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.
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