US3863585A

US3863585A - Marine cargo vessel

Info

Publication number: US3863585A
Application number: US442138A
Authority: US
Inventors: Louis Antoine Vernede; Leopold Nitzki; Heinrich Liedke; Friedrich Schror
Original assignee: WESER DT197005022021653 AG
Current assignee: AG 'WESER'DT197005022021653; WESER DT197005022021653 AG
Priority date: 1970-05-02
Filing date: 1974-02-13
Publication date: 1975-02-04
Anticipated expiration: 1992-02-04

Abstract

A MARINE CARGO VESSEL HAS ONE OR TWO HULLS, IN WHICH LATTER CASE IT WILL BE OF THE CATAMARAN TYPE. THE HOLLOW HULLS EACH HAVE AN INSIDE, AN OUTSIDE AND A WATERLINE TO WHICH THEY ARE SUBMERGED IN AN AMBIENT BODY OF WATER. DECKS ARE LOCATED INSIDE THE HULLS AND AT LEAST SOME OF THEM ARE CONSTRUCTED AS FLOODABLE BASINS LOCATED AT LEVELS DIFFERENT FROM THAT OF THE WATERLINE. ONE OR MORE FLOODABLE UPRIGHT SHAFTS ARE PROVIDED IN THE HULL OR HULLS, OR BETWEEN THEM, AND EXTEND THROUGH THE DECKS, AND GATES WHICH CAN BE FLUID-TIGHTLY SEALED ARE PROVIDED AT THE LEVEL OF THE WATERLINE AND OF THE DECKS SO THAT THE INTERIOR OF THE SHAFT CAN COMMUNICATE BOTH WITH THE AMBIENT BODY OF WATER AND WITH THE RESPECTIVE DECKS. THE LEVEL OF A BODY OF WATER IN THE SHAFT CAN BE RAISED BETWEEN THE LEVEL OF THE EXTERIOR WATERLINE AND THE LEVEL OF THE RESPECTIVE DECKS, SO THAT FLOATABLE CONTAINERS CAN BE CONVEYED BY FLOTATION BETWEEN THE WATERLINE AND THE RESPECTIVE DECKS, AND VICE VERSA.

Description

llnited States Patent 11 1 Vern ede et al.

1451 Feb. 4, 1975 1 MARINE CARGO VESSEL [75] Inventors: Louis Antoine Vernede; Leopold Nitzki, both of Bremen; Heinrich Liedke, Bremen-Osterholz; Friedrich S'chrtir, Bremen, all of Germany [73] Assignee: AktiengesellschaftWeser,

Bremen, Germany 22 Filed: Feb. 13,1974

21 Appl. No.: 442,138

Related U.S. Application Data [63] Continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 138,951, April 30,

1971, Pat. No. 3,835,802.

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data May 2, 1970 Germany 2021653 [52] U.S. C1. 114/435, 214/13 [51] Int. Cl 1863b 35/44 [58] Field of Search 1l4/ 2638, 114/435, 73; 214/12-13, 15 R; 61/64 65 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,390,530 7/1968 Toben 61/65 3,587,505 6/1971 Wells et a1. 114/435 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 487,753 5/1970 Switzerland 114/435 Primary Examiner-Trygve M. Blix Assistant Examiner-Jesus D. Sotelo Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Michael S. Striker [57] ABSTRACT A marine cargo vessel has one or two hulls, in which latter case it will be of the catamaran type. The hollow hulls each have an inside, an outside and a waterline to which they are submerged in an ambient body of water. Decks are located inside the hulls and at least some of them are constructed as floodable basins located at levels different from that of the waterline. One or more floodable upright shafts are provided in the hull or hulls, or between them, and extend through the decks, and gates which can be fluid-tightly sealed are provided at the level of the waterline and of the decks so that the interior of the shaft can communicate both with the ambient body of water and with the respective decks. The level of a body of water in the shaft can be raised between the level of the exterior waterline and the level of the respective decks, so that floatable containers can be conveyed by flotation between the waterline and the respective decks, and vice versa,

7 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures PATENTEDFEB'4I975 3.863.585

sum 1 or 3 I I /(l m I1 I 2 mil IN PATEHTED FEB M975 sum 2 OF 3 MARINE CARGO VESSEL CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application is a continuation-in-part of our copending application Ser. No. 138,951, which was filed on Apr. 30, I971 now US. Pat. No. 3,835,802.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a marine cargo vessel in general, and in particular to a marine cargo vessel which is capable of transporting floatable containers that can be admitted into and discharged from the vessel by flotation.

In the transportation of cargoes by sea there has in recent years been an increasing emphasis on so-called container ships", that is a cargo vessel capable of transporting floatable containers such as barges, lighters and the like. Vessels of this type were conceived with two main purposes in mind, namely on the one hand to be able to load and unload the cargo in form of large units (e.g., complete barges, lighters, etc.) and on the other hand to be able to carry out loading and unloading operations independently of dock and harbor installations. With this type of vessel the containers are floated from land to the cargo vessel, or vice versa. The movement of the containers may be under their own power source or the containers may be pulled or pushed by a tug or the like. The vessel itself may be anchored far out in a harbor or it may, for instance, be anchored off the coast in a region where a harbor is not present, but where, for example, an inland waterway merges into the ocean so that the containers can be either brought down the waterway from inland and loaded aboard the vessel, or can be unloaded from the vessel and moved directly up the waterway to inland regions.

Among the container ships known from the prior art it has been proposed to provide portal cranes or similar installations which can move along the upper deck of the vessel and are capable of lifting loads on the order of 500 tons or more, so that they can pluck the barges out ofthe water or deposit them in the water, in the region of the stern of the vessel. This, however, necessitates high installation costs, and undesired shifts in the trim of the vessel every time a barge is either loaded or unloaded, cannot be precluded. Also relatively long loading and unloading times are involved and it is difficult if not impossible to stow the barges independently on several vertically spaced decks.

A further prior-art construction forms the hull of its vessel in the region of the stem with gates through which the barges can float into and out of the hull. Within the hull the barges are engaged by a lifting system which uses synchronously driven winches, and are raised or lowered depending on whether they are to be loaded or unloaded. During loading, and on reaching the level of the deck on which the respective barge is to be stowed, the barge is deposited on a hydraulically operated carriage which moves along deck rails and is then dragged on this carriage into the interior of the ship where it is deposited at a desired place, whereupon the carriage returns to receive the next barge. This construction of course requires an even longer time for loading and unloading than the preceding type, and constant changes in the trim of the vessel are impossible to prevent.

Still another prior-art proposal has been to float the barges from the surrounding body ofwater directly into the hull of the vessel to the position at which they are to be stowed for transportation, and subsequently to reverse this process for unloading purposes. It is known to provide an entrance tunnel at one end ofsuch a vessel, and to partially (but not completely) submerge the vessel until the level of water in the entrance tunnel is sufficiently high so that a barge can be floated through the tunnel. The tunnel communicates with a loading deck so that, the vessel becomes partly submerged, the deck is also flooded at the same time as the tunnel is flooded. This construction is objectionable because when such a vessel is flooded, a near-total loss of the stability of the vessel is experienced. Moreover, the flooding and subsequent evacuation of the vessel is, of course, also time consuming, and the prior art permits the loading of barges and their subsequent discharge only with respect to a single deck ofthe vessel, thus severely limiting the cargo-carrying capability of the vessel.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is thus an object of the present invention to provide an improved marine cargo vessel which overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art.

In particular, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved marine cargo vessel for the transportation of floatable containers, wherein the con tainers can be moved by flotation between the level of the waterline and the level of one or more cargo decks of the vessel without, however, requiring any degree of submergence of the vessel.

An object concomitant with the preceding one is to provide such a marine cargo vessel in which neither the stability of the vessel in the water not the safety of the vessel are in danger during the loading or unloading of the cargo by means of flotation, as is, for instance, the case where prior-art vessels must be partially submerged in the ambient body of water for loading and unloading purposes. This includes the requirement that the initial stability of the vessel must not be allowed to deteriorate or become negated as would be the case if the vessel were to be partially submerged.

In keeping with the above objects, and with others which will become apparent hereafter, one feature of the invention resides in a marine cargo vessel which, briefly stated, comprises hull means having an inside, an outside and a waterline to which it is submerged in an ambient body of water. Deck means is located inside the hull means and at least in part constructed as floodable basin means located at a level different from that of the waterline. Means is provided which define a floodable upright shaft in the hull means, with such shaft extending through the deck means. Gate means is provided at the level of the waterline and of the deck means for communicating the interior of the shaft with the ambient body of water and with the basin means, respectively. Finally, means is provided for raising and lowering the level of the body of water in the shaft between the level of the waterline and the level of the basins means, to permit conveyance of floatable containers by flotation between the waterline and the basin means, and vice versa.

The invention can be utilized in a single-hull vessel, if care is taken to avoid a possibility of changes in the trim of the vessel during floating of the containers from the shaft onto the respective decks, and vice versa. The invention can also be use with vessels of the trimaran type, and it is particularly well suited for use with catamaran-type vessels, that is vessels having two transversely spaced hulls which are connected rigidly with one another.

The novel features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in particular in the appended claims. The invention itself. however, both as to its construction and its method of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. I. is a diagrammatic top-plan view illustrating one embodiment of the invention as incorporated in a catamaran-type cargo vessel;

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic vertical section through FIG. 1, taken on line II-II;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary diagrammatic detail view on an enlarged scale, illustrating in partially sectioned elevation details of the gates communicating the shaft with the decks;

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 2, but illustrating a further embodiment of the invention;

FIG. is a fragmentary partly sectioned perspective illustrating details of the embodiment of FIG. 4; and

FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 5,'but illustrating a further embodiment of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring firstly to FIGS. 1 and 2, it will be seen that reference numeral 1 identifies a catamaran-type vessel per se. The vessel has two hulls 2 which are transversely spaced from one another and are connected rigidly by means of a so-called catamaran bridge which is well known in this art and requires no detailed description.

The shaft 3 according to the present invention can be located at any of the heavy-line positions as shown in FIG. 1, or indeed a shaft 3 can be located at any or each and every one of these locations. Reference numeral 4 designates a plurality of spaces at each of which a container 5 (e.g., a barge, a lighter, or the like) can be stowed on either the upper deck 6 which is located above the level 7 of the waterline to which the hulls 2 are submerged in the ambient body of water, or one of the

lower decks

9, 10 which are located below the level of the waterline 7. The deck 6 can be flooded to a level 8, and each of the

decks

9, 10 can be similarly flooded. Gates 1], which are shown only diagrammatically in FIG. 2, communicate the. respective decks with the interior of the shaft 3, and suitable pumps 16, for instance the illustrated reversible pumps, gear pumps, centrifugal pumps or the like, can be used for pumping water into and out of the shaft 3 which has closed bottom and is sealed from the ambient body of water except fora gate 11a which communicates with the ambient body of water at the waterline 7.

FIG. 3 shows details of the gates 11. It will be seen that each of the gates has a gate member 12 which may, for instance, have the illustrated configuration and be pivotally mounted at 13. Thus, each gate member 12 can move between the full-line position in which it opens communication between the shaft 3 and the

respective decks

6, 9 and 10, and the broken-line position in which it interrupts such communication. Reference numeral I4 identifies the wall bounding the shaft 3 and thus separating the interior of the shaft from the respective decks. Reference numeral 15 identifies the openings in the wall 14 which can be closed by the gate members 12. Seal 12a, for instance hoses or other expansible and/or compressible bodies, can be provided which establish a seal between the wall 14 and the respective gate member 12 when the latter is in its position in which it is to close the opening 15 to prevent communication between the interior of the respective deck and the interior of the shaft 3.

It will be appreciated that if, for instance, a container 5 is to be unloaded from the deck 6 which is flooded to the level 8 with water, the pumps I6 are used to pump sufficient water into the shaft 3 so that the level of water therein rises above the level 7 of the waterline and reaches the level 8 of the water in the deck 6. Thereupon, the gate member 12 is moved from the broken-line position to the full-line position in which communication exists between the deck 6 and the interior of the shaft 3, and the container which now floats just above the deck 6 can be floated out of the latter through the opening 15 into the shaft 3. The gate member 12 is now closed again, and the pumps are used'(or else appropriate seacocks are opened) so that the level of water drops from the level 8 to the level 7 in the shaft 3. Now, the gate Ila, which is shown in FIG. 2 and may correspond in construction and operation to the gates II of FIG. 3, is opened and the container 5 is floated out of the shaft 3 into the ambient body of water.

Conversely, if a container is to be conveyed from the level 7 to the

deck

9 or 10, the gate Ila is opened, the container 5 is floated into the shaft 3 wherein the level of water is equal to the level 7, and the gate Ila is thereupon closed again. The pumps are now employed to pump water out ofthe shaft 3 until the level of water has dropped to the level to which the

deck

9 or 10 has previously been flooded, whereupon the gate member 12 associated with the

deck

9 or 10 is moved to open position and the container 5 is floated into the respective deck to become deposited thereon in a desired position after the deck is subsequently evacuated of water when the gate member 12 has been moved to closing position again.

Particularly in the case of multiple-hull vessels, such as catamaran-type vessels, the shaft 3 could interfere with the movement of the vessel as the latter travels, in that the shaft might extend to or possibly below the waterline 7. To avoid such interference, an arrangement of the type diagrammatically illustrated in FIG. 4 may be utilized, wherein the shaft in toto can be raised or lowered between the full-line position in which cargo can be taken onboard or discharged by flotation, and the raised broken-line position in which the shaft is located in its entirety upwardly of the waterline 7 and cannot interfere with the movement of the vessel, that is by producing resistance to the movement.

FIG. 5 shows how this concept of FIG. 4 can be carried into practical application. FIG. 5 is a fragmentary detail view of a catamaran-type vessel, such as shown in FIG. 4, but all details not considered to be essential for an understanding of the invention have been omitted. Like reference numerals identify like components as previously, and it will be seen that in FIG. 5 the shaft 3 is bounded by a wall 17 which is separate from the wall 14 that has been discussed with respect to FIG. 3. Here, the wall 14 will constitute a separation between the respective decks and a vertical well in which the shaft 13 defined by the wall 17 is vertically displaceable. It is the wall 17 that is provided with the openings 15, and corresponding openings are provided in the wall 14 and formed with the gates 11 which have been previously described. The wall 17 has been diagrammatically and in fragmentary form shown in FIG. 3 also, to suggest its location with respect to the wall 14 and to the gates 11. i

A plurality of upright guide posts or members 18 are provided, four in the illustrated embodiment, between which the shaft 3 can move up and down. Again, it should be pointed out that the bottom of the shaft 3 is closed, although its top can be open. In the illustrated embodiment, the upper ends of the guide members 18 are provided with pulleys over which ropes or cables are trained which are connected with the shaft 3. The other ends of these ropes or cables 20 may be connected with appropriate winches or the like (not shown because entirely conventional) that can be utilized to raise and lower the shaft 3 between the two positions shown in FIG. 4.

It is emphasized that the entire purpose in raising and lowering the shaft 3 in FIG. 5 is to withdraw it sufficiently far from the waterline 7 so that it cannot interfere with the proper motion of the vessel. The raising and lowering has nothing whatever to do with the load ing and unloading of cargo, which is still to be carried out by flotation in the manner described previously with respect to the preceding Figures.

In lieu of the pulleys 19 and the ropes or cables 20, the upright guide member 18 could be hollow and closed against the entry of water. Floatable pontoons or similar members could be incorporated in each ofthem and the pumps 16 could be connected with the interior of the guide members 18 downwardly of these pontoons to pump water into the guide members 18 so as to cause the pontoons to rise. The pontoons would then be rigidly connected (e.g., via appropriate slots in the walls of the guide members 18, or the like) with the shaft 3, so that the latter would be raised as water would be pumped into the guide members 18 beneath the pontoons, causing the latter to rise and take along the shaft 3. Again, hydraulic cylinder and piston units or the like could be employed for the same purpose.

FIG. 6, finally, is largely similar to FIG. 5, but illustrates a somewhat different embodiment wherein the shaft 3 is of two telescopable parts 21a and 21b. The upper part 21a is fixedly mounted, for instance again on the post 18, and the lower part 21b is telescopable with reference to the upper part 21a. The cables 20 could be connected with the lower part 21b and only the lower part would need to be raised and lowered.

It should still be pointed out that details ofa floatable pontoon construction that could be used in conjunction with the embodiments of FIGS. 5 and 6 are described with respect to FIG. 6 of our aforementioned copending application.

It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together, may also find a useful application in other types of constructions differing from the type described above.

While the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in a marine cargo vessel, it is not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.

Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of the present invention that others can by applying current knowledge readily adapt it for various applications without omitting features that. from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this invention and, therefore. such adaptations should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalence of the following claims.

What is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent is set forth in the appended claims.

1. A marine cargo vessel, comprising hull means having an inside, an outside and a waterline to which it is submerged in an ambient body of water; deck means located inside said hull means and at least in part constructed as floodable basin means located at a level different from that of said waterline; means defining a floodable upright shaft in said hull means and extending through said deck means; gate means at the level of said waterline and said deck means for communicating the interior of said shaft with said ambient body of water and with said basin means, respectively; and means for raising and lowering the level of a body of water in said shaft between the level of said waterline and the level of said basin means, whereby to permit conveyance of fioatable containers by flotation between said waterline and said basin means and vice versa.

2. A marine cargo vessel as defined in claim 1, wherein said deck means comprises a plurality of decks, at least one of which is located at a level higher than the level of said waterline.

3. A marine cargo vessel as defined in claim 1, wherein said hull means comprises at least two transversely spaced connected hulls.

4. A marine cargo vessel as defined in claim 3, wherein said shaft is located intermediate said hulls.

5. A marine cargo vessel as defined in claim 4; and further comprising means for vertically displacing at least a part of said means defining said shaft between a first position in which a lower end portion of said shaft is submerged between said waterline for conveying of floatable containers, and a second position in which said lower end portion is located upwardly spaced from said waterline to prevent interference with the travel of said vessel.

6. A marine cargo vessel as defined in claim 5, wherein said means for vertically displacing comprises a plurality of upright guide members adjacent said shaft, and connecting means connecting said shaft defining means with said guide members and operative for effecting said vertical displacement between said first and second positions.

7. A marine cargo vessel as defined in claim 6, wherein said shaft is composed of an upper first portion and a lower second portion which is telescopable with reference to said upper first portion; and wherein said connecting means connects at least said lower first portion with said guide members.

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