Fleet Maritime by Orla Sweeney

fleetMaritime: IRISH SHIPPING & FREIGHT

MARITIME 1

Compiled by Howard Knott Edited by Jarlath Sweeney email: maritime@fleet.ie

Volume 5, No. 3 Autumn 2010

Shipbuilding on the banks of the Liffey - a fascinating part of Dublin’s history

at Sweeney is an historian, a maritime journalist and photographer, but above all a long-standing enthusiast for all matters maritime. Mercier Press has recently published his ‘Liffey Ships & Shipbuilding’ a book which, in the opinion of this reviewer, should be essential reading not only for those interested in the sea and ships but also for anyone who seeks to understand the Irish economy and the way in which it functioned, particularly through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Th is is not just a Shipping ‘Anorak’ book, it is a serious economic and social history of Dublin.

in Dublin, not only carried out an extensive shipbuilding and repair business but also set up a munitions factory capable of making 2,000 eighteen pound shells a week with virtually all-

Though Sweeney’s main focus is on more recent times he opens with a description of the ship design and building exploits of Sir William Pett y, Cromwellian. Pett y designed and built in a yard near the present Wolfe Tone Quay a series of twin hulled catamarans and Pat describes how in July 1663 one of these raced the Holyhead to Howth Packet boat and reached the North County Dublin Harbour fi fteen hours ahead. Pett y’s catamaran design did not scale up well and the fast ship project came to an end until its revival three and a half centuries later. Moving to the nineteenth century and talking about the sett ing up of what was to become a major shipyard at Dublin’s North Wall, something that had only become physically possible following the completion of the South and North Bull Walls, which let the river flow scour out the channels to give a deep harbour. Sweeney observes, “In nineteenth-century Ireland most development was funded by cross-channel investors, as the conservative Irish preferred to put their money into property.” He goes on to describe the role of members of the Quaker Community in the development and management of this and other Dublin businesses, names that are familiar even now, including, Bewleys, Jacobs and Pims. During the First World War, the dockyard

her military demeanour as the fi rst Irish naval vessel the ‘Muirchu’. Pat Sweeney details almost all of the ships built at the various Yards alongside or close to the Liffey including Ocean Liners, Canal Barges, Naval Vessels, even ships that were built and then returned to CKD form for re-assembly at remote South American locations. He goes deeply into the social and labour aspects of shipbuilding in Dublin, the fact that wages were almost always higher than those at British and Belfast Yards and that strikes could go on for years. He describes the difficulties under which the yards operated during the 1940’s when all steel had to be sourced through British Government Departments, how, in post-War years this steel was priced well above that at which it was made available to British yards. Sweeney also writes vividly about the heroic efforts of all concerned to build up an Irish National Merchant Fleet so as to avoid the Free State’s citizens starving to death during the Second World War and how later, the new Irish Shipping Ltd., together with B + I Line had a number of vessels built at the Liffey Dockyard. It is curious that two of the least vessels built on the Liffey are now permanently moored within a couple of miles of the Liffey Dockyard. The Aran Islands tender ‘Naomh Eanna’ lying in the Grand Canal Basin, while Cork harbour transatlantic Liner tenders, the ‘Cill Airne’ at the North wall, close to the site of the original yard.

female labour. At that time another product of the Company, the one-time marine survey vessel ‘Helga’ and now ‘His Majesty’s Armed Yacht’ was achieving fame in the folklore of the 1916 rebellion and Sweeney goes to some length to disprove the most famous stories of her fi ring at the GPO. As he describes, she returned to her survey duties after the War but following the foundation of the new State she resumed

Pat Sweeney manages to combine the journalist’s ease of telling a story with the historian’s love for research in producing a book that should occupy a keystone position in the library of every person interested in this island Nation. ‘Liffey Ships & Shipbuilding’ by Pat Sweeney, published, 2010, by Mercier Press and available through Eason’s at €19.99

FLEETMARITIME | AUTUMN 10

MARITIME 11

Ports Policy Review dominates Conference.

t the recent Irish Ports Association Conference held at Thomond Park, Limerick and hosted by Shannon Foynes Port Company, the planned core theme was ‘Ports policy for an export led recovery’. Speakers to that theme included Geraldine Knatz, CEO of the Port of Los Angeles who focussed on the environmental issues that are important in a 21st Century Port. However, the issue that dominated discussions both on the floor and informally was the recently released document from the Department of Transport, their ‘Ports policy review Consultation Document’. The Department had set an endOctober date for final receipt of responses to the document that had set out thirty questions to which it is seeking answers. The Conference included a workshop on the matters raised in the document and speakers included Tom O’Mahony, Secretary General of the Department of Transport; John Lynch, General Manager of Rosslare Europort and Eamonn Bradshaw, CEO of Galway Port. The Department of Transport document set out the main themes of the 2005 document, and accepting that subsequent boom and bust events both globally and in Ireland, had made the production of a new document a matter of some urgency. In describing the Development of the Irish Ports

30 FLEETMARITIME | AUTUMN 10

sector the Department accepted that the policy of not grant aiding the sector had, in fact, been a success and that, at present and for the near future Port capacity was adequate. Th is view was not shared by all of the Port representatives. There was a general feeling that the ‘Landlord Port’ policy, under which each of the major Port Companies operated the essential infrastructure of the Port, and private companies competed with one another in operating services in those Ports, had worked well and was broadly in line with the European model. There was concern expressed that the Government might fall in with an EU driven policy that sought to pick ‘winners’ amongst Ports, allowing these chosen Ports to be aided in becoming specialist, rather than general cargo Ports. The work being undertaken by the IMDO (Irish Maritime Development Office), in conjunction with Sustainable Energy Ireland, on identifying suitable sites for servicing and perhaps building offshore power generation systems, was mentioned in this context. The Department’s document had discussed the subject of Foreshore Administration and appeared to agree with the commonly held view amongst the Ports that, while the whole area of Landside Planning had made significant progress during the period of the current document, the whole area of seaside planning under the Foreshore Acts had not kept pace with this and was in need of modernisation.

A new dimension since 2005 has been the Department of Transport’s attempts to tie together disparate Transport issues under their ‘Smarter Travel’ policy. Port Companies welcomed the fact that two of the thirty questions in the consultative Document related to Rail Freight as an environmentally responsible mode of moving freight into and out of Irish Ports. The Document had asked, “How could greater use of rail freight to and from our seaports be encouraged? What measures to encourage such usage could be introduced” and, “Should rail freight facilities be planned and developed at strategic ports i.e. ports handling large volumes of bulk and container traffic? If so, how should such facilities be realised?” The document also raised the issue of Coastwise shipping and its potential for development. The Policy review also raised issues of Port ownership, not only in the context of the advantages or not of private ownership of existing Ports and development of new ones by private companies, but also whether or not Rosslare Europort should be taken out of the CIE Group, and whether or not a policy of seeking to streamline activities by bringing adjacent ports under common management. The document had also broached the issue as to whether or not ‘all-island’ was the way to go in Ports Policy.

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MARITIME 111

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ConRo Shipping – A New Option to Europe

oll On Roll Off (RoRo) shipping has traditionally been seen as a means of transporting road based freight vehicles predominately to the UK market, and then optionally onwards via landbridge through the UK to the Continent. Although there have been direct Continental RoRo services between Ireland and France for many years the scope for these services to carry freight has been limited, as during summer months these services are timetabled to cater to the passenger market. However, recently there has been a change to this traditional understanding of the RoRo market from Ireland, with the introduction of the ConRo model to the Irish marketplace. ConRo shipping, or containerised roll on roll off, to give it its full title, takes shipping containers double stacked on cassettes, which are then block stowed on a specially designed ConRo ship using a tugmaster and translifter system. By using a RoRo method of loading and unloading it means that turnaround times in port can be greatly reduced compared to LoLo alternatives. For example a ConRo ship can be fully discharged and fully reloaded and back out to sea within 6 hours, whereas a LoLo feeder vessel of similar capacity would take approximately double this length of time. Th is means that a ConRo ship can spend more of its time at sea and thus spending a greater proportion of its time on revenue earning activity.

A ConRo ship, although designed to be able to carry containers is not tied to this one type of cargo. As it is basically a RoRo ship it means that it can also carry traditional RoRo cargoes of accompanied and unaccompanied road freight units, as well as project cargoes, out of gauge cargoes and trade cars. A ConRo operation can therefore tap into multiple revenue streams in order to fi ll its ships, thus allowing for a greater flexibility in catering to a much wider customer base. This offers greater protection from deflated demand in one market segment by allowing extra cargo to be sought

By Ronán Loughman and Richard Butler

from other market segments to compensate, and thus allow for the continued profitable operation of the ship. Due to the size of the ConRo ships, in excess of 200m, which are now servicing the Irish market, it means that they can compete both in terms of cost

and volumes carried with LoLo feeder services operating from Ireland to the continent. The ConRo routes operating from Ireland are from Dublin Port to Zeebrugge and Rotterdam, at a twice weekly frequency. These services offer for the fi rst time a direct RoRo link between Ireland

and the core European BeNeLux market. This has opened up for the fi rst time a new alternative for importers and exporters with regards to a direct shipping option between Ireland and Continental

Europe, as no longer is LoLo the only option if you want to ship direct via sea transport. The current ConRo ships which service Ireland have a capacity of in excess of 800 TEU, this means that they are comparable to the current generation of LoLo feeder ships which serve the Irish market. As ConRo ships have shorter transit time, as well as a faster turnaround time in port, it means that they can offer an att ractive option for importers and exporters. Couple this with the fact that the price differential between ConRo and LoLo is very small it means that the introduction of ConRo shipping has heralded a new level of competition within the intra-European trade market. For importers and exporters who rely on onward deep-sea shipping connections with the large global shipping lines, the ConRo option is not likely to have much of an impact due to the inter-feeder relationships between the large shipping lines and feeder LoLo shipping lines. However, from an intra-European trade perspective ConRo shipping offers the prospect of introducing new shipment options and renewed competition to the marketplace. All of this has meant that ConRo shipping has brought a new form of shipping to the direct Ireland – Continental shipping marketplace, which is a welcome development for the facilitation of continued trade growth to and from Ireland. * Ronán Loughman and Richard Butler are graduates of the BSc (Hons) in Transport Operations and Technology from DIT and have presently completed their Masters studies in Supply Chain Management at the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School where they jointly completed their Masters dissertation analysing recent trends in RoRo shipping between Ireland and Continental Europe, which was conducted under the sponsorship of Dublin Port Company.

2009 - Bad year for Irish Ports - 2010 looks better

he Central Statistics Office has published a very comprehensive set of figures and analysis of Irish Port throughput in 2009. They show that Irish Ports handled 42 million tonnes of goods in 2009 compared with 51 million tonnes in 2008, a decrease of 18%.

Import volumes decreased by 19.5% and exports by a smaller 14.5%. The biggest fall was in general breakbulk cargoes, particularly those related to the building industry, while Ro-Ro traffic dropped by 9.5%, containers by 15.6% and liquid bulk, mainly fuel, by 9.1%.

The number of ships calling to Irish Ports dropped by 10% on the 2008 figure, coming in at 13,223, with 55% of them (7247) calling to Dublin. The average cargo per vessel calling at that Port was just under 20,000 tonnes, significantly higher than any other Port.

FLEETMARITIME | AUTUMN 10

MARITIME 11

‘The World’ comes to the Dublin Horse Show

she sailed to Scotland before heading back across the Atlantic to the US and Caribbean before spending Christmas in Antarctica.

While the vessel was in Dublin, the owners Residensea Ltd. took the opportunity to show off apartments which ranged in price from $500,000 to $13.2 million to potential buyers. The service charges are quoted at over $28,000 a month. This is in addition to food and other day-today costs.

In his final public statement before his retirement Dublin Port CEO, Enda Connellan welcomed ‘The World’ saying that “our location, in the heart of Dublin City is ideal for tourists to venture into our capital. Cruise Line Executives want their guests to enjoy the destinations chosen and a high spend by each guest is a good indication of an enjoyed experience.” ‘The World’ and the other 87 cruise vessels that will call at Dublin during 2010 will also provide a substantial boost for the coach tour industry.

uilt in 2002, but still the Planet’s largest Apartment Ship ‘The World’ spent four days in Dublin affording many of the 300 residents and a similar number of staff aboard the opportunity to attend the Dublin Horse Show and to tour further afield.

The ship’s itinerary is agreed on an annual basis by the residents and from Dublin

‘The World’ in Dublin overlooked by The Point Big Wheel

Energy efficient ship calls to Dublin

most apparent being the four 27 metre high deck mounted cylinders which are based on wind turbine technology and rotate in the wind to act like sails.

‘E-Ship I’ has a number of power sources, the

Enercon Wind Farms in Ireland will be serviced by the company’s Tralee based operation, Enercon Wind Farm Services Ireland under a twelve year maintenance contract.

he 130 metre long specialist cargo vessel designed for carriage of wind-turbines is becoming a regular visitor to Dublin Port. ‘E-Ship I’ is owned by Enercon which has supplied 25% of the wind turbines installed in Ireland to date, while globally it has supplied over 30,000 such units.

PORT PORTALS Seatruck has added the 65 trailer capacity ‘Arrow’ to service the recently opened Larne – Heysham link. This will allow the company to offer twice daily sailings in each direction with matching ships. The three ship Warrenpoint – Heysham and the Dublin - Liverpool services run as normal. The EU has cleared the DFDS Lines takeover of Norfolkline Ferry operations and re-naming and re-painting of vessels on the Liverpool and Heysham routes have been completed. Thus, for example, the ‘Dublin Viking’ running between Dublin and Birkenhead has been re-fitted and now carries the name ‘Dublin Seaways’.

While DFDS and Stena have begun to extend their marketing operations on some North Sea services, there are no plans for any Irish Sea co-operation. DFDS Seaways has also announced the termination of the Ro-pax vessel ‘Scottish Viking’s’ – a sister ship of Celtic Link’s ‘Norman Voyager’ -operation running from Rosyth to Zeebrugge and its replacement by a two freight only vessel operation. LD Lines, with joint venture partner, Grimaldi Lines commenced operation on 8 September of a three-times weekly ferry service between Nantes in North-West France and Gijon on Spain’s North coast. The Line has taken the ‘Norman Bridge’ off

its Dover – Boulogne service to cover the route. This joint venture is subsidised by the French and Spanish Governments to the tune of €30 million, while there will also be a subvention from the EU ‘Marco Polo’ fund of a further €4 million for three years. A couple of weeks into the operation Grimaldi Lines withdrew from the service having expressed doubts about the long term viability of the service and the vessel chosen to operate it. Charterers, KiwiRail are considering running rail tracks through the vehicle deck of Irish Ferries’ owned ‘Isle of Inisfree’. She operates between New Zealand’s North and South islands as the ‘Kaitaki’ However, the present charter runs out in three years and, to justify the expense involved in vessel and terminal modification the New Zealand Company would have to purchase the vessel. Fruit Distributor, Fyffes is now running a weekly service from the Caribbean to Waterford Port. The cargo, mainly bananas is fully containerised using reefer boxes.

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