Page 18: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 15, 1969)

Largest Tanker To Be Lifted In New York Drydocked By Bethlehem's Hoboken Yard The largest tanker ever drydocked in the Port of New York, the 57,700-dwt Swedish motor vessel Dan Brostrom, sits high and dry at Bethlehem Steel's Hoboken, N.J., ship repair yard. Docked stern inboard, she overhangs outboard end of the dock about 100 feet. The tanker has an overall length of 773 feet 11 inches. The largest tanker ever drydock-ed in the Port of New York was lifted recently in Bethlehem Steel Corporation's Hoboken. N.J., ship repair yard. The tanker, the 57,700-dwt Swed-ish motor vessel Dan Brostrom. has an overall length of 773 feet 11 inches, beam of 105 feet 8 inch-es, and depth of 56 feet 6 inches. Until recently, there lias been no commercial dry dock in New York Harbor with a breadth of more than 100 feet. As the result of a multi-million-dollar modern-ization program of the big dock at Hoboken. however, tankers rang-ing u]) to around 60.000-dwt can now be lifted in this facility be-cause its breadth has been extended to 110 feet. Transferred to the Hoboken yard from the corporation's former Brooklyn 56th Street yard, the big dock was a six-sectioned wooden pontoon unit with a breadth of 100 feet, length of 685 feet and lifting capacity of 25.000 tons. Soon after its arrival at Hoboken. the modernization program got under-way. To make the dock available as needed, the modernization job pro-ceeded on a sectional basis. One section at a time was removed and rehabilitated. The wooden walls were replaced by steel walls fab-ricated by the yard, the pontoon was widened and the rebuilt unit reinstalled and welded to adjoining sections. Now in the final stages of completion, this dock will have continuous steel wingwalls and a lifting capacity of 27,000 tons. Although no change had been made in the length of the dock, there is a possibility that this, too, may be extended, increasing the lifting capacity even further. The Dan Brostrom was maneu-vering off Port Newark early in March, after discharge of her cargo to a nearby refinery, when her stern struck an obstacle. The accident disabled her steering engine. She was towed to the Bethlehem Ho-boken yard where the decision to drydock her for survey was made by her owner. Dan-Axel Brostrom, after a plane flight from Gothen-burg. The yard, in the meantime, had gone ahead with preparations to handle the big tanker in the larg-est of its four floating dry docks. To protect the tanker's hull, one-foot wooden fenders were placed against the inner walls of the dock. This reduced the effective width of the dock to 108 feet, or only 2 feet 4 inches more than the extreme breadth of the tanker. Further, since she was consider-ably longer than the dock, it was decided to bring the Dan Brostrom in stern first so that her overhang would be on the outboard end. This overhang, exceeding 100 feet, was not regarded as critical bv the dockmaster and engineering con-sultants because the vessel was un-loaded and had been deballasted. The dockmaster estimated her dis-placement weight at 20.450 tons, well within the dock's capacity. It took only two hours and 15 minutes from the time the yard's dockmaster first got a line on the tanker, until she was high and dry. Inspection of the stern showed that a number of oxter plates (the shell plates forming the curve at her stern) had been torn and would have to be replaced. Her rudder and propeller, however, required no repairs. The steering engine had been wrecked beyond repair and her owner decided to replace it with a new unit to be flown in from Great Britain. Although the nature of the re-pairs was such that they could be made at a wet slip, her owner de-cided to hold the tanker on dock until her underwater hull could be painted. This task required some 1,100 gallons of paint. Douglas Mansell, general mana-ger of the yard, stated that it re-quired about five days to install the new steering engine, after receipt, and to restore the Dan Brostrom to service again. Paceco Appoints Five Representatives For Dredge Line The dredge division of I'aceco has named f:ve additional U.S. firms to represent the company's line of dredges and dredge acces-sories. The new representatives are : F. H. Bathkee Co.. 529 No. Cleveland Ave., St. Paul, Minn., for the state of Minnesota; Little Rock Road Machinery Co., P.O. Box 3140, Little Rock, Ark., for Ar-kansas; Supply Inc., P.O. Box 51185, Tulsa, Okla., exclusive for Oklahoma; Blue Water Marine Supply Inc.. 1000 Broadway at Channelside St., Houston, Texas, for Texas, and Alaska Expeditors Inc., 3508 Minnesota Dr., Anchor-age, Alaska, for Alaska. Paceco, headquartered in Ala-meda. Calif., has designed and built dredges and dredge accessories since 1923. The company offers the Pacer line of dredges, dredge accessories, Jet Stream System?a booster pump system to increase dredge production?and Hurricane Ball Joints. Port Of Mobile Propeller Club Honors Houston H. Feaster For Outstanding Service Houston H. Feaster displays certificate of appreciation presented to him by the Mobile Propeller Club. Shown, left to right, are: Jack Campbell, Club president; Mr. Feaster; Capt. Harry Hargrove ,and Col. Robert E. Snetzer, Army district engineer at Mobile. Special honor lias been paid to Alabama State Docks Director Houston H. Feaster for "outstand-ing service" in developing the maritime industry and the Port of Mobile by the Mobile Propeller Club. At a recent meeting, the Club presented Mr. Feaster a cer-tificate of appreciation, and its president. Jack Campbell, pointed to "a record of unparalleled growth and progress" of Mobile's port in the six years that Mr. Feaster has served as State Docks director. The presentation was made by Capt. Harry Hargrove, retired bar pilot, often called "the grand old man of the Port of Mobile." Cap-tain Hargrove, himself, was the last recipient of such an honor from the Propeller Club, and was asked by the board of governors to present the new certificate to Mr. Feaster. The certificate noted that Mr. Feaster's contributions to the mari-time industry "reflect the aims and purposes of the Propeller Club of the United States, which is to promote and further the American merchant marine." hi connection with the presenta-tion. Mr. Hargrove said the Pro-peller Club had undertaken a comprehensive review of major improvements to the state-owned docks facilities since Mr. Feaster became director in January, 1963, and said this record "demonstrates high professional ability." The summary showed total capi-tal improvements at the State Docks under Mr. Feaster, have amounted to $16.3-million ? $5.3-million of which came from record-breaking net earnings from opera-tions and $11-million from bond issues serviced from docks reve-nues and issued at very favorable interest rates. The summary also noted that earnings of the State Docks in the six years since 1963 totaled $9.1-million, described as "almost un-believable" when compared to the record of previous years. Total State Docks tonnage went up from 5.5 million in 1963 to 8.1 million in 1968, while total Port of Mobile tonnage increased from 16.3 million to 22.4 million. 20 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News