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Halter Delivers Another To Persian Gulf — Offshore Vessel Backlog Totals $50 Million Fidel Castro Orders Three Coastal Tankers From Canadian Yard A $30-million contract to build three 10,000-ton coastal tankers for Cuba has been signed by the Ca- nadian Government. The ships will be built by Marine Industries, Ltd. of Montreal, and will be delivered in 1977 and 1978. The company insisted on includ- ing an inflation clause in the con- tract, and Cuba agreed. The Cuba deal is the latest chap- ter in Canada's shipbuilding suc- cess story, and the bonanza is largely because of Government ac- tions 'to encourage export sales. The Federal Government offers a 17 percent incentive grant to com- panies with export ship sales, and the Canadian Export Development Corporation allows low-interest loans to customer countries for up to 80 percent of the balance. In three years, the program hais increased Canadian ship exports dramatically, with sales to Greece, France, Britain, and the United States. There is speculation that Cuban Premier Fidel Castro is purchasing tankers for possible oil shipments from Venezuela. Currently, Cuba receives 100,000 barrels of oil daily from the Soviet Union to cover vir- tually all her needs. Todd-CEA To Automate Burners Of Ten Gulf Oil Tankers Todd-CEA, New York, N.Y. has been awarded a contract to automate the burners of 10 tankers in Gulf Oil's U.S. fleet. The modernization program will enable the ships to op- erate with unattended fire rooms. Burners will be monitored by the watch engineer from a remote con- trol panel at the throttle station. In each instance, existing mechan- ical-atomizing burners will be re- placed by steam-atomizing burners and the existing electric combustion control system will be replaced with a pneumatic control system. The pneu- matic systems will also include new two-element feedwater controls that will respond to drum level and steam flow. Fluctuations in boiler loads are pre- sently met by manually shutting down and starting up the mechanical- atomizing burners. In the future, load changes will be met by automatic regulations of oil flow to wide-range steam - atomizing burners. Controls and a control panel will be located in the fire room. Burners will be ignited from the fire room console, and from then on will be monitored from the throttle station panel. Six ships were built by Bethlehem and four are jumboized T-2 tankers. The Bethlehem ships presently have six burners each, three per boiler, and the T-2 tankers have four burners per boiler. Following conversion, all ships will have two burners per boiler. The new burner management sys- tems will incorporate alarms and in- dicator lights to alert the watch engi- neer in event of abnormal operating conditions. The systems meet Coast Guard and ABS requirements for unattended boiler rooms. Swedish Firm Receives $26-Million Steel Order From Finnish Yard An order worth $26 million has been placed with Scandia Plate AB of Oxelosund, Sweden, for supplying heavy steel plate to the Finnish ship- builders Oy Wartsila AB. The plate will be delivered in 1976 and 1977 for use in five seagoing LPG tankers. The steel is a grade developed especi- ally for containing liquefied petro- leum gas and other potentially haz- ardous products transported or stored at low temperatures. The five tankers, each having a ca- pacity of 75,000 cubic meters of li- quefied gas, will be built at a new yard to be constructed near Turku in Finland. They will be operated by the Norwegian shipping company Fearnley & Eger. The steel plate will be manufac- tured at Oxelosund Iron Works (owned by the Granges Group) and Domnarvet Iron Works (Stora Kop- parberg Group). Scandia Plate AB is their joint exporting company. It is a fully killed, normalized steel plate with a maximum carbon con- tent of 0.12 percent. It can readily be welded to other weldable steels, and its extreme purity permits highly au- tomated welding techniques to be used. The plate is approved by Lloyd's Register of Shipping, the American Bureau of Shipping, and Det norske Veritas. Michigan Wheel Acguires Interest In Austral Propeller Co. As part of its continuing empha- sis on worldwide expansion, Dana Corporation's "seagoing" subsidi- ary, Michigan Wheel Corporation of Grand Rapids, Mich., has ac- quired a substantial equity inter- est in Austral Propeller Company Pty. Ltd. of Peakhurst, New South Wales, Australia. Announcement of the acquisi- tion, to be known as Austral Michi- gan Propeller Company Pty, Ltd., was made by Kevin C. Vincent, managing director of Austral, and H.L. VanderMey, president of Michigan Wheel. Austral is the leading manufac- turer of machined pitch propellers for outboard, inboard, and marine outdrive units in Australia. Michi- gan Wheel Corporation is a leading supplier of marine and industrial propellers to the North American and international markets. Falk Corp. Appoints Vonier Sales Manager William H. Vonier William H. Vonier has been ap- pointed sales manager for The Falk Corporation, Milwaukee, Wis. The appointment, effective immediate- ly, was announced by S.G. Falk, senior vice president-marketing and sales. Mr. Vonier was most recently as- sistant sales manager. In his new post, he succeeds Don R. O'Hare, recently elected president of Falk. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Mr. Vonier join- ed Falk in 1955 after completing his Naval service. Upon comple- tion of a sales training. program, he was assigned to the Cleveland office. In 1960, he went to Falk's Milwaukee headquarters as coup- ling sales manager. He returned to the field in 1964 as Atlanta district manager. He returned again to Milwaukee in 1969 as Eastern regional mana- ger, and was made assistant sales manager in June 1973. As sales manager, Mr. Vonier will be responsible for all field office operations, merchandising and customer service, Mr. Falk said. The Falk Corporation, Milwau- kee-based subsidiary of Sundstrand Corporation, is a leading manufac- turer of industrial gear drives and shaft couplings. William Weaver Named ODECO Vice President The promotion of William B. Weaver to vice president of Ocean Drilling & Exploration Company, New Orleans, La., was recently an- nounced by Alden J. Laborde, ODECO's president. Mr. Laborde said Mir. Weaver will be responsible for ODECO's worldwide customer relations ac- tivities. Mr. Weaver joined ODECO in 1969 as manager of drilling engi- neering, following 17 years as a drilling operations engineer for Humble Oil. He was promoted to manager of drilling engineering and customer relations for ODECO in 1972. A native Oklahoman, Mr. Weav- er is a petroleum engineering grad- ate of Oklahoma A. & M. He is a member of AIME, IADC, and the Petroleum Club of New Or- leans. ON THE COVER: The Gacship IV is turbocharged after-cooled engines a Halter Marine Services, Inc. (New Orleans, La.), the world's largest builder of offshore oil sup- port vessels, recently delivered a 65-foot triple-screw crewboat to Gulf Agency (Dubai) Limited. The new vessel, accommodating 49 pas- sengers, will service incoming and outgoing tanks in the Persian Gulf. Her home port is Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The new vessel measures 64 feet 6 inches by 17 feet 6 inches, with an 8-foot 3-inch draft. The Gac- ship IV is powered by three Cater- pillar D-343 turbocharged after- cooled engines fitted with Twin Disc MG-514 2.0:1 gears. The en- gines are equipped with one 2-71 20-kw generator unit. The vessel can reach a speed of 23 mph at a continuous 1,800 powered by three Caterpillar D-343 nd can reach a speed of 23 mph. rpm, and is fitted with 3-inch-di- ameter 174-PH stainless-steel pro- peller shafts. The Gacship IV is fully air-conditioned and has a complete heating system. Halter Marine Services has a current backlog of more than $50 million in contracts to build off- shore crewboats, supply, anchor handling, and towing ships for the oil and gas industry worldwide. The company's production comes from four fully equipped shipyards in New Orleans, Lockport, and Pierre Part, La., and Moss Point, Miss. The Lockport division yard recently completed construction on the first Halter Marine Hustler- class vessel, a river towboat spe- cially designed for work on the changing rivers. < 10 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News
