Blue Marlin: The Giant Ship That Ships Other Ships

When one needs to transport a large number of ships (perhaps they aren’t ocean-ready), move a gigantic oil rig (like BP’s Thunder Horse PDQ) or perhaps carry a damaged warship home (The USS Cole), the MV Blue Marlin heeds the call.
Blue Marlin is a semi-submersible heavy lift ship designed to transport very large semi-submersible drilling rigs above the transport ship’s deck. It is equipped with 38 cabins to accommodate 60 people, a workout room, sauna and swimming facilities.
Blue Marlin and her sister ship MV Black Marlin comprise the Marlin class of heavy lift ship. They were owned by Offshore Heavy Transport of Oslo, Norway, from their construction, in April 2000 and November 1999 respectively, until 6 July 2001, when they were purchased by Dockwise Shipping of the Netherlands.

HISTORY

The U.S. Navy hired the Blue Marlin from Offshore Heavy Transport to move the destroyer USS Cole back to the United States after the warship was damaged by an Al-Qaeda suicide bomber attack while anchored in the port of Aden, Yemen. During the latter part of 2003, work done on the Blue Marlin boosted its capacity and added two retractable propulsors to improve maneuverability.
The ship re-entered service in January 2004. Following these improvements, the Blue Marlin delivered the oil platform Thunder Horse PDQ, weighing 60,000 tons, to Corpus Christi, Texas, for completion.
In July 2005 Blue Marlin moved the gas refinery Snohvit from its construction site in Cadiz to Hammerfest, an 11 day trip. This transport was filmed for the TV show Extreme Engineering on the Discovery Channel, and also the TV show Mega Movers on the History Channel.
In November 2005, Blue Marlin left Corpus Christi, Texas, to move the massive Sea-based X-band Radar to Adak, Alaska, via the southern tip of South America and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It arrived at Pearl Harbor on 9 January 2006, having travelled 15,000 miles. In January 2007, the Blue Marlin was employed to move two jack-up rigs, the Rowan Gorilla VI and the GlobalSantaFe Galaxy II, from Halifax Harbour to the North Sea.

The semi-submersible ship M/V Blue Marlin carrying damaged USS Cole 

Blue Marlin Specifications

Initial
Length overall: 217 m (712 ft)
Length PP: 206.5 m (677 ft)
Breadth moulded: 42 m (138 ft)
Depth moulded: 13.3 m (44 ft)
Summer draft: 10 m (33 ft)
Deadweight: 56,000 metric tons
Submerged depth above deck: 10 m (33 ft)
Free deck length: 178.2 or 157.2 m (585 or 516 ft)
Free deck area: More than 7,215 m2 (77,660 sq ft)
Main engine output: 12,640 kW (17,160 BHP)
Bow thruster: 2,000 kW (2,712 BHP)
Cruise speed: 14.5 knots
Cruise range: 25,000 nm
Accommodation: 55 people
Building yard: CSBC, Kaohsiung

Post-2004
Depth: 13.3 m (44 ft)
Max sailing draft: 10 m (33 ft)
Max draft submerged: 29.3 m (96 ft)
Water above deck submerged
- aft 16 m (52 ft)
- forward 12 m (39 ft)
Deck space: 63 × 178.2 m (207 × 584.6 ft)
Deck area: 11,227 m2 (120,850 sq ft)
Propulsor output: 4,500 kW (6,035 hp) each

Red Sprites and Blue Jets

 

Red sprites, blue jets and elves are upper atmospheric optical phenomena associated with thunderstorms that have only recently been documented by using low light level television technology. These phenomena are collectively called Transient Luminous Events (TLE's). As observations continue, scientists are collecting a confusing menagerie of phenomena .

 

Transient Luminous Events

Red sprites are large but weak luminous flashes that appear directly above an active thunderstorm system and are coincident with powerful positive cloud-to-ground lightning strokes. Their spatial structures range from small single or multiple vertically elongated spots, to bright groupings which extend from above the cloud tops to altitudes up to almost 60 miles (about 95 km. Sprites are predominantly red and they usually last no more than a few milliseconds.

 The brightest region lies in the altitude range 40 to 45 miles (about 65-75 km), above which there is often a faint red glow or wispy structure that extends to about 55 miles (90 km). Below the bright red region, blue tendril-like filamentary structures often extend downward to as low as 20 miles (30 km). Some events are loosely packed and may extend across horizontal distances of 30 miles (50 km) or more. Their shapes can be variously described as resembling jellyfish, carrots, or columns. Because of their low surface brightness, they have only been imaged at night (primarily with highly sensitive cameras).

 However, if ones eyes are sufficiently dark-adapted, one can actually detect them without any visual aid. The first images of a sprite were accidently obtained in 1989, although anecdotal reports of "rocket-like" and other optical emissions above thunderstorms go back more than a century. Early research reports for these events referred to them by a variety of names, including "upward lightning," "upward discharges," "cloud-to-stratosphere discharges," and "cloud-to-ionosphere discharges."

 Now they are simply referred to as sprites, a whimsical term that evokes a sense of their fleeting nature, while at the same time remaining nonjudgemental about physical processes that have yet to be determined.


Blue jets are a second high altitude optical phenomenon, distinct from sprites and first documented in 1994 (although pilots had earlier reported similar sightings). Blue jets are optical ejections from the top of the electrically active core regions of thunderstorms, but not directly associated with cloud-to-ground lightning. Following their emergence from the top of the thundercloud, they typically propagate upward in narrow cones of about 15 degrees, fanning out and disappearing at heights of about 25-30 miles (40-50 km) with a lifetime of a couple of tenths of a second.

Blue starters differ from blue jets in that the are brighter but shorter (reaching to only about 12 miles altitude). These were reported to occur over regions where large hailstones were falling.

Upward lightning is similar to a conventional lightning bolt, generally rather straight and may be tilted off vertical axis, but does not flicker like cloud-to-ground flashes. Lasts one, two and even 5 seconds with a yellow or white lightning channel, maybe with blue flames above.

Elves are rapidly expanding (up to 300 miles across) disk-shaped regions of luminosity, lasting less than a thousandth of a second, which occur high above energetic cloud-to-ground lightning of positive or negative polarity. Elves most likely result when an energetic electromagnetic pulse (EMP) propagates into the ionosphere. Though they can be accompanied by sprites, the causative mechanism is of an entirely different nature. Predicted to exist in 1991and discovered with a low-light video camera aboard the Space Shuttle in 1992, elves got their name as an acronym for Emission of Light and Very Low Frequency perturbations due to Electromagnetic Pulse Sources.


Sprite halos were mistaken as elves until 1999. They are diffuse disk shaped glows that apparently precede sprites and propagate downward from about 50 miles to 40 miles (85 to 70 km) altitude and last about a millisecond.


Trolls, also recently observed, resemble blue jets, but are red and seem to occur after tendrils of vigorous sprites extend downward toward the cloud tops.


Gnomes are possibly just a different manifestation of blue starters but appear with a more compact shape above convective domes.

Pixies are pinpoints of light, lasting less than 16 milliseconds, on the surface of convective domes that produced gnomes.

Gigantic jets, first documented in July 2002, are similar to carrot-shaped red sprites in spatial extent but propagate upward from the core of oceanic thunderstorms and are not directly associated with cloud-to-ground lightning.

Non-luminous emissions

There have recently been observed from space other types of unexpected non-luminous emissions that appear to originate from thunderstorms. These are: TIPPS (Trans-Ionospheric Pulse Pairs) are extremely intense pairs of VHF pulses originating from thunderstorm regions, but some 10,000 times stronger than sferics produced by normal lightning activity. They were first observed by the ALEXIS satellite.


Gamma ray bursts of short duration (about 1 millisecond) with terrestrial origin have been detected by the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. They are observed to occur over thunderstorm regions, and their source is believed to lie at altitudes greater than 30 km.

Aerographite — New Lightest Material in the World

Aerographite, is the name of the new lightest material in the world. Composed of a network of porous carbon tubes that are three-dimensionally interwoven at nano and micro level, it only weighs 0.2 milligrams per cubic centimetre. That’s 75 times lighter than Styrofoam, but it’s actually a very strong material.

Image Credit: TUHH

The research was done by scientists from Kiel University (KU) and Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH).
The material “is jet-black, remains stable, is electrically conductive, ductile and non-transparent.” These unique properties and the material’s very low density allow aerographite to greatly outperforms all similar materials.
“Our work is causing great discussions in the scientific community. Aerographite weights four times less than world-record-holder up to now,” says Matthias Mecklenburg, co-author and Ph.D. student at the TUHH.
The previous record holder was a nickel material that is also constructed of tiny tubes. The primary difference is nickel has a higher atomic mass than carbon.
Aerographite also has tubes with porous walls, making them even lighter. The material is highly resilient though, it can be compressed up to 95 percent and then be pulled back to its original form with no damage. The addition of weight stress actually makes the material even stronger, to a point.
The researchers think that the new material could allow for great reductions in battery weight, leading to more efficient electric cars and bikes. Other possible uses mentioned by the researchers include in aviation and satellites, thanks to its high tolerance for vibration, and for use in water and air purification