MV Baffin Strait (T-AK-W9519) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Call sign:	WDC2769
IMO number IMO ship identification number The IMO ship identification number is made of the three letters "IMO" followed by the seven-digit number assigned to all ships by IHS Fairplay when constructed. This is a unique seven digit number that is assigned to propelled, sea-going merchant ships of 100 GT and above... :	9148520

MV TransAtlantic is a U.S.-flagged
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

container ship
Container ship
Container ships are cargo ships that carry all of their load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. They form a common means of commercial intermodal freight transport.-History:...

owned and operated by TransAtlantic Lines LLC
TransAtlantic Lines LLC
TransAtlantic Lines LLC is an American shipping company based in Greenwich, Connecticut. The limited liability company was founded in 1998 by vice-president Gudmundur Kjaernested and president Brandon C. Rose. The company owns and operates 5 vessels, including one tug-and-barge combination...

. The 100 metres (328.1 ft) long ship was built at Wuhu Shipyard in Wuhu, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

in 1997 as Steamers Future. Originally owned by Singapore's Keppel Corporation

Keppel Corporation

The Keppel Group of Companies includes Keppel Offshore & Marine, Keppel Integrated Engineering, Keppel Energy, Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation and Keppel Land, among others....

, she has had three owners, been registered under three flags, and been renamed ten times.

From 2004 to 2009, the ship, under the name Baffin Strait (T-AK W9519), was one of Military Sealift Command

Military Sealift Command

The Military Sealift Command is a United States Navy organization that controls most of the replenishment and military transport ships of the Navy. It first came into existence on 9 July 1949 when the Military Sea Transportation Service became solely responsible for the Department of Defense's...

's seven chartered container ships, and delivered 250 containers every month from Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

to Diego Garcia

Diego Garcia

Diego Garcia is a tropical, footprint-shaped coral atoll located south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean at 7 degrees, 26 minutes south latitude. It is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory [BIOT] and is positioned at 72°23' east longitude....

. During this charter, she carried everything from fresh food to building supplies to aircraft parts, delivering more than 200,000 tons of cargo to the island each year.

After finishing the Diego Garcia contract, the ship sailed from Singapore on 19 November 2009 for a shipyard period in Wilmington, North Carolina

Wilmington, North Carolina

Wilmington is a port city in and is the county seat of New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. The population is 106,476 according to the 2010 Census, making it the eighth most populous city in the state of North Carolina...

by way of the Suez Canal. In May 2010, it was towed to Ciramar Shipyard in the Dominican Republic for more extensive repairs.

Construction

Then named Steamer's Future, the ship's keel was laid on 8 February 1996 at Wuhu Shipyard in Wuhu, China. Its hull, constructed from ordinary strength steel, has an overall length of 100.59 metres (330 ft). In terms of width, the ship has a beam of 16.24 metres (53.3 ft). The height from the top of the keel to the main deck, called the moulded depth, is 8.2 metres (26.9 ft).
Although much of its career has been spent crossing oceans, the ship's container-carrying capacity of (384 20-foot shipping container

Shipping container

A shipping container is a container with strength suitable to withstand shipment, storage, and handling. Shipping containers range from large reusable steel boxes used for intermodal shipments to the ubiquitous corrugated boxes...

s) places it in the range of a small feeder ship. The ship's gross tonnage

Gross tonnage

Gross tonnage is a unitless index related to a ship's overall internal volume. Gross tonnage is different from gross register tonnage...

, a measure of the volume of all its enclosed spaces, is 4,276. Its net tonnage

Net tonnage

Net tonnage is a dimensionless index calculated from the total moulded volume of the ship's cargo spaces by using a mathematical formula...

, which measures the volume of the cargo spaces, is 2,129. Its total carrying capacity in terms of weight, is , the equivalent of almost 170 Sherman tanks.

Steamer's Future was built with a Wärtsilä Vasa

Wärtsilä Vasa

The Wärtsilä Vasa engines were a line of maritime and power plant engines, produced by the Wärtsilä corporation at their factories in Vaasa, Finland. The Vasa engine name has since been discontinued for new production engines, although engines with 20 cm and 32 cm bore size are still...

9R32E main engine which drives a controllable-pitch propeller. This is a four-stroke diesel engine, that is turbocharged and intercooled. This engine also features direct fuel injection. It has nine in-line cylinders, each with a 320 mm cylinder bore, and a 350 mm stroke. At 720 revolutions per minute (RPM), the engine produces a maximum continuous output

Maximum Continuous Rating

Maximum continuous rating is defined as the maximum output that a generating station is capable of producing continuously under normal conditions over a year. Under ideal conditions, the actual output could be higher than the MCR....

of 3645 kW, and at 750 RPM 3690 kW. According to Military Sealift Command, the ship's cruising speed is 13 knots.

In addition, the ship has a Schottel SST170LKT maneuvering thruster

Bow thruster

A bow thruster is a transversal propulsion device built into, or mounted to, the bow of a ship or boat to make it more maneuverable. Bow thrusters make docking easier, since they allow the captain to turn the vessel to port or starboard without using the main propulsion mechanism which requires...

.
The ship was built with two 400 kW Wärtsilä UD 25 L6 55D auxiliary generators, backed-up by a Cummins emergency diesel generator. At some point prior to 21 April 2011, the #2 ship's service diesel generator was replaced with a Caterpillar C-18 diesel generator. This unit runs between 1,500 and 1,800 RPM and supplies between 301-602 kilowatts of electrical power. It burns between 16.6 to 38.3 US gal (62.8 to 145 ) per hour of diesel fuel and weighs between 3900 pounds (1,769 kg) and 4200 pounds (1,905.1 kg). This generator has a 145 millimetres (5.7 in) bore and a 183 millimetres (7.2 in) stroke.

TransAtlantic has two Liebherr

Liebherr Group

The Liebherr Group is a German manufacturing complex established in 1949 by Hans Liebherr. The Liebherr Group's holding company is Liebherr-International AG in Bulle, Switzerland, which is entirely owned by members of the Liebherr family...

rotary cargo cranes. Ships with cranes, known as geared ships, are more flexible in that they can visit ports that are not equipped with pierside cranes. However, having cranes on board also has drawbacks. This added flexibility incurs some costs greater recurring expenses, such as maintenance and fuel costs. The United Nations Council on Trade and Development characterizes geared ships as a "niche market only appropriate for those ports where low cargo volumes do not justify investment in port cranes or where the public sector does not have the financial resources for such investment." Slightly less than a third of the ships in TransAtlantic size range (from 100–499 TEU) are geared.

Construction of the ship was completed in 1997. , the ship is classified

Classification society

A classification society is a non-governmental organization that establishes and maintains technical standards for the construction and operation of ships and offshore structures...

by Det Norske Veritas

Det Norske Veritas

Stiftelsen Det Norske Veritas is a classification society organized as a foundation, with the objective of "Safeguarding life, property, and the environment". The organization's history goes back to 1864, when the foundation was established in Norway to inspect and evaluate the technical condition...

with the code "1A1 General Cargo Carrier Container E0", meaning that it was constructed under the supervision of a recognized classification society

Classification society

A classification society is a non-governmental organization that establishes and maintains technical standards for the construction and operation of ships and offshore structures...

, that the construction complies with the society's rules, that it is classed as a general cargo carrier and container ship, and that it is designed to be operated with unattended machinery spaces.

Under the Singaporean flag

In 1983, Singapore's Keppel Corporation acquired one of Singapore's oldest shipping concerns, the Straits Steamship Company, founded in 1890. After the acquisition, Keppel renamed the company Steamers Maritime Holdings Company. The company laid the keel for Steamer's Future on 8 February 1996, but as early as 1997, the Keppel conglomerate began to exit the shipping industry. Shortly thereafter, Steamers was renamed Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation, and in March 2004, Keppel announced the sale of "the entire Steamers fleet of 10 ships to Interorient for $90.9m in order to concentrate on core activities."

Interorient kept seven of these ships for its Mediterranean-based United Feeder Services operation, but sold Steamers Future and two other ships to Hamburg-based shipowner Rehder & Arkon, a division of the Carsten Rehder company. In April 2004, Rehder & Arkon renamed the ship Baffin Strait, and chartered her for six months to Mariana Express Lines. In late October 2004, Rehder & Arkon sold the ship to the U.S. company TransAtlantic Lines for US$6.3 million.

Under the United States flag

, the ship is owned and operated by TransAtlantic Lines, an American shipping company

Ship transport

Ship transport is watercraft carrying people or goods . Sea transport has been the largest carrier of freight throughout recorded history. Although the importance of sea travel for passengers has decreased due to aviation, it is effective for short trips and pleasure cruises...

based in Greenwich, Connecticut

Greenwich, Connecticut

Greenwich is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a total population of 61,171. It is home to many hedge funds and other financial service companies. Greenwich is the southernmost and westernmost municipality in Connecticut and is 38+ minutes ...

. This limited liability company

Limited liability company

A limited liability company is a flexible form of enterprise that blends elements of partnership and corporate structures. It is a legal form of company that provides limited liability to its owners in the vast majority of United States jurisdictions...

was founded in 1998 by vice-president Gudmundur Kjaernested and president Brandon C. Rose. The company owns and operates five vessels, including one tug-and-barge combination. Four of these vessels are currently or have been chartered by the Military Sealift Command, and perform duties such as delivering cargo to the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and oil products to bases in the Western Pacific. TransAtlantic Lines has no collective bargaining agreements with seagoing unions.

Diego Garcia charter

In 2004, TransAtlantic Lines outbid Sealift Incorporated

Sealift Incorporated

Sealift Incorporated is an American shipping company based in Oyster Bay, New York. The privately held corporation was founded in 1975 by the four owners who remain the principal executives. Sealift Inc. is one of the largest ocean contractors for transporting U.S. food aid and participates in...

for the contract to haul cargo between Singapore

Singapore

and Diego Garcia. The route had previously been serviced by Sealift's which was manned by members of American Maritime Officers

American Maritime Officers

American Maritime Officers is a national labor union affiliated with the Seafarers International Union of North America. With an active membership of approximately 4,000, AMO is the largest union of merchant marine officers in the U.S. and primarily represents licensed mariners working in the...

and Seafarer's International Union. TransAtlantic Lines reportedly won the contract by approximately 10 percent, representing a price difference of about $2.7 million.

As a result of winning this contract, the US Navy gave the Baffin Strait the hull classification symbol
Hull classification symbol
The United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, and United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration use hull classification symbols to identify their ship types and each individual ship within each type...

T-AK W9519. The T-AK series symbol is given to the seven container ships chartered by MSC but owned and operated by contractors.
The Baffin Straits Diego Garcia charter ran from January 10, 2005 to September 30, 2008 on a daily rate of $12,550 under contract number N00033-05-C-5500. Nicknamed "the DGAR shuttle", the ship delivered 250 containers each month from Singapore

Singapore

to Diego Garcia, carrying everything from fresh food to building supplies to aircraft parts, and delivering more than 200,000 tons of cargo to the island each year." When returning from Diego Garcia, the ship carried metal waste to be recycled in Singapore.

The Sealift Program Office's mission is to provide high-quality, efficient and cost-effective ocean transportation for the Department of Defense and other U.S. government agencies. The program is divided into three project offices: Tankers, Dry Cargo, and Surge. Dry cargo is shipped by U.S.-flagged commercial ships. Approximately 80 percent of this cargo is transported aboard regularly scheduled U.S. commercial ocean liners. The other 20 percent is carried by four cargo ships under charter to MSC.

On the evening of 22 April 2009, Baffin Strait was involved with a collision with the car carrier Jasmine Ace while both vessels were anchored in Singapore. A severe squall moved into the area while Jasmine Ace was taking fuel. The squall caused the ship to drag its anchor. The car carrier drifted downwind, causing its starboard quarter to strike Baffin Strait starboard side. As a result, Baffin Strait anchor also began to drag, and the crew dropped a second anchor to hold the ship. The two ships were "married for several minutes", during which time the Jasmine Ace started her engine. The Baffin Strait damage included "disfigured" steel on the starboard bulwark and damage to the starboard running light.
On 27 March 2009, Military Sealift Command announced a request for proposal

Request for Proposal

A request for proposal is issued at an early stage in a procurement process, where an invitation is presented for suppliers, often through a bidding process, to submit a proposal on a specific commodity or service. The RFP process brings structure to the procurement decision and is meant to...

s (number N00033-09-R-5502) for the Diego Garcia service. The charter contract would be for a one-year probation period, followed by three one-year options, and concluding with an eleven-month option. The fixed-price time charter

Time Charter

Time Charter was an Irish-bred, British-trained thoroughbred racehorse who won several important races between 1982 and 1984.-Background:...

would be supplemented by reimbursements for costs such as the ship's fuel. The RFP stipulated that the charter would be awarded to the lowest-priced proposal which the Navy found technically acceptable.

Six companies submitted proposals, with TransAtlantic proposing the MV Rio Bogota (which it intended to rename Heidi B) to replace the Baffin Strait. While the Navy was assessing the proposals, rival shipping company Sealift Incorporated secured the rights to operate Rio Bogota, and TransAtlantic countered by altering its proposal to offer the ship MV LS Aizenshtat instead. The Navy deemed both companies' proposals technically acceptable and their past performance satisfactory. Sealift's proposed rate, was more than $3 million less than TransAtlantic's ($39,031,093 versus $42,415,356), and they were awarded the charter. After winning the contract, Sealift purchased Rio Bogota on 21 August 2009.

2010–2011 shipyard period

After finishing the Diego Garcia contract, the ship sailed from Singapore on 19 November 2009 for a shipyard period in Wilmington, North Carolina by way of the Suez Canal.

On 16 January 2010, while pierside in Wilmington, the ship was picketed by members of the Seafarers International Union. According to the union's Assistant Vice President, Bryan Powell, crewmembers' "wages are substandard. They don't get any overtime. They are basically on salary, so they can work them 16 hours a day and get the same low rates of pay, which we think is ridiculous". The union claimed that the picket was in support of crewmembers, encouraging them to unionize the ship, and take their case to the Department of Labor

United States Department of Labor

The United States Department of Labor is a Cabinet department of the United States government responsible for occupational safety, wage and hour standards, unemployment insurance benefits, re-employment services, and some economic statistics. Many U.S. states also have such departments. The...

.

On 31 March 2010, industry journal Tradewinds

TradeWinds (newspaper)

TradeWinds is a critical and independent business news provider, publishing both an online newspaper and a printed weekly newspaper. TradeWinds is owned by NHST Media Group. Headquartered in Oslo, it covers shipping as a global industry with full time staff correspondents in all the major centers...

reported that Baffin Strait was the first vessel ever to be involuntarily disenrolled from the United States Coast Guard's Alternative Compliance Program, in which the Coast Guard delegates inspections and certificate issuance to the vessel's classification society. The move was prompted by deficiencies to the ship's firefighting and lifesaving programs reported by Coast Guard inspectors in Singapore remaining
unresolved. According to the Coast Guard's program manager for domestic vessel inspections, inspectors "didn't see a pattern of improvement over time".

In May 2010, the ship was towed to Ciramar Shipyard in the Dominican Republic for more extensive repairs.

External links

Previous owners

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Construction

Under the Singaporean flag

Under the United States flag

Diego Garcia charter

2010–2011 shipyard period

See also

External links