The Veendam

Today there was a very interesting lecture on sharks. I recorded video and hope it turns out. The world's population of sharks has been depleted by 75 to 90%, depending on species. In a recent year 73,000,000 were killed, many by fishing nets which trap them and prevent the sharks from breathing. Today I am putting together a web album of boats encountered on the Amazon which I will post on Picasa when finished. That's about all the news that is fit to print for today, so I'll tell you a little about the ship itself.

The ms Veendam is of The Netherlands Registry. Her maiden voyage was in 1996 and she has been refurbished 2 or 3 times and goes into dry dock in April 2009 for sprucing up again. She carries 1,266 passengers and about half that many officers and crew and has a gross tonnage of 55,451 tons.

One way to determine how much real passenger space a ship has is to divide gross tonnage by number of passengers. For the Veendam this figure is 43.8. This rule of thumb works for all ships and gives a rough measure of the ship's roominess. In steamers of an earlier era this figure was more like 4.8. In those days, passenger ships carried very few first class passengers and mostly immigrants moving to the United States. Space for these 3rd class passengers was appallingly sparce.

There are ten passenger decks, three dining venues, ranging from the Pinnacle Grill (a fancy place that costs $20.00 per person extra) to the Lido Restaurant which serves the same food as the Main Dining Room, the Rotterdam, except it is buffet style. One advantage of the Lido Restaurant is you can see what is on the menu before choosing it and you can pick and choose from everything rather than get pre-determined accompaniments to your entree'. In addition, there is 24-hour room service with a fixed menu with all items available all the time. During normal dinner hours you can also choose to have the same meal delivered to your stateroom as is served in the dining room.

Originally the ship cost $260,000,000.00. In order to dock the ship without the use of tugs, the ship has two bow thrusters and one stern thruster which allows the ship to moved sideways to snug up to a dock, or to quickly turn around in tight places. You might recall that in one port the Captain as a precaution ordered two tugs to standby at a cost of $8,000.00. The main propulsion is by two screws driven by identical electrical motors. Each motor is rated at 12 MW which equates to 16,000 horse power to each shaft. From full speed the ship can come to a complete stop in 300 meters by reversing the electric motors.

All of the electricity for the ship, including propulsion, is provided by five diesel generators. There are two 12-cylinder diesel generators providing 8,600 KW each. In addition there are three 8-cylinder generators which each produce 5,700 KW. Each 8-cylinder engine weighs 78 metric tons and each 12-cylinder engine weighs 116 metric tons. The ship has capacity of 2,500 tons of heavy oil, or 660,500 US gallons. The ship uses about 100 tons of fuel per day, which gives mileage of 24 US gallons per mile. Each engine has 2,900 gallons of lubricating oil in its sump and consumes about 40 gallons each day per engine. The company pays about $.50 per gallon for heavy oil.

The propellers are about 17' in diameter and each weighs 18 tons. The propeller shaft is 20 inches in diameter and rotates at 147 revolutions per minute at full speed. Electricity is generated at 6,600 volts AC, 60 HZ and then is transformed down as required for various applications, to as low as 12 volts DC.

There are stabilizer fins on both port and starboard side to control pitch. Each is 18' long and 8' wide and is electronically controlled to stabilize the ship. They act much like the flaps on the wings of an aircraft which are used, in part, to keep the plane level in flight.

The Engine room is probably 400' in length and is manned by 43 persons. For safety, the Engine Room is divided into 9 water-tight compartments. During a Caribbean cruise the Engine room temperature averages 104 degrees although it can be as hot as 120 degrees. No doubt the crew enjoys the Alaska and Antarctic cruises!!!

The ship has potable water storage of 580,000 gallons. The ship can produce 264,200 gallons of water each day and useage is 171,000 gallons per day.

The ship also has ballast tanks which are used to help keep the ship level port to starboard and at the desired angle of pitch stem to stern. It is these tanks that had to be emptied of sea water prior to entry to the Amazon River. Conversely, these tanks had to be purged of Amazon water and refilled with sea water once we left the Amazon.

In the good ole days they conducted passenger tours of the engine room and the bridge. Since 9/11 these tours have been abolished.

We now have been at sea for two days and have past The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico on our way to Grand Turk where we will arrive at 8:00 AM tomorrow.