YMI. 24th edition January 5, Promoting Young Potentials. Enrol for the YMI-magazine at: Website:

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YMI 24th edition January 5, 2012 Enrol for the YMI-magazine at: Website: www.ymi.nu

“Promoting Young Potentials” For all those who feel passionate about the maritime sector, Welcome to the new edition of YMI! Young Maritime International is a new magazine that aims to provide youth in the maritime sector with the opportunity to publish their projects, innovative ideas, and graduation projects. Each edition will contain several projects of students worldwide. Two other topics that will be touched upon in the magazine are "From a legal point of view" and "History". The magazine is meant for youth and students in the maritime sector, maritime businesses, educational institutes, business schools, governmental institutes, and other interested parties. Daniëlla Vermeer

 

Graag zou ik willen beginnen met mij aan u voor te stellen.

Andriy Fedoryaka

Mijn naam is Andriy Fedoryaka en ik ben geboren in Oekraïne in de stad Donetsk. In 2003 ben ik naar Nederland gekomen en woon in Vlissingen alwaar ik mijn opleiding op het CSW te Vlissingen heb afgemaakt, terwijl ik Nederlands heb geleerd. Na mijn basis school heb ik besloten om naar het VMBO-T te gaan en heb deze opleiding die normaal 4 jaar duurt in 2 jaar afgerond, wat niet altijd even gemakkelijk was gezien mijn kennis van de Nederlandse taal, maar door hulp van de leraren is dit toch goed gelopen.

omdat daar alleen de beste studenten de kans krijgen om verder te kunnen met een studie en deze achtergrond welke ik toch had meegekregen heeft mij ook voor een deel zover gebracht dat ik mijn studie succesvol heb kunnen afsluiten zonder echte problemen.

Nu was het moment gekomen om een opleiding te gaan volgen en na lange gesprekken met kennissen en een kennismaking met het Maritiem Instituut de Ruyter waarbij mijn kennis van wiskunde en natuurkunde een goede basis vormde voor de opleiding heb ik besloten om de opleiding MAROF te gaan doen.

Tijdens mijn stage heb ik bij Spliethoff gewerkt op het m/s Schippersgracht waar ik met erg veel plezier heb gewerkt zeker omdat de bemanning uit meerdere culturen bestond en het voor mij een erg leuke ervaring was om eens niet de enige buitenlander te zijn in een groep maar ook heeft deze stage mij meer inzicht gegeven in de problematiek van de verschillen in culturen waarmee ik toch eigenlijk dagelijks ben geconfronteerd alhoewel wel meestal op een heel positieve manier.

Het eerste jaar was erg moeilijk zeker omdat mijn kennis van de Nederlandse taal nog niet goed was en het soms erg moeilijk was om de lessen te kunnen volgend op dat niveau,maar door de hulp van mijn leraren heb ik gelukkig het eerste jaar goed af kunnen sluiten en vandaar ging het voor de resterende jaren steeds makkelijker ondanks het feit dat mijn kennis van de Nederlandse taal toch af en toe problemen met zich mee heeft gebracht zeker omdat ik toentertijd bijna elk technisch woord of uitdrukking op moest zoeken in een woordenboek om deze te kunnen begrijpen.

Het was ook leuk om met een Russische bemanning te varen omdat daar de verschillen zo duidelijk worden en het was voor mij interessant om beide kanten van de culturen zowel de Nederlandse als Russische te kunnen vergelijken met elkaar en ook dit was een goed leerproces voor mij waar ik ook in de toekomst veel voordeel uit kan halen.

In Rusland en de Oekraïne is het wel gebruikelijk dat men hard en veel studeert

   

 

Hierbij heb ik mij ook wel afgevraagd waarom ik de prijs heb gewonnen omdat ik niet de allerbeste student ben geweest en zal daarom deze prijs koesteren als een extra waardering voor het feit dat ik ondanks de verschillen in cultuur en achterstand met betrekking tot de Nederlandse taal mijn diploma heb gehaald.

Gezien mijn achtergrond opleiding en cultuur denk ik ook voor een rederij extra interessant te kunnen zijn omdat ik de verschillende culturen niet alleen ken maar ook begrijp en geleerd heb om deze te combineren en op een goede manier mee om te gaan wat mij ook de mogelijkheid geeft om als maritiem officier op een schip te varen met een multiculturele bemanning en daar op de juiste wijze leiding aan te kunnen geven als maritiem officier met een Oekraïense achtergrond en degelijke Nederlandse opleiding.

Graag wil ik hierbij ook iedereen die mij gedurende al de afgelopen jaren hebben gesteund, geholpen en moeite voor mij hebben gedaan hartelijk bedanken en ben er zeker van dat ik hen niet zal teleurstellen.

Na mijn opleiding ben ik een aantal weken naar mijn geboorte land op vakantie gegaan waar ik door mijn moeder werd opgebeld met de mededeling dat ik de KNVTS prijs had gewonnen wat voor mij echt een grote verassing en eer was en ik ben hier ook erg dankbaar voor dat ik deze eer heb gekregen via mijn leraren en mijn school waar ik met zoveel plezier heb gestudeerd.

   

Daphne Janssen My name is Daphne Janssen, I live in Rotterdam and I am 25 years old. I studied Tourism (MBO) and after that I studied Commercial Economics (HBO) at INHOLLAND. For my final traineeship, I wanted my Essey to be related to Marketing. I applied for traineeships at several companies. A company where I also applied informed the publisher of ‘De Scheepvaartkrant’ and gave my contact details, because the person knew that the publisher could use somebody to make a marketing essay. The publisher contacted me and after a short conversation, I was invited for a job interview.

I started my traineeship in February and I graduated in June. After my traineeship I got the opportunity to contain working at ‘De Scheepvaartkrant’, and so I did. My function is Sales and Marketing employee. I have no connection with shipping at all, but I do think it is a very interesting and big industry. The shipping industry has to do with a lot of challenges. It is very interesting to see that there are big differences between the subsectors in the shipping industry and that companies have different strategies to deal with the economic developments.

PERSBERICHT

STUDENT MARITIEM INSTITUUT DE RUYTER WINT PRIJSVRAAG ‘SCHIP VAN DE TOEKOMST’ Bezoekers van Europort 2011 bepaalden het winnende ontwerp Rotterdam, 14 november 2011 Hoewel het spannend bleef tot de laatste stemdag welk ontwerp nu de meeste voorkeursstemmen zou krijgen, koos uiteindelijk een goede meerderheid van de stemmers op Europort voor zijn ontwerp. Ontwerp nummer 5, de Ultra Large Crude Clippers van Eric Vermeij, werd op vrijdag 11 november bekroond met de eerste prijs, een vrij te besteden geldbedrag van € 1000,-. In aanwezigheid van verschillende geïnteresseerde ondernemers overhandigde burgemeester Antoin Scholten van Zwijndrecht de prijs aan deze MAROF student van het Maritiem Instituut De Ruyter in Vlissingen. Dank aan docent “Mijn docent Propulsors, dhr. De Groot, deelt een beetje in de prijs”, vertelt Vermeij. “Hij raadde me aan deel te nemen aan de prijsvraag. Eigenlijk heb ik voortdurend meerdere ideeën in mijn hoofd voor het ontwerpen van duurzame schepen maar het idee gebruik te maken van zeilen heb ik nooit losgelaten. Wind is gratis energie. Ook in golven zit veel energie maar daarvan is moeilijker gebruik te maken als het gaat om voortstuwing.” Vermeij werkte met veel voldoening aan zijn inzending: “Ik vond het meteen een leuke wedstrijd en heb met veel plezier gewerkt aan mijn ontwerp.” Uitslag De 10 ontwerpen van de genomineerden waren van dinsdag tot en met donderdag te bewonderen bij de ingang van beurshal 8. Bezoekers werden in de gelegenheid gesteld te stemmen op de favoriet. In totaal werd er 580 keer gestemd. 117 van de stemmen waren voor ontwerp nummer 5, ontwerp nummer 8, ‘Sailing through air’ werd met 69 stemmen de nummer 2, en ontwerp nummer 2, ‘Battery Boat’, eindigde met 65 stemmen op plaats 3. Ontwerp 8 werd gemaakt door Berend Janssen, ontwerp 2 door Remco van Veen, Thomas Molendijk, Lennard Brandwijk en Quinten Boot. Proeftuin Maritieme Innovatie Deze studentenprijsvraag is een project van de Proeftuin Maritieme Innovatie. De Proeftuin Maritieme Innovatie is geïnitieerd door Werkgeversvereniging Drechtsteden. Het programma stelt zich ten doel de innovatiekracht van MKB bedrijven in de regio Drechtsteden te bevorderen door bedrijfsleven en studenten aan elkaar te koppelen. Bij de Proeftuin Maritieme Innovatie zijn de volgende partijen aangesloten: EICB, Scheepsbouw Nederland, Werkgeversvereniging Drechtsteden, Hogeschool Rotterdam, Da Vinci College, IN Holland Delft, Hogeschool voor de Zeevaart Rotterdam. Het projectmanagement wordt uitgevoerd door HME. EU ondersteuning De Proeftuin Maritieme Innovatie investeert in uw toekomst. Dit project wordt mede mogelijk gemaakt door het Europees Fonds voor Regionale Ontwikkeling.

EINDE PERSBERICHT

And the winner is ……. Mr. Eric Vermeij

Photo’s: Daniëlla Vermeer

 

Graduates from all over the world, united through a Master Degree! On 23 November 2011, nine students received a Master Degree of the Master Shipping and Transport program, offered by Netherlands Maritime University, during an official graduation ceremony. This group started in March 2010 at Netherlands Maritime University’s branch location in Gwangyang South-Korea; STC-Korea. Netherlands Maritime University (STCNMU) was established by STC-Group to fulfill the need for management professionals in the maritime, logistics and transport sectors. It offers a full-time and part-time Master in Shipping and Transport. The program is offered in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and in Gwangyang, South-Korea. The Master Shipping and Transport program is an international management program, offering in-depth knowledge about the shipping, transport and logistics industry combined with management skills training. STC-Korea is a full branch of STC-Group and provides the Master Shipping and Transport program, equally to the program offered in Rotterdam. The graduation ceremony took place in Rotterdam, STC-Group’s headquarters. In this city, home base of one of the largest and most advanced ports in the world, the graduates were united again after the completion of their final thesis project. The fresh graduates come from a variety of countries, such as Brazil, China, Ghana, Malaysia, South-Africa. This international mix emphasizes the international character of the program; students from all over the world are united in STC-NMU’s Master program. Besides the professional knowledge and skills the program provides, a long lasting

global friendship is also part of the added value of the Master program! Thesis research project After one year of full-time lectures, excursions, training and (management) skills development, the students worked independently on a thesis project. Many students returned to their home country to carry out profound research on the topic chosen for the thesis. Students choose the topics themselves. Under supervision of STC-NMU lecturers, students narrow down the topic to a proportional and challenging problem statement. As always, interesting thesis topics were researched; One of the Korean students elaborated on the new one-hub port policy of Korea and the impact on the port of Gwangyang, another Korean on the financial feasibility of new port expansion project. A Brazilian student did a successful research on the impact of the introduction of the so-called ‘valemaxes’ on freight rates development in the dry bulk market. Another interesting topic was addressed by one of the Chinese students, who researched the development of maritime English education and examination in China. Furthermore, two studies in South African port management were conducted, one focusing on cargo volume throughput of Richards Bay, the other on port public private partnerships. A Chinese student assessed the implementation of the transshipment strategy in Xiamen Port, China. Lastly, a Malaysian student working for a ship management company, assessed the compliance of his company with the new Maritime Labour Convention.

 

Be part of the worldwide Master S&T network! Do you want to be part of the worldwide Master Shipping and Transport network? Apply now and boost your career with an international Master title in Shipping and Transport. Why not follow our Master Shipping and Transport program in South-Korea, Gwangyang city; second largest Korean port and a great location to explore this country, famous for its high-tech maritime industry and rich culture.

STC-NMU offers the Master Shipping and Transport at its branch location STCKorea in Gwangyang, Korea, starting on 12 March 2012, which is the first possible intake. The program is open to applicants from all nationalities. Also, if you apply now for STC-Korea, you have the chance to be selected for a partial scholarship, provided by Korean government and related parties. This scholarship will cover the major part of the tuition fees for the Master program. For more information about the Master Shipping and Transport and applications for STC-NMU Rotterdam or STC-Korea, please do not hesitate to contact STCNMU: www.stc-nmu.eu / [email protected] / 0031 10 448 6060.

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driven by dedication

Fifth General Assembly Venice, November 2011 EDINNA is the educational network of inland waterway (navigation) schools and training institutes on various levels from 13 European countries. It is the aim of EDINNA to come to a more structured cooperation and to establish a harmonized education,

On the 7th of November the official kick-off meeting of the Leonardo da Vinci Partnership Project 2011 took place. The idea of the partnership is to conduct practical research on the use of simulators in the different institutes and the underlying didactical concepts, of which the outcomes will be used as input for the STCIN – Standards of Training and Certification for personnel in Inland Navigation. The partnership team consists of the following members of EDINNA: Schiffer Berufskolleg-Rhein, Duisburg, Germany (coordinator); STC-Group, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Maritieme Academie Harlingen, the Netherlands; Consorzio Formazione Logistica Intermodale, Venezia, Italy; KTA Zwijndrecht, Belgium; CERONAV, Constanza, Romania (silent partner). The meeting was furthermore attended by Mr. J. Woehrling, Secretary General of the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine (CCNR), since the use of simulators in education, training and examination is a topic on the working program of the CCNR as well.

training and certification system for Inland waterway personnel in Europe to ensure high quality of trained staff on board of vessels.

Contact data: EDINNA Laan der Verenigde

On the 8th and 9th November around 40 EDINNA members met for their fifth General Assembly hosted by CFLI in Venice. The participants were updated with current developments of the PLATINA "Jobs and Skills" team focusing on activities regarding the European Recruitment Campaign and the further development of STCIN. In addition, the EDINNA website on www.edinna.eu was officially re-launched as the website has been restructured. Learning materials on inland navigation have been collected in five different languages to be used by general logistics educational institutes. The Leonardo da Vinci Working Groups on Riverspeak, Exchange Programs and Simulators presented their results. In smaller working groups, the EDINNA members discussed the tables of professional competencies as part of STCIN.

Naties 1 3316 AK Dordrecht Tel: 0031-786332758 Fax: 0031-786315003 Mail: [email protected]

2

EDINNA is the educational network of inland waterway (navigation) schools and training institutes on various levels from 13 European countries. It is the aim of EDINNA to come to a more

Upcoming Events: 1) 2) 3) 4)

th

The 11 of January 2012, Stakeholder Conference Naiades II, Brussels, Belgium; rd The 23 of January 2012, Joint Working Group, Duisburg, Germany; rd The 23 of February 2012, Joint Working Group, Brussels, Belgium; th th The 14 and the 15 of March 2012, Barge to Business, Vienna, Austria.

Contact: If you have any questions, remarks, or contributions to the next edition, please feel free to contact the EDINNA Daily Secretariat:

structured cooperation and to establish a harmonized education, training and certification system for Inland waterway personnel in Europe to ensure high

Laan der Verenigde Naties 1 3316 AK Dordrecht The Netherlands Tel: 0031-786332758 Fax: 0031-786315003 Email: [email protected] th

Please note that the EDINNA Daily Secretariat will be closed from the 24 of th December 2011 until the 8 of January 2012.

quality of trained staff on board of vessels.

Contact data: EDINNA Laan der Verenigde Naties 1 3316 AK Dordrecht Tel: 0031-786332758 Fax: 0031-786315003 Mail: [email protected]

3

The Blue Road The Dutch Promotion Council for Inland Navigation (Bureau Voorlichting Binnenvaart in Dutch) created and launched a new brand. From now on inland navigation has a new ‘blue’ way of presenting itself with the collective trade mark called ‘the Blue Road’. The brand is recognizable, communicates the benefits of inland navigation and shows the positive qualities of inland navigation. The brand stands for an efficient, sustainable, reliable, safe and professional way of transport. Combined with the subtitle "sustainable water transport’ the Blue Road shows to the outside world that inland navigation is the logical way to be innovative, efficient and sustainable transport.

The Blue Road refers to the blue waters and inland waterways which plays an important role in the Dutch economy. But blue also stands for technology, innovation and sustainability. The trademark "The Blue Road" has its own logo. This branche logo is available to organizations and companies who works, trades with or have an association with inland navigation. Several organizations already have decided to include the Blue Road into their corporate style. The idea is that inland navigation communicates as one with one recognizable image. Practically this means that the business logo can be found on flags, stationery and brochures of the different companies. More information about the Blue Road and when

SOOB EN VTL ZETTEN ZICH IN VOOR DEFENSIE EN DE SECTOR TRANSPORT EN LOGISTIEK

Op maandag 19 december 2012 tekenden het Ministerie van Defensie en SOOB een convenant waarin beide partijen afspreken zich in te zetten om Defensie medewerkers te laten instromen in een functie in de sector Transport en Logistiek. SOOB heeft VTL aangesteld als uitvoerder van dit convenant. Dankzij een uniek netwerk in de sector kan VTL optimaal bemiddelen tussen werkgevers enerzijds en Defensie medewerkers anderzijds. Het streven hierin is om Defensie medewerkers te helpen aan een stageplaats in de sector met het vooruitzicht op een dienstverband. “Defensie heeft kwalitatief goed opgeleide en gemotiveerde medewerkers die uitermate geschikt zijn voor de sector Transport en Logistiek. Velen zijn direct inzetbaar als chauffeur of zijn door middel van bijscholing op korte termijn in te zetten in diverse andere functies. De sector kan op deze unieke wijze met potentiële kandidaten kennismaken en gekwalificeerde medewerkers aantrekken.

Instroom van nieuwe medewerkers is een belangrijke taak van VTL en ik ben trots dat wij onze naam waar mogen maken met dit prestigieus project.” aldus Jeroen Meulendijks, directeur VTL. De komende jaren zal er vanuit Defensie een groot aantal werknemers uitstromen als gevolg van onder andere het aflopen van contracten voor bepaalde tijd en bezuinigingen. De transport- en logistiek branche verwacht de komende jaren een toenemende behoefte aan chauffeurs en medewerkers in de logistiek. Deze twee ontwikkelingen hebben geleid tot deze samenwerking tussen enerzijds Defensie en anderzijds SOOB en VTL.

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Statutory alert: Provisional assessment of bulk chemicals in the Chemical Codes and MARPOL Annex II expiry of tripartite agreements Applicability: All owners, operators and charterers of vessels carrying MARPOL Annex II / Chemical Code cargoes in bulk. The IMO’s Guidelines for the Provisional Assessment of Liquid Substances Transported in Bulk (MEPC.1/Circ 512) detail requirements for tripartite agreements. Tripartite agreements for pure or technically pure products, which have not been classified by IMO, mixtures containing more than 1% of such products, or trade-named mixtures presenting safety hazards expire three years after their inclusion in the MEPC.2/Circular – Provisional Categorization of Liquid Substances*. Withdrawals due to the new Guidelines for the Carriage of Blends of Petroleum Oil and Bio-fuels The following trade-name chemicals have been withdrawn by the flag authorities since they are now carried under the new IMO Guidelines for the Carriage of Blends of Petroleum Oil and Bio-fuels contained in MEPC.1/Circ.761 (see Classification News 39/2011 for more information): Bio-fuel blends of Diesel/gas oil and Alkanes (C10-C26), linear and branched with a flashpoint ≤60°C containing 75% or more petroleum oil E85 VSS, made by Vertical E85 VWS, made by Vertical E90 (Fuelstreamers, Inc), made by Fuelstreamers, Inc E90 (Shell), made by Shell Etamax B (s), made by SEKAB BioFuels & Chemicals Etamax B (w), made by SEKAB BioFuels & Chemicals Gasoline Blending Component SG90, made by Sugden Biofuels SME B99, made by Shell Chemical Vertical Ethanol gasoline blends, made by Vertical. Special attention is drawn to: Alcoline, made by Greenergy Fuels Limited, which will be deleted by the Working Group in February 2012 unless information to clarify if it is covered by the Guidelines is supplied. Expiries The following tripartite chemicals which have not been fully assessed by the IMO ESPH Chemical Working Group (the last one took place from October 24-28, 2011) expired on December 17, 2011, and can no longer be carried from that date: Nonylphenol (48-62%)/Phenol (42%-48%)/Dinonylphenol (1-10%) mixture. The following trade-name products also expired on the same date: Interesterified Mixed Vegetable Fat IE-28, made by Southern Nisshin Bio-Tech Interesterified Mixed Vegetable Fat IE-34, made by Southern Nisshin Bio-Tech Interesterified Mixed Vegetable Fat IE-UT, made by Southern Nisshin Bio-Tech. Full details of these expiries are available in Annexes 1 and 3 of MEPC2/Circ 16, dated December 17, 2010 . The relevant sections are highlighted here. The next Chemical Working Group will take place from January 30 to February 3, 2012. If full data is submitted to the Group some of the above can be reinstated. Withdrawals

The following tripartite trade-name chemicals have been withdrawn at the request of the producer: OLOA 49813; made by Chevron Oronite SA Exxal 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, and L9 in List 3, made by ExxonMobil (due to a change in the manufacturing process used in the US, these product entries are now in line with the List 2 entries for the “Exxal Alcohol” product range). Contacts for flag administrations can be found in the IMO’s Global Integrated Shipping Information System, GISIS at: http://gisis.imo.org/Public/CP/Browse.aspx More information and a current list of tripartite agreements can be found on the IMO website here * This is updated annually

For further information, contact your local Lloyd’s Register Group office or: [email protected] +44 (0)20 7423 2422

Subscribe to Classification News Forward this email to a friend - Privacy policy - Unsubscribe Lloyd's Register is a trading name of the Lloyd's Register Group of entities. Services are provided by members of the Lloyd's Register Group, for details see www.lr.org/entities 71 Fenchurch Street, London, EC3M 4BS, UK Copyright © Lloyd's Register 2011. All rights reserved

Photo: “MV Laura I” Antwerp Daniëlla Vermeer

The Dutch Ship of the Line DELFT and her Reconstruction Part 6: Forestry then and now by Walter W. Massie

methods; it was a major contribution to shipbuilding and the Dutch Golden Age.

Introduction This is the sixth of series of articles about the wooden Dutch warship, DELFT and her reconstruction. The DELFT saw service from 1784 until she sank in the North Sea in 1797. This article compares forestry and carpentry then and now.

This prosperity greatly increased the demand for wood – both for shipbuilding and for housing; the negative side of this was that a significant

Shipbuilding Woods Before going into a given forest to look for shipbuilding wood, one must know what tree forms to look for. Two characteristics are special to shipbuilding: • A wooden beam of any sort is strongest if its grain runs parallel to the axis of the beam. • Heavy timbers in a wooden ship’s hull – such as hull frames or even deck beams, are curved. This is especially true for knees, which strengthen the joint between timbers meeting more or less at right angles, These two requirements mean that a wooden shipbuilder should look for trees that are not straight. In some cases such as for a knee, they obtain the desired curvature by using a crooked limb or a section of trunk with a portion of a limb still attached.This was true in the early times, it is still true today. (Granted, modern lamination methods are available to make curved beams from straight wood. Laminations are not being used for reconstructing the DELFT; they must be fabricated under rather ideal factory conditions.) 17th Century Logging The combination of the crankshaft (A Dutch invention at the end of the 16th century) with a windmill led to the use of an up-and-down saw to shape timbers and boards from logs. This speeded the production of this lumber by roughly a factor of 30 compared to hand

area of European forests was cleared to supply the necessary wood. In those days forest work had to be done using only manpower supplemented for some tasks by that of horses or oxen. Trees were felled using an axe sometimes in combination with a twoman crosscut saw. Once a tree was felled the axe and/or a bow saw would be used to trim off unwanted branches. (Note that for making shipbuilding knees, it was often desirable to leave a portion of a branch on the tree trunk log.) A major portion of the logging operation centered on getting the trimmed logs out of the forest. A log is dragged most easily if one end of it is raised. A special logging cart was used for this purpose two centuries ago. It carried the bottom end of the log slung below a heavy axle joining two large wheels. A drawbar attached to the axle (and used first as a lever to raise the end of the log) was pulled by a team of oxen. Since a major portion of the log’s weight is carried by the wheels, its drag resistance is greatly reduced. Oxen are relatively slow animals; long-distance log transport was rather uneconomical. Logs were therefore transported to the nearest suitable waterway where they were put in the water to be floated downstream to a sawmill or shipyard. If individual logs were sent on their way this sometimes led to them becoming jammed against rocks or other partial obstructions in the waterway. As an alternative, logs were lashed together to form a raft which was then sent downstream as a unit – sometimes even with a certain degree of human guidance from someone on the raft.

This water transport brought logs for the DELFT downstream from forests in the Rhine valley in Germany or the Meuse valley in Belgium. This explains why so many sawmills and shipyards were located on the banks of rivers and estuaries. Newly cut logs often stored floating in the water in order to keep them from drying out and cracking. (Marine boring worms were unknown in temperate waters at that time.) At the shipyard, ship’s timbers (frames etc.) were usually hewn (using an adze or broadaxe from logs by hand. Planking, on the other hand, was usually sawed. It was already routine to do this using an up-and-down sawmill powered by wind. A crankshaft patented by a Dutchman, Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1597 and connecting rod converted the rotary motion of a shaft geared to the windmill to the oscillatory motion of the saw. Often several saws were mounted next to each other in a single frame so that several planks could be cut simultaneously in a single pass of the log through the mill. Knees for a ship – in which the grain of the wood will ideally follow the curve of the knee – have at times been made from the stump of a tree with a root section attached. An attached root can be just as good as an attached branch structurally; it is just a bit harder to obtain. Modern Logging Mechanization has taken over the modern logging industry. Today, by contrast in certain types of forest, a large machine will grasp a tree by the trunk while it is still standing, saw it from its stump and then lay it down. A different machine will pass it trough a device to cut off its limbs.

This method works best with tall, straight trees with a myriad of (smaller) branches; evergreens are especially suited to this approach. Modern mechanization of the logging industry has obviously contributed to the desire to raise tall and straight trees; they are by far the easiest to process in the way just described. Nowadays, logs are usually hauled to the sawmill on trucks that are loaded and unloaded with a crane. Many of these cranes can handle an entire load of logs as one unit. Here again, this efficiency is only attainable with bundles of straight logs. High-capacity modern sawmills today are also highly mechanized and automated. It seems as if logs enter at one end and finished lumber is brought out the other end. Just as wind power in combination with the crankshaft gave the Dutch an advantage when processing wood starting in the 17th century, other power sources from gasoline and diesel engines as well as electric motors and modern electronics have transformed forestry and lumber processing from a labor-intensive industry centuries ago to a capital-intensive one today. Unfortunately for today’s wooden shipbuilders, modern foresters look with disdain at trees that are not standing straight and tall.

Marine Club Rotterdam MCR kerstlunch Stadhuis in Antwerpen op 8.12.2011

Foto: Daniëlla Vermeer

Next edition: January 26th, 2012 All rights reserved. Reproductions in whole or in part without prior written permission from Young Maritime International is strictly prohibited. Copyright 2010 YMI. The texts in the magazine are composed by the authors themselves. The publication of all articles is authorised by them.