A
Special Report from DIIA:July 2011
“In the
Wake of
Han Dynasty Chinese
Junks”
Tracing
Ancient Chinese Design Concepts to
Space-age Expertise for Tomorrow’s Offshore
Vessels, Ships & Yachts
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RCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE indicates
that humans arrived on Borneo from the Chinese mainland at least 120,000 years
ago. That certainly proves that designing ships to travel across vast oceans is
one of the oldest professions known to man. Of course, early achievements in
ship design and the exploits of explorers and mariners who proceeded to sea are
often cloaked in a mist of uncertainty, incorrect claims and assumption. But as
one of the Wright Brothers once said “If we
worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true really is true,
then there would be little hope for advance”. Today, they say, there is every likelihood that a Viking called
Bjarni Herjolfsson 'discovered' the New World by accident in the year 985
– not Columbus: the former
– in an early long-ship - blown
off course on his way to Greenland. Certainly,
in 1001, Leif Ericsson, son of Eric the Red, sailed west in a Viking
ship to find this new land. Leif and his men were the first Europeans known to
have landed on the unknown continent. They spent the winter in a place they named
'Vinland' (Wine-land). It wasn’t the USA but close by in Newfoundland,
Canada. However, many experts now believe that in
1421, Chinese mariners actually discovered the main landmass of Uncle
Sam’s home 71 years before Christopher’s landfall.
It’s all down to design
Not such a far-fetched claim, for the naval history of China stems back to the Spring and Autumn Period (722
BC–481 BC) of the ancient Chinese Zhou
Dynasty. Ships in ancient China were remarkably sophisticated vessels and
utilized many creative design features for optimum control over sailing power.
So elegant were the concepts behind the designs of the towered ships and the
Chinese junks of the Han
Dynasty era that they are still used now, 2,000 years later.
European history claims the first extant treatise
on shipbuilding was written ca. 1436 by Michael of Rhodes, a man who
began his career as an oarsman on a Venetian galley in 1401 and worked his way
up into officer positions. He wrote and illustrated a book that contains a
treatise on ship building, a treatise on mathematics, much material on
astrology, and other data. His treatise on shipbuilding treats three kinds of
galleys and two kinds of round ships.
Source: A Description of the
Royal Chinese Junk, “Keying” (London: J. Such, 1848).
Of course, outside Medieval Europe, great advances
were being made in shipbuilding. The shipbuilding industry in Imperial China
reached its height during the Sung
Dynasty, Yuan
Dynasty, and early Ming
Dynasty, building commercial vessels that by the end of this period were
to reach a size and sophistication far exceeding that of contemporary Europe.
The mainstay of China's merchant and naval fleets was the junk, which had
existed for centuries, but it was at this time that the large ships based on
this design were built. During the Sung period (960–1279 AD), the
establishment of China's first official standing navy in 1132 AD and the
enormous increase in maritime trade abroad allowed the shipbuilding industry in
provinces like Fujian to thrive as
never before. The largest seaports in the world were in China and included Guangzhou, Quanzhou, and Xiamen. Such
achievements are often lost in a European view of shipbuilding history but
don’t forget, it’s not so surprising to learn that the Chinese had
such expertise - for it was even the Chinese who invented the compass and
without that ships would still be going round in circles.
The Vikings may have excelled in clinker built
boats: the Chinese with junks, bulkheads in their vessels and even
‘paddle-powered’ warships. As for the Scots, you only have to
mention Clyde Ship Building and history unfolds to clearly identify an industry
that once provided the world with the majority of ships afloat at the time. Of
course, the Scandinavians, Dutch & Scots are now busy designing and
building ships that can only be described as ‘space-age technology’
for the offshore, shipping, towage and marine industries on a world-wide basis.
What is interesting to note however is how some companies are not only pooling
their knowledge of European ship design, naval architecture services and marine
engineering consultancy expertise but are working together with Chinese and
South East Asian colleagues on a truly global basis to provide the latest
solutions to clients. One such group of companies is Offshore Ship Designers.
Linking Global Maritime Expertise
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Offshore Ship Designers are a fully independent and
privately owned group of companies. The Group headquarters are in IJmuiden near
Amsterdam in the Netherlands and the group has ship design offices in IJmuiden
in the Netherlands, Montrose in Scotland* and Escrick, York and Bideford, North
Devon in England. The group also has a ship design office in Singapore and a
ship production drawing office in Pudong, Shanghai, China.
The company links the specialist areas
of expertise such as Tug Design in the IJmuiden office and Offshore Vessel
Design and Yacht Design support services in the UK offices, although OSD offices
have a wide range of experience and knowledge in the design and development of
all types of vessels including offshore support vessels, cable ship’s,
product tankers, passenger and vehicle ferries, patrol and research vessels,
fishing vessels, semi-submersibles; container vessels, gas tankers,
refrigerated vessels, and dry cargo vessels, etc.
The Group offers ship owners, shipyards
and related marine organizations concept design, detailed design,
classification stage design, and detailed engineering design for new build
vessels, upgrades and minor/major conversions. In addition a wide range of
related services can be offered including feasibility studies, outline and
detailed specifications, design solutions from concept to detailed design;
construction drawings; technical bid preparation and evaluation; stability
analysis studies and stability manuals; operations manuals for ships, offshore
support vessels, drilling units etc.
*OSD-IMT in Montrose,
Scotland is a member of the OSD Group which was formed in 1996 following the
sale of a majority shareholding by IMT Marine Consultants to WorldWise Marine
BV based Ijmuiden and Sea of Solutions BV based in Rotterdam. Following
the sale of Sea of Solutions BV to Ulstein Group Norway in 2009 Michiel Wijsmuller
and Neil Patterson reorganized the Group and opened offices in Singapore and
Shanghai which predominantly work for OSD-IMT which accounts for about 75% of
the Group Turnover. Neil Patterson owns 20% of the Group and
Michiel Wijsmuller and the Wijsmuller family 80% of the Group. WorldWise Marine was formed by Michiel Wijsmuller, Kees Krot
and Carel Coops as a Tug Design and Brokerage Company following the sale of the
Wijsmuller Towage and Salvage to Svitzer-Maersk Group. At the time,
Svitzer did not think that the Tug Design and Brokerage elements of the
Wijsmuller Group formed part of their core business strategy and likewise
Svitzer sold off the Heavy Lift, Transportation and Specialist Marine elements
of the Wijsmuller Group in a very short period after the takeover.
OSD-IMT, the UK
arm of Offshore Ship Designers, has been chosen by Samsung and Boskalis-SMIT
Engineering to develop the basic design, detailed design and production
drawings for a 99 m cable laying vessel.
Neil Patterson, managing director of OSD-IMT, says,
"This project illustrates perfectly the strengths of the OSD group. We can
bring strong offshore engineering experience in the UK to bear on the basic
design, and work with our Shanghai office to develop the yard drawings. It is a
unique new vessel and we will carry out the model testing programme, noise and
vibration analysis and impact and damaged stability analysis in addition to
developing the design."
The vessel combines a large, obstruction free main
deck with ample accommodation facilities, allowing for multiple future
configuration possibilities. In the current cable laying configuration,
the deck has a cable loading capacity of 5,000 tonnes.
GENERAL PARTICULARS
Type of Vessel Cable Laying Vessel
Length Overall 99.00 m
Length Rule 94.50 m
Beam Mld 30.00 m
Depth Mld 7.00 m
Maximum Draft 5.00 m
Design Operating Draft 4.70 m
Mooring System 6 Point
Accommodation 110 Persons
Speed 9.7 knots trial
Main Propulsion 2 x Azimuth Thrusters
Aux Propulsion 2 x Retractabel Azimuth
Thrusters
1 x Bow Tunnel Thruster
Machinery Diesel Electric
Tugging at the heart-strings
In these somewhat uncertain financial times, it is
a pleasure to see a Scots ship design company succeeding where so many other
ship building concerns have gone under in recent years. It is plain to see that
global cooperation is the key to long-term stability for a wide range of Scots
companies involved in various sectors.
Take the AZISTERN
24/50 TUG (photo left) – the basic design
sub-contracted to OSD Holland BV but with OSD IMT in Scotland being involved
with:
Concept Design
Tender
Documents & Tender Process on behalf of Owners
Basic Design
Lines Plan, Lines Fairing & 3-D Lines Model Arrangement Drawings
Class
Structural Drawings
Class/Flag
State Outfit Drawings
Class
Engineering Drawings
Class System
Diagrams
Intact
Stability
Model Testing
& Noise/Vibration Studies
Inclining
Experiments & Trials Attendance
Upgrades to
Meet Charter Requirements
Detailed Design
Production
Design – Steelwork, Engineering, Piping, Electrical, Outfitting, Steel
Cutting Information.
3-D Publicity
Images
Further
detailed/production design was sub-contracted to OSD Shanghai and the vessel
(due 2012) is being built at Poet in China. Now that’s global cooperation
for you!
Length O.A. 25.85 m
Length Loadline 23.92 m
Beam Mld. 10.00 m
Depth Mld 4.60 m
Load Draft Ext. 5.10 m
Deadweight 150 t
Fuel Oil 100 m³
Pot Water 25 m³
Water Ballast 10 m³
Crew 15
Main Engine 1520 kW
Speed 12.0 Kn
GT 299
What’s
even more encouraging to see is that the OSD Group / OSD IMT of Montrose
are taking time to support a local
community project whilst they take their expertise around the maritime world
from one side of the globe to the other.
The Group & Company are supporting a
project to bring one of the first diesel-geared tugs ever built permanently
home to Scotland and the Clyde – where she was launched in 1955.
The Golden
Cross ( ex Tees Towing Co / Cory Tugs) is
now the last of her class and is still powered by her original Crossley of
Manchester 4 cylinder 2 stroke 882hp main diesel engine. Built so that she
would be on time to assist Britain’s Royal Yacht Britannia on her 1st
Overseas Departure from a British Port (1956), the tug was also invited by
Buckingham Palace to go back ‘on duty’ to act as sole Official
Escort to Britannia on the Royal
Yacht’s Final Farewell Voyage from London to Portsmouth prior to her
decommission and to be on station for HM Queen’s Golden Wedding
Anniversary (Pool of London 1997).
Once home, the tug will be run by
unpaid volunteers from the military and merchant marine to carry out a
non-profit making role of promoting Safety at Sea and highlighting the latest
products & services in the maritime industry.
There’s a lot of work still to be
done for Golden Cross but with the
guys at OSD IMT supporting, the project will succeed.
I remember one rainy day a few months ago when the
tug, weather beaten and neglected, was referred to by one passer-by as “just a ‘junk’ with no
chance”.
“You are wrong there, mate” I replied.
“This old girl is ‘In the Wake of Han Dynasty Chinese Junks!’ ”
Doubt if he knew what I was referring to.
OSD Head Office
IJmuiden,
The Netherlands
T: +31 255 54 50 70
OSD IMT Ltd.
Montrose
Head Office, Scotland
York Office, UK
Appledore Office, UK
T: +44 1674 678 999
OSD Shanghai
Shanghai,
China
T: +86 21 5851 3412
E-mail us or check
our addresses
FOR
FURTHER DATA ON OFFSHORE SHIP DESIGN –
VISIT http://www.offshoreshipdesigners.com/
DEFENSE
INTERACTION INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Feature:
Author: Captain S White. Defense
Analyst. DIIA
© DIIA2011 Scotland..