MEM54

NEW ERA FOR SUBSEA MINING
Nautilus New Era, the world’s first 227m subsea
mining vessel, successfully launched on March 29.
The subsea mining vessel, constructed by Mawei
Shipbuilding for MAC, is the largest offshore
construction project in the Fujian area in terms of size
and value. The innovative design integrates functions,
including subsea exploration, mining, and mineral
pretreatment and is equipped with a mining system,
mineral lifting system, dehydration system, and
loading/unloading system. The advanced dieselelectric
vessel will be classed as ABS DPS – 2 EHS – F,
will be Tier III compliant and will be able to work in
and traverse ECA areas.
With 15 years of collaboration with ABS, Mawei
Shipbuilding has built more than 100 vessels,
including state-of-the-art offshore support vessels, a
compact semisubmersible, a diving support vessel,
asphalt carrier, and this recently launched subsea
mining vessel.
DE HOOP DELIVERS AMADEUS QUEEN
Netherlands-based Shipyard De
Hoop has recently delivered its
fifteenth river cruise vessel to
Lüftner Cruises. The Amadeus Queen
is based on the award-winning
Amadeus Silver series of ships, but
offers further innovative
developments.
This new flagship of Austria’s
river cruise specialist features a
new approach to public area design,
with an all-glass entrance-atrium,
containing the reception desk and
centrally placed grand staircase as
well as a separate travel desk.
This change to the structural
longitudinal stiffness, usually
supported by steel, is mostly glass.
A weight increase caused by the
redeveloped luxury aft area was a
specific challenge, as the aft
underwater ship does not provide
much buoyancy. As such, the
engine room had to be completely
reengineered.
The vessel features an
ergonomically designed hull shape,
combined with a propulsion system
based around two Caterpillar 3508
main engines, rated at 783 kW @
1600 rev/min. This arrangment was
found to delliver higher efficiency,
lower fuel consumption and reduced
exhaust emission levels.
The engines drive two Veth Z-
drives with contra-rotating
propellers. These main thrusters are
recessed, limiting the minimum
operational draught to only 1.52m
and allowing the vessel to cruise
most European rivers where the
water depths are often critical.
In order to isolate vibrations
from the propulsion units, a double
hardwearing flexible mounting
system has been applied.
On both sides, the azimuthing
thrusters are mounted on separated
bottom sections, which are
resiliently integrated in a frame of
the actual ship’s bottom.
Furthermore, the main engines
are mounted on double vibration
dampers and paired to the thruster
units through flexible couplings.
To lower the impact of propeller
blade impulses to the hull, an air
curtain buffer was installed - by
blowing air in between the
propeller and hull, the pressure
pulses are not transmitted to the
hull.
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