Page 52: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 1999)

1971

Litton Ship Systems Launches

SS Austral Envoy-

First Ship Launched

From New Shipyard

The recent christening of the

Austral Em-ay at Litton Indus- tries' new $130 million shipyard in

Pascagoula, Miss, inaugurated a new method of s1«p launching in the United States. With the ex- ertion of the splash from the champagne bottle, the new Farrell lines contaiuership was not launched in the usual fashion, in- stead ol a slide down the sfnfHvay as in a traditional launching, the

Atsstr&l Envoy was transferred from land to water by way of a new launch platform 'system de- signed !>y Crandall Dry Dock En- jpoeers, Inc., Cambridge, Mass.

This system is part of rite assem- hl^-Kne production process being utilized by Litton Ship Systems in the building of the Austral En- voy and her three sisterships, Au$- tot Ensign, Austral Endurance and Austral Entente,

The Austral Envoy was spon- sored by Lady Phyllis Bates, wife of the Hon. Sir John Bates. OLE..

Tlte new Litton "shipyard of the future" employs new shipbuild- ing: concepts or* fabrication,, hand- ling and assembly of ship com* patients, which are all brought together in an integration area adjacent to a waterfront bulkhead.

The launching of the ship is. the fins! operation oi this integrated system of ship construction. The

Boating dry dock, of the Crandall

I>rv Dmk Engineers' sectional sell-docking type with the wing on

One side removable for transfer, was selected for this operation be- cause of its unique qualities.

Launching Is accomplished from the yard, located 12 feet above wa- ter level, to a Hosting attitude as shown in the photographs to the right and as described m the Feb- ruary iS, 1971 issue of Maritime

Reporter/Engineering News. This dock 'has the capacity to launch vessels weighing up to 3S,COO tons light displacement It has an over- all length of 950 feet and width of 2. In th» view ;he ship Has moved onto the faitnchu lwr» fo p!o?(orm is by means of o special iramicr diitcnce is cbOut 300 U;«t oreQui'ed four bourn wOS mjv«?

Daewoo in South Korea. Delivered in 1984-1985, they were named after

American states like American Califor- nia and American Alabama. It was a clever idea in theory, but it did not work out in practice. The ships were too slow, and the United States Line went bank- rupt.

From this hard-won lesson, most of the next generation of containerships operated by big companies like Maersk and Evergreen settled on ships of Pana- max dimensions with normal service speeds of about 23 knots. In the 1990's containerships have gotten bigger and bigger. For example, Regina owned by the Maersk Line, was built in Denmark in 1996 and was designed to carry 6,000

TEUs, spanning 17 containers across the deck. It is considered an ultra-large con- tainer vessel (ULCV). Contrast this capacity with Malcolm McLean's Ideal

X that carried only 58 containers. It is a stunning increase from a few dozen to thousands of containers. One of the world's largest ships, Regina is 80 ft. (24.3 m) longer than the cruise ship

Queen Elizabeth 2. With a length of 1,043 ft. (318 m), Regina could easily carry three football fields placed end-to- end and still have room to spare. Or put another way, the ship is longer than the

Eiffel Tower (990 ft.) is tall.

When Regina visited the Port of New

York and New Jersey on July 22, 1998, it created quite a stir because it had to carry less than its maximum capacity so it would not run aground. The message was clear: deeper and wider channels would be needed to accommodate a fully-loaded Regina.

And this is not the end of the story.

The ships just keep getting bigger.

Launched in 1998 was the Sovereign

Maersk at 1,138 ft. (347 m), 95 ft. (29 m) longer than Regina Maersk. The

Sovereign is able to carry 6,600 TEUs, a 10 percent increase.

Where will it all end? Could we some day be looking at 10,000 TEU vessels?

It's possible if we can keep up with the necessary dredging. We would need very deep and wide channels to provide the necessary turning radius. In addi- tion, we would need more cranes with a greater outreach since the new ships are 17 containers wide. Few cranes today can reach that far.

Today, Malcolm McLean is heading up a new company, Trailer Bridge, in

Jacksonville, Fla., which he started in 1992 as the world's first company to build vessels exclusively for 53-ft. (16.1 m) containers. Trailer Bridge is a motor carrier providing truckload service between the U.S. and Puerto Rico with domestic service covering the Eastern half of the U.S. With two sailings a week, Trailer Bridge provides safe and efficient freight transportation between the U.S. mainland and Puerto Rico.

Meanwhile McLean can now look back on a long and productive career with sat- isfaction. It is likely that the history books of tomorrow will honor him along with Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and the Wright Brothers. t. The Austrol EVwcy poor to iounchmj on the shipyard's i | vofiotrt msdulej of the ship were joined tosetfcer to form t! |

Did McLean "invent" the container- ship? Not exactly, since most of the pieces of the puzzle were already out there waiting to be put together.

McLean was operating in the classic

American role of the "tinkerer," a per- son who enjoys repairing and experi- menting with machinery. Thus, McLean was very much like Ford, Edison, and the Wrights. So we can reasonably say that if McLean did not invent the con- tainership, he certainly is the man who made it happen.

Back in the 1930's no one would have predicted that a North Carolina truck operator would become a giant in the maritime industry, but history will long remember McLean. He was recognized on May 12, 1999 by the Maritime Asso- ciation of the Port of New York and New

Jersey as "The Man of the Century," and

Forbes Magazine described him as "one of the few men who changed the world."

About the Author: Angus Kress Gillespie

Ph.D.

A graduate of Yale University and a

Fulbright Scholar, Angus Kress Gille- spie is an associate professor of Ameri- can Studies at Rutgers University.

Author of several books and numerous articles, Gillespie teaches courses on maritime history and culture and is fre- quently consulted and quoted by the media. He has often shared his feelings with radio listeners on National Public

Radio, and he has appeared on the tele- vision show "Good Morning America."

MR/EN extends special thanks to "Container- ship" author Angus Kress Gillespie.

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