The Hold

[AThompson]

I know how this is going to sound, but I can't picture it in me noggin'.

If you need a crane to lift the cargo and place it into the hold of a merchantship (it travels down through the hatches and come to rest in the hold) once in the hold how do you position it?

The hatches don't open up to the entire hold, and the hold is pretty cramped, the cargo weighs several tonnes, you needed a crane to get it in, so how are you manhandling it once it's in there? Not to mention all the ballast that's down there, hindering the job.

[marcelo_malara]

I know how this is going to sound, but I can't picture it in me noggin'.

If you need a crane to lift the cargo and place it into the hold of a merchantship (it travels down through the hatches and come to rest in the hold) once in the hold how do you position it?

The hatches don't open up to the entire hold, and the hold is pretty cramped, the cargo weighs several tonnes, you needed a crane to get it in, so how are you manhandling it once it's in there? Not to mention all the ballast that's down there, hindering the job.

Hi! Yes they do, the deck of cargo ship, except a bulk carrier (tanker or grain) is full of hatches.

[OpanaPointer]

I've watched people load grain into the holds on a ship next to us in Singapore. The pallets were hoisted into the hold and the workers pulled them off the pallet and stowed them. The pallet went out when unloaded and the crane picked up another one. (The things you'll watch when you're on duty and can't leave the ship.)

[marcelo_malara]

I've watched people load grain into the holds on a ship next to us in Singapore. The pallets were hoisted into the hold and the workers pulled them off the pallet and stowed them. The pallet went out when unloaded and the crane picked up another one. (The things you'll watch when you're on duty and can't leave the ship.)

Yes, that was before the bulk carrier. In Spanish they were called "estibadores"

[OpanaPointer]

I've watched people load grain into the holds on a ship next to us in Singapore. The pallets were hoisted into the hold and the workers pulled them off the pallet and stowed them. The pallet went out when unloaded and the crane picked up another one. (The things you'll watch when you're on duty and can't leave the ship.)

Yes, that was before the bulk carrier. In Spanish they were called "estibadores"

The stevedores that loaded ships for the war fronts in WWII earned their pay. No breeze down there.

[AThompson]

Thanks, all.

But I was thinking Age of Sail, hence the section Age of Sail

[OpanaPointer]

The stevedore jobs didn't change much over the centuries.

[marcelo_malara]

Thanks, all.

But I was thinking Age of Sail, hence the section Age of Sail

Ohhh sorry. Yes, in the age of sail stevedores would move the cargo in the hold. But...I can´t think of many heavy cargo in that era. May be cannons made for export. Or timber, England imported it from the Baltic for her shipbuilding industry, I do not know for sure how they were stowed. I presume that the heaviest cargo would be stowed directly beneath the hatches.

Regards

[marcelo_malara]

As a side note. The bark Pamir sunk in a hurricane in 1957 while crossing the Atlantic, with a cargo of grain. The culprit could be a strike of the stevedores in Buenos Aires port, where she had loaded the cargo. Due to the strike, Army draftees were employed for the job, and it is suspected that theirs lack of knowledge would not have made the bagged cargo sure against displacement within the hold. The bags would have moved in the heavy seas, provoking an increasing heel ending in the ship capsizing.

Regards

[Byron Angel]

Hah - This is Old Home Week for me!



I worked fifteen years in the international ocean freight forwarding business - from the early days of containerization to bulk carriers, chemical tankers, Ro/Ro ships, old 'tween-deckers. liner service carriers and charter work.

It was really interesting and I learned a lot.

Byron

[Byron Angel]

As a side note. The bark Pamir sunk in a hurricane in 1957 while crossing the Atlantic, with a cargo of grain. The culprit could be a strike of the stevedores in Buenos Aires port, where she had loaded the cargo. Due to the strike, Army draftees were employed for the job, and it is suspected that theirs lack of knowledge would not have made the bagged cargo sure against displacement within the hold. The bags would have moved in the heavy seas, provoking an increasing heel ending in the ship capsizing.

Regards

Shifting cargo is always BAD ju ju. On occasion, we used to ship bagged synthetic resins on old chartered 'tween deck trampers - 40 x 50lb bags per pallet, maybe 1,000 tons total on a part charter. Those bags would always be shrink-wrapped and strapped onto the pallets and each and every pallet would be securely chocked down in the hold to prevent shifting.

We always had a representative from our company attending the loading. Ensuring proper stowage was always an important part of his duties.


Byron

[marcelo_malara]

As a side note. The bark Pamir sunk in a hurricane in 1957 while crossing the Atlantic, with a cargo of grain. The culprit could be a strike of the stevedores in Buenos Aires port, where she had loaded the cargo. Due to the strike, Army draftees were employed for the job, and it is suspected that theirs lack of knowledge would not have made the bagged cargo sure against displacement within the hold. The bags would have moved in the heavy seas, provoking an increasing heel ending in the ship capsizing.

Regards

Shifting cargo is always BAD ju ju. On occasion, we used to ship bagged synthetic resins on old chartered 'tween deck trampers - 40 x 50lb bags per pallet, maybe 1,000 tons total on a part charter. Those bags would always be shrink-wrapped and strapped onto the pallets and each and every pallet would be securely chocked down in the hold to prevent shifting.

We always had a representative from our company attending the loading. Ensuring proper stowage was always an important part of his duties.


Byron

Hi Byron. I think that in the Pamir case the bagged grain was to be topped by flat wood plank, and the plank secured to the sides of the hold. Something seemed to went wrong with this.

Regards

[Byron Angel]

As a side note. The bark Pamir sunk in a hurricane in 1957 while crossing the Atlantic, with a cargo of grain. The culprit could be a strike of the stevedores in Buenos Aires port, where she had loaded the cargo. Due to the strike, Army draftees were employed for the job, and it is suspected that theirs lack of knowledge would not have made the bagged cargo sure against displacement within the hold. The bags would have moved in the heavy seas, provoking an increasing heel ending in the ship capsizing.

Regards

Shifting cargo is always BAD ju ju. On occasion, we used to ship bagged synthetic resins on old chartered 'tween deck trampers - 40 x 50lb bags per pallet, maybe 1,000 tons total on a part charter. Those bags would always be shrink-wrapped and strapped onto the pallets and each and every pallet would be securely chocked down in the hold to prevent shifting.

We always had a representative from our company attending the loading. Ensuring proper stowage was always an important part of his duties.


Byron

Hi Byron. I think that in the Pamir case the bagged grain was to be topped by flat wood plank, and the plank secured to the sides of the hold. Something seemed to went wrong with this.

Regards

Hi Marcelo,
The men you describe were not longshoremen/stevedores; they would in all likelihood not have had the necessary skills and practical craft to properly stow and chock down the cargo. I do not fault them. Responsibility rested with (a) the individual overseeing the loading of the cargo and (b) the master of the ship to see that the stowage had been properly performed.

Byron