10 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • SEPTEMBER 2014
NEWS
M
ammoet recently lifted a new
attraction at the NASA Space
Center Houston to a great-
er height. As thousands of onlookers
watched, a 250-ft. tall Mammoet crane
lifted a 122-ft. long space shuttle replica
three stories high to its resting place atop
the original Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA)
NASA 905, a Boeing 747. The delicate lift
to the crown of the 63-ft. 747 took about
40 minutes. The crane lifted the replica to
a height of 150 feet before lowering it onto
the back of the SCA, sitting on a 15-inch
concrete foundation.
“The lift was challenging because of the
awkward weight distribution of the rep-
lica and the safety concerns for the thou-
sands of spectators”, said Pierre Mille,
Mammoet USA’s sales manager. “A space
shuttle, even a replica, is designed to go
straight, so it catches a lot of wind when
lifted sideways. But we engineered the lift
carefully and were well prepared for this
effect. With our crane we were able to set
the space shuttle exactly where it needed
to be.
The crane was assembled at the site a
week in advance. It took only 1.5 days to
assemble it and another 1.5 days to disas-
semble it after the lift was completed.
Bulk carrier of the type featuring the
NSafe-Hull
World First
Highly Ductile
Steel Plate
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. claims the
world’s fi rst use of highly ductile steel
plate NSafe-Hull, developed by Nippon
Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation on
a merchant vessel. The large bulk carrier
featuring this new safety-enhancing fea-
ture was launched on August 2, 2014.
The NSafe-Hull’s highly ductile steel re-
portedly absorbs side impact to the hull
three times more effectively than con-
ventional steel plate, reducing the risk
of cracks in the hull and signifi cantly
increasing the safety of the vessel. Con-
struction of the new bulkship required a
total about 3,000 tons of NSafe-Hull for
sections such as the side plates of cargo
holds and fuel tanks, where hull strength
is especially critical. Improved puncture
resistance helps to prevent fl ooding, pro-
tects cargo, and prevents environmental
damage from oil leakage.
Length 299.9m
Breadth 50m
Draft 24.7m
DWT 206,600 MT
Shipyard Imabari Shipbuilding
Co., Ltd, Saijo Shipyard
VESSELS
T
he series highlighting the
world’s most expensive active
vessels from online ship intelli-
gence and information service Vessels-
Value.com focuses this month on the
most expensive tanker vessel, which is
not a VLCC but a Jones Act aframax.
The fi rst-in-class double hull tanker
Liberty Bay is an 820-foot, 115,000
dwt aframax tanker built this year
by Aker Philadelphia and owned by
Seariver Maritime. The tanker, which
has an 800,000-barrel capacity and sup-
plies crude oil from Alaska North Slope
to refi neries along the U.S. west coast,
prices in at approximately $184.7 mil-
lion. To put the ship’s value perspec-
tive, VesselsValue.com created an in-
fographic showing that Liberty Bay’s
price is equivalent to roughly:
• 1.8 x Floyd Mayweather’s 2013
winnings ($105 million)
• 6.4 Super Puma helicopters ($29
million each)
• 23 minutes of Superbowl advertis-
ing time (at a value of $4 million per 30
seconds)
According to our calculations, for
$184.7 million could buy more than 1.6
million copies of the complete series
collection of Gilligan’s Island on DVD
($115 each).
Jones Act Tanker
THE WORLD’S MOST EXPENSIVE
Cour
tesy of V
esselV
alue.com
Mammoet Lifts Space Shuttle
NSafe-Hull sections in red.
MR #9 (10-17).indd 10 9/5/2014 8:59:45 AM
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