Eastern City (5)
Maiden voyage of Reardon Smith' Line's newest addition.
The largest vessel ever to be owned and operated by the Reardon Smith Line and the fifth ship of the name to be owned by the Company, is scheduled
to commence her maiden voyage in the very early days of July. She is built and engined by Burmeister and Wain, Copenhagen and is the eighth in a series of which at least 10 will be built.
The vital statistics of the Eastern City are:
LOA 224.4
M
Draft
12.6 M
Beam 32.24 M
D.W. 60920 tonnes Ballast capacity.
Engines Burmeister & Wain 7 cylinder 7K80GF
Service speed: 15.8 knots
Bunker capacity: 3448 cu. metre
Grain capacity: 79900 cu. metre.
The vessel is constructed and and equipped to operate with an unmanned engineroom, although this cannot immediately happen as the Department of Trade require a detailed operational programme with regular recordings kept of such things as temperatures, incidents, stoppages, etc for a period of least two months before granting an UMS certificate. (UMS = umanned machinery space).
No cargo gear is fitted.
Vessel is a flush decker (without raised forecastle head) ad has no bulbous bow.
She has been built to Norske Veritas rules and is classed on the N V Register.
Accomodation is of a high standard and the general finish is most attractive besides being very serviceable. There is a distinct Nordic appearance in the furnishings with their traditional love of rather sombre colours, but with a clean and comfortable modern look about it.
It is interesting to note the advanced methods of construction which are used at the shipyard. The ship has been built in a graving dock and was floated out of the dock on 23rd April 1976. The construction is organised on a factory production line system with rigid time table schedules for every event. It starts with the building in a large covered shed of the stern unit which will take the main engine, tailshaft, and propellor. The main engine and much of the equipment has already been ordered for delivery long before this so it can all be introduced into the completed units of the ship as required and before other units are landed on the top. For example all the galley stoves will be fitted in position before the deck above is put on to avoid any man handling. The areas which take the most time for fitting out , i.e. the engine room and the accomodation, are obviously the two areas which receive the earliest attention. Soon after the stern unit is commenced, the construction of the accomodation house will be started. This is built up from the side of the drydock and will be eventually lifted into position on the vessel as one complete unit before the ship is floated out. The heaviest unit prefabricated during the construction weighs 585 metric tons and is the unit containing the main engine including tie bolts but excluding brackets and platforms. As another point of interest is the total weight of the rudder and stock is 70.3 tons.
The above is part of what is written in the article that appeared on the front page of the RSL Newsletter for July 1976.
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Eastern City. Page [1] [2] [3] [4]
Building Eastern City. Page [1]
Memories from RSL staff. Page No. [1]