CARGO SHIPS

We all know that ships are the means of transport in sea and water. Since a long, people use boats and ships to move from one country to the other and make business.  Hence started merchant navy. But when the question asked about their categories most of the people are in doubt what will be the real answer for that. Here I shall help you to find types of ships actually present .

Ships are mainly of two types commercial ships and fighting ships.

Ships which are specially designed  for fighting or defense purpose are called Naval ships. 

The other type is of commercial purpose. purpose. Commercial ships(other way called to be vessels ) can be divided into two groups. First is cargo carrying vessels and second is fishing vessels. In this scope I shall describe cargo ships or Merchant Navy  ships.

Merchant ships can be categorized depending upon which cargo they carry.

1) passenger ship-  First I shall tell you about passenger ships or cruise liners. These are ships which are mainly designed, built and used to carry people from one port to another. These ships are really very beautifully designed. Many have luxurious cabins to stay onboard. Also the ships have got so many facilities for the passengers like huge dining room,  dancing room, swimming pool playing ground, saloon or spa also. One famous example I can cite here here is the "Titanic". I am sure you have seen the movie 'Titanic' and have got a good idea about this type of of ships.

2)Car carrier ship- Let's talk about another type of ship called RORO.

Some of the world's countries have enough advanced technology to produce vehicles in a cheaper way at the same time maintaining their quality( like Germany, Japan, United States, Mexico, China and so others).To export or import cars from one country to another, shipping is the only cheapest and easiest way and that time comes the role of car carrier-ships or RORO ships.

The name RORO means 'roll-on-roll-off'.  This type of ships have got the facility to carry different types of vehicles like taxi, cars and other types of land vehicles. They don't need any special lifting equipment. The name RORO itself indicates that it has got facility(ramp) to load and unload those vehicles rolling on their own wheels. You will certainly be surprised to know how many cars normally they carry at once. It is 8000 !

3) Container ship- In this modern  world, one who saves time saves money. Every moment is precious and counted in business. Time is money instead. When International import and export business is concerned, speed of cargo carrying, loading unloading is also a crucial factor. As loading and unloading process is faster or cargo is transported quickly, consignee(receiving party) gets his order(cargo) faster. For this purpose container ships are developed. This type of ships carry cargo in packaged form in containers(medicines, electronics, valuable objects, garments, some food items, machinery parts etc). The containers are loaded onto container ship with the help of special gantry cranes. Container ships have a higher speed than other cargo ships(20 knots to 30 knots). These ships are easily identified from a distance with their height and huge size.

4) Dry cargo ships-  Now we come to dry-cargo ships. Dry-cargo ships are of two types. First is General cargo ship and another is bulk-cargo-ship. General cargo ships normally carry cargoes in packaged form. Also carries different types of cargo, like Steel plates, steel beams, Steel wire-coil, wood-logs and so many more. The other type of dry cargo ships carry cargoes without any package form(like coal, sulphur, different types of ores, wood-chips, food grains, fertilizers, sugar etc.). Cargo carrying capacity(GRT) of dry cargo ships can vary from 500 tonnes  to 350000 tonnage. Speed of this type of ships normally found to vary from 6 knots to to 18 knots(1 knots = 1 nautical mile per hour = 1.832 km per hour).

5)Tanker ship-   Lastly we shall learn about tankers. These are ships which carries different types of liquid or gases in tanks. These ships have sub categories,

 a)Oil tankers

 b)Chemical tankers 

c)Gas tankers

Oil tankers are of two types, crude oil tankers and bi-product tankers. Crude oil tankers can be small sized as well as of big sizes like VLCC(very large crude oil carrier) with cargo carrying capacity up to 2,50,000 tonnes and ULCC(ultra large crude oil carrier) which has cargo carrying capacity exceeding 2,50,000 tonnes. I must mention here that total number of VLCC presently operative in the world is only about 700. Interesting fact I should tell you  that the biggest tanker in the world is 'Seawise Giant' with the cargo carrying capacity more than 6,50,000 tone !

Product tankers are those ships which carry bi-products from black-Petroleum(or crude oil) like diesel,petrol, kerosene and other oils. These are normally of smaller sizes than crude oil carriers.

Chemical tankers carry hard chemicals in Tank with utmost safety. Cargo in this cases are Benzene, Toluene, White spirit, sulphuric acid etc.

Gas tankers carry gases in two way one in refrigerated state and another in compressed or pressurized state. LNG(Liquefied natural gas) and LPG(liquefied petroleum gas) are mainly carried by such gas carrier ships.

 

Apart from those described above, many special vessels are present also, like- 'refrigerated vessel', cattle-carrier, Dredging-vessel or Dredger(which cuts, sucks and clears the sediments under the water and maintains the required depth in the river, channel or port approaches), Exploring vessels(used for exploring nature or characteristic of sea bed, sea creature or others),  Sailing boat, Pleasure craft, ferry-boat and many more..