Tokyo Express in Savannah

Posted north East of Bahamas : 22 32 N, 070 51W, Spd 13.1, Co 131.8

All mariners think of ships as women. Probably because we don't see many of the real ones. But notwithstanding any and all allegations of sexisms, you have to agree that you can tell a lot about a ship from the way her stern looks.

Pictured above is the Container Ship Tokyo Express discharging Cargo at Savannah.

The information garnered from the picture of the Stern is as follows:

Name : Tokyo Express
Port of Registry : Hamburg
IMO Number : 9193290
Call Sign : DGTX

Points of note:

The picture also shows some neat points of interest to those who think that those points of interest are neat. Firstly, the lifeboat used on the ship is that of the free fall lifeboat. The advantage of these lifeboats is that the owner is required to
install only one of these on the ship. Conventional lifeboat fittings require each side of the vessel to have lifeboats for the total life saving capacity of the ship. The problem with this kind of a lifeboat is that the crew required to go down the
life boat free falls into the water from a height of about 20 meters. Contrary to popular belief, the modern day mariners are not very adventerous.

If you note the call sign of the vessel is marked on top of the lifeboat. Also one intresting thing is that the aft stations (from where the ropes atre passed) is under a deck and is enclosed. It all looks funny to tanker men like myself.

The Second picture shows a dockworker removing the container lashings so that they might be discharged. He is currently opening the cross bars that are still present on his right & their function is self evident. What can't be seen are the twist locks
that are underneath the containers & lock by twisting at the four corners of the containers. Heavy things they are and it used to be a pain to us as cadets to collect them all in the hatch & bring them up at the end of the discharge.

Finally I'm not sure how good the picture is, but on the railing port of the lifeboat is the Jack Staff which has the Port of Registry flag (Germany in this case) & on the stbd is the small mast having the stern lights which are the navigational lights
fitted on the aft facing direction so that ships can be seen from a far enough distance.

Now if only we could pass a legislation to fit these on women...