Special Craft Vessels: Technicalities, Uses and Advantages
Special craft vessels are uniquely designed ships that perform particular operations other vessels may not effectively do. These include search and rescue operations, scientific surveys, oil spill recoveries, military operations, and other maritime operations. Due to precise engineering, they are adapted to harsh maritime conditions and perform reliably.
Special Craft Vessels Technical Details
Dimensions and Capacity
- Oil Spill response or recovery vessels (ORSVs)
Length: 6 to 70 meters
Beam: 3 to 16 meters
- Firefighting vessels
Length: 10 to 80 meters
Beam: 4 to 20 meters.
- Search and rescue vessels
Length: 20 to 100 meters
Beam: 7 to 20 meters
- Aircraft carriers
Length: 200 to 350 meters
Beam: 25 to 80 meters
Displacement: 35,000 up to 100,000 tons
- Icebreaker vessels
Length: 40 to 150 meters
Beam: 8 to 30 meters
Engine power and performance
Oil spill recovery vessels require low-speed maneuvering during operations for efficient recovery (1 to 4 knots). Arrival to site speeds average up to 12 knots. Speeds of fire fighting vessels reach from 20 to 30 knots. Likewise, the speeds of ERRVs average at 12 knots. Aircraft need to be deployed quickly; they use nuclear reactors that allow their speeds to reach 25 to 30 knots. The diesel-electric propulsion systems in icebreaker vessels allow high maneuverability. Speeds during breaking ice depend upon the thickness of the ice. 2-8 knots speed when breaking ice. Speed in open waters may reach up to 22 knots.
Uses of Special Craft Vessels
- Oil spill response and recovery: ORSVs are special craft vessels that clean oil spills in marine environments using technologies such as barge skimmers or chemical dispersants.
- Firefighting: Those vessels are heavily equipped with water hoses to extinguish ship or near-shore fires.
- Maritime emergencies: Search and rescue vessels, also called emergency response and rescue vessels (ERRVs), are a requirement in maritime emergencies. They have medical and communication facilities and are used to recover people lost in the sea. ERRVs act as temporary refuges in the seas.
- Military operations: Aircraft carriers are moving airfields in the sea. They have all the facilities for landing, taking off, arming, and combatting.
- Exploring ice-covered regions: Icebreakers are special craft vessels used to explore ice-covered Arctic and Antarctic water regions. These vessels also achieve research goals by clearing paths for other ships to pass through safely.
Advantages of Special craft vessels
Special craft vessels have these advantages.
- Every special craft vessel is engineered precisely for a particular type of operation.
- The special craft vessels use fuel efficiently and can be used for various operations around the globe.
- They are highly specific for different operations needed in the maritime industry.
FAQs
Q: What is a special craft vessel?
A: A special craft vessel is designed for a specific maritime need that general-purpose vessels cannot fulfill.
Q: What different types of operations can special craft vessels fulfill?
A: Maritime operations such as firefighting, rescue, salvage, oil spill recoveries, military operations, research, and surveying of ice water regions.
Q: How do special craft vessels improve safety and efficiency in sea-based operations?
A: Specialized equipment in different vessels, such as skimmers in OSRVs, hoses and pressure pumps in firefighters, heavy designs of icebreakers, and high-power engines in aircraft carriers, allows efficient responses in sea-based operations.