1. Shipbuilding, shipping, technical operation and maintenance (terms and general concepts)

In the process of value and efficiency estimation of vessels and assets of the marine companies, and also for creation of the adequate calculation models, for data used for identification of the object and information processing, studying of the terms and the general concepts in the area of shipping, shipbuilding, fleet maintenance service is required.

1.1. Classification of commercial vessels

Vessel is an object that possesses operational characteristics and seaworthy properties.
           Operational characteristics are indexes of commercial vessel’s conformity for the demands of the subject in the sea environment (for example, cargo capacity, cargo holds volume, register tonnage, velocity, cruising range, autonomy, etc.).
           Seaworthy properties are useful physical properties of a commercial vessel when it interacts with the marine environment: buoyancy, unsinkability, stability, water resistance and propulsion, controllability.
           Classification attributes of the commercial vessels are following:
           1. Vessel assignment – commercial (cargo), fishing, support, vessel of the technical fleet, special purpose;
           2. District of operation – marine outdoor, raid, internal water cruising, the district cruising;
           3. Available propulsion devices – self–propelled (with the mechanical engine), not self–propelled;
           4. Main engine class – vessel equipped with a power–plant with an internal combustion engine, steamship, gas–turbine powered vessel, electric powered vessel, nuclear–powered vessel;
           5. Propeller type – screw, wheel, with the special propeller, sailing vessel;
           6. Number of propellers and deadwoods – single–deadwood (single–screw), multi–deadwood;
           7. Physical phenomenon of the seaworthy – displaced (surface), underwater, gliding, hydrofoil, cushion craft, winged vessel;
           8. Vessel’s structural material – steel, alloys, nonmetallic materials (plastic, wood, reinforced concrete), composite (of the various materials);
           9. Design–layout class – number of hulls, number and location of superstructures and cabins, number of decks, position of the surface board deck, location of the engine and boiler rooms;
           10. Other attributes.
           The commercial vessels (to be more exact, cargo vessels) are subdivided into classes depending on the type of cargo they carry: the dry–cargo (for transportation of the general cargo, the bulk cargoes, the enlarged unified cargoes, the rolling cargoes, the timber cargoes, the refrigerator cargoes, etc.) and the crude cargo (for transportation of not regime and regime cargoes).
           The classes of the fishing vessels – fishery, processing, fishery –processing.
           1. Classes of fishing vessels: fishing vessel, mammal hunting vessel, whale hunting vessel, prawns catching vessel, calamari catching vessel, seaweed extracting vessel, etc.
           Classification of the fishing vessels for the used tools (trawl, seine, catching long–line, other classes of the fishing tools):
           – Trawlers – super trawler, big trawler, average, small;
           – Seiners;
           – Seiners–trawlers.
           2. Processing vessels: autonomous, universal and canning processing mother ship, refrigerating processor, crab–processing vessel, the whale processing vessel.
           3. Fishing –processing vessel.

1.2. Commercial vessel’s devices, systems, engines and power–plants

Vessel’s devices – set of the mechanisms providing operational characteristics and seaworthy properties.
           Vessel’s general purpose devices: steering (and thrusting), cargo, anchor, mooring and towing, hatch, emergency (other devices: rail, awning ...).
           Vessel’s special purpose devices: fishing, descent–lifting, offshore drilling, towing device of towing vessel, ramp device of ferry or RO–RO (rolling cargo vessel with horizontal loading), the conveyor cargo device of bulk cargo vessel, etc.
           Vessel’s system – set of the facilities for liquids or gases process. The engine room systems which are ensuring functioning of vessel power–plant do not concern are not referred to vessel’s systems.
           Vessel’s systems’ classification: bilge, ballast, firefighting, fresh water supply, waste, microclimate, special systems of tankers.
           Vessel’s systems structural elements: pipelines, armature, capacities (tanks), pumps, compressors, separators, desolaters, filters, measuring devices, other.
           Vessel power–plant generally can be considered as a set of three basic parts:
           – Propulsion complex as a part of elements – the main engine, the transmission, the propeller;
           – Electric power plant (auxiliary diesel engines–generators);
           – Auxiliaries (boilers, steam and gas generators, facilities of fuel preparation, engine room systems, machines and mechanisms control transmissions, automatics, instruments …).

1.3. Architecture and technology of commercial vessel construction

The metal hull of marine commercial vessel is usually made of carbon steel and consists of overlapping and structures.
           Overlapping – covering or flooring (that is metal streaks), connected to framing (skeleton). The basic overlappings of commercial vessel hull are: sides, bottom, decks, platforms and bulkheads.
           Hull structure of a commercial vessel consists of shields and shafts, superstructures and cabins, gunwale, shelf bar, sterns, arms of deadwood shafts, the bases and fastenings.
           Set is formed by longitudinal and cross–section beams. Longitudinal framing: keel, stiffeners, edges of rigidity, shelf bar, carlings, double bottom inclined sheet, etc. Cross–section beams of a set: floors, frames, deck beams.
           System of commercial vessel’s hull framing is cross–sectional if the spacing between longitudinal girders is more than between cross–section beams. Otherwise, the system of framing is longitudinal.
           Enterprises which construct the vessels, marine technology and provide maintenance service are classified according to the shipbuilding technique that they use and the work they are engaged into the following groups:
           – Ship–building or ship–repair enterprises;
           – Plants or shipyards.
           Shipbuilding plants (or shipyards) unlike ship–repair yards can fail to have ship lifting facilities, but only the shipbuilding sites suitable for vessel launching.
           In the structure of basic departments of plants (or shipyards) besides the shops are included the shipbuilding sites: building berths, slip–ways and docks dry or floating.
           The main technological difference of a shipyard from a plant is the absence of mechanical manufacture at a shipyard (deliveries are used).
           The factory structure includes the departments which provide the following services as:
           a) The facilities specific for shipbuilding (or ship maintenance), for example, loft, hull–processing and hull–construction shops, a building berth, a slip–way or a dock (usually dry – for ship–building factory unlike ship–repair), thread–positional lines for a batch production of vessels – and:
           b) Mechanical and machine–building manufacture which can be non specific for the shipbuilding.
           More than 90 % of the world tonnage commercial vessels are made at the ship–building enterprises in industrially developed states of the Far East, East Asia and Pacific Rim.
           At the East Asia ship yards the manufacture of large (more than 10) and average batches prevail unlike in Europe and in North America.
           The batch manufacture of the commercial vessel and output of marine engineering in the Far East much is cheaper, than in Europe or in the USA.
           In the majority of the states the ship–building industry subsidized from the budgets or has other support, and ship–repair manufacture – is self–supporting.

1.4. Commercial vessel repair, maintenance and technical survey

Vessel repair is a complex of technical operations aimed at restoration of vessel devices, equipment or mechanisms to a serviceable or efficient condition, including their replacement, directly intended for providing their seaworthiness maintenance.
           Emergency repair of commercial vessel is a repair for elimination of the reasons and consequences of the damages caused by an emergency case, and including the work, that is necessary for cruising to the ship–repair yard for the overhaul repairing.
           Vessel maintenance is the current works which are carried out annually by the crew or by the ship–repair enterprise for maintenance of the commercial vessel into an operation–able state before the next maintenance service or repair.
           In the process of modernization unlike in the process of repairing the vessel characteristics are not restored but changed.
           The Maritime Register of Shipping is the state body of the commercial vessels technical survey and classification.
           Besides, the Register under the commission and on behalf of the Government within the competence carries out technical survey of performance of the International Conventions, Requirements, Agreements and Contracts in which Russia participates.
           Classification societies similar to the Register in the sphere of marine commercial shipping are available in a number of the states: the Lloyd's Register in the Great Britain, the Det Norske Veritas (DNV), the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), the French classification society (Bureau Veritas), the German Lloyd (Germanischer Lloyd), the Korean Register (the Republic of Korea), the Japanese classification society (Nippon Kaiji Kyokai), the corresponding organizations of some the states of the former Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, and also Classification Societies of Greece, Turkey, China, Taiwan, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Mongolia, Cambodia etc. Listed and other Classification Societies usually have regional and foreign agencies.
           The examples of emblems images of the Maritime Classification Societies which provide technical survey at the stages of marine commercial vessels’ designing, construction and operation are presented in the Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. The emblem images of the Maritime Classification Societies engaged in technical survey in the design, construction and operation of the marine commercial vessels

Unlike the majority of listed above and other similar existing Classification Societies the Maritime Register of Shipping is Russia governmental establishment.
           Russian Maritime Register of Shipping performs:
           – Consideration and approval of the engineering specifications;
           – Survey of materials and products manufacturing;
           – Survey of ships under construction, restoration or modernization;
           – Vessels’ operation survey;
           – Class assignment or renewal classification;
           – Supervision of International Conventions and Agreements performance;
           – Elaboration and development of rules and their publishing;
           – Publishing of the Register book of the marine commercial vessels.

The symbols of commercial vessel class under the Register: К – the symbol of a not self–propelled vessel class; KM – stands for a self–propelled vessel; – the symbol means, that the vessel is constructed by rules and under the supervision of the Register; УЛА, УЛ, Л1, Л2, ЛЗ – the designations of ice categories; [1], [2], [3] – signs of division according the quantity of compartments (one – two– and three–compartment standards of the unsinkability); I, II, IIСП, III – the signs of marine cruising district restriction; А1 and А2 – the automation signs; a designation of certain purpose operation, for example: (fishing vessel), (tow), (ice breaker), etc.
           The example of a commercial vessel class designation symbol under the Register regulations is КМЛ2 [1] (fishing vessel).
           The example of a marine crude–oil tanker class designation symbol of Det Norske Veritas is
           + 1A1 Tanker for Oil ESP NAUTICUS PLUS–2 EO ICE–1B VCS–2 RPS NAUT–AW,
           where the symbol «+» means, that a vessel was constructed under the survey of the Det Norske Veritas;
           1A1 – the vessel corresponds to the requirements of DNV for the hull, the mechanisms and the equipment;
           Tanker for Oil – means the class of the cargo vessel;
           ESP – sign informs that the vessel complies with the special requirements of «Enhanced Survey Programme» that hull structures are subject to the inspection during all period of the operation;
           NAUTICUS – means, that the vessel was projected with application of the special software which then mast be used when estimating the hull structures’ deterioration and loadings during the vessel operation (for newly built vessels);
           PLUS–2 – means, that loadings and designing in points of the critical loadings are based on preliminary measurements of material weariness under and beyond the basic requirements, is applied for durable commercial vessels or vessels intended for the operation in heavy marine environment (P–MAX is applied for the calculation of deterioration during 25 year in Northern Atlantic, that corresponds to 40 years of operation in other areas);
           EO – informs, that the vessel can be operated without keeping the watch in the engine room as the alarm system is laid to watch at the running bridge and to the chief engineer;
           ICE–1B – means, that the vessel corresponds to the ice class Ice Class 1B by the Swedish–Finnish rules for Baltic sea that means admissible speed 5 knots at a thickness of ice of 0,8 m;
           VCS–2 – the indication, that the vessel corresponds to the special requirements concerning the control of evaporations from cargo oil tanks;
           RPS – the instruction, that the vessel keeps at least 50 % of capacity of a power–plant in the case of any single scrap in the engine room, including a fire or flooding of any separate component;
           NAUT–AW – the indication, that the vessel meets the commercial present requirements concerning navigating maintenance, including the equipment at the bridge, the project of the navigating station, the arrangement of the equipment and automatic systems for prevention of planting to a bank.
           The seaworthiness and reliability control is of great importance when estimating the value and the economic efficiency of the commercial vessel and the risks connected with seaworthiness, reliability and technical condition of commercial vessel, as they make essential impact on estimation of total commercial risks and are taken into account when calculating vessel and cargo insurance coverage.
           Without details, the general approach of the surveyor organizations which provide the control of commercial vessel technical state, is connected with the seaworthiness and reliability estimation and corresponds to the first of two possible alternatives:
           – With the account of the distinction of seaworthy properties and technical condition, the different vessels are admitted to be equally reliable for the requirement of certain restrictions concerning operation conditions (the cruising area, the season and the ice conditions, watch presence in the engine room, periodicity of survey, etc.);
           – With the account of the distinction of seaworthy properties and technical condition, the vessels reliability is evaluated as different in the similar marine environment (that is without restrictions of the operation requirements).
           The second approach usually is not accepted when executing the supervision and is not convenient for estimation of commercial and insurance risks, the first approach, which is presented by the rules of the supervising organizations (Classification Societies), therefore prevails.
           The restrictions concerning operation requirements are actually the subject of estimation of the inspector (surveyor) of the supervising organization and are reflected in an assigned class symbol of the commercial vessel. And the surveyor according to supervision rules should estimate technical condition of the commercial vessel and define specified restrictions of operation requirements.
           Classification requirements serve the important objective as they define the vessel characteristics and the vessel’s quality standard. At the same time the requirements of Classification Societies concerning supervision of commercial vessel’s technical state can be inconvenient in interpretation as many Classification Societies apply their own requirements and standards.
           In the International organization of Classification Societies IACS (International Association of Classification Societies) the discussions of approaches coordination and joint application of the most important Classification requirements for surveying of commercial vessels are held.
           The uniformity in approaches is required with the account distinctions of vessels classes, characteristics and technical condition, and also with the account the international character of technical survey. We hope, that in the future it will be easier to understand estimation of the commercial vessel’s condition, in particular when estimating safe loads, and to avoid application of double standards.

Test questions

1. Commercial vessel (definition).
           2. Classes and types of the commercial vessels by the purpose and by the other signs.
           3. Classes of the cargo vessels.
           4. Classes of the fishing vessels.
           5. Operational characteristics of commercial vessel.
           6. Seaworthy properties of commercial vessel.
           7. Vessel’s devices.
           8. Vessel’s systems.
           9. Vessel’s power–plants.
           10. Vessel’s structure.
           11. Ship–building and ship–repair enterprises.
           12. Plants and the shipyards.
           13. Vessel repair, emergency repair.
           14. Vessel maintenance service.
           15. Vessel reconstruction.
           16. Functions of Russian Maritime Register of Shipping.
           17. The Russian Maritime Register of Shipping objectives.
           18. Maritime inspection societies of other states.
           19. General approach of the supervising organizations which control the technical condition of commercial vessel.
           20. Symbols of marine commercial vessels classes according to the Register.