Port of Chennai, India

 Formerly known as Madras, the Port of Chennai is called by many the "Gateway to South India." Located on India's southern Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal, the Port of Chennai is about 565 kilometers northeast of the Port of Cochin and some one thousand kilometers southeast of the Port of Mumbai. The Port of Chennai is an important cultural and administrative center and the capital of India's Tamil Nadu state. In 2001, over 4.3 million people lived in the city, and over 6.5 million lived in the urban area of the Port of Chennai.

The Port of Chennai is one of the oldest and biggest commercial ports in India. It was an important port for travelers before taking on its role in maritime trade. The Port of Chennai is a vital part of Tamil Nadu's growing economy, particularly for the growth in South India's booming manufacturing sector. Its major industries include factories that produce vehicles, rubber, and fertilizers as well as electrical engineering and a refinery. The major exports leaving the Port of Chennai are iron ore, leather, and cotton textiles. The major imports entering the Port of Chennai are wheat, raw cotton, machinery, and iron and steel.

The region surrounding the Port of Chennai has been an important military, administrative, and economic center since the 1st Century AD under the rule of many South Indian dynasties, including the Pallava, the Pandya, the Chola, and the Vijaynagar dynasties. The Christian apostle Thomas preached in the area between 52 and 70 AD.

The ancient town of Mylapore, which is now part of the Port of Chennai, was an important port for the Pallavan dynasty that reigned from the 6th to 9th Centuries. In 1522, the Portuguese built a port on the site of today's Port of Chennai, naming it Sao Tome after St. Thomas.

The Dutch arrived at Pulicat, some 33 kilometers north of the Port of Chennai, in 1613. In 1639, the British East India Company bought a band of coastline from Peda Venkata Raya, the Vihayanagara King, and the regional ruler, Damerla Venkatapathy, gave permission to the British to build a warehouse and factory on the site. The next year, the British established a colony called Madras and built Fort St. George on the site of the future Port of Chennai.

In 1746, French forces captured and plundered Madras, Fort St. George, and surrounding villages. Three years later, the Port of Chennai and town were returned to the British under the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. They then strengthened the fort to defend the Port of Chennai from the French and from the increasingly powerful Sultan of Mysore.

Most of the southern India region had been conquered by the British by the late 1700s, and they established the Madras Presidency with Madras/Chennai as its capital. The future Port of Chennai flourished under British rule, becoming an important naval base and urban center.

At the time, the natural harbor was so shallow that ships had to anchor over a kilometer offshore, and cargo was delivered to and from the Port of Chennai shore in Masula boats. Cargo losses were high, and a 335-meter pier capable of berthing larger vessels was built in 1861. A cyclone destroyed the pier in 1881, and it was rebuilt in 1885.

In the late 19th Century, India's new railways connected the Port of Chennai to other important cities, like Bombay (Mumbai) and Calcutta (Kolkata), in the British colony. With stronger communications and trade routes, the port continued to grow.

In 1904, a new north-eastern entrance was added to control siltation in the basin. New quays were built in the Port of Chennai over the following decades. The South Quay opened in 1913. Five West Quay berths began operating between 1916 and 1920.

The Port of Chennai was the only city to be attacked by the Triple Alliance powers during World War I. A German cruiser, the SMS Emden, shelled the oil depot in 1914, and it raided vessels using the Indian Ocean shipping lanes, disrupting trade.

Between the world wars, the Port of Chennai gained new facilities. In the inner harbor, the North Quay was built in 1931, and South Quay II started operating as the Dr. Ambedkar Dock in 1936.

In 1947 when Indian won its independence, the Port of Chennai was made the capital of the Madras State, which was renamed Tamil Nadu in 1969.

In 1961, the Port of Chennai's Jawahar Dock was inaugurated by India's Prime Minister, Bahadur Shastri. The Bharathi Dock was built in the outer harbor to handle vessels with as much as 16.2 meters draft. In 1970, an oil jetty was constructed to handle imports of crude oil destined for the Manali Oil Refinery (today the Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited). In 1974, the Iron Ore berth was added to the Port of Chennai for exports to Japan and other countries in the Far East. Another oil jetty was added in 1985 to meet increasing demands for crude oil and petroleum products.

The Port of Chennai began handling containerized cargoes in the 1970s. A container terminal was built at the Bharathi Dock with a 380-meter quay, a 51 thousand square meter container yard, and a six thousand square meter container freight station. In 1991, the Port of Chennai's container terminal quay was lengthened by 220 meters. In 2001, the container terminal and back-up area was privatized through a 30-year concession with Chennai Container Terminal Private Limited. Continually increasing container traffic resulted in another 285-meter extension of the quay in 2002.

In 1996, the city of Madras was renamed Chennai, and the Madras Port Trust was renamed as Chennai Port Trust. In 2000, the Port of Chennai began to handle pure-car-carrier shipments of automobiles.

The 2004 tsunami devastated the shores of the Port of Chennai, taking many lives and permanently changing the face of the coast.

Oxygen Analyser

Oxygen is vital for life and the presence of ample oxygen is an indicator that a space or tank is safe to get into. At the same time this very oxygen needs to be minimised in other situations. Whatever be the requirement, an oxygen analyzer is a must on board ships. Learn about its working principle


Introduction

There are various types of measuring instruments used on board ships for measuring different parameters such as salinity, ionic purity, pH, speed or depth. An oxygen analyzer is another such important equipment. Many times it is necessary to measure the oxygen content especially during situations of enclosed space entries and tank entry. It is advisable as well as mandatory to follow such procedures for the sake of safety of the human beings which enter these spaces. Oxygen content also needs to be noted during inert gas operations on tankers as well. In this article we will learn about the basic operating principle of a hand held oxygen analyzer.


Oxygen Analyzer

These analyzers come in various makes and models and we will be studying about one such analyzer namely the continuous reading type analyzer. The underlying theory behind the working of this type of oxygen meter is as follows.

The main property of oxygen which helps in its detection and measurement of its percentage in the given sample of air is that of Para-magnetism. Basically this means that oxygen gets attracted towards a magnetic field. The set up for measuring oxygen content using this property can be understood from the image shown below.

As you can see in the sketch there are two platinum resistance wires which are exposed to two different chambers. In the first chamber there is the air in which the oxygen content needs to be monitored plus there is an artificially created magnetic field, while the second chamber there is the same air but there is no magnetic field present in this chamber. The wires form a part of the Wheatstone bridge circuit and if you remember from your study of physics, the Wheatstone bridge is used to measure an unknown resistance by obtaining a balance between two legs of the circuit.


The air whose content has to be noted is supplied at one end and is filtered by passing it through a diffuser and goes on to the two chambers as shown in the picture. Hence while one chamber of the meter attracts oxygen the reference chamber attracts only air. This causes a difference in the temperature of the two wire sets because of the difference in thermal conductivity of oxygen with respect to air. This causes imbalance in the resistance of the bridge legs and the degree of this imbalance is in proportion to the oxygen content in the sample to be measured.

Flammability Diagram

Fire hazard during a tank operation in vessels poses a major risk to the seafaring community. In this discussion:  Flammability Diagram and it's understanding.


Cargo Operations in Tankers involve a lot of pre-planning and discussion to prevent any mishap. Proper procedures are to be followed during loading, unloading, tank cleaning or man-entry.

It is known that for any fire to start, it requires a minimum presence of 3 components: Air, Fuel, and Source of heat.

In the cargo tanks of vessel:

Cargo can play the role of fuel and completes one side of triangle.
Any spark or heat from adjacent compartment(from hot work) or even atmospheric heat can act as source of heat in the tanks.
The atmospheric air containing 21% oxygen serves to provide sufficient oxygen for the fire triangle to complete and a fire hazard to take place.
Removing any one side of the triangle will be an effective step to prevent fire hazard onboard.

Inert gas, which inerts the atmosphere of tank by keeping the oxygen content to a minimum breaks the fire triangle.The oxygen content in inert gas is around 5% and minimum oxygen concentration required for combustion is 8%. Onboard ship, the inert gas concentration is usually kept at 2% - 3%.

To study any tank atmosphere in ship, flammability diagram serves as an important tool.
Before learning how to draw this diagram, lets first have a look at it.

Flammability Diagram



The line AB represents the concentration of a mixture that includes air and hydrocarbon gases only. All the points to the left of the line AB includes the inert gas in the mixture. Those to right of the line AB and on the line AB doesn't include inert gas.

When inert gas is added to the tank atmosphere, the concentration inside the tank changes drastically. So does the upper and lower flammable limit of the mixture. It can be seen from the diagram that the UFL and LFL narrows down to converge at point E when inert gas is added.
It can be inferred that the flammability range of a mixture decreases with addition of inert gas.

Now let's assume a mixture of HC gas, air, inert gas such that it is at point a F in the graph.

If this mixture is diluted with air (Oxygen concentration 21%), then the new concentration of the mixture will follow a straight line drawn from F to the 21% mark on oxygen percentage (X- axis). i.e. Line FA.

It can be seen from the diagram that on diluting F with air, it passes through the flammable range and hence it poses a fire hazard.

To tackle this, we need to first Purge the tank with inert gas. Since inert gas has O2 concentration of around 2%, the concentration of mixture during purging process moves along the line FJ. J is the point of  2% oxygen concentration in inert gas.

The purging is continued till the mixture reaches point H. From H if the mixture is diluted with air of 21% oxygen, it will follow the line HA, which doesn't fall in flammable range. Hence safe condition is maintained throughout the process.

While looking at diagram we come across the term critical dilution limit (Line GA). Let's try to understand this term. The line GA passes by just touching the flammable range portion of diagram. If the mixture F would have been purged any less than point K (lying between F and L), then while diluting the mixture it would pass through the flammable range.

Thus critical dilution limit is the minimum amount of purging required to ensure that the mixture doesn't fall in flammable range while diluting wit hair.

From above, It is well understood that the use of inert gas itself doesn't guarantee the safe environment of tank during tank operations, until inert gas present is above the critical limit of the environment.


To be on the safer side, it is a common practise to continue purging the mixture F even beyond the critical dilution limit, to prevent any fire hazard due to tthe purged mixture passing trough flammable range during dilution with air.

The flammability diagram is an important point to be considered while chalking out strategies  of tank operations. An understanding of flammability diagram is hence necessary to prevent any fire risk not only to oneself but also to fellow seafarers onboard

Anglo Eastern & Univan merge to form ‘ANGLO-EASTERN UNIVAN GROUP’

Univan Ship Management has merged with fellow Hong Kong manager Anglo-Eastern to form ‘Anglo-Eastern Univan Group’.The merged business will be led by Peter Cremers as Executive Chairman, Bjorn Hojgaard as Chief Executive, Marcel Liedts as Chief Operating Officer and Mark Stevenson as Chief Financial Officer,univan said in its press release.

The deal would add around 100 ships to the Anglo-Eastern fleet, putting it close to the top of the global shipmanagement rankings.Describing it as “the largest ever merger of independent, third party ship management companies,” Anglo-Eastern said in press release the merger would create “significant scale advantages”.

Univan Ship Management was started by the late Captain C.A.J. Vanderperre, often referred to as the ‘father of ship management’. Vanderperre had set up Wallem Shipmanagement in the late 1960s as the world’s first dedicated third party manager, before going his own way to found Univan in 1973.When he died at the age of 87 in 2009, his wife decided to continue to run the Univan brand, installing well-known Hong Kong shipping personality Richard Hext at the helm who then poached shipmanagement veteran Bjorn Hojgaard from Singapore’s Thome to take the CEO role.

Started in 1974, the Anglo-Eastern Group was a home grown product and took off as a third party manager soon after a young Belgian executive with a degree in Naval Architecture (Peter Cremers) joined in 1985. Marcel Liedts soon joined Peter on the management team and, under their leadership, the managed fleet steadily grew. The company gained a reputation for first class safety and environmental standards and in 1998 it underwent a management buy-out, followed in 2001 by a merger with Denholm Ship Management, providing a presence in Europe.

The newly merged entity will have:

• 1,700+ shore based staff
• 24,000+ seafarers
• 600 ships under full management
• 100 ships under crew management only

Reasons Why Deck Cadets and Junior Engineers are Not Getting Jobs

The recent financial crises have affected everyone in the maritime industry. Ship Jobs are scarce, though everyday you might hear in news that some top-notch company took in five new ships or increased its pool of employees. Strange it might seem to be, the fact remains that the gray clouds of unemployment are still not completely off the marine market place. The top rank professionals will swim smoothly, as they have always; however, those at the bottom has and will have to bear the brunt.

Talk to a freshly graduated junior engineer or deck cadet and I bet the only thing you would hear about is of getting a decent break (or even on any damn shitty ship would also do). They want jobs badly, I mean really bad! And why would they not? There are many who have taken loans for their maritime training and even have mortgages to clear off. In fact, that is what every one of us would do once we pass out from the college. Look for jobs! Right?

Unfortunately, the “situation of crises” has become a breeding ground for job agents and fraud shipping companies to do profitable business. They are charging $2000-$3000 dollars in return for a break; not to mention, one cannot expect it to be in some hot-shot company.

Sadly, these fresh graduates have started to succumb to the situation, and have even started considering shelling out the “asked price”. Result? Some have already received the much desired break, some are looking for sources to finance them, and some have fallen prey to fraud agents and shipping companies, who have taken the money and disappeared in thin air.

It’s a grim situation out there, where no one knows what to do and whom to blame. So, as the blaming-game continues, we try to pen down seven important points that we believe have been the real reason for the present dilemma.

1.       Supply & Demand Imbalance

It might sound cliché, but the fact remains that the lack of equilibrium between the supply and demand of fresh professionals in the marine industry is the main reason behind the dearth of jobs, especially for newly graduates. Maritime academies are churning out marine engineers and deck cadets, doing their jobs pretty well and making huge profits, irrespective of the market condition.

However, they can’t be blamed because one cannot shut the institute for one year and then re-open it again whenever the need arises. Today, the need for deck cadets is less, tomorrow it can be more. So who is to blame? Probably the authority that gives the permission to open new institutes every month is at fault. However, the bottom line is until a balance is created between the demand and supply of seafarers, the scarcity of jobs will persist.

2.       Inability of the Governmental Authority to take Concrete Steps

Governmental authorities should take concrete steps to solve the issue of unemployment for the fresh graduates. Or else, merchant navy would slowly lose its position as a prospective career option among students (The fact is it has already lost its lustre to a certain extent).

It is high time the government take a stand to help the freshly graduated cadets and engineers for getting placed in decent companies. Until this is done, both agents and shipping companies will not miss a single opportunity to earn profits from maritime professionals. Government needs to intervene and help these professionals with a decent break.

3.       Lack of References = No Job Offer

Shocking but true, the trend of getting jobs using references is still a hot favourite method of getting a decent job. There have been several cases wherein average students have got jobs in top shipping companies because they have father or uncle working there as chief engineer or captain; whereas bright students are still jobless because either they don’t have a god father in the industry or lack hundred of dollars to pay as bribe.

Either ways, an unjust and unfair condition is being created which is eventually making the present situation grimmer. Though people might shout slogans against corruption or even get themselves enrolled in a debate against the same, the fact is, when it comes to personal level, the definition of immorality changes, drastically.

4.       Shipping Companies Showing No Respect for Fresh Graduates

Let’s face the fact that a certain shipping company hires a fresh graduate with the sole intention and hope to retain him or her as a third officer or a fourth engineer once the necessary certifications are achieved. The companies don’t entertain newly graduates as respect to the degree or training they have. Don’t believe me? Visit a shipping company or a ship and see how the cadets and junior engineers are treated and you would get to know what I mean. We agree that they are fresh and naive, but they are future officers and captains. Give them their due respect.

The moral of the story is until the companies stop treating young professionals as “liabilities”, the loyalty will not have a place in employer-employee relationship, leading to reduction in retaining power of the company. Give respect, and get respect in return.

5.       Unwillingness/Inability to Enter a Different Market

Unlike other fields, wherein graduates have options to enter other industries and domains, a seafarer is left with no other choice than to stick with the same field. Merchant navy is a specialized field, where only two types of people are found – one who loves money and one who loves the sea. So once a person shells out hundreds of dollars for his maritime training, he or she is least interested to explore other fields wherein the starting salary wouldn’t be even half of that offered in merchant navy. Moreover, the glamour attached with the field is also something that holds back maritime professionals to explore other domains. Try talking to a dozen of mariners; each one would talk about leaving the field, but I bet none would do so. Probably that’s why they say, “Once a mariner, always a mariner.” Moral of the story- there are several other opportunities as well. One needs to look beyond his or her mental block.

But this is just one side of the story. Most of the fresh maritime professionals won’t be able to land themselves with a decent job on land because the skilled they acquired are of no use on land. A marine engineer might be able to find a way, but a deck cadet will have a tough time making his way through the highly competitive market on land.

6.       Improper/Inadequate Training

This might come a bit blunt on the fresh cadets and engineers. But lately there have been a huge lapse in the quality of cadets and engineers that maritime institutes are producing. Ask shipping companies, and they have a list of complains about fresh graduates. Probably that is just an excuse on their part; probably it is true, but the fact is maritime institutes today are more interested in quantity than quality. They believe a certificate is all that one needs to run a ship at sea, irrespective of the kind of training and skills a mariner has.

Though it’s true that experience is the best teacher, a fresh seafarer should have the basic skills to ensure his or her safety on ship. Most of the fresh seamen are still “Alice in wonderland” when on ship, increasing shipping companies belief that they really are nothing but “liabilities”. But the cadets and engineers are not the only ones to blame. It’s the slack policies of institutes that are to blame. And until these institutes tighten the loose ends, the shipping companies will not show their trust in the fresh graduates.

7.       Maritime Institutes Flaunting Fake Promises

How often have you seen maritime institutes flaunting one liner such as 100% placement Guaranteed? Always, right? And how often have you seen the same institutes going back on their words when they are not able to provide placements? Same – always! Like every field, institutes in the marine industry have also learned the ropes of the game to allure more students to their courses. They know how to attract students by giving fake promises or showing big starting salary figures, without debriefing them about their future career or life at sea. Every year more and more students are falling prey to this traps and finding themselves stuck in a catch22 situation.

 End Result: Dissatisfaction, depression, and of course – the great unemployment!