WesterShip News No. 11, September 2004

Transcription

1 No. 11, September 2004 M.V. Westerdeich Pilot leaving the vessel at Durban Reederei Hans Peterson & Söhne GmbH & Co. KG

2 Introduction Dear seafarers and readers, In this issue Guess who s that??? After the move to our new office building work comes back to normal and the craftsmen mainly have left the building site exept the gardening people who just have started the job in order to arrange the outside facilities on time before our inauguaration ceremony scheduled on the 27 th of August. We now proudly present our company with new appearance and everybody is enjoying the new offices and beautiful scenery right at the waterfront of the Kiel Canal. Looking forward to welcoming you in the office. Kind regards & safe journeys, M.V. Westerems This picture has been send in by Captain Dietmar Jönssen, Master of M.V. Westerems. It was made whilst entering the port of Ningbo / China and shows Captain Jönssen, 4 pilots and two trainees. Letter of the week Captain Jönssen and the Chinese-pilot-gang Letter to the Editor of The Times, London I agree with your correspondent that the term a couple no longer means two. My husband often visits our local hostelry for a couple of pints 2

3 Introducing Officestaff Searching for the Cent In this issue we would like to introduce one of our souls of the company: Karla Kwauka Most of you had already the pleasure to converse with her over some figures or search for some missing numbers and such She is our accountant and just distinguished for bookkeeping. No wonder, years of experience within this domain made her become a wily fox in this regard. After a commercial apprenticeship she specialized in accounting whilst working for a ship chandler here at the port of Rendsburg. First of January 1984 she joined the company. Since about one year she is supported by Mrs. Karen Wulf who will be introduced in our next issue. Beginning of this year Mrs. Kwauka celebrated her 20 th jubilee and we all hope she will stick it out with us the next 20 years! When she is not working, then she might be on the roads together with her husband. The two of them like to explore Northern Germany with their mobile home. If time doesn t allow to do that, you might be seeing her pottering about her garden. If you ever need a hint about plants, she is the one to talk to! Fishing on Shanghai-river M. V. Westermoor was berthing at Shanghai, when Captain Bendig noticed a lot of fishermen very close to the vessel, which was quiet unusual. Further investigations showed, that they weren t trying to catch some fat fishes, no, they were fishing lashingbars and such alongside the vessels at the pier and they were also quiet successful. There was no assistance by the lashing gang or even stevedores. Apparently it is normal that sometimes lashing material is going over board during unlashing of containers. Chinese fishermen 3

4 Nightmare of the Seas Investment in R&D, production and overseas licensee organisations dictated to stay competetive in the low speed engine market took its toll over the decades, and only a trio of two-stroke designer/licensors MAN B&W Diesel, Mitsubishi and Sulzer (now part of the Wärtsilä Corporation) survived into the 1990s to contest the international arena. operators and their engineers should be grateful tor the significant post-war progress in medium speed diesel engine and gas turbine development that prevented the illustration below becoming frightening reality. A late 1920s passenger ship proposal featured a 75 MW Doxford diesel-electric plant arranged in three main machinery rooms with a separate space for the propulsion motors. Think about it: 16 x six-cylinder low speed diesel-driven gensets (ear plugs anyone?). Even those who sailed with the modern Doxford engines will shake (like the drinks in that passenger ship bar) at the thought of having responsibility for almost 100 opposed-piston cylinders in one ship. Hero Tintin Could Tintin be the ultimate maritime hero? He has all the right credentials. A roll call of past contenders includes names either long forgotten or living on only in other engineering sectors: who remembers AEG-Hesselmann, Deutsche Werft, Fullagar, Krupp, McIntosh and Seymour, Neptune, Nobel, North British, Polar, Richardsons Westgarth, Still, Tosi, Vickers, Werkspoor and Worthington? These pioneering designs displayed individual flair within generic classifications which offered two- or four-stroke, single- or double-acting, and single- or opposed-piston configurations. The still combined the Diesel principle with a steam engine: heat in the exhaust gases and cooling water was used to raise steam which was applied to the underside of the working piston. One of the last to bow out along with Gotaverken and Stork - was the memorably distinctive Doxford design. But cruise ship The quest by his creator Hergé for accuracy and attention to detail in portraying the correct nautical settings for his adventures is properly explored in the book which acompanies the National Maritime Museum s exhibition/u.k. Tintin and the sea go back a long way and his finest hours have included fighting drug smugglers in The Crab with the Golden Claws. What this volume shows, however, is the care which Hergé lavished upon the backdrops, whether in the radio rooms or up the rigging. 4

5 Murphy s Law Little known facts ANYTHING THAT CAN GO WRONG, WILL GO WRONG. Anything good in life is either illegal, immoral or fattening. The light at the end of the tunnel is the headlamp of an oncoming train. Celibacy is not hereditary. Never sleep with anyone crazier than yourself. Beauty is only skin deep, ugly goes to the bone. If everything seems to be going well, you obviously don t know what the hell is going on. Never argue with a fool, people might not know the difference. A short cut is the longest distance between two points. Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate. Everyone has a scheme for getting rich that will not work. The other line always moves faster. Murphy s golden rule: Whoever has the gold makes the rules. The race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong, but that s the way to bet. Anything you try to fix will take longer and cost more than you thought. The repairman will never have seen a model quite like yours before. In order to get a loan, you must first prove, you don t need it. No matter how long or hard you shop for an item, after you ve bought it, it will be on sale somewhere cheaper. The chance of a piece of bread falling with the buttered side down is directly proportional to the cost of the carpet. If the population of China walked past you, in single file, the line would never end, because of the rate of reproduction. No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple. On a Canadian two-dollar bill, the flag flying over the parliament building is an American flag. Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite. Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated. The 'QE2' moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel it burns. The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket. The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid. There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous" - tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous. Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur. MURPHY WAS AN OPTIMIST. M.V. Westermoor during last t/c for Maersk 5

6 On the move... In the last issue we introduced first pictures of the office newbuilding at the topping-up ceremony. It seems only a few weeks ago, but all of the sudden, the day came: The walls were naked, the sound was hollow, brief no more fun at all. MOVING DAY! Pictures were wrapped and boxes packed, dust all over and the garbage bins started to grow over their size. Many things that were lost, showed up again and the one or the other old document brought back some memories. So everybody was kind of relieved, when the moving day came accept the removal men: Unfortunately for them the newly installed elevator didn t work the first day Murph s Law? So they had to roll up their sleeves. Since they were all well prepared, the whole transaction went apace and on Friday, July 30 th, 2004 it was already possible to unpack the first boxes. The computers and telephones were put into operation and as a nice surprise to everyone it worked! Of course it is still a bit of a unusual feeling walking around these new walls with 6

7 everybody sitting in a different offices on a different deck. Bits and pieces are still missing here and there and the appurtenant structures are still under construction. Step by step things start to find their place to be so that we will be all ready and shining for the big inauguration-celebration which will be held on August 27 th, He came from Zarate and saw this ship. More about it will be told in our next issue. We will keep you posted! Ship in the wood One of the shareholders of Westerdeich, Mr. Dietmar Weber, has been on a journey on a containership and spied again something interesting: It is now used as a hotel and restaurant. The wheel house and the with their superstructures are still there. A ship in the woods! It was in February, when Mr. Weber has been on the river Rio Parana in Argentina. 7

8 New cargo record 2003 was a record year for the Kiel Canal. Never before in the history of 100 years more cargo has been transported on this waterway. The Kiel Canal affirms its reputation as mostly travelled on artificial waterway of the world. Compared to last year the amount of ships passages raised about 3,2%, so it comes to passages. In 2002 it has been only passages. In addition to that comes the traffic of pleasure and smaller boats. For this reason the Kiel Canal raised again the during the past three years constant level, shown in the annual report from Very impressive is the cargovolume: 11,93% higher than previous year. 72,3 mio.t cargo were transported through the Kiel Canal in It is the highest amount since the opening of the Kiel Canal in The Kiel Canal profits from the dynamic economic development in the Baltic Sea area. Interesting is the fact, that more goods are being transported coming from the Baltic Sea than from West to East (45,7 to 26,5 mio.t.). to a percentage of 0,13 for the whole shipping traffic (including smaller vessels). The amount of vessels free of pilots on the Kiel Canal raised compared to the previous year about 152 to which makes a percentage of 29,8 of the overall traffic. The amount of valid Free-of-pilot-licences reduced about 30 to 257. In 2003 the navigation has been constrained on 94 days by hours due to adverse weather conditions. The obstruction through windforces of 6 Beaufort and more decreased about 23 to 55 % compared to the previous year, but the amount of foggy days increasedup to 39 %. The Kiel Canal stayed icefree, including the access roads. The cruise ship Norwegian Dream ( RT) has been the biggest vessel in 2003 which cruised through the Kiel Canal. The transport through the Kiel Canal is carried out increasingly by feeders. A view to the registered tonnage of all vessels cruising through the Kiel Canal points up the tendency to growing shipunits. A total number of over 111,96 mio RT has been reached in This record outcome from last year increased again by 8,1%. In the earlier days the vessels have been far more smaller vessels went through the Kiel Canal in 1965, which brought together 80 mio. RT and transported 60 mio.t cargo. The traffic security on the Kiel Canal stayed on high level. Alltogether 59 accidents are registered. 72 vehicles were involved, which is equivalent 8

9 Kiel Canal Constant construction site since decades Mystery Ship Since 1965 workers are broadening the most travelled on artificial waterway in the world. But this is not about space for larger vessels, said the spokesman of the Federal Waterways Directory. The broadening of the Canal combats at present only the sequences of the bank erosionsbelow the waterline. Raising figures of passages and larger vessels have damaged the Canal. It is the second broadening in the Canal-history of more than 100 years. Since 1950 the bank slopes are being destroyed by the wash of waves from the still growing vessels, explained the spokesman of FWD. Instead of saving the bank slopes with plating or to furnish the waterside edging with sheet piling, the cross-section of the Canal is secured by broadening since It is not only the most cost-efficient method of securing, it also increases at the same time the usable surface of water. After calculation and pilot projects a broadening of the base of duct about 44 m to 90 m and the water level about 102,5 m to 162 m at unaltered soundings would be ideal. Therefore it was necessary to move alltogether 41 mio. m³ of soil, renew 100 km shore edging, replace a combined railwayand roadbridge through a newbuilding, as well as newly erection of streets, ferry piers, coastal pumping stations and premesis. The overallcosts amount to 500 mio. Euro. 88 km of the 98,6 km long Canal were widened so far and the securing-programe has almost come to an end. The remaining eleven kilometers close to Kiel haven t been touched since At this time three different options for broading are under survey, said the FWD. The costs for the projected development are estimated with 50 to 150 mio. Euro. The beginning of those works are scheduled for When Mr. Weber travelled on Rio Parana, he also detected this mystery ship, with no name on at all. Only at the rear end it was written Limassol. Funny tale TWO elderly ladies had been friends for many decades. Over the years they had shared all kinds of adventures. Lately, their activities had been limited to meeting a few times a week to play cards. One day they were playing cards when one looked at the other and said, "Now don't get mad at me. I know we've been friends for a long time but I just can't think of your name. I've thought and thought but I can't remember it. Please tell me what your name is." Her friend glared at her. For at least three minutes she just glared at her. Finally she said, "How soon do you need to know?" 9