Page 23: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (July 1969)

Canadian Vickers Launches MV Klondike? Containership For Vancouver-Alaska Run Christening party for the container vessel Klondike, left to right: Frank H. Brown, chairman of the board of White Pass & Yukon Route, owners of the ship; Mrs. James Smith, wife of the commissioner for the Yukon Territory, who christened the Klondike, and Wilbrod Bherer, chairman of the board of Canadian Vickers Limited. The ship is the third of her type to be built at the Vickers yards for the White Pass & Yukon Route. The MV Klondike was christen-ed recently in a traditional cham-pagne ceremony at the Canadian Vickers Limited shipyards, Mon-treal, Quebec, Canada. The 6,000-ton vessel, built for the White Pass & Yukon Route for service between Skagway, Alaska, and Vancouver, B.C., is the third containership of this type produced by Canadian Vickers for the West Coast company. Mrs. James Smith, wife of the commissioner for the Yukon Ter-ritory, christened the ship and the Venerable Archdeacon F. J. Sinna-mon performed the blessing. Wilbrod Bherer, chairman of the board of Canadian Vickers Limit-ed, Frank H. Brown, chairman of the board of White Pass & Yukon Route, and Commissioner Tames Smith spoke briefly to the 300 in-vited guests. The ship is a single deck tvpe having an extended upper deck terminating above an open weather deck aft. Accommodations, naviga-tion bridge and machinery are ar-ranged at the aft end; the hull is laid out with the forepeak, a bulk-cement hold, a pump room, seven container cargo cells, fuel-oil-cargo wing tanks, machinery space and aft peak. In addition to cargo con-tainers in holds and on deck, the ship has capacity for 1,300-tons of cement and 623,000-gallons of car-go oil. It is 394 feet long, 70 feet wide and has a speed of 13^ knots and will carry a variety of cargoes such as perishable freight, containerized asbestos, containerized ore concen-trates, general cargo, petroleum products and bulk cement. The Klondike is equipped with van-type containers designed for use aboard ship, and rail and high-way transport. There are four types for use with dry cargo, vented car-go, heated cargo and refrigerated cargo. Normally they will be ar-ranged below deck in six cells of 30 containers. On deck, there is a gantry crane for container handling and remov-ing and replacing hatch covers. This traveling crane has a maxi-mum lift capacity of 80,000 pounds and an outreach of 60 feet from the ship's centerline. The Klondike is powered by two Nohab-Polar reversing diesel en-gines, each with seven cylinders. Each engine develops 2,800 bhp at 250 rpm. Three 300-kw diesel-driven main generators supply 550-volts, 3-phase, 60-cycle a-c current to the distribution section of the main switchboard. Lockheed To Build DSSV For 20,000 Feet Following authorization from the Department of Defense, the Naval Ship Systems Command has issued a $500,000 letter contract to Lock-heed Missiles and Space Company, Sunnyvale, Calif., for final, pre-con-struction design-study of a proto-type Deep Submergence Search Vehicle (DSSV) with a depth range of 20,000 feet. Lockheed proposes to start work this year on concept refinement and material development for the DSSV. To achieve minimum vehi-cle weight, Lockheed aims to use improved buoyancy materials and hull structural materials. Actual construction work is scheduled to begin during fiscal year 1971. al-though the first vehicle will not be operational until the late 1970's. The missions of the DSSV in-clude search and oceanographic op-erations on the deep ocean floor. The vehicle will have accommo-dations for four crewmen, a 30-hour endurance at depths and a life support capability of 80 hours. Long lead time developments such as the DSSV's fuel cell power-plant and pressure sphere material will be funded next fiscal year. The Navy has chosen Allis-Chalmers Corp. of Milwaukee and the Pratt and Whitney Corporation of East Hartford to undertake preliminary designs of the fuel-cell power sys-tem for the submersible. The com-panies will have until August to complete their respective designs. One of them will eventually under-take the final design and construc-tion of the fuel-cell system. The fuel-cell power system is ex-pected to furnish the electrical power required for the propulsion and auxiliary loads of the vehicle. It will include the powerplant, re-actant supply, control, instrumenta-tion, and associated hardware. McDermott To Install Largest Gulf Pipeline Roger W. Wilson, president of J. Ray McDermott & Co., Inc., New Orleans, La. 70160, has an-nounced that the company had been awarded the contract for con-struction of the Sea Robin Pipeline project. He said, "The value of the contract is $32-million." Sea Robin Pipeline Company is a joint venture of United Offshore Company and Southern Deepwater Pipeline Company, each of which are respectively subsidiaries of United Gas Pipe Line Co., Inc., and Southern Natural Gas Co., Inc. The system will transport gas from the Gulf of Mexico through 169 miles of large diameter pipeline, in-cluding 65 miles of 36-inch-diam-eter line. This will be the first 36-inch pipeline laid in the Gulf of Mexico. There will also be an inter-connecting gathering system. Mc-Dermott will also install five off-shore junction platforms. Mr. Wilson said, "Several of our largest pieces of construction equipment will be utilized on this project including two 500-ton com-bination derrick and pipelaying barges and our new 420-foot pipe-laying barge." Groignard Shipyards Repairs Esso Mercia The largest vessel to be handled by Groignard Shipyards, Marseille, France, the 170,000-dwt Esso Mer-cia, has re-entered service for Esso Petroleum London. The Groignard Shipyards had submitted the low-est bid of any European shipyard for guarantee repairs and improve-ments to the vessel. Prior to entering the shipyard the vessel stopped at the tank cleaning station at Marseille to have 3,500 tons of residuals re-moved. With this work out of the way, Groignard carried out the overhaul work involving: machin-ery, steel, electrical and piping work within the bid time. The shipyard workers were some-what amazed by the size of the cargo tanks on this ship but it did not delay their work. One center cargo tank on the Esso Mercia holds 30,000-tons of oil?equal to a supertanker of but a few years ago. Now that Marseilles is proceed-ing to build a drydock capable of handling 350,000-dwt ships. Groig-nard feels confident that many more of these mammoth tankers will be repaired by them. LAUNCHING ONE OF SIX 250-ton deck cargo barges being built by the structural shops of the San Juan Shops Division of Atlantic, Gulf & Pacific Co. of Manila, Inc. for the Luzon Stevedoring Corporation in Manila, Philippines. The barges are to be used in loading and unloading ships and for carrying freight on rivers. Each barge is 115 feet long, 24 feet wide and 7Vi feet deep. The interior of each barge is divided into ten watertight compartments and has a 50-gallon water tank, a deckhouse and wooden deck sideboards. The construction of the six barges was accomplished in about 30 days. Esso Mercia at Groignard Shipyards in Marseille while undergoing guarantee repairs. July 1, 1969 11