World's Largest Refrigerated Cargo Ship,
Built By Danyard A/S, Enters Service
—First Of Class—
DITLEV LAURITZEN
One-Man Control Of All Ship Functions, Port To Port
Possible With Sperry Marine Route Control System
Integrated With ICS System
The recent entry into service of
the 765,650-cubic-foot reefer Ditlev
Lauritzen can be described as his-
toric for a number of very good rea-
sons.
The ship, first of a class of four, is
reported to be the largest dedicated
reefer ever built. Her completion
and acceptance marks the fulfill-
ment of a unique project in which
the Danish Ministry of Industry has
acted as coordinator in the realiza-
tion of the most advanced concepts
of marine automation.
Through these concepts, applied
in an Integrated Ship Control (ISC)
System, one man can supervise the
vessel's navigation and monitor and
control all machinery and cargo sys-
tems. As a result, the Ditlev Lauritz-
en is approved for operation with a
total crew of six. The new vessel,
which was designed and developed
as part of Denmark's ambitions Pro-
jekt Skib, or "Project Ships," pro-
gram, is sailing under the Danish
flag in the fleet of Lauritzen Reef-
ers.
The technical director of Da-
nyard, Jens Viskinge Jensen,
was able to celebrate an anniversary
together with the completion of the
first Project Ship, refrigerated cargo
vessel number 25, in the history of
the Lauritzen Group shipyards.
Mr. Jensen said, "A number of
details from refrigerated ships pre-
viously built for J. Lauritzen have
appeared again, but the project has
still been different from earlier
ships and has presented many chal-
lenges.
"From the beginning of the proj-
ect we put an extraordinary amount
of resources into our drawing office.
We were particularly concerned
with the high degree of automation
involved and we were very pleased
to see that everything worked the
very first time."
A highly complex ship with a
great number of large hatches and
cargo holds placed demands on
coordination, imagination and inge-
nuity.
"The Project Ship is not just a
refrigerated cargo ship, it is one of
the most advanced of its kind ever
built. The shipyard, the shipping
company, the authorities, the classi-
fication society and the suppliers
have all worked in close cooperation
with each other and this has been a
pleasure. When you can add to this
that all specifications such as
weight, speed, carrying capacity,
technique, noise and vibration lev-
els, etc., were met with, we can also
take pleasure in the fact that the
ship has given the entire shipyard a
further technological boost and pro-
vided greater possibilities for the
future," Mr. Jensen added.
An important aim of the Project
Ship concept is the achievement of
very low manning levels. The Inte-
grated Ship Control (ISC) system
designed and supplied by Soren T.
Lyngso A/S has been developed to
permit this.
ISC integrates navigation and the
monitoring and control of machin-
ery in a single computer system.
The operator supervises and admin-
isters ISC from the ship's bridge.
By optimizing the use of the
ship's main propeller and thrusters
to achieve maximum maneuverabil-
ity, ISC also eliminates the need for
tug assistance.
The navigation system includes
route planning and automatic ad-
justment of course and speed to con-
form with the planned route. Lyng-
so/Valmet Marine have supplied a
bridge system in which a Sperry
Marine Route Control System is
integrated with the ISC system.
Features of the Sperry Marine
RCS include a track-keeping mod-
ule and an ETA pilot. Well before
sailing, the watch-keeping officer
can read-in the waypoint parame-
ters for his proposed route, as well
as the desired arrival time, at his
Navigation Work Station.
The main engine is a MAN B&W
Type 6L60MC two-stroke, direct re-
versing diesel with turbocharging
and freshwater-cooled cylinders.
The engine is arranged for operation
jn heavy fuel oil, IF-380, and devel-
ops 15,300 bhp at 121 rev/min corre-
sponding to a trial speed in excess of
21 knots.
A Renk-Tacke power takeoff gear
box, with an integral coupling and
multidisc clutch is mounted at the
front end of the main engine.
The KaMeWa c.p. propeller is
four-bladed and has a diameter of
5,400 mm.
Control of the main engine, in-
cluding the c.p. propeller, is inte-
grated in the ISC System, the ma-
chinery being fitted with all neces-
sary transducers for temperatures,
pressures, etc. Two terminal screens
on the bridge are dedicated to main
engine monitoring and control.
The bow and stern thrusters,
rated at 1,000 kw each, are of Brun-
voll Type SPR-VR. The electric mo-
tors are direct-starting. The thrust-
er propellers, with a diameter of
2,000 mm each, exert an estimated
thrust of 14.8 t at a speed of 295
rev/min.
The application of the ISC Sys-
tem for total ship operation has
Photo, left: To the right, the voyage management station with the Sperry Marine route
control system. To the left, the communication panel.
Photo, right: The central ship-handling panel is the preferred location for ship handling
during the voyage.
Digital Wave Publishing