Part C Further Reading

Passage One Types of Ships

Non-cargo ships

The ships can be classified according to such purposes as transport of cargo and/or passengers, assistance and service (by so called special purpose vessels), catching of fish, and peace keeping. Furthermore, the distinction between sea-going vessels and vessels for coastal trade and/or inland waterways can also be made. Some non-cargo ships are introduced in the following.

1. Purpose of assistance and service. Vessels that render assistance and service have been designed to perform specific tasks, for example assisting other vessels, or providing special services to navigation. (1) A tug is a vessel that assists other vessels with entering or leaving the port, tows an oil rig to its position, or assists with a salvage operation. There are sea-going tugs and harbor tugs. Her aft deck is kept clear of all obstructions that may interfere with the towing-line. (2) A salvage vessel is a vessel that rescues other ships and their cargoes from loss at sea. She must be equipped with heavy derricks to lift wrecks from the seabed. (3) A buoyage vessel places and maintains buoys. Her aft deck is flat and provides room to carry or haul in the buoys with her hoisting installation. (4) A survey vessel performs marine research and is equipped with oceanographic instruments to carry out all kinds of measurements and assessments. (5) A supply boat supplies oil rigs with stores, spare parts and supplies for domestic use. Her aft deck must be flat. Additional duties may include the towing of rigs and extinguishing fires, for which they must be equipped with high-capacity fire-extinguishing pumps. (6) A SAR-vessel performs search and rescue when a ship is in distress. She must be capable of developing high speeds and must be equipped with the most modern communication equipment to maintain contact with rescue coordination centers (RCCs). (7) A firefloat is a fire fighting vessel. She must have a powerful fire-extinguishing system on board. (8) A pilot tender (or pilot launch) is a small boat that may be launched from the pilot boat. The pilot will embark the ship that has requested pilotage from the pilot tender. She is often fitted with a sheltered aft deck to prevent the pilot from getting wet. (9) A cable layer lays cables on the bottom of the sea. (10) A lightship serves as a beacon for navigation and is anchored in the vicinity of crowded channels or seaways. (11) Icebreakers are designed to ride up the ice and crush a way through for other ships to follow. (12) A dredger deepens out harbors and ports, fairways, approaches and entrances, inland waterways, anchorages, roadsteads, etc.

2. Purpose of fishing—fishermen. Large and modern fishing vessels (fishermen) are capable of catching and processing enormous quantities of fish. They may be underway for weeks before they return to their homeports. Large refrigerating plants on board provide deep-freezing facilities.

3. Purpose of peace keeping—men-of-war. Peace-keeping vessels (warships/men-of-war) are measured by weight rather than by volume. Warships must be capable of developing speeds of 25 knots and more, and must therefore be equipped with a high-power propulsion plant.

Major ship size groups in dwt

1. Handy and Handymax. The Handy and the more recent Handymax types are ships with less than 60,000 dwt, with the same designs and with five or six cargo holds. Handy size ships run 20,000-35,000 dwt and those above that are Handymax. The Handymax sector operates in a large number of geographically dispersed global trades, mainly carrying grains and minor bulks including steel products, forest products, and fertilizers. The vessels are well suited for small ports with length and draft restrictions and also lacking transshipment infrastructure. This category is also used to define small-sized oil tankers.

2. Panamax. Panamax ships represent the largest acceptable size to transit the Panama Canal, which can be applied to both freighters and tankers; lengths are restricted to a maximum of 275 m, and widths to slightly more than 32 m. The average size of such a ship is about 65,000 dwt. Panamax vessels typically have seven holds and are often also equipped with gear. In the main, Panamax vessels participate in much the same markets as the Capesize ship, but are more flexible being able to call at a wider range of ports. They mainly carry coal, grain and, to a lesser extent, minor bulks. Panamax has been in effect since the opening of the canal in 1914. Ships that do not fall within the Panamax-sizes are called Post Panamax. In June 2016, an expanded set of longer and deeper locks completed. After the expansion, several services on the Asia-United States East Coast route via the Panama Canal have already been upsized to Neo-Panamax vessels. Neo-Panamax container ship refers to the ship able to transit the expanded locks of the Panama Canal, with up to a maximum of 49 m beam and 366 m in length overall; Panamax container ship refers to the ship above 3,000 TEUs with a beam below 32.3 m, i.e. the largest size of vessels able to transit the old locks of the Panama Canal. As a result, as in June 2016, 85 percent of the global fleet of container ships in terms of TEUs is Neo-Panamax or smaller and can thus offer services through the Canal. This is a significant increase compared with the situation before the expansion, when only 37 percent of the global container ship fleet was Panamax or smaller.

3. Capesize. Capesize ships are cargo ships originally too large to transit the Suez Canal before the Canal's enlargement (thus larger than both Panamax and previous Suezmax vessels).Their size ranges between 80,000 and 175,000 dwt. These ships serve deepwater terminals handling raw materials, such as iron ore and coal. As a result, to travel between oceans, such vessels used to have to pass either the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) or Cape Horn (South America)—but recent dredging means many Capesize vessels can use the canal.

4. Suezmax. Suezmax ships represent the largest ship measurements capable of transiting the Suez Canal in a laden condition and are almost exclusively used in reference to tankers. Before 1967, the Suez Canal could only accommodate tanker ships with a maximum of 80,000 dwt. In 1975, the Suezmax capacity went to 150,000 dwt. Before enlargement, the typical deadweight of a Suezmax ship was about 160,000 tons and typically had a beam (width) of 50 m. In August 2015, Suez Canal Authority (SCA) completed doubling the bypass from 50 km to 122 km to enable ships with draft 66 feet to transit freely in two direction at same time. Moreover, the enlargement of Suez Canal minimizes hours taken by southbound convoy to transit through new Canal from 18 hours to 11 hours, waiting time to 3 hours instead of 8-11 hours and shipping costs, allows larger ships, 200,000 dwt tankers to pass, reduces navigation time from 22 hours to 11 hours, realizes 8 percent of world shipping traffic currently flowing through the Canal, and enables ships to use less fuel which will reduce pollution, and will increase the number of ships to transit through waterway per day from 49 to 97 by 2023 and generate estimated annual revenues of $13.2 billion by 2023 up from $5.3 billion.

Similar terms of Malaccamax and Seawaymax are used for the largest ships capable of fitting through the Strait of Malacca and Saint Lawrence Seaway respectively. Aframax tankers are those with a capacity of 80,000 dwt to 120,000 dwt. The term Chinamax refers to vessels able to use a number of harbors while fully laden.

Passage Two Classification Society

Definition of classification societies

Classification societies are non-governmental and independent commercial organizations in the shipping industry, staffed by marine surveyors who work with shipyards, shipowners, insurance companies, and flag state authorities in matters relating to the design, construction, maintenance, and repair of ships and other marine units. Although class rules, practices, technical standards, and their application vary from society to society, the major classification societies who are members of the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) seek to harmonize their objectives and rules and so raise their practices and standards.

IACS defines a classification society as an organization which publishes its own classification rules (including technical requirements) in relation to the design, construction, and survey of ships, and has the capacity to apply, maintain, and update those rules and regulations with its own resources on a regular basis; verifies compliance with these rules during construction and periodically during a classed ship's service life; publishes a register of classed ships; is not controlled by and does not have any interests in shipowners, shipbuilders, or others engaged commercially in the manufacture, equipping, repair, or operation of ships;and is authorized by a flag administration concerned.

Principal objectives of classification societies

One of the principal objectives of the classification societies is to enhance the safety of life and property at sea by securing high technical standards of design, construction, and operational maintenance of mercantile and non-mercantile shipping, and by carrying out what are known as statutory surveys on behalf of the state with which the ship is flagged (the ship's flag state) to determine if the ship complies with the national and international laws and regulations which the relevant state applies to ships sailing under its flag. In relation to a second-hand ship, this objective is pursued through regular surveys by surveyors of the classification society with which the ship is entered to determine if the ship complies with the applicable rules of the classification society.

Classification process of classification societies

Implementing the published rules, the classification process consists of a technical review of the design plans and related documents for a new vessel to verify compliance with the applicable rules; attendance at the construction of the vessel in the shipyard by a classification society surveyor(s) to verify that the vessel is constructed in accordance with the approved design plans and classification rules; attendance by a classification society surveyor(s) at the relevant production facilities that provide key components such as the steel, engine, generators, and castings to verify that the component conforms to the applicable rule requirements; attendance by a classification society surveyor(s) at the sea trials and other trials relating to the vessel and its equipment prior to delivery to verify conformance with the applicable rule requirements; upon satisfactory completion of the above, the builder's/shipowner's request for the issuance of a class certificate will be considered by the relevant classification society and, if deemed satisfactory, the assignment of class may be approved and a certificate of classification issued; and once in service, the owner must submit the vessel to a clearly specified program of periodical class surveys, carried out aboard the vessel, to verify that the ship continues to meet the relevant rule requirements for continuation of class.

Suspension or withdrawal of class

As stated above, after carrying out a class survey, the classification society surveyor will record that the survey has been performed and confirm either that ship remains “in class” or that the shipowner must take certain action within a specified time frame in order to remedy damage or defects noted by the surveyor. When a ship is said to be “in class”, it means two things: first, that at completion of the last periodical survey by the classification society with which the ship was entered, the society was satisfied that the ship was then in compliance with the applicable rules and other requirements of the society; and second, that with proper maintenance—and excluding accidents—the ship should remain in compliance with such rules and requirements until commencement of the next scheduled periodical survey.

If a shipowner fails to comply with repair work requirements or other requirements issued by its classification society, or if a shipowner otherwise contravenes class rules, the classification society could decide either to suspend or to withdraw (meaning cancel) the ship's classification with immediate effect or after a specified period of time. The likely result of withdrawal of a ship's classification will be that the ship's international convention certificates will become invalid and the ship will no longer comply with the flag state's statutory requirements. Any adverse change in the classification status of a ship could have serious consequences for the shipowner. Such a change could mean that the ship is non-compliant with the requirements of its flag state; result in the automatic termination of the ship's insurance cover; entitle the ship's financiers to demand immediate repayment of a loan secured against the ship and to enforce their security over the ship; and render the ship ineligible for most chartering and other trading activities.

Commercial importance of classification societies

Flagging. The vast majority of flag states are party to various maritime conventions promulgated by the IMO. These include SOLAS (which requires that a ship must be “in class” with a recognized classification society before a SOLAS certificate can be issued to it), MARPOL, and the Convention on Load Line. Each flag state will have its list of recognized classification societies and it will be a pre-condition to registration of a ship with a particular flag state that the ship is classed with a society that is on the flag state's list of recognized classification societies. Flag states routinely delegate their statutory duties to inspect and survey ships flying their flag to recognized classification societies which will, if a ship is found to be compliant with the relevant national and international laws and regulations, issue to the ship on behalf of the flag state the relevant statutory certificates as well as the ship's class certificates.

Insurance. Since it is impractical for underwriters to survey every ship in respect of which insurance cover is sought, when considering whether to accept a ship for insurance and what rate of premium to charge for cover, underwriters will consider the age of the ship, the reputation and operational record of the ship's owners and (if different) the ship's managers, the physical characteristics of the ship, the geographical areas in which she will be trading, and the classification factors such as the fact of a ship's certification, the reputation of the classification society with which the ship is entered, and the class rating assigned to the ship by the classification society.

Chartering. Most voyage, time, and bareboat charters include, in the ship's description, a statement about classification status which usually gives the name of the ship's classification society and the character symbol or class rating assigned to the ship by the society. Most voyage and time charters expressly require the owner to maintain the class of the ship throughout the term of the charter. Bareboat charters typically allocate this obligation to the charterer.

Ship Financing. A ship finance bank will usually require any ship offered to it for security purposes to be classed with a classification society approved by the bank, maintained in class without any overdue conditions or recommendations, and kept under periodical survey for hull and machinery. These requirements will be included in the loan and security documentation as continuing undertakings and a breach of one or more of these undertakings will in all likelihood constitute an event of default which (subject to any grace period for remedy) will entitle the bank to require repayment of the loan. Typically a financing bank will also require a written authority from the shipowner (addressed to the classification society in question) enabling the bank to inspect class records and to obtain class certificates.

Main classification societies in the world

There are about 50 classification societies operating around the world, main of which are shown in Table 2.1.

Figure 2.2 indicates that IACS consists of 12 full member societies and contributes to maritime safety and regulation through technical support, compliance verification, and research and development. IACS members are responsible for classifying over 90 percent (by cargo carrying tonnage) of the world's merchant fleet, and most ship financiers will require their shipowner borrowers to class their ships with IACS members. European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), headquartered in Lisbon, aims at reducing the risk of maritime accidents, marine pollution from ships, and the loss of human lives at sea.