 There have been so many publications about the carriage of the first cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) onboard the Methane Pioneer in 1959. But what of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), a gas ship cargo which predates LNG? When were the pioneering LPG cargoes carried and how did this important seaborne trade develop? In this tribute to the first gas carriers, Robin Gray, former SIGTTO General Manager, sheds light on the early days of the less well-known part of the gas shipping industry and on the role played by one particular shipyard in the North East of England.
This paper by Robin Gray, former general manager of SIGTTO, provides some historical background, touching the post-war development, addresses the major conversions of the vessels and famous conversion projects, applicable rules and patterns, liability insurance and cargo familiarity, material used for the construction and insulation of the cargo tanks, integrated gas distribution, propane loading problems, local gas trials, ethylene-related issues, training provided to the officers, fire protection tests, cooldown tanks, welding problems etc. Have a look into this document since the information contained in it is useful and practical.
 The current National Military Strategy places significant demands on crisis response capabilities, making strategic lift more vital than ever. While airlift is crucial for personnel and priority cargo, sealift remains the primary method for transporting heavy military equipment.
Due to the volume and weight of this equipment, and the time required for sea transport, strategic sealift often represents the longest phase of deployment. This reference aims to reduce this deployment time by providing standardized marine terminal guidance for lifting and securing military equipment on strategic ships.
It offers proper lifting techniques and general procedures for securing cargo, drawing upon equipment characteristics, transportability manuals, and field experience. While this handbook doesn't cover every piece of Army equipment, it focuses on items commonly encountered in stevedore operations. Helicopters are addressed in a separate publication (MTMCTEA REF 95-55-21). The document highlights essential guidance through warnings, cautions, and notes.
The primary responsibility for marine lifting operations rests with military shippers until the equipment is onboard. At that point, the ship's officers assume control, dictating cargo securing procedures, which can vary based on the vessel, inspector, and anticipated voyage. This lack of standardization, as seen during Desert Shield/Storm, can lead to inconsistent and overly complex lashing procedures, wasting time, resources, and manpower.
 The maritime container transportation has grown significantly in the last forty plus years. As a result of that, it become an important mode of the intercontinental cargo traffic. Container terminals always played a major role as the multimodal interfaces between land and sea transport. The dimensions of the container vessels have dramatically increased during the last decade, in order to benefit from the scale economy.
Some of the large container vessels may require thousands of lifts in a seaport cargo container terminal during a single call. Taking into account the fact that the container carrier involves huge capital investment as well as high daily operating costs, customer service is now a critical issue for the seaport terminals - as a results, so many terminals are making attempts to improve the throughput and reduce the turn-around time. The containerization is growing constantly, and the number of port terminals is increasing, correspondingly.
As it is meant by the name, the aim of this publication is to reflect the major latest developments and also to present the most important insights; in addition to that, the efforts were made by the authors to check the various successful solutions to the existing operational problems of the transportation systems and terminals.
 The content of this booklet is arranged in two big parts - the first part provides necessary instructions for the carriage of the refrigerated cargoes and the second part is dedicated to the transportation of the frozen fish by reefers. The refrigerated cargoes are commonly perishable to some degree and their safe transportation mainly depends on maintaining the proper storage conditions in the course of the transportation.
This equally applies to all transportation modes and all refrigerated cargoes, though the conditions are considered much more critical for the long journeys and perishable commodities. These cargoes would normally include chilled and frozen goods, including fresh fruits/vegetables. The frozen goods generally will not suffer in case of over-cooling while chilled goods can easily get damaged by the low temperature. Successful transportation of the chilled and frozen goods seriously depends on the correct carriage instructions, defining the technical conditions for the transportation.
Should the carriage instructions be wrong, inadequate, incomplete or contradictory then the problems can definitely be expected, including the risk of cargo loss and subsequent claims. The way of stowing the cargo is also very important for the safe and successful transportation, however this volume is mainly concentrated on the carriage instructions themselves...
 The content of the present Cargo Resource Management course, or CRM for short was developed by the SIGTTO with the ultimate goal to provide necessary help relating to the optimization of the performance of those crew members directly involved in the shipboard cargo activities. The areas covered by the authors include the communication and situational awareness, as well as the proper teamwork and managing the workload of the personnel.
First of all, the readers will get some general information on the planning and further executing cargo operations on board, and then they will proceed to the organization and procedures related to the Cargo Control Room arrangements. The main idea is to make the cargo team behave and work in the maximum effective manner and this is why the ways shall be found to effectively modify the existing relations and make sure that the safest team culture is achieved.
In addition to that, due attention shall be paid to the lessons that have been learned from the incidents occurred in the past, and the critical operations shall be duly identified to move forward. The trainees who have successfully completed the course, will obtain required understanding of the safe and effective cargo handling operations.
 The present publication was prepared and released with the ultimate intention to provide all people engaged in the international maritime transportation of the hazardous and dangerous cargoes with the single unit containing the descriptions of all necessary technical terminology.
It is a truly unique and highly usable reference and training resource to be used at all times by the shippers for the quick and correct identification of the materials they carry. This knowledge and understanding is absolutely necessary to make sure that the appropriate safety precautions are in place. The volume has already proven very useful for the professionals representing not only technical, but also commercial parties.
We all know that the terms used today can be quite vague and sometimes even confusing so that the grey areas arise, that may potentially lead to the ambiguities and even dangerous situations on board, with the potential risks to the human lives, safety of the vessel and the environment. In fact, this title is the first one to provide people with the accurate and crystal clear explanations and as such shall be readily available to all transporters and shippers of the subject materials.
 This present Guide book was developed by the ICS, standing for the "International Chamber of Shipping" - the organization concerned with the operational safety of vessels, together with the WSC, i.e. World Shipping Council, who are representing one of the leading container lines in the world.
The opportunity was taken by the authors of these guidelines to undertake a thorough review of the established best practices in the world's containership industry. Their efforts resulted in the present Guidelines, aimed to be helpful to all people involved in marine transportation of the containers. The instructions that have been included in this book will for sure contribute to the efficiency of container transportation and protection of cargo; however, it shall be kept in mind that the main and most important objective of this booklet is to ensure that the operational safety remains on top. The guidelines were prepared using the best info available. Note that it is used on the risk of the user.
Apart from the intro, the book contains eight chapters addressing the regulations governing the transportation of the containers, giving some overview of the containers, explaining the shipping line stowage co-ordination, container stuffing and marine terminal operations, etc. The responsibilities of the ship's crew and master have also been covered.
 The present publication is aimed not only at seamen but also at the marine surveyors and ship superintendents, as well as the riggers, cargo operators and all other workers engaged in handling the shipboard cargo. The author has managed to cover literally all aspects including but not limited to the materials commonly used for cargo lashing, utilizing ISO containers, cost calculation, welding procedures, conversion factors, and many others.
In fact, the number of the factors to consider is huge, making the task quite complex. The people assigned with the responsibility for cargo handling shall possess sound knowledge of the behavior of the various cargo lashing systems under different circumstances, meaning the loads applied. There are seven main chapters in this volume, covering all required areas, starting with the general information on deck cargo handling, followed with the introduction to the generally used lashing materials.
The strength/lashing arrangements are discussed in the third chapter, while the fourth one is devoted to the timber deck cargo. The remaining chapters cover the ro-ro ships, vehicle carriers, lashing costs and other valuable information.
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