By : Inspenet, Nov 21, 2022
The Blue Marlin ship was built to move impressive mega-structures, from oil rigs to huge ships.
The Blue Marlin is owned by the Dutch company Boskalis, which has represented the Dockwise company since 2013, a benchmark in heavy maritime transport.
The ship is 224.8 meters long, 63 m wide and has a draft of 13.3 which can be extended to 28.4 when submerged. Its wide deck is around 11,200 square meters (178.2 x 63 m) and allows it to reach a dead weight of more than 70,000 tons. With her cargo on board, the Blue Marlin can cruise at around 13 knots.
The Blue Marlin is in the category of heavy-lift semi-submersible vessels (flo-flo, float-on float-off). Basically, heavy-lift semi-submersibles fill their tanks with ballast to remain partially submerged and make loading tasks on their huge deck easier. It incorporates, among other equipment, four main ballast pumps.
This is how in December 2013 the hull of the aircraft carrier HMAS Adelaide was loaded in the waters of the Ría de Vigo to later transfer it to Australia, a complex operation that required the assistance of mooring, pilots and tugboats, among other personnel. The ship submerged part of its broad deck, positioned the Adelaide, and then refloated. To ensure that the huge structure was well fixed, a “bed” was made of iron and wood.
In 2006 he completed a long voyage from Texas to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii to relocate a platform with the Sea Based X-Band Radar (SBX). It also transported a part of the 59,500 ton Thunder Horse oil rig.
The ship was manufactured at the China Shipbuilding Corporation facility located in Taiwan in 2000 and later refitted in South Korea.
Photos : ShutterStock / Dockwise
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