Merchant vessel

Good morning Engineering students! Here you are part of the information we are going to use in today´s class:

Merchant vessel

A merchant vessel or trading vessel is a ship that transports cargo or passengers. The closely related term commercial vessel is defined by the United States Coast Guard as any vessel (i.e. boat or ship) engaged in commercial trade or that carries passengers for hire. This would exclude pleasure craft that do not carry passengers for hire or warships.

They come in a myriad of sizes and shapes from twenty-foot inflatable dive boats in Hawaii, to 5,000 passenger casino vessels on the Mississippi River, to tugboats plying New York Harbor, to 1,000 foot oil tankers and container ships at major ports, to a passenger carrying submarine in the U.S. Virgin Islands.[1]

Most countries of the world operate fleets of merchant ships. However, due to the high costs of operations, today these fleets are in many cases sailing under the flags of nations that specialize in providing manpower and services at favourable terms. Such flags are known as "flags of convenience". Currently, Liberia and Panama are particularly favoured. Ownership of the vessels can be by any country, however.

The Greek-owned fleet is the largest in the world. Today, the Greek fleet accounts for some 16 per cent of the world’s tonnage; this makes it currently the largest single international merchant fleet in the world, albeit not the largest in history.[2]

In English, "Merchant Navy" without further clarification is used to refer to the British Merchant Navy; the United States merchant fleet is known as the United States Merchant Marine.

During wars, merchant ships may be used as auxiliaries to the navies of their respective countries, and are called upon to deliver military personnel and material.

Name prefixes

Merchant ships names are prefixed by which kind of vessel they are:[citation needed]

MS = Motorship

MV = Motor Vessel

SS = Steam Ship

MT = Motor Tanker or Motor Tug Boat

MSV = Motor Stand-by Vessel

MY = Motor Yacht

RMS = Royal Mail Ship

RRS = Royal Research Ship

SV = Sailing Vessel (although these can be sub coded as type of sailing vessel)

LPG = Gas carrier transporting liquefied petroleum gas[citation needed]

LNG = Gas carrier transporting liquefied natural gas[citation needed]

CS = Cable Ship or Cable layer

RV = Research Vessel

MFV = Motor Fishing Vessel

Merchant ship categories

Merchant ships may be divided into several categories, according to their purpose and/or size.

Dry cargo ships

For more details on this topic, see Cargo ship.

Sabrina I carries bulk cargo inside her holds

A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, 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. Cargo ships are usually specially designed for the task, often being equipped with cranes and other mechanisms to load and unload, and come in all sizes.

Dry cargo ships today are mainly bulk carriers and container ships. Bulk carriers or bulkers are used for the transportation of homogeneous cargo such as coal, rubber, copra, tin, and wheat. Container ships are used for the carriage of miscellaneous goods.

Bulk carriers

A bulk carrier is an ocean-going vessel used to transport bulk cargo items such as iron ore, bauxite, coal, cement, grain and similar cargo. Bulk carriers can be recognized by large box-like hatches on deck, designed to slide outboard or fold fore-and-aft to enable access for loading or discharging cargo. The dimensions of bulk carriers are often determined by the ports and sea routes that they need to serve, and by the maximum width of the Panama Canal. Most lakes are too small to accommodate bulk carriers, but a large fleet of lake freighters has been plying the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway of North America for over a century.

Container ships

For more details on this topic, see Container ship.

The Colombo Express, one of the largest container ships in the world, owned and operated by Hapag-Lloyd of Germany

Container ships are cargo ships that carry all of their load in truck-size containers, in a technique called containerization. They form a common means of commercial intermodal freight transport.

Tankers

For more details on this topic, see Tanker (ship).

Commercial crude oil supertanker AbQaiq.

A tanker is a ship designed to transport liquids in bulk.

Oil tankers for the transport of fluids, such as crude oil, petroleum products, liquefied petroleum gas, liquefied natural gas and chemicals, also vegetable oils, wine and other food - the tanker sector comprises one third of the world tonnage.

Tankers can range in size from several hundred tons, designed to serve small harbours and coastal settlements, to several hundred thousand tons, with these being designed for long-range haulage. A wide range of products are carried

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