Oldendorff Centenary Book - Flipbook - Page 206
At 15,400 tdw
the MAGDALENA
OLDENDORFF
was a large ship
at her time.
Worldwide flows of bulk cargoes
are imbalanced and necessitate
positioning voyages in ballast no
matter how ships are deployed.
With large tank capacities ships
in ballast condition can reach the
minimum draft required to submerge
the propeller, and ballast water in
high wing tanks improves many a
bulk carrier’s behaviour in a seaway.
Engine room and superstructure aft
made for a clear and unobstructed
weather deck enabling shore
equipment such as conveyor belts,
suction pipes or shoots to operate
freely. Additional ships followed as
the lead vessel fully lived up to its
owner’s expectations. At 15,400 tdw
the MAGDALENA OLDENDORFF was
a large ship at her time, overtaking
the ubiquitous Liberty size vessel of
which some 1,500 units were trading
in those days. Of unsophisticated
design and economical to run,
the Liberty steamers, originally
intended for short-term war
deployment, had survived World
War II in numbers, and by size and
construction came to be a class
by themselves. Those ships not
mothballed as the US Reserve Fleet
were sold to liner and trampship
operators and left their mark on the
merchant marine of the Fifties and
Sixties. Of the total number of 2,711
Liberty ships built, 910 had been
sold to private interests. 810 thereof
were trading in 1952 and as many
as 636 in 1965. Shipping statistics
no longer mentioned these 10,000
tdw steamers from 1986 onwards.
They held their own in liner services
during the very early years of postwar reconstruction, thereafter
making way for more efficient liner
type vessels but quickly occupied
the tramp trades, establishing
themselves as the ideal size for
the carriage of bulk commodities.
Shippers adapted to the 10,000
tdw ship and accordingly many
newbuildings of this size were
being built for cargoes ranging from
coal to ores to grain to phosphates
but also including timber and semifinished goods of all kinds.
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