The Blue Marlin
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Dockwise's Blue Marlin
I love chums as you all know, I love nothing more than mid 02:00 to 06:00 shift when all there is is me, Beez Neez and one of the big container ships with nothing else but stars in the sky, a big moon and a captain soundo below. When we got the last edition of All At Sea, I just had to share this story by Els Kroon. 
In
early August an exceptional sea transport vessel attracted the attention of
hundreds of people in and around Caracas Bay. Dockwise's
Blue Marlin, a 224m (739ft) semi-submersible, open deck heavy transport
carrier, brought a new-built semi-submersible drilling platform of more than
41,000 tons from Singapore to the island. The Blue Marlin discharged the
platform Noble Jim Day in Caracas Bay. It took just ten minutes to launch the
134 x 86m (442 x 283ft) rig by the float-on float-off method after it was cut
loose from the deck. The colossus was then towed to St Michiel Bay for
fitting-out. Divers from Miami Diver installed eight thrusters, and local
companies helped the vessel prepare for sea trials before the platform left for
the Gulf of Mexico. "The
Blue Marlin is just like her sister ship Black Marlin, specially constructed and
adapted for these heavy load transports," said Dockwise's superintendent Sybren
de Jong. De Jong guided the project from the loading of the platform at the
Jurong Shipyard in Singapore, to its discharge in Caracas Bay. The Noble Jim Day
is the second largest oil platform to be carried on the Blue Marlin's 178 x 63m
(587 x 207ft) submersible cargo deck. After
unloading, the ship immediately left for South Korea and a similar job.
Previously Dockwise transported several vessels for the U.S. Navy, and the
60,000 ton oil platform Thunder Horse PDQ. Since last year the Dutch company is
listed in Curaçao by VR Shipping. The
Noble Jim Day is owned by Noble Drilling Services based in Sugar Land, Texas.
The company currently own 70 rigs of which the Noble Jim Day is the
newest. Els Kroon is a Dutch former teacher who now lives and works as an award-winning free-lance photojournalist in Curaçao.
 
The Blue Marlin carrying the injured USS Cole
USS Cole in all her glory Blue Marlin - Characteristics LENGTH O.A.
224.80 m
LENGTH B.P.
206.50 m BREADTH (mld.) 63.00
m DEPTH (mld.)
13.30 m SUMMER DRAFT (B-100)
10.24 m SUBMERGE DRAFT (fr.15)
28.40 m SUBMERGE DRAFT (fr.103) 24.72
m DEADWEIGHT 76,292 metric
tons FREE DECK SPACE (l x b)* 178.20 x 63.00
m AVERAGE SERVICE SPEED
12 knots CLASS NOTATION LR
+1A1 General Cargo Carrier E0 LCS(IS) DK (+)PWDK * Equipped with fixed casing at starboard
The Blue Marlin carrying Thunder Horse 2
ALL IN ALL AN AWESOME GIRL |
