13.8.1 Passenger ships

• These ships are designed for transporting people.

• There are two types of passenger ships:

  • Cruise ships

  • Ferries

13.8.2 Cruise ships

• These ships are very large vessels and can carry thousands of people.

• These ships are equipped with all modern and luxury facilities, such as swimming pools, cinemas, shops, and hotels.

• They operate under strict safety regulations.

  

13.8.3 Ferries

• Used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water.

• Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services.

• A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi.

• Ferries form a part of the public transport systems of many waterside cities and islands.

  

13.8.4 Cargo ships

These ships are built for the transport of cargo from one place to another. They are classified according to the type of cargo they carry:

• General-cargo ships

• Container ships

• Bulk carriers

• Oil tankers

• Gas tankers

• Refrigerated cargo (‘reefer’) ships

• Ro-Ro ships

13.8.5 Container ships

• These are cargo ships that carry all of their load in truck-size intermodal containers.

• Container ship capacity is measured in twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). Typical loads are a mix of 20-foot and 40-foot (2-TEU).

• They are the fastest and most powerful of cargo ships.

  

  

13.8.6 General-cargo ships

• Multi-purpose vessels, designed to handle and stow a variety of freight. This may include forest products, manufactured goods, heavy equipment, vehicles, machinery, bagged goods, steel and food products, and containers. They have cargo-handling gear (cranes, derricks).

  

13.8.7 Bulk Carriers

• A bulk carrier is a merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo, such as grains, coal, ore, and cement in its cargo holds.

• They are larger ships, but slow in speed.

  

  

13.8.8 Oil tankers

• An oil tanker is a merchant ship designed for the bulk transport of oil.

• There are two basic types of oil tankers: the crude tanker and the product tanker. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crude oil from its point of extraction to refineries.

• Product tankers are built to transport refined oil products from the oil refinery to another refinery or to the end user.

• There are tankers designed to carry various other oily products as well.

• They are normally slow in speed.

  

  

13.8.9 Reefer Ships

These are refrigerated cargo ships.

• This type of ship is typically used to transport perishable commodities which require temperature-controlled transportation, such as fruit, meat, fish, vegetables, dairy products, and other foods.

• Their holds are refrigerated.

• Mostly, this cargo is quite expensive.

  

13.8.10 Gas tankers

• A ship designed to transport LPG, LNG, or liquefied chemical gases in bulk.

  • Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG), which is mainly propane and butane.

  • Liquid Natural Gas (LNG), which is mainly methane.

    

    

13.8.11 Ro-Ro (Roll-on/Roll-off) ships

• These ships are vessels designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using a platform vehicle.

• RORO vessels have either built-in or shore-based ramps that allow the cargo to be efficiently rolled on and off the vessel when in port.

  

  

13.8.12 Special purpose vessels

There are different types of vessels at sea for a special purpose. Their tasks are dredging, ice breaking, drilling for oil, laying cables, creating artificial islands, and so on. These ships should be able to sail the sea as efficiently and safe as possible, but should also be able to keep position or to follow a certain track while on the job.

Dredgers

Used for dredging harbours, channels, and rivers deeper. Dredging is an excavation activity usually carried out underwater, in shallow seas or freshwater areas with the purpose of gathering up bottom sediments and disposing of them at a different location.

Ice breakers

An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships.

Cable laying ships

A cable layer is a deep-sea vessel designed and used to lay underwater cables for telecommunications, electric power transmission, or other purposes.