Sep 14 | 2020
Two ships, 10 European ports and countless tonnes of cargo are described in this firsthand account from Chipolbrok
After Chipolbrok’s Parandowski’s voyage east from Port Qingdao in early April to the United States via the Panama Canal, the vessel sailed for Europe to begin its return voyage back to Asia.
First call was at Flushing to load 5,050 tonnes of concentrates followed by Antwerp to pick up steel products. On to Hamburg where mainly general cargo, heavy-lifts and rolling stock were loaded for delivery to India, Singapore and Shanghai. Cargoes included a complete working train for track building and ship modules. A few unpacked units of 75 tonnes and 98 tonnes were easily lifted on board.
To meet the scheduled time at the next load port, Capt. Kulesza ordered overtime work during the weekend. Another partial cargo of 10,000 tonnes of concentrates was loaded, and thanks to perfect weather conditions, the Parandowski proceeded to Italy on time.
At Italy’s southern Port of Brindisi, a 62.5-tonne scrubber measuring 19 meters in length and consuming roughly 1.030 cubic meters, was loaded carefully and safely under deck, followed by two “big boys” at Port of Marghera to the north. These cargoes weighed 480 tonnes and 255 tonnes.
Meanwhile, Chipolbrok’s Galaxy undertook its grand tour of the Baltic and Scandinavia, discharging primarily wind power equipment, along with industrial components at the ports of Gdynia, Uddevalla and Klaipeda. The eastbound voyage started at Port of Pori in Finland, then on to Ronnskär in Sweden to load 14,500 tonnes of non-ferrous metals as breakbulk. At Hamburg, roughly 2,900 tonnes of mixed cargoes such as steel, 70-tonne track building machines (which stowed easily under deck), 77-tonne propellers and two pieces of drilling equipment weighing in at 45 tonnes each with lengths of 44.5 meters, were placed on deck over two hatches.
The last leg of the loading rotation was done at Antwerp for steel products as well as a few heavy pieces of project cargo.
Under the command of Capt. Tang Hongbing, Galaxy sailed into the Mediterranean Sea on its way to the Suez Canal, and then on to Mumbai, Singapore, Laem Chabang, Kaohsiung, Shanghai and Busan.
Both of these multi-purpose vessels were equipped with onboard cranes strong enough to lift units up to 640 tons with hatch sizes of 31.60 x 10.50 meters. Stay tuned for the next fleet update from Chipolbrok when it will feature its vessel Nowowiejski with a 700-ton lifting capacity and hatches measuring 50.56 meters long.
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