Page 45: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 1970)

Jeffboat Launches Mammoth Pipe-Laying Barge

To Have Living Quarters For 213-Man Crew

Built for Houston Contracting Company, the new barge measuring 370 feet by 85 feet by 24 feet was designed to lay oil and natural gas pipelines in any seas of the world.

Jeffboat, Inc., Jeffersonville, Ind., launched its biggest yet on Febru- ary 19. Announcing the 370-foot by 85-foot by 24-foot ocean-going pipe-laying barge's launch, Jeff- boat president R.W. Naye noted, "The barge, even larger than the

LSTs built here during the war, represents another step in our con- tinuing program of producing ves- sels for ocean as well as inland waterways commerce." Jeffboat, part of the Inland Waterways

Services Division of Texas Gas, is known as the largest shipyard on the country's vast network of in- land waterways.

Designed to lay oil and natural gas pipeline in any of the seas of the world, the barge will house its 213-man crew in living quarters on the second deck. As part of its life support system, it carries its own water purification and desalination equipment. It also sports a full gal- ley and dining area, a small hos- pital, and two lounges equipped with color television. The air-con- ditioning equipment has sufficient capacity to withstand the rigors of working in the often 100-degree weather in the Persian Gulf area.

The heating plant will allow the barge to work in even the coldest regions of the globe.

On the barge's 31,000-square- foot main deck, pipeline will be aligned and moved through five welding, treatment and inspection stations before it moves down the stern ramp and feeds onto a 300- foot submerged "stinger" which will ease the pipe into place on the ocean bottom.

Supporting the construction op- erations will be two 100-ton cranes on the forward deck to remove pipe from supply barges and feed it into the line. Across the stern are the radio and generator shacks and the control tower. Directly behind them will be an elevated heliport, providing the barge with its only link to land during the long weeks of construction.

Immediately after the side launching, the barge was moored at Jeffboat's fitting-out dock. Two months' work there will complete the barge's interior and deck, readying it for an April delivery trip to Louisiana. It will travel as part of an American Commercial

Barge Line Company tow, -easily clearing the locks and channels of the Ohio and Mississippi with its 85-foot width and four-foot draft.

In Louisiana, it will be delivered to the owners, Houston Contract- ing Company. "Ht tNl'STS ON froWC t/f>M7H MS "

Six Freedom Vessels

Bring IHI Total To 67

IHI (Ishikawajima - H a r i m a

Heavy Industries Co., Ltd.) of

Japan recently received orders for six 14,800-dwt Freedom vessels.

One vessel was ordered by Wah

Kwong & Co. (H.K.) Ltd., Hong

Kong, one by the Northern Free- dom Shipping Co., Liberia, two by

Pegasus Ocean Services Ltd., and two by A. Halcoussis Shipping

Ltd., both of Greece.

The vessels will be built at IHI's

Tokyo and Nagoya shipyards with deliveries scheduled for the latter half of 1971 through mid-1972.

With these orders, the total num- ber of Freedom vessels ordered by foreign shipowners from IHI reaches 67.

Freedom vessels are being mass- produced at IHI's Tokyo and Na- goya shipyards. However, the con- struction work of Freedoms at the

Tokyo shipyard will be shifted to the Nagoya shipyard in mid-1971 when building of the Fortune ves- sel, a new standard type multi-pur- pose cargo ship developed by IHI in collaboration with G.T.R. Camp- bell (International) Ltd. of Cana- da, will be started there.

IHI is also planning to build

Freedom vessels at the Jurong

Shipbuilders Private Ltd., IHI's new joint company in Singapore.

Principal characteristics of the six Freedom vessels are: dead- weight, 14,800 tons; gross ton- nage, 9,600 tons; length, 440 feet; breadth, 65 feet; depth, 40 feet; draft, 30 feet; main engine, IHI-

S.E.M.T. 12PC2V-type Pielstick diesel engine with an output of 5,130 bhp. The service speed of the

Freedom vessel is 13.6 knots.

Williams Dimond

Appoints Luckenbach

Williams, Dimond & Co., promi- nent 108-year-old West Coast steamship agency, representing vessels trading with six continents, announced the appointment of

Luckenbach Steamship Company as its East Coast agent.

Luckenbach, celebrating its 120th birthday, has operations in 12 East

Coast Atlantic and Gulf ports.

END

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April 1, 1970 47