spartonboat1
Legendary Member
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2005
- Messages
- 2,494
- Hatteras Model
- 43' DOUBLE CABIN (1970 - 1984)
I sort of tracked the size of the ore carriers on the Great Lakes over the years, since I was young (50's). Then I read in the WSJ about some really big ore carriers built for Brazilian mining giant firm, Vale SA. The numbers are a little hard to follow, since the reports for tonnage are so much larger than those on the GL's.
E.g., a record load on the GL's was the Burns Harbor with a load of 72,167 gross tons in 1996 (Boat Nerd site); she was an early 1,000 footer in 1980; link below.
http://www.americansteamship.com/fleet/mv-burns-harbor.php
Compare that to the reported 388,000 tons in the article. I wonder if that is correctly reported, since it is about 5 times the BH above. But the ValeMax (Vales class of ships) are almost 1,500' long (1,440'?), so 50% larger that the GL's 1k'ers lengthwise, so the width/beam also might be much greater, plus more depth and greater capacity. Values from link show beam 213' (2x BH) and working depth of 75' (2x BH) and length 1,200 (I have seen 1,440 reported?). So a big boat; and a big fleet, if all 35 were built.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valemax
China's version of Maritime industry is pushing back, as they have recently gotten the Valemax ships banned from Chineses ports, after Vale invested $2Bn in their boats! (not in the link, but reported later)
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2011/12/30/big-ship-opens-door-to-valemax/
Interestingly, one Valemax is reported to have developed a 60 centimeter crack (again, is that the valid value, since 2.54Cm to the inch, would mean a 20" crack! "No big deal", says shipbuilder!
End of comments...
E.g., a record load on the GL's was the Burns Harbor with a load of 72,167 gross tons in 1996 (Boat Nerd site); she was an early 1,000 footer in 1980; link below.
http://www.americansteamship.com/fleet/mv-burns-harbor.php
Compare that to the reported 388,000 tons in the article. I wonder if that is correctly reported, since it is about 5 times the BH above. But the ValeMax (Vales class of ships) are almost 1,500' long (1,440'?), so 50% larger that the GL's 1k'ers lengthwise, so the width/beam also might be much greater, plus more depth and greater capacity. Values from link show beam 213' (2x BH) and working depth of 75' (2x BH) and length 1,200 (I have seen 1,440 reported?). So a big boat; and a big fleet, if all 35 were built.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valemax
China's version of Maritime industry is pushing back, as they have recently gotten the Valemax ships banned from Chineses ports, after Vale invested $2Bn in their boats! (not in the link, but reported later)
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2011/12/30/big-ship-opens-door-to-valemax/
Interestingly, one Valemax is reported to have developed a 60 centimeter crack (again, is that the valid value, since 2.54Cm to the inch, would mean a 20" crack! "No big deal", says shipbuilder!
End of comments...
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