LESSON 20

TRANSPORTATION OF CARGOES BY RO-RO VESSELS

Words and Word Combinations

term термин

to imply подразумевать, намекать to signify означать, иметь значение

vehicle перевозочное средство, повозка to roll катить

to wheel катить, везти (на колесах) reloading перегрузка

in spite of несмотря на investment капиталовложение ramp рампа, аппарель

to accelerate ускорять simultaneously одновременно level уровень

three-decker трехпалубное судно power plant силовая установка

e.h.p. (effective horse power) эффективная л. с. sound здоровый, крепкий

mood настроение, расположение духа brilliant блестящий

licensed имеющий права (водителя) axis ось

to surmise предполагать, высказывать догадку approximation приблизительная оценка, цифра to stand зд. выдержать

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by far намного

Expressions

safe and sound жив, здоров, цел и невредим to settle the question разрешить вопрос

it stands to reason ad. разумно to my mind по моему мнению

In a way в некотором отношении, до известной степени

TEXT

As the term itselfi implies, the name "Ro-Ro" is an abbreviation of the words Roll on, Roll off. These words signify the way of loading or unloading cargoes between quay and ship by means of rolled vehicles. These vehicles may be wheeled platforms or "trailers" as they are usually called, towed by tractors or, lorries.

The introduction of Ro-Ro vessels led to further progress in International Shipping brought up by containerization. The main advantage of Ro-Ro vessels is that the cargo may be loaded and discharged by the wheeled vehicles which can be used for land transportation without any additional reloading. Rolling the cargo in or out the ship takes considerably less time and labour than lifting and lowering it in a usual way. The rate of handling these goods became much higher than on the ships with the conventional use of cranes and winches.

These two factors naturally attracted attention of the people engaged in International Shipping. Many countries began to build Ro-Ro vessels in spite of the fact that building of new ships and of specialized port terminals required great investments of money. The Soviet Union was one of these countries too. We have built by now many Ro-Ro vessels which are successfully used in our foreign trade.

There is one more advantage of the Ro-Ro vessels which is no less

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important; they can carry not only containers, motor-cars, tractors and trailers, but bulk cargoes as well.

The principle of construction of these vessels is that they are provided with stern ramps which make it possible for the wheeled vehicles to run in and out of the vessels at an average speed of about 20 km an hour. This, of course, greatly accelerated the handling of cargo. If well planned, loading and discharging of RoRo vessels can be carried out simultaneously.

The construction of the ramp enables the cargo to be handled if the level of the pier is 2.2 metres higher or 5.5 metres lower than the deck level. The ramp can be placed in direction of fore-and-aft line or at an angle of about 40' to it. The length of the ramp, when lowered on shore, may be about 35 metres.

The Ro-Ro vessels are usually threeor four-deckers. The cargo is distributed at various cargo levels through fixed internal ramps and movable bulkheads.

On Soviet ships of the Kapitan Smirnoff type, the power plant is of 50,000 e. h. p., which provides operational speed at about 25 knots per hour.

DIALOGUES

1

AGENT. Glad to see you safe and sound and in the same good mood, as usual. It seems to me that you are going to start discharging today, eh? How long will it take you to lower and fix the ramp?

CAPTAIN. Thank you for your compliment, Mr Howard. I am glad too to see you. Lowering and fixing the ramp won't take us too much time. I hope in half an hour we shall be able to start discharging.

AGENT. So soon as that? Brilliant! What are you going to start with? CAPTAIN. We'll start with motor-cars and lorries.

AGENT. Who will drive them down?

CAPTAIN. Our boys, of course! We have 15 licensed drivers among the

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members of our crew. By the way, this work was agreed upon with your Trade Union.

AGENT. Shall we pay them for the job?

CAPTAIN. Yes, you shall. At the same rate as you pay to your drivers. AGENT. Oh, I see.

2

AGENT. According to your stowage plan, sir, you've stowed rice in bags in Hold No. 7. Our surveyor is interested to know whether there is a proper ventilation in that hold. He wants to know at what rate the air is exchanged there.

SECOND MATE. There is normal ventilation in that hold! The rate of exchange is about 6 %. So, the whole volume of air is changed approximately 5-6 times an hour.

AGENT. Thank you, sir. The surveyor is quite satisfied with the figures. By the way, when we were coming here we had a kind of dispute with him. He wanted to know how many tons of cargo can pass over the ramp at a time? I mean over its axis.

SECOND MATE. Did you know that exactly?

AGENT. Unfortunately, I didn't. I could only surmise that. SECOND MATE. What was your approximation, then? AGENT. I told him I thought it was something about 50 tons.

SECOND MATE. You were very close to the true figure. Its nominal value is 55 tons, but actually it can stand even more.

AGENT. Thank you, sir. It's always pleasant to feel that you were right, isn't

it?

3

AGENT. Thank God, we've finished with that lot. The tallyman's receipts fully coincide with your data. Now we shall have to settle the question about trailers. So far as we have prepared some 500 containers on our trailers I think we

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