The largest of the Polish shipyards
The largest ship of Polish shipyards is the bulk carrier Pierre LD.
If we enter the phrase “the largest ship built in Poland” into a popular Internet search engine, we will immediately see an article stating that this is a container ship “Katrin Rickmers”, built for a German shipowner, with a length of more than 286 m, a width of 32 m and a carrying capacity 57 DWT. Well, we mean the largest, not the longest. In shipbuilding, especially in the case of merchant ships, the measure of their size is the carrying capacity, and not the external dimensions. Well it's 000 versus 57 dwt
z series B-562?
The construction of Pierre LD according to the regulations and under the control of Bureau Veritas began at the Shipyard. About the Paris Commune. In August 1990, the keel was laid there, and the ship received the following class: 13/3 + Ore Bulk Carrier, Deep Sea, Aut. It also complied with the requirements of all international regulations and the shipowner's country, as required.
This versatile cargo ship was designed to transport ore, coal, grain, alumina and other bulk cargoes. It was single-rotor, with a smooth deck, with a superstructure and an engine room at the stern. Its fully welded hull was divided by watertight bulkheads into compartments: a forepeak with a chain compartment, nine holds, an engine room and an afterpeak with a steering compartment.
The customer was the French shipowner Société Louis Dreyfus et Cie. The chief designer of the B-562/1 installation was a master of technical sciences. Peter Philip, chief designer - magician. eng. Jerzy Straszynski, chief construction technologist - eng. Edmund Pior, and the main builder - Mieczysław Gurny. The head of the Construction Department was Eng. Jan Rembalski, shipbuilder Filemon Ligmanovski, and on behalf of the head of quality control of works carried out eng. Marek Rulka.
During construction work, shipyard workers experienced difficult moments of uncertainty and lost a lot of nerves. To achieve good economic results, they tried to minimize the terms of equipping parts, which was greatly facilitated by the built large dry dock. To do this, the departments of equipment entered it as soon as possible, while the ship's hull was still growing there. It was a very efficient production process, but it required the coordination of all work at the dock. The most important thing was the timely provision of documentation and instruments and apparatus per unit. As for the latter, subcontractors usually fulfilled their obligations, but only on the condition that they received payment immediately for them, did not agree to a loan.
And since the shipbuilding industry fell on hard times and their factories did not have enough funds to finance current production, there were many problems with this payment. The Gdynia "Komuna" also got into trouble. She was looking forward to the delivery for Pierre L.D. main engine from "Cegelski" and transmission, shafting, rudder and propeller from "Zamech". At these factories - in Poznan and Elblag - these devices were ready, but they, in turn, were waiting for money from the shipyards.
At that time, all hull and equipment compartments, except for W-1, worked in the dry dock of a bulk carrier. The W-7 and Malmet painters, who had acres of sheet metal to preserve and paint, had a daunting task. They did what they could, but they were stopped by nine cargo holds 24 m high, the same as an 8-story skyscraper. It would be best for them to use specialized equipment for their work, but the shipyard in Gdynia had only one such equipment - a hydraulic hoist with an outreach of 27 m. Therefore, the plant faced a new problem - the urgent purchase of two more such devices for foreign currency. The money will definitely not be wasted, as the French shipowner ordered a total of four ships of this series. Painters will keep 36 such holds with a total capacity of 736 m000.
Maintenance and painting works are of great importance also because the possibility of putting the ship into operation within the terms stipulated by the contract mainly depends on them.
During this long wait for the contractors' deliveries, the first date of launching the vessel, scheduled for June 15, 1991, passed. Shortly thereafter, however, the shipyard somehow found funds for the aforementioned devices, and already in July the main engines began to arrive with parts, the total mass of which exceeded 750 tons. The heaviest of them are the crankshaft weighing 113 tons and the engine tank weighing 83 tons were transported on special, unusual wagons. Elblag's Zamech also delivered its products, and the W-1 staff set about assembling them at an accelerated pace. The work was carried out day and night, without interruption. When one brigade returned home, another took its place. The entire department was suspended from all holidays during this period. It should take 23 days to assemble an engine of this size, and the shipbuilders did the same in 17 days. Other devices were also installed in record time. The starting road was already open at that time.
The ship occupied 70% of the length of the large dock, and the rest of it was occupied by a large 90-strong stern block of the B-563 type, built for the British shipowner Zenith. It was the size of the Pierre LD that made the launch extremely long, difficult and technically complex. It began at exactly noon on Sunday, August 4, 1991, and ended shortly before midnight, when the entire basin was filled with water and the vessel became buoyant. On Monday morning, she was taken out of the drydock by six tugboats.
and moored at the equipment pier. At the moment, work on it has been completed by almost 75%. They could have been larger, but there wasn't enough paint to paint the inside of the hold.
