Crowley cruises to profitable Arctic supply
Carriers throughout all modes face down challenges day-after-day, combating visitors in crowded cities or driving huge distances to distant places. However when Crowley Authorities Providers Inc. received a contract to haul jet gas to a U.S. Air Pressure base within the Arctic Circle, it needed to soar via extra hoops than ordinary.
The primary problem was to discover a specialised ship for the job. On this case, Crowley contracted the Stena Polaris, which it then leased to the U.S. Army Sealift Command. The Stena Polaris is a 600-foot-long ice-qualified P-MAX tanker. P-MAX tankers are designed with additional width and fewer draft than comparable vessels so as to function in shallower waters. And to make sure the protection of their flammable cargo, they function backup methods for almost every thing—propulsion, maneuvering, engines, shafts, mills, management and gas methods, and rudders and propellers.
The following step was to rent bodyguards for that ship, on this case, two escort icebreakers named Des Groseilliers and Ocean Gladiator.
And at last, the provider needed to get the timing proper, which on this case meant ready till July or August, when the ocean ice had melted sufficient to permit the passage of maritime vessels.
In early August, all the celebrities aligned. The Stena Polaris was loaded with 230,000 barrels of jet gas and started its journey from Athens, Greece, via the Mediterranean, throughout the Atlantic, and up via the Labrador Sea to the Thule Air Base in Greenland. By all accounts, the climate was good and the ocean principally ice-free, and the vessel delivered its cargo with out incident.
