For those that may remember me, it's Michael534. I am alive and well. I have been relocated back out west and out of the cold DC winters. I am close to family and loving my new life.

I have spent the last few weeks catching up on all the post I have missed and loving every minute of it.

I have really missed all of you and this wonderful sight. Great to see all of the "old gang" is still around and that there are so many new members!

Oh, about the Indy. I was just searching through cams ( I have a new PC and am working on finding and bookmarking all my old favorites) and I came across a cam in Oakland bay and there she was. What a treat to stumble across.
I don't know how to inset an address but I will give it a try.
www.nuspectra.com/vbcam/index.aspx
Again, it's nice to be back.

PS Pam, I found a place that has FIZZIES!!!!!!!

Welcome back, great camera but I think I’m not the only CT member currently operating it!

Onno

quote:

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Originally posted by Onno:
Anyone want to guess who’s funnels these are! Btw which ship/bridge is in the front of the picture?

Onno

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Are there still LASH ships out there? By that I mean still is using the lighters/barges as part of their cargo-handling bag of tricks?

Did not Lykes have a fleet of them? I did not know that PFEL had them as well.

As I see it, with the wisdom of hindsight, LASH was a concept that somehow lacked the appropriate market research. The idea was, any port could be serviced and that container-handling gear was not needed.

But container handling capabilities sprung up in the most unlikely places and the complexities of the shipborne lighters, "self-propelled containers" so to speak, were more trouble than they were worth.

As I remember Tom Clancy used the concept in one of his blood and thunder penny dreadfuls. And was not one lost to a rogue wave in the S.Atlantic some time ago?

[ 03-31-2005: Message edited by: Cambodge ]

Haven't chatted with you for a while!

This is a big subject and you have asked some good questions!

First, yes, there are still some pure commercial LASH ships being operated. Some U.S. flag and some Foreign. But, not many.

Click on: http://www.intship.com/

This is truly a niche business. It works well in areas such as Europe with it's developed river systems and also in parts of the Indian sub-continent with it's rather undeveloped river systems. And of course, the big Mississippi and all it's waterways as well. However, as the above site will show, it is primarily for limited types of cargos.

Lykes had a version (and this is what Clancy was writing about) called the Seabee class. They differed from the conventional lash ship in that they had a huge elevator on the stern for lifting the barges instead of a huge 500 ton crane. They now reside with the military, I believe.

Pacific Far East Lines LASH ships had, in my opinion, a fatal design problem. They were built to carry 43 barges and around 335 TEU containers. The selling point for LASH (the barge carrier) was that you needed no terminal, no terminal fees, no docking charges, etc. Just get all the barges in an immediate area, bring the ship in and anchor it, load and discharge barges, and sail away. However, with containers on board as well, you still had to go to a dock to discharge/load the containers in a fast manner so lost the value of the barges. Also, the two concepts did not find themselves in close propinquity in port areas. Therefore you lost the best value of both systems.

There were other problems with PFEL as Japan, always the major Pacific country, had no river systems. Also in loading and unloading the cargo in and from the barges, you needed a full conventional breakbulk longshore gang as opposed to a container gang. About 20+ men versus 3 or 4.

Another ongoing problem with the LASH barges was that on U.S. flag companies, each barge had to be inspected and certified almost the same as a ship. Each had it's seaworthiness certificates, inspection requirements and documentation requirements similar to a small ocean going ship.

Coupled with the Alioto family taking all the money out of PFEL and the operating expenses and problems, PFEL just could not keep these ships going.

The survivors operating the LASH ships, as you will notice, are operating only pure barge service.

Sorry to be so long winded!

Regards,

Where are you located out here now?

Personally, I think Washington DC is one of the great restaurant cities in the world.