''E-Ship 1'' is a roll-on/lift-off (RoLo)

cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's List of seas, seas and Ocean, oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. ...

that made its first voyage with cargo in August 2010. The ship is owned by the third-largest

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...

manufacturer,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Enercon Enercon GmbH is a wind turbine manufacturer based in Aurich, Lower Saxony, Germany. It has been the market leader in Germany since the mid-1990s. Enercon has production facilities in Germany (Aurich, Emden and Magdeburg), Brazil, India, Canada ...

GmbH. It is used to transport wind turbine components. The ''E-Ship 1'' is a Flettner ship: four large rotorsails that rise from its deck are rotated via a mechanical linkage to the ship's propellers. The sails, or Flettner rotors, aid the ship's propulsion by means of the

Magnus effect The Magnus effect is a phenomenon that occurs when a spin (geometry), spinning Object (physics), object is moving through a fluid. A lift (force), lift force acts on the spinning object and its path may be deflected in a manner not present when ...

– the perpendicular force that is exerted on a spinning body moving through a fluid stream.

Building history

The hull of ''E-Ship 1'' was built by German shipbuilder Lindenau Werft in

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

. The ship's launch took place on 2 August 2008, with the delivery date estimated for the first half of 2009. In September 2008, Lindenau-Werft declared

insolvency In accounting, insolvency is the state of being unable to pay the debts, by a person or company ( debtor), at maturity; those in a state of insolvency are said to be ''insolvent''. There are two forms: cash-flow insolvency and balance-sheet i ...

. On 25 January 2009, it was announced that ''E-Ship 1'' would be towed to and completed by German shipyard in

Emden Emden () is an Independent city (Germany), independent town and seaport in Lower Saxony in the north-west of Germany and lies on the River Ems (river), Ems, close to the Germany–Netherlands border, Netherlands border. It is the main town in t ...

. Steel construction work was completed in 2010, and the ship was docked at North Sea Works, where final construction took place with the ship in the water. In April 2010, the ''E-Ship 1'' returned to Cassens Werft, where preparations were made for sea trials. The ship set off for a first sea trial from Emden to Bremerhaven on 6 July 2010. Three trial runs were completed until the end of July. The ship made its first voyage with cargo in August 2010, carrying nine turbines for Castledockrell Wind Farm from Emden to

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

Structure

The ship's bridge is located at the bow, and it has three decks and two port-related long-boom cranes with payload capabilities of 80 and 120 tonnes. The ship has a rear ramp, and can function as a RoLo cargo ship. It is 130 meters in length and 22.5 meters wide, with a gross tonnage of 12,968 and a deadweight tonnage of 10,000. It is equipped with fore and aft maneuvering thrusters and has an

Ice class Ice class refers to a notation assigned by a classification society or a national authority to denote the additional level of strengthening as well as other arrangements that enable a ship to navigate through sea ice. Some ice classes also have ...

GL E3 hull rating.

Propulsion and machinery

The ''E-Ship 1'' was equipped with nine

Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group traces its origins to the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company that existed from 1870 to 194 ...

marine diesel engineshttps://www.stg-online.org/onTEAM/shipefficiency/programm/06-STG_Ship_Efficiency_2013_100913_Paper.pdf with a total output of 3.5 MW. The ship's exhaust gas boilers are connected to a

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...

downstream

steam turbine A steam turbine or steam turbine engine is a machine or heat engine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work utilising a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Par ...

, which in turn drives four Enercon-developed Flettner rotors. These rotors, resembling four large cylinders mounted on the ship's deck, are 27 meters tall and 4 meters in diameter. The speed and direction of rotation varies up to 300RPM depending on the prevailing wind speed and direction relative to the ship. Due to technical problems the Mitsubishi diesel generators were replaced by Caterpillar diesel generators in 2013. The new Caterpillar generators generate a total power of 6.3 MW.

Published performance information

Performance results for the ship (including sea-keeping and wind power) were published by Enercon on 23 September 2013.

References

External links

Ugly ships

Marine buzz

E-Ship 1 in service in June 2010
* {{YouTube, 2pQga7jxAyc, Video about E-Ship 1
2013 Enercon Publication about performance results of E-Ship 1
(PDF) Marine propulsion Wind-powered vehicles Ships built in Emden Cargo ships of Germany 2008 ships