A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship A ship ( Audio (help·info)) is a large vessel that floats on water. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size and cargo or passenger capacity. In traditional terms, ships were considered to be vessels which had at least one continuous water-tight deck extending from bow to stern. However, some modern designs for ships, and boats, or vessel that carries cargo Cargo is goods or produce transported, generally for commercial gain, by ship, aircraft, train, van or truck. In modern times, containers are used in most intermodal long-haul cargo transport, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade International trade is exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories.. In most countries, it represents a significant share of gross domestic product . While international trade has been present throughout much of history (see Silk Road, Amber Road), its economic, social, and political importance has been on. Cargo ships are usually specially designed for the task, often being equipped with cranes A crane is a lifting machine, generally equipped with a winder , wire ropes or chains and sheaves, that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. It uses one or more simple machines to create mechanical advantage and thus move loads beyond the normal capability of a human. Cranes are commonly employed in the and other mechanisms to load and unload, and come in all sizes. Today, they are almost always built of welded steel, and with some exceptions generally have a life expectancy of 25 to 30 years before being scrapped.^{[citation needed]}

Types

Specialized types of cargo vessels include container ships Container ships are cargo ships that carry all of their load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. They form a common means of commercial intermodal freight transport and bulk carriers A bulk carrier, bulk freighter, or bulker is a merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo, such as grains, coal, ore, and cement in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrier was built in 1852, economic forces have fueled the development of these ships, causing them to grow in size and sophistication. Today' (technically tankers A tank ship or tankship, often referred to as a tanker, is a ship designed to transport liquids in bulk. Major types of tankship include the oil tanker, the chemical tanker, and the liquefied natural gas carrier of all sizes An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil. There are two basic types of oil tankers: the crude tanker and the product tanker. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crude oil from its point of extraction to refineries. Product tankers, generally much smaller, are designed to move are cargo ships, although they are routinely thought of as a separate category).

History

The earliest records of waterborne activity mention the carriage of items for trade; the evidence of history and archaeology shows the practice to be widespread by the beginning of the 1st millennium BC The 1st millennium BC encompasses the Iron Age and sees the rise of many successive empires, and spanned from 1000 BC to 1 BC. The desire to operate trade routes over longer distances and at more seasons of the year motivated improvements in ship design during the Middle Ages The Middle Ages is a period of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The period followed the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, and preceded the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period in a three-period division of history: Classical, Medieval, and Modern. The term "Middle Ages" (medium aevum) was coined in.

Before the middle of the 19th century, the incidence of piracy Piracy is a war-like act committed by private parties that engage in acts of robbery and/or criminal violence at sea resulted in most cargo ships being armed, sometimes quite heavily, as in the case of the Manila galleons The Manila galleons or Manila-Acapulco galleons were Spanish trading ships that sailed once or twice per year across the Pacific Ocean between Manila in the Philippines, and Acapulco, New Spain (present-day Mexico). The name changed reflecting the city that the ship was sailing from. Service was inaugurated in 1565 with the discovery of the ocean and East Indiamen An East Indiaman was a ship operating under charter or license to any of the East India Companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. In Britain, the Honourable East India Company itself did not generally own merchant ships, but held a monopoly granted to it by Queen Elizabeth I of England for all English. This sometimes resulted in the ships being escorted.

Piracy

Piracy Piracy is a war-like act committed by private parties that engage in acts of robbery and/or criminal violence at sea is still quite common in some waters, particularly in the Malacca Straits, a narrow channel between Indonesia Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia (Indonesian: Republik Indonesia), is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With a population of around 230 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, and has the world's largest population of Muslims. Indonesia is a republic, with an and Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, 137 kilometres north of the equator, in the Southeast Asian region of the Asian continent. It is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north, and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the Singapore Strait to its south. A / Malaysia ^ b. The current terminology as per government policy is Bahasa Malaysia but legislation continues to refer to the official language as Bahasa Melayu (literally Malay language). English may continue to be used for some official purposes under the National Language Act 1967, and cargo ships are still commonly targeted. In 2004, the governments of those three nations agreed to provide better protection for the ships passing through the Straits. The waters off Somalia Somalia , officially the Republic of Somalia (Somali: Jamhuuriyadda Soomaaliya, Arabic: جمهورية الصومال‎ Jumhūriyyat aṣ-Ṣūmāl) and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under communist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, the Gulf of and Nigeria Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising thirty-six states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in the north. Its coast in the south lies on are also prone to piracy, while smaller vessels are also in danger along parts of the South American South America is the southern continent of America, situated in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean; North America and the Caribbean Sea lie to the northwest, Southeast Asian Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic and volcanic activity coasts and near the Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean situated in the tropics of the Western hemisphere. It is bounded to the southwest by the Central American countries of Panama, to the west by Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico, to the north by The Greater Antilles , and to the east by the Lesser Antilles.^{[1] [2]}

Definitions

The words cargo and freight have become interchangeable in casual usage. Technically, "cargo" refers to the goods carried aboard the ship for hire, while "freight" refers to the compensation the ship or charterer receives for carrying the cargo.

Generally, the modern ocean shipping business is divided into two classes:

1. Liner business: typically (but not exclusively) container vessels (wherein "general cargo" is carried in 20 or 40-foot "boxes"), operating as "common carriers", calling a regularly-published schedule of ports. A common carrier refers to a regulated service where any member of the public may book cargo for shipment, according to long-established and internationally agreed rules.
2. Tramp-tanker business: generally this is private business arranged between the shipper and receiver and facilitated by the vessel owners or operators, who offer their vessels for hire to carry bulk (dry or liquid) or break bulk (cargoes with individually handled pieces) to any suitable port(s) in the world, according to a specifically drawn contract, called a charter party The Charter Party of Cincinnati, Ohio, is a minor political party. The party is Cincinnati's third party. Members of this party are called "Charterites.".

Larger cargo ships are generally operated by shipping lines: companies that specialize in the handling of cargo in general. Smaller vessels, such as coasters Coastal trading vessels, also known as coasters, are shallow-hulled ships used for trade between locations on the same island or continent. Their shallow hulls mean that they can get through reefs where deeper-hulled sea-going ships usually cannot, are often owned by their operators.

Vessel prefixes: Before the vessel's name will be found a category designation. Naval ships, for example, will have "USS" (United States Ship), "HMS" (Her/His Majesty's Ship), "HTMS" (His Thai Majesty's Ship). Merchant ships may have "RMS (Royal Mail Ship, usually a passenger liner), "MV" (Motor Vessel, powered by Diesel A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber during the final stage of compression. This is in contrast to spark ignition engines such as a petrol engine (known as a gasoline engine in North America) or gas engine (using a). "SS" (Steam Ship, now seldom seen, powered by steam A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid). "TS", sometimes found in first position before a merchant ship's prefix, denotes that it has Twin Screws. (For further discussion, see Ship prefixes Prefixes for civilian vessels may either identify the type of propulsion, such as "SS" for steamship, or purpose, such as "RV" for research vessel. Civilian prefixes are often used inconsistently, and frequently not at all. Sometimes a slash is used to separate the letters, as in "M/S".)

Famous cargo ships include the Liberty ships Liberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by German U-boats, they were purchased for the U.S of World War II Albania · Australia · Austria · Azerbaijan · Belarus · Belgium · Brazil · Bulgaria · Burma · Cambodia · Canada · Ceylon (Sri Lanka) · Channel Islands · China · Czechoslovakia · Denmark · Dutch East Indies · Egypt · Estonia · Finland · France · Germany · Gibraltar · Greece · Greenland · Hong Kong · Hungary · Iceland ·, partly based on a British design, the sections for which were prefabricated Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located. The term is used to distinguish this process from the more conventional construction practice of transporting the all over the USA ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language and then assembled by shipbuilders in an average of 6 weeks with the record being just over 4 days. These ships allowed the Allies to replace sunken cargo vessels at a rate greater than the Kriegsmarine The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime (1935–1945). It superseded the Reichsmarine and the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany's U-boats U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot (undersea boat), and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II. Although in theory U-boats could have been useful fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, in practice they were most could sink them, and contributed significantly to the war effort, the delivery of supplies, and eventual victory over the Axis The Axis powers comprised the countries that were opposed to the Allies during World War II. The three major Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan—were part of a military alliance on the signing of the Tripartite Pact in September 1940, which officially founded the Axis powers. At their zenith, the Axis powers ruled empires that dominated powers.

Lake freighters Lake freighters, or Lakers, are bulk carrier vessels that ply the Great Lakes. The most well-known was the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, the latest major vessel to be wrecked on the Lakes. These vessels are traditionally called boats, even though they classify as ships. In the mid-20th century, 300 lakers worked the Lakes but by the early 21st century, built for the Great Lakes The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater seas located in eastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron , Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface and volume. The total surface is 208,610 km2 (80,545 sq mi), and the total volume in North America differ in design from "salties" because of the difference in wave size and frequency in the lakes. A number of these boats are so large that they cannot leave the lakes because they do not fit into the locks on the Saint Lawrence Seaway The Saint Lawrence Seaway , in French: la Voie Maritime du Saint-Laurent, is the common name for a system of locks, canals and channels that permits ocean-going vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the North American Great Lakes, as far as Lake Superior. Legally it extends from Montreal to Lake Erie, including the Welland Canal. The seaway.

Sizes of cargo ships

Cargo ships are categorized partly by their capacity, partly by their weight, and partly by their dimensions (often with reference to the various canals and canal locks through which they can travel). Some common categories include:

• Dry Cargo
  • Small Handy size, carriers of 20,000 long tons deadweight Deadweight tonnage is a measure of how much weight a ship is carrying or can safely carry. It is the sum of the weights of cargo, fuel, fresh water, ballast water, provisions, passengers, and crew. The term is often used to specify a ship's maximum permissible deadweight, the DWT when the ship is fully loaded so that its Plimsoll line is at the (DWT)-28,000 DWT
  • Handy size Although there is no official definition in terms of exact tonnages, Handysize most usually refers to a dry bulk vessel with deadweight of about 15,000–35,000 tons. Above this size are Handymax bulkers (typically 35,000 - 58,000 tons deadweight); there is no well-defined or widely accepted size sector below 15,000 tons, carriers of 28,000-40,000 DWT
    • Seawaymax The term Seawaymax refers to vessels which are the maximum size that can fit through the canal locks of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Seawaymax vessels are 740 feet in length, 78 feet (23.8 m) wide, and have a draft of 26 feet (7.92 m). A number of lake freighters larger than this size cruise the Great Lakes and cannot pass through to the Atlantic, the largest size which can traverse the St Lawrence Seaway The Saint Lawrence Seaway , in French: la Voie Maritime du Saint-Laurent, is the common name for a system of locks, canals and channels that permits ocean-going vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the North American Great Lakes, as far as Lake Superior. Legally it extends from Montreal to Lake Erie, including the Welland Canal. The seaway
  • Handymax Handymax or Supramax is a naval architecture term for a bulk carrier, typically between 35,000 and 60,000 metric tons deadweight , and larger than Handysize vessels. Definitions however vary, and other classifications consider Handymax as a subclassification of Handysize vessels, rather than a separate class, carriers of 40,000-50,000 DWT
  • Panamax Panamax and New Panamax are popular terms for the size limits for ships traveling through the Panama Canal. Formally, the limits and requirements are published by the Panama Canal Authority titled "Vessel Requirements". These vessel requirements also describes topics like exceptional dry seasonal limits, propulsion, communications and, the largest size which can traverse the Panama Canal The Panama Canal is a 77 km ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Annual traffic has risen from about 1,000 ships in the canal's early days to 14,702 vessels in 2008, displacing a total 309.6 million Panama Canal/Universal Measurement System (PC/UMS) tons (generally: vessels with a width smaller than 32.2 m)
  • Capesize Capesize ships are cargo ships originally too large to transit the Suez Canal . To travel between oceans, such vessels used to have to pass either the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn. In effect Capesize reads as "unlimited". Vessels this size can now transit the Suez Canal as long as they meet the draft restriction (18.91 m/62 ft as of 200, vessels larger than Panamax and Post-Panamax, which must traverse the Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope (Afrikaans: Kaap die Goeie Hoop, Dutch: Kaap de Goede Hoop , Portuguese: Cabo da Boa Esperança) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of South Africa and Cape Horn Cape Horn island (Dutch: Kaap Hoorn , Spanish: Cabo de Hornos; named after the city of Hoorn in the Netherlands) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile in order to travel between oceans

• Wet Cargo
  • Aframax An Aframax ship is an oil tanker smaller than 120,000 metric tons deadweight and with a breadth above 32.31 m. The term is based on the Average Freight Rate Assessment (AFRA) tanker rate system. Aframax class tankers are largely used in the basins of the Black Sea, the North Sea, the Caribbean Sea, the China Sea and the Mediterranean. Non-OPEC, oil tankers between 75,000 and 115,000 DWT. This is the largest size defined by the average freight rate assessment (AFRA) scheme.
  • Suezmax Suezmax is a naval architecture term for the largest ships capable of transiting the Suez Canal fully loaded, and is almost exclusively used in reference to tankers. Since the canal has no locks, the only serious limiting factors are draft , and height due to the Suez Canal Bridge. The current channel depth of the canal allows for a maximum of 18.9, the largest size which can traverse the Suez Canal
  • VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier), supertankers between 150,000 and 320,000 DWT.
    • Malaccamax, the largest size which can traverse the Strait of Malacca
  • ULCC (Ultra Large Crude Carrier), enormous supertankers between 320,000 and 550,000 DWT.

See also

• Merchant vessel
• Ship transport
• Merchant Navy
• United States Merchant Marine

References

1. ^ BBC Piracy documentary
2. ^ Piracy at Somalian coasts

External links

• Wikitravel - Freighter travel
• Vessel size groups

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