First BORO Liner

The world's first BORO liner, the Bellman, built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries Kobe Works, has been delivered to the Swedish owner, Scandinavian Motorships AB of Stockholm.

The vessel is called a BORO liner because it can transport at the same time both liquid and solid cargoes (BORO standing for bulk, oil, roll-on and roll-off). Development of the ship's design was done jointly by KHI and the Swedish company.

The Bellman is designed to carry trailers, containers, automobiles, roll paper, pulp, lumber, cargo oil and many other cargoes. KHI is now building a second vessel of the same type.

The freighter has its engine room and living quarters at the stern. There are two cargo spaces (car deck and dry cargo deck) under the upper deck, six cargo oil tanks and six water ballast tanks under the dry cargo deck.

As both sides of the multipurpose vessel are designed to have the slopes of an upsidedown trapezoid, the ship has good stability and needs only a small amount of water in its ballast tanks to obtain a navigable draft.

Its width at the draft level is relatively small and as a result, it can navigate more smoothly than other conventional vessels in seas with ice floes.

The cargo space is substantially bigger than that of conventional vessels, and the ship is also designed to obtain a maximum draft by loading freight oil or other cargoes alone.

Cars, containers and trailers can be loaded on the upper deck, cars and roll paper on the cardeck, and cars, containers, trailers, roll paper, pulp, lumber and other cargoes on the dry cargo deck.

Two pneumatic fenders are provided on each side of the upper deck so that the vessel, and its unique trapezoid hull section, will not be damaged by the wharf while berthing.

The fenders are lowered from the upper deck to act as shock absorbers between the ship's hull and the wharf. These fenders can be moved in all directions and are designed to work freely against the ship's rolling and pitching.

Loading and unloading of cargoes other than oil is done on the basis of the roll-on/ roll-off method. Cargoes are loaded from the wharf through a sliding door and rampway at the stern.

A fixed rampway and a 35-ton cargo lift are provided inside the vessel, and they serve for all decks.

In addition to the roll-on/roll-off cargohandling method, lift-on/lift-off operations for containers can also be employed for the upper deck. This variety of cargo-handling methods and facilities enables the vessel to load and unload cargoes in a short time.

The approximate measurements and principal particulars of the vessel are: length overall, 469 feet; molded breadth, 106 feet; molded depth, 26 feet; gross tonnage, 9,471; deadweight tonnage, 10,665; cargo capacity— cargo oil: 14,501 cubic meters; cargo hold: 26,388 cubic meters. The main engine is a Kawasaki M.A.N. K6Z70/120 diesel with a maximum continuous output of 9,300 hp by 145 rpm, producing a maximum trial speed of 17.7 knots.

The Bellman has a complement of 35, and the planned route is Scandinavia — Europe.

Maritime Reporter Magazine, page 40, Nov 1977

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Maritime Reporter

First published in 1881 Maritime Reporter is the world's largest audited circulation publication serving the global maritime industry.