BIG WHITES CONTAINER SHIPS





Safmarine had eight of its newest dry cargo ships lengthened to carry a small number of containers. Now was the time for Safmarine to get into the container business which was starting to change the way that cargo was transported all round the world.


An order was placed with French ship building yards to build four large
container ships with all the latest designs & technology that was available at that time. They were all completed between 1977 & 1978.


They were named “S.A. Helderberg” “S.A. Sederberg” “S.A.Waterberg”
& “S.A. Winterberg”.   These ships were fitted with two large diesel engines; two bow thrusters; stabilisers & full air conditioning which included the engine control room.  There was also luxury accommodation for ten passengers.

Early in their service they were affectionately called "The Big Whites" because of their large size and gleaming white hulls that reflected the African sun, on their regular calls to South African ports. Their specifications were as follows:


  • Two Sulzer eight cylinder two stroke diesel engines Type 8RND 90M 
  •  Maximum power   49600 BHP. 
  •  Length 258.5 metres  
  • Breath 32.3 metres 
  • Approx. 52,615 dwt 
  •  Number of containers 2450 TEU later increased to 2500 TEU. 
  •  Number of reefer containers 892 TEU later increased to 1100 TEU. 
  •  Cruising speed 19.5 Knots. 
  •  Fuel consumption per 24 hours 153 Tons.

When they were built they had Crepelle V16 diesel generators (which ran on diesel fuel) fitted which proved to be very unreliable. They were later replaced with 6 cylinder Wartsila engines that ran on heavy fuel oil (bunker C) the same as the main engines.
The main engines were adapted with a large generator so that when running at cruising speed these generators produced a large amount of
electrical energy, which made these ships more fuel efficient.

Safmarine was bought out by Maersk in 1999 & there were name changes
to these ships. They carried on to give very good service, for thirty
years before being scraped in 2007 to 2008.









   































No comments:

Post a Comment