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**Bunkerbarge** · 02-08-2006

Scottie, attached are a couple of pictures off the web which show some quite irregular stowage of containers on a ship. They may not always be quite as irregular as these but remember any cargo could consist of differrent sizes and types of containers. The loading plan is always dictated by the order in which the containers are to be loaded and discharged and in any one port there will always be a percentage of each. Consequently it is important that the containers for the next port are not at the bottom of a hold!

The weight of the containers also plays a significant part in the arrangement and these are continuously fed into the loading computer to determine the condition of the vessel's stability at any time during the loading and discharging. Some of the more sophisticated ones are linked into the ballast system and can control the pumping of ballast to compensate for the movement of the containers during this time.

The site Jankers provided a link for gives a superb description of the lashing system used on containers and is worth a read. It is also worth remembering that all lashing equipment is stowed on deck in 'bins' around the hatches. This consists of the bottlescrews, tie bars and the 'twist-locks', all explained on the site.

The tie bars are attached in the middle to the bottle screws which have a right hand and a left hand thread and when the bottle is rotated the bars are extended or contracted. The tie bars are always arranged diagonally and will always be tied from the deck to the feet of the tier above the first tier. This ensures that the second is held and secured to the deck.

Lots of things to bear in mind when constructing a cargo of containers.

Also it is very rare that a cargo is all of the same company's containers as all container ship companies have agreements with other companies to carry thier own containers. Consequently although a Maersk ship may have predominately Maersk containers she may well also have some other containers from companies in the same consortium.