Page 88: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 1983)

Bay Shipbuilding Converts

Ex-President Harrison

C iHTmunTinHni J

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Bay Shipbuilding Corp., Stur- geon Bay, Wise., recently com- menced work on the conversion of the containership ex-President

Harrison. The 668-foot ship is being converted to an auxiliary crane ship (TAC-1) by the U.S. Depart- ment of Transportation Maritime

Administration for future use by the U.S. Department of Navy.

The Navy requires vessels that can serve as substitutes for shore- based cranes in the event of war or national emergency when shore- based cranes may not be available or are no longer serviceable. The auxiliary crane ship (T-ACS) pro- gram has been developed to fill this need. This program of con- verting containerships to auxil- iary crane ships will provide ships with the ability to not only load and off-load their own cargo, but also off-load other vessels as well.

The conversion requires struc- tural modification to the contain- ership to accept three sets of twin cranes manufactured by Lake

Shore Inc., Kingsford, Mich. Mod- ification will include removal of ship's present cargo gear, strengthening of tank tops, fabri- cation and installation of crane pedestals, and generator and switchboard installation. In addi- tion, Bay will also reactivate the vessel, which includes inspection and start-up of all propulsion systems.

Departure of the vessel is sched- uled for late spring/early summer of 1984. (TAC-1) Crane Ship conversion by Bay Shipbuilding using special cranes developed by Lake

Shore Inc. Innovative "Flexor" Barge Connector

Allows Blue Water Barge Trains "Trains" of freight barges criss- crossing the world's oceans, lakes and rivers, is the goal set by the

Barge Train Division of American

Metal Bearing, Inc., which has an- nounced the introduction to the commercial market of its "Flexor," a flexible steel and synthetic rub- ber barge connector that makes barge trains possible and opens a new area of additional revenue op- portunities for barge operators worldwide.

Free literature is available de- scribing the entire concept in detail.

Making the announcement, Alan

Ducommun, president of the Gar- den Grove, Calif., firm, stated that the introduction of the Flexor and the Barge Train concept to com- mercial shipping will, for the first time, bring the cost and conven- ience advantages of barging to blue-water transportation around the world.

Mr. Ducommun stated there are three basic types of barge link- ages: single hinge, multiple artic- ulated connectors, and flexible couplings. Single hinges have lim- ited ability to absorb the ocean forces. Articulated couplings are a big improvement, but may not ab- sorb enough force. Flexible cou- plings theoretically could absorb these forces, but no one had been able to perfect them until John

Marriner did it in the 1970s.

American Metal Bearing pur- chased Mr. Marriner's firm, Barge

Train, Inc., and its Flexor patents, earlier this year. It also retained

Mr. Marriner to help launch the product commercially.

Flexor allows relative motion between coupled barges substan- tially reducing the forces between them. An additional feature is that the Flexor can be coupled and uncoupled very quickly. <11 • l> 90 Write 271 on Reader Service Card Maritime Reporter/Engineering News