Marad Design C5-S-75a (American Mail Line)

General

She is one of the biggest and most beautifully outfitted general-cargo ships we have ever seen on either side of the Atlantic. She is the ALASKAN MAIL first ol five C5 super cargo-liners being built by Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. for the American Mail Line of Seattle. In a nutshell, the ALASKAN MAIL is the ship that has everything, and it is nothing but the best. They are costing in excess of $16 million apiece. With the official MarAd designation C5-S-75a, they are among the largest general eargoliners in the world, basic characteristics of the 605-ft vessels include a beam of 82 ft; total displacement, 31,970 tons; full-load draft, 33 ft 11 1/2 in. and dry cargo bale, 1,054,130 cu ft. Cruising speed will be 21 knots and each will carry accommodations for 12 passengers. She is built to ABS Rules Class Al E * AMS * RMC. Can carry anything, To be used on American Mail Line's Far East run, the ship is designed to be as versatile as possible. She can carry bulk, breakbulk, refrigerated cargoes. She can stow as many as 409 containers in various parts of the ship and her deep tanks can accommodate 2,377 tons of various liquid cargoes. Her cargo gear also can lift almost anything. A 70-ton, Newport News heavy-lift boom serves No. 5 and No. 6 hatches. All other hatches are served with 20-ton booms. Hatch covers on the weather decks and on the 'tweendecks are hydraulically actuated, steel hinged folding covers designed and supplied by Mac-Gregor-Comarain of New York. There are 30 on each vessel, capable of sustaining up to two high, 40-ft-long container loads on the weather deck covers and fork-lift truck operation on the 'tweendeck covers. Several of the 'tweendeck covers also embody a special grain feeder feature that greatly simplifies and facilitates the loading of grain. MacGregor also designed the special "Bipod" cargo masts for the ALASKAN MAIL and her sisters. American Mail, incidentally, was the first U. S. vessel operator to adopt the Bipod mast cargo handling system in 1959, and the continued usage on all their subsequently built ships has made the distinctive appearing Bipod the pre-dominently recognizable characteristic of its Fleet. These masts, four to a ship, are self-supporting, and require no stays or shrouds to hamper rigging or cargo handling operation. The legs of the A-frame masts also serve as cargo-hold ventilation duets.

Outward appearance

We first saw her in dry dock. The ship is big and sleek, with the deck house set slightly aft of amidships. She has a total of seven holds, four forward of the deck house and machinery casing. and three aft. A distinctive touch is the hole in the bow for the thrustcr, a Bird-Johnson Model 80 of 800 horse-power (electrically driven). The Bipod masts with their cargo booms sweep the ship from fore to aft, and the 70-ton boom is immediately aft of the deck house. Touring the ship, you become aware that nothing has been spared. You notice the folding hatch covers in the. 'tweens, instead of pontoons, and one finds out that containers can be stowed out of the way of the hatches by means of a new air pressure system to make them easy to move. Looking down from the 'tween into the orlop deck and the hold, it is noticed that most are fitted with the grain fittings. The orlop has the same, hydraulic folding covers, the hold is fitted with grain shifting boards. A similar configuration will be found under each hatch, though aft there are no orlop decks. This is the first American Ship, to our knowledge, that is using the "Air-Glide" system to move containers about in the 'tween and orlop decks. As we understand it, the containers are lowered upon special pallets. Fed with compressed air, the pallets literally take the weight of the containers off the deck making them easily moved into the spaces away from the hatch area by fork-lift truck. While she has a capacity for 22,040 cu ft of refrigerated cargo (No. 5 hatch, Second Deck), she also has 100 bulkhead-mounted refrigeration units for insulated cargo containers. These were supplied by Carrier Air Conditioning Co. A key feature of the units is their shallow depth, (slightly over a foot), that permits each to be installed directly in the front wall of a reefer container with little loss of inside cubic. These units can maintain temperatures in insulated containers at any desired level from 70 F to minus 20 F on either land or sea.

Trial Data

The ship returned from three days of trials on October 19. On the high-speed run and economy trials, the ALASKAN MAIL attained an average speed of 23 knots, with fuel consumption below the design figure. Crash stops and hard-turning maneuvers all were accomplished and these figures also were said to be better than expected.

The deck house is big enough to allow not only comfortable, air-conditioned accommodations for 63 persons, but large public rooms and navigational spaces. Below the lowest level of the deck house are insulated rooms designed and supplied by Bailey Carpenter & Insulation for frozen stores. Crew accommodations are on the Main Deck level, officers on the Upper Deck level, passengers on the Boat Deck. Senior officers are accommodated on the Bridge Deck above the passengers, and a particularly roomy and wide bridge is above the latter level. The latest and finest navigational and communications gear can be found on the bridge. What struck us mostly was the Henshel engine order telepgraphs P & S and on each wing, with the designation "bridge control" along with the usual engine orders. The ship's course will be ensured by means of a Sperry gyropilot and gyro-compass system and course recorder, tied in to a radar system from Radio Corporation of America. The ALASKAN MAIL will be  communicating with ITT Mackay Marine radio and B/T equipment. The electronics suit is very thorough with all the other types of navigational gear such as RDF, and depth sounding, Loran, etc. Walter Kidde smoke detectors also will be found on the after bulkhead. From the windows of the wheel house, many units of deck machinery can be seen. Western Gear Corp's anchor windlass is an electrohydraulic, horizontal-shaft type with wildcats for handling of the Baldt chain and anshors. It also has gypsy heads for warping. The company also built the two capstans-wildcats of the vertical shaft, reversible type for warping and mooring, along with four automatic-tension mooring winches. Cargo, vang and topping winches built by A. C. Hoyle abound-there are 14 for cargo falls, 24 vang and 24 topping winches. There even are two winches especially for the accommodation ladder.

Basic plans and initial design of the ship was by J. J. Henry, Inc., N.Y. In the engine room. The 22 ft in diam, 4-blade, 72,000 lb propeller, running in oil-lubricated Stem-tube hearings and seals manufactured by Waukesha Bearings Corp., is of nickel-manganese-bronze, cast and rough-machined by Bethlehem Steel Corp., Staten Island. The entire stern area is protected by the Morgan-Waukesha, impressed-currcnt cathodic-protection system. Main turbines and gears were constructed by General Electric Corp. The main engine is a cross compound, double-reduction gear type with L-P and H-P turbine developing 21,600 shp at 102 rpm and 24,000 shp at 105 rpm. As is usual, the astern element is fitted into the L-P turbine easing. Two boilers feed steam at 875 psig and 930 F to this set. They are Babcock & Wilcox two-drum types, fitted with water walls, vertical superheaters, internal drum desuperheaters. economizers and steam air heaters. In these ships, the main condenser is fitted below the L-P and HI-P turbines on the lower flat. The action area of this engine is on the slarboard side alongside the main turbines and reduction gear on the upper level. Here, you'll find the centralized control system panels. maneuvering valve systems, and combustion control board, all provided by Bailey Meter Go. These obviously are set all in one place so the engineers will not have to move very far. Immediately forward of these panels is the main switchboard. Only a few feet from the starboard shell are set the two General Electric, 1250 kw turbogenerators. These exhaust to an auxiliary condenser. Fore and aft of each other, the turbogenerators are only a few steps from the main switchboard. There also is a 150-kw, diesel driven emergency generator. Line current on the ship is the usual 450 volt, 3-phase, 60 hz. On the lower level is the normal assemblage of pumps for ballasting, transfer, etc. These were mostly built by Warren with General Electric motors. The main feed pumps, however, were provided by Coffin Turbo Pump. There are two, each able to handle 450 gpm at 1150 psi discharge. They utilize steam of 825 psig and 556 F, exhausting to an auxiliary line at 35 psig. The two other big pumps, ol course, are Worthington main circle pumps, located far forward on the st'bd side. At the same level and frame on the port side is located the refrigeration group. Ship's air conditioning is taken care of by one, air-cooled, 12-cyl Freon-12 compressor. Two additional compressors of the same type handle the reefer cargo and there is one 6-cyl machine for ship's stores. Cold spaees are cooled by circulating brine, and all the equipment was supplied by Carrier Corp. Another supplier whose equipment can be found in abundance in the engine room is Aqua-Chem. The company provided the evaporator, an L-P, two-stage. flash type with output capacity of 30,000 gal per 24 hr at 5 psig and 26,000 gal per day at 10.6 psig. A great many ol the heat exchangers also were provided by Aqua-Chem, including the main L-O coolers and F-Q heaters, and the first-stage, feed water heater. In all, a tour of the engine room and a glance at the machinery arrangements shows a very roomy affair with the two boilers and turbines, reduction gear and condenser set closely together. The high steam pressure and temperature allows small machinery, and that is why there seems a great deal of room around the main machinery on the upper level, On the port side, there is a large, well-equipped machine shop. We particularly admire the logical grouping of various machinery functions in different sections of the machinery spaces, i.e., the engine and combustion controls at st'bd side, upper level, refrigeration, port side, lower level. Out of the engine room, and into the steering flat, one finds a Western Gear Corp., electro-hydraulic, single-ram steering gear. It is the two-cyl Rapson slide type with dual power units, controlled from the gyro pilot and electric control stand in the wheel house. To conclude, in every way the Alaskan Mail and her sisters arc just about the finest that can be produced today. They have everything for fast cargo handling, for easy operation, in short for smooth sailing.

Supplier

Universal rollers, lashing cleats, mooring & cargo winches, A. C. Hoyle Steady bearings, A. M. Metal Bearing, Distilling plant, main L.O. coolers, S.W. heater and drain cooler for tank cleaning system, F.O. heaters, hot water storage heater, L.O. purifier heater, gland-exhaust condenser, contaminated steam generator, first-stage feedwater heater, boiler water sample cooler, Aqua-Chem Stabilogage, American Hydromath Main boilers, burners, Babcock & Wilcox Refrigerated spaces (design, material and labor), Bailey Carpenter & Insulation Centralized control system - Bailey Meter, Anchor, chain and shackle - Baldt,  Bow thruster - Bird Johnson, Cargo blocks - Boston Lockport Block, Refrigeration plants, air conditioning plants, Carrier Main condenser tubing - Chase Brass and Copper, Main feed pumps - Coffin Turbo Pump, Valves, plumbing fixtures - Crane, Fabri Valve, Leslie, Rockwell, Velan Valve Cable (electric) - Elkan Electric Supply, General Cable - Normandy Electric Wire, Masts, vang posts - Ellicott Brandt, Electric motors, turbogenerator, main propulsion turbines - General Electric, Engine telegraphs - Henshel, Furniture, furnishings, joiner work - Hopeman Brothers, Circuit breakers - ITE Circuit Breaker, Radio and radiotelephones - ITT Mackay Marine, Refrigeration compressors - ISO, Stainless plate-  Jessop Steel, Smoke detectors, fire-extinguishing equipment-  Walter Kidde, Bipod masts, hatch covers - MacGregor-Comarain, Navigation lights, wiring appliances - Lovell-Dressel, Lifeboats, davits and rigging - Marine Safety Equipment, Engine instrumentation - McNab, Radar - RCA, Copper-nickel plating - Revere Copper and Brass, Deck covering - Selby Bartersby, Gyropilot, gyrocompass system, course recorder - Sperry Marine Systems, Manifolds, deck drains, strainers - Tate Tern co, Cargo booms - Union Metal Manufacturing, Tank cleaning nozzles - Vicjet, Pumps, heaters - Warren, Worthington, Bearing seals, cathodic protection - Waukesha Bearings, Steering gear, anchor windlass, capstan and wild cat, mooring winches - Western Gear, Boiler indicators - Yarway