I thought the US military favored 20 foot containers for their easier transportability once offloaded from the ship into the conflict area. I know a majority of the US government owned containers I’ve carried are twenty footers.
I don’t think I’ve ever moved containerized military cargo in about other than 20 ft containers. IIRC, they also have higher payloads and higher stack weights.
I am not aware of any container ships that have below deck cargo holds capable of carrying 53 or even 45 foot containers for that matter. Above decks they can be carried on the top of the stack only unless the deck is situated with sockets for the twistlocks but this usually means the container is hanging over the catwalk between hatches. You also cannot put any of the smaller boxes on top of the jumbo size ones because they can’t be properly lashed.
Slot is a generic term used in planning the load and means the stowage area taken up by a single container. Say you have an Out Of Gauge load that is lashed to a flat rack, overhangs the sides by 1 meter and is 2 meters over height. This cargo takes up 6 slots and the shipper has to pay for those 6 slots to carry the cargo. Hopefully this helps.
I’ve never worked Roro cargo and likewise would not preport to think I knew the first thing about it either.
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Seems like “slots” is more of an admin term, what you pay for and the term “cells” is better suited to the actual physical space. Not hard and fast and it seems like they are often used interchangeably but the sentence “the cell guides got damaged” makes more sense than the “slot guides got damaged.”
I would say yes. Container positions are reported in the format of bay-cell-tier ex. 28-05-84. Knowing the particulars of the vessel you are on you should be able to walk right over to where the box is with the position code. The two terms can be used interchangeably when discussing cargo with planners and agents.
You are correct with respect to 48 and 53 foot containers to my knowledge but a number of ships can carry 45 footers below deck. Pasha’s (ex-SeaLand/Horizon) Relaince and Spirit come to mind that both have a couple of 45 ft holds. I am sure there probably others as well.
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I was on the Spirit when it was sailing foreign, I can’t say for sure but they might have just sailed with those holds empty.
I see that MARAD list it as militarily useful.
From what I see 45 foot containers are pretty much used predominately in the US. Much less so in other countries. I saw them (the 45’ holds) used extensively west coast to Hawaii/Guam and Jacksonville to Puerto Rico.
The military has to consider axle loads in the foreign countries where they may be deployed. A 20 foot container is already at the limit in many countries infrastructure when loaded to its maximum capacity.
Where the destination for the military offers a substantial quayside in a sheltered port a RORO vessel offers a quick and easy method of deploying tracked military equipment such as tanks and their support vehicles. I seem to recall that to support 50 Abrams tanks requires 850 support vehicles. Some knowledge of the lane metres available would certainly be useful for anyone planning the vessel.
Let’s break out the booze!
Largest US-made container ship named ‘Daniel K. Inouye’
On Saturday June 30, the largest container ship ever built in the United States was named. Namely, the ‘Daniel K. Inouye’ is a 850-foot long, 3,600 TEU Aloha Class vessel. The ship was named after former Hawaii senator Daniel K. Inouye.
Indeed an astonishing fact that is if it was 20 years ago, nowadays 22.000 TEU ships are built elsewhere. However, being a Jones Act ship with only local trade there is probably only need for 3.600 containers. Matson has to put a staggering $ 418 million on the table for two ships. In the Far East I think you get ten ships for that price.
Redacted… Got my Europeans confused