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Levingston Shipbuilding Com- pany recently launched the motor vessel Pride of Texas at its Orange, Texas, shipyard. The 36,000-dwt dry bulk carrier was christened by Mrs. Valerie Nem- irow, wife of Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Maritime Affairs Samuel B. Nemirow, in the pres- ence of some 750 guests and about 2,000 shipyard workers and their families. The ship has an overall length of 611 feet 10 inches, beam of 93 feet 2 inches, and depth of 50 feet 2i/2 inches (186.5 by 28.4 by 15.3 meters). She has a gross ton- nage of 23,500 and capacity of 1,589,570 cubic feet (45,005 cubic meters). The Pride of Texas is designed to carry grain and other dry bulk cargoes in the foreign trade of the United States for the Lev- ingston Falcon Shipping Compa- ny, a partnership of Levingston Shipbuilding and the Falcon Group of Houston. She is powered by two Transamerica Delaval Enter- prise DMRV-12-4, medium-speed diesel engines having a total max- imum continuous rating of 14,824 bhp at 450 rpm. Her maximum speed will be 17 knots, but full- load service speed is 15.7 knots. The vessel has been built to meet all the requirements of the Amer- ican Bureau of Shipping and the U.S. Coast Guard for unlimited ocean service. She will be manned by a crew of 26. First in a series of five such Major Suppliers Main diesel engines (2) and reduction gears, Transamerica Delaval, Inc. 625-kw generators, KATO, driven by Detroit Diesel 12V-149 T engines. Anchors, Baldt. Lifeboats, Marine Safety. Sewage treatment system, Marland. Deck machinery, Lake Shore. Steering gear, Sperry. Cargo hatches, MacGregor Comerain. Air-conditioning, Carrier. Paint, International. Steel, United States Steel, Armco. ships for the same owners, the Pride of Texas is the first dry bulk carrier to be built in the U.S. that is specifically designed for service in U.S. foreign trade, in competition with ships of foreign owners. She is also the first ves- sel to be built in the U.S. to a Japanese design and with the as- sistance of Japanese shipbuilding experts. The design is the highly successful "Future-32" standard bulk carrier developed by Ishi- kawajima-Harima Heavy Indus- tries Company, Ltd. (IHI) of To- kyo. For the past 18 months ship- yard engineers from IHI have been assisting Levingston person- nel in an unprecedented "Tech- nology Transfer" that is designed to help improve U.S. shipbuilding productivity. The principal speaker at the christening ceremony was Sam- uel B. Nemirow, Assistant Secre- tary of Commerce for Maritime Affairs. Other speakers were Ed- ward E. Paden, president of Lev- ingston Shipbuilding; C.C. Wei, president of Falcon Carriers; and Yotaro Kanoh, director of the In- ternational Division of IHI. In the platform party for the christening ceremony were: Les- ter Rosenblatt, president of The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, and Mrs. Rosen- blatt; Father Patrick J. O'Shaugh- nessy of St. Thomas Catholic Church in Hattiesburg, Miss., who gave the invocation; and other of- ficers of Levingston Shipbuilding Company and its parent Ashland Oil, and from the Falcon Group. Levingston has built more than 700 vessels of all types since it started steel ship construction in 1933. Of this total, 164 were for the offshore industry—including nine drillships, seven semisub- mersibles, nine jackups, and 139 barges and tenders of various types. The company has also built 167 vessels for the U.S. Govern- ment including four frigates, the first surface-effect ship, and 162 tugs and coastal vessels. For the commercial marine industry Lev- ingston has built a total of 372 vessels, mostly barges of various types and sizes but also tankers, roll-on/roll-off ships, and ferries. Levingston Shipbuilding Com- pany, Orange, Texas, and IHI Marine Technology, Inc., a sub- sidiary of Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Company, Ltd. (IHI) of Japan are working to- gether to introduce a number of Japanese shipbuilding techniques at the Levingston yard. This work is being performed under a re- search and development contract from the U.S. Maritime Admin- istration, the cost of which is be- ing shared 50-50 between MarAd and Levingston. The program is part of the National Shipbuilding Research Program managed by MarAd's Office of Advanced Ship Development. Hitachi Awarded $13-Million Contract For Diesel Conversion Hitachi Zosen of Japan recently received an order from Compania Espanola de Petroleos, S.A. (CE- PSA) to change the main engine of the 173,266-dwt tanker Valen- cia from steam turbine to diesel. This is Hitachi's first order for main engine conversion work for a supertanker. The value of the contract is approximately 2,900 million yen (about $13 million). CEPSA decided to replace the ship's 32,000-shp steam turbine plant with two fuel-efficient, me- dium-speed diesel engines. The engine selected is a type 12V52/ 55A Hitachi/Sulzer-M.A.N. diesel. Two engines have a combined out- put of 25,320 bhp, giving the ship a service speed of 14.3 knots. Fuel consumption is calculated at 86.5 tons per day, about 30 percent less than the steam plant used. The conversion will be done at Hitachi's Osaka (Sakai) Shipyard, with completion scheduled for May 1981. The two authors—Timothy Col- ton of Levingston and Yukinori Mikami of IMT — explained the origins and background of the program, how it is organized, and how the results are being shared with other U.S. shipyards. They outlined the distinctive features of the Japanese philosophy of shipbuilding management, and the principal characteristics of the technology being transferred. Finally, they described the prin- cipal findings of the program thus far, the applications that have been or are being implemented, the results achieved, and their expectations for the future. / Big splash, balloons, and streamers marked recent launching of bulk carrier Pride of Texas at Orange, Texas, yard of Levingston Shipbuilding Company. Levingston Launches U.S.-Flag Bulk Carrier 'Pride Of Texas' Shipbuilding Technology Transfer Discussed By New York SNAME Officers and authors at recent meeting of SNAME New York Metropolitan Section (L to R): Eric E. Lithen, Section vice chairman and chairman-elect for 80-81 meet- ing year; Yukinori Mikami, IHI Marine Technology, Inc., author; Walter M. Maclean, Section chairman; Timothy J.V. Colton, Levingston Shipbuilding Company, author; Naresh Maniar, Papers Committee chairman. 12 ZIDELL Maritime Reporter/Engineering News
