MAERSK SUPPLY

Maersk Supply dominates the European support vessel market, and every other European Company takes a second or lesser place. There are potential rivals now that the American owners have started to build and buy large ships.

Maersk operates a fleet of vessels divided between the Danish and UK flags. Their first toehold in the support vessel market was with a fleet of four small platform ships, but it all changed when they built the Maersk Ruler Class which entered service in about 1978. Those vessels were then the most powerful ships in the world.

ANCHOR_HANDLERS
CONSTRUCTION_AND_OTHER_VESSELS
PLATFORM_SHIPS
DISPOSALS

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TYPE: mAERSK a CLASS

NAME: Maersk Assister

photo: Vic Gibson, Jan Plug

General

Propulsion

Deck Equipment

TYPE: ME 909

NAME: Maersk Battler

PHOTO: Joshua Stack

NAME: Maersk Chancellor

PHOTO: george Craigen

TYPE: MAERSK C Type

NAME: Maersk Clipper

PHOTO:

TYPE: UT 722L

NAME: Maersk Handler

PHOTO: George Craigen, Tony Poll

GENERAL

PROPULSION

EQUIPMENT

TYPE: MAERSK M

NAME: Maersk Master

PHOTO: Vic Gibson, Tony Poll

However time passes and during the gestation period for the design most semi-submersibles in the North Sea had been modified to be able to keep nearly all their cargo on board during rig moves, and so apparently the hatches are not used much.

These ships have a single large screw and two smaller azimuthing thrusters aft, which is the best theoretical configuration for achieving manoeuvrability and bollard pull.

TYPE: ME 606

NAME: Maersk Promoter

PHOTO: Andrew Woodrow, Tony Poll

TYPE: MAERSK R (L)

NAME: MAERSK RIDER

PHOTO:

NAME: Maersk Searcher

PHOTO: Maersk Searcher, Jan Plug

Propulsion

Deck EquipMENT

The Maersk Searcher is one of six "S" class vessels delivered in the latter part of 1999 and early in 2000. She was built at Keppel Singmarine in Singapore and once her trials were completed she sailed straight to Aberdeen via the Suez Canal. She is one of the UK Maersk fleet and so is registered in the Isle of Man.

Although the S class are later additions to the Maersk fleet than the impressive B class, from which their design is obviously derived, their 4 MAK engines develop slightly less power, providing 18,250 BHP and in the Maersk Searcher's case a bollard pull of 210 tonnes. This is probably the first time that the Maersk Company have brought out a class of anchor-handlers of lesser power than the previous newbuildings and suggests that the industry considers that 200 tonnes of bollard pull is good for what-ever you wish to do.

In addition to the main propulsion the Searcher is provided with a 1200 BHP tunnel thruster at the bow and the stern and a 1200 BHP azimuthing thruster at the bow. The azimuthing thruster has proved particularly useful in adverse weather because it is deeper in the water and so is less likely to draw air as the ship pitches. One of the downsides of operating such large vessels is the windage created by the accommodation, and sometimes all the thrust which is available is required in order to maintain station. The joystick is also provided with an "anchor-handling mode." This reduces thruster activity apart from the azimuthing thruster which is set to thrust astern with small changes to port and starboard to maintain the heading.

The heart of any anchor-handler is the winch and, due initially to the known lead time required for low pressure hydraulic winches, the company opted for electric winches. The winch on the Searcher has proved itself in anger and the design seems to have overcome the traditional difficulties of electric winches. When lowering anchors to the seabed the old electric winches had to be operated on the brake because otherwise the motors would turn into generators and blow up parts of the ship's electrical systems. The winch on the Maersk Searcher is actually designed to turn the motors into generators, excess power being dissipated through resistor banks which turn it into heat.

The work drum is large enough to take the 2000 meter work wire which was required for the Sovereign Explorer job and one of the two tow drums is used as a work drum for lesser activities, so that the main workwire remains undamaged due to contact with shackles links and other connections.

Since starting work in the UK sector the ship has been variously employed as the state of the market and the requirements for different types of vessel have changed. At the other end of the scale from the Sovereign Explorer job was a supply run to a jack-up and somewhere in the middle was the changing of the crude oil delivery hose on the Maureen field's ALC (Articulated Loading Column). The ship was employed for this task because of its DP capability, being fitted with a Kongsberg DP system and MDL Fanbeam.

The ship was required to maintain station directly under the end of the loading arm during the change-over of the hoses to prevent putting any extra loading on the winch, but when it came to it, the target for the Fanbeam was on at too great an elevation and so DGPS was used instead. No problems were experienced throughout the operation, the ship maintaining station within one meter, and the ALC turned out to be in the right place on the surface of the planet.

Like all the very large ships which are now being provided to service the needs of the oil industry, the specification of the Maersk Searcher seems to include anything that anyone could possible require for any job. She has split rollers to ease the task of connecting two parts of a mooring system; she has two enormous chain lockers and provision is made to handle chain sizes from 3" to 6". She has three cranes, two at the forward end of the deck for heavy work and one small Palfinger two tonne crane at the port side aft, to assist with making and breaking connections at the Triplex sharks jaws.

For the carriage of cargo the ship offers over 600 square meters of deck space, which for some reason seems to be the magic figure when it comes to hiring platform ships and can carry large quantities of bulk cargo, the most significant of which might be the ability to carry over 4000 barrels of liquid mud in four cylindrical tanks. This is the sort of quantity required for drilling a deep water well due to the extra length of riser.

Up on the bridge the Master and Chief Engineer are provided with a bewildering number of VDUs to look at everything from the ship's position on the surface of the earth to the gearing of the winch. The Chief has four screens for the winch alone, however the electronics assist in the operation of the ship and typically he can select a specific drum on the winch and the system carries out the clutching out and clutching in without anything further being required. But despite all the equipment the bridge is extremely spacious and any visitor would be re-assured by the presence of a small conference table which easily fits in the bridge wing. Even in this electronic age proper communication is still taking place.

These words first appeared in the Offshore Support Journal in August 2000