Page 41: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 15, 1969)

Crandall Engineers Design Railway Dry-Dock System Installed At Caraquet, N.B. The trawler Jean Cabot was the first vessel to be dry-docked and transferred for winter storage on the new railway dry dock and transfer system at Caraquet. Fishing vessels of wood or steel must be removed from the water two or three times per year so that barnacles and fouling can be removed and the hull painted to protect against wood eating borers or corrosion of the steel by the seawater. To lift the vessel out of water, a dry dock is needed; and if this dock is located in the home port of the fishing fleet, it is much better than if the vessels must travel to more distant ports to be drydocked. For many years, busy fishing fleets of north-ern New Brunswick have had to depend on docking facilities at Pictou or Gaspe when haulout was needed. Now with a new facility at Lower Caraquet, complete with transfer system for winter storage and multiple dock-ing, the New Brunswick fleet can maintain itself at home. This is particularly valuable during winter when fishermen can clean, paint and overhaul their vessels when ice conditions prevent fishing operations. For ships which displace up to 8,000 tons, the marine railway dry dock has proven to be a most economical and reliable method of docking, especially since it can be fitted with transfer systems to enable many vessels to be out of water at the same time. In the regions of Canada, where the harbors are frozen in the winter, the fishermen prefer to store their boats on land to avoid the damage that can be caused by ice pressure on the hull. This also gives the fishermen the whole winter to overhaul their boats so that they can start fishing very early in the spring. The New Brunswick Department of Fisher-ies recognized the need to provide the fisher-men at Caraquet with modern drydocking and storage facilities and therefore engaged Cran-dall Dry Dock Engineers of Cambridge, Mass., to plan a new facility at Lower Caraquet. A railway dry dock operates on the principle of the inclined plane where a carriage or cradle supporting a vessel is moved up or down the inclined track which is for the most part, underwater. This results in the cradle being deep enough in the water to receive a floating vessel and then to remove the craft completely out of water as it moves up the incline to its inshore position. The railway dry dock at Caraquet has a steel cradle, 144 feet long and 40 feet wide, traveling on a track 740 feet long. The track is built on the arc of a circle so as to achieve drafts of water over the keel blocks of 10 feet forward and 15 feet aft when the cradle is submerged and have the cradle horizontal in the up position for transfer purposes. The cradle travels over a system of free rollers and is hauled by a 1 Y\ inch welded steel chain which is operated by a Crandall-type hauling machine. The 75-hp motor can haul a capacity vessel in 30 minutes. The cradle is fitted with uprights and dock-ing platforms on each side from which the docking crew can secure the vessel and operate the sliding bilge blocks. It has a tight, flush timber deck to permit easy access and prevent sandblast shot from penetrating to the ways below. Two longitudinal crane rails on this cradle permit transfer cars to move vessels from cradle to shore and vice versa. A cross transfer table enables any vessel to be moved to or from any storage berth. One of the transfer ways connects to the building of the Chantier Naval where it will serve to move newly con-structed boats to the main cradle for launch-ing. The 20 storage ways of the transfer system can accommodate 20 large vessels or 40 small vessels. The self-propelled cross transfer per-mits any vessel in storage to be moved to the main cradle for launching, or into the large shed of the Chantier Naval for repairs. It permits the shipyard to undertake ship repair in the shelter of the shed during the whole winter period and thereby makes the winter work competitive with shipyards in milder climates. The site conditions at Caraquet are difficult in that ledge rock is close to the surface, mak-ing it necessary to excavate rock underwater to achieve adequate depth of water. Also, the exposure to wind and waves makes the protection of the site very important and this problem was aggravated by the lack of good natural stone in the area to use as rip rap. The new 600-ton railway dry dock with the government wharf on the west side, forms the nucleus for a new man-made harbor which can be used for ship repair and unloading of fish. The project was managed by Clarence Du-guay of the New Brunswick Department of Fisheries. Construction was done by Nordbec Construction Inc. of Rimouski, Quebec, and supervision of construction was by William Koutrouba of Crandall Dry Dock Engineers, Inc. Delta Line Wants To Build Three Large Containerships And New Container Terminal Delta Steamship Lines recently marked the 50th anniversary of its founding as an Ameri-can-flag shipping firm with the announcement of plans to construct three huge new container-ships and a container terminal in New Orleans. Delta President Capt. John W. Clark took the occasion to report that the ship line has submitted its preliminary design plans for the three containerships?each capable of carrying up to 1,200 cargo boxes?to the Maritime Ad-ministration. All three vessels would be in service by 1972, he said. In the meantime, he added, the company would use its five new ships, built under a contract just completed, as part containerships until the new vessels are ready. The company is also planning construction of a container terminal in New Orleans on the assumption that this type of cargo will play a big part in the company's future. Captain Clark said the containerships would be used in Delta's Brazil and Argentine service, where considerable progress has been made in the construction of container handling fa-cilities. The steamship line, Captain Clark said, will be able to proceed on construction plans be-cause of availability of new financing by its new owners. Delta is now operated by the parent company, TCO Industries, which in turn is owned by Holiday Inns of America. "Rio de Janeiro and Santos, Brazil plus Buenos Aires are already building container facilities for us," Captain Clark said. N.Y. Harbor Carriers To Hold 35th Annual Banquet At Waldorf William T. Tracy, president of M. & J. Tra-cy, Inc., and Tracy Towing Line, Inc., has been appointed chairman of the committee for the 35th Annual Banquet of the Harbor Carriers of the Port of New York, to be held on April 25 in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The Dinner Committee, in addition to Mr. Tracy, consists of Francis B. Bushey, president of Spentonbush Transport Service, Inc.; Gerard M. McAllister, vice-president, McAl-lister Brothers, Inc., and Bart J. Turecamo, president of Turecamo Coastal and Harbor Towing Corporation. The committee will re-ceive staff assistance from Michael G. Lorenzo, administrative assistant of the Harbor Car-riers. Special tribute is being paid at the dinner to honorary chairman Eugene F. Moran Jr., retired vice-president of Moran Towing Cor-poration, who has been a member of the Ban-quet Committee since its inception 35 years ago. One of the oldest and most influential ma-rine trade associations in the New York area, the Harbor Carriers organization represents owners of barges, lighters, scows and motor-tankers on the waters of New York Harbor, the Hudson River and Long Island Sound. William E. Cleary, president of the Harbor Carriers, noted that more than 1,000 leaders in the New York shipping industry are expected to attend, with federal, state and municipal officials as guests of honor. E. B. Koelliker Joins De Laval As V-P Turbine Division , I TW ?Lfl Ernest B. Koelliker Ernest B. Koelliker has joined De Laval Turbine Inc. as vice-president and general manager of their Turbine Division located in Trenton, N.J. The announcement was made by Ivan Monk, formerly vice-president and general manager of the Turbine Division, who has advanced to vice-president and assistant group manager of the De Laval Heavy Equipment Group un-der A. R. Weckel, vice-president and group manager. Mr. Koelliker has spent most of his business life with the General Electric Company in va-rious engineering, sales, marketing and general management functions; most recently as mana-ger of their marine and industrial gas-turbine operation at Evandale, Ohio. Since 1967, Mr. Koelliker has held the posi-tion of vice-president and general manager of the medium engine operation of the Power Systems Division of Colt Industries. He earned his degree in electrical engineer-ing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. De Laval's Heavy Equipment Group manu-factures steam turbines; centrifugal compress-ors and pumps; steam condensers; gears; ma-rine propulsion machinery, and reciprocating engines and compressors. Ivan Monk April 15, 1969 43