What can you tell me about this type of ship?

Factual Questions
1

Okay, so I do a lot of kayaking in the Hudson River. There is a decent amount of commercial traffic on the river, and just about all of it consists of barges–which according my definition means “long, low cargo vessels moved along by tugboats.” Like the one in this picture: https://gregworld.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/tug-barge-hudson-river-6-17-2008.jpg.

The other day, though, I was out on the river and saw this ship, only without all the containers on deck: http://www.fleetmon.com/en/vessels/Stidia_2228992. It is “roughly the size of a barge,” but obviously it extends much further into the air. (Also it had no accompanying tug.)

Compared to the barges I usually see, this ship was striking because of its height. From a distance, the structure on the back almost looked like a Hampton Inn or something similar. (In fact, my companion, who had never paddled on the river before, thought at first it was a building on the opposite shoreline.)

My knowledge of shipping and ships is very very scanty. What I know about the ship, thanks to Google, is that it is called the Stidia, that it is owned by an Algerian shipping company called CNAN Nord, and that it is currently on its way from Albany (NY) to a port called Mostaganem, Algeria. It left Albany the day I saw it and is due to arrive in Algeria on the 27th of this month. There seem to be a handful of other ships with a similar design in the CNAN fleet, too.

What I DON’T know is anything about the design of the ship, especially that tall hotel-like structure in the back. Anybody know what it’s for, why it sticks out like that, anything else about the way the ship is put together? Is this a common design for ocean-going cargo ships? It really is the only one of this type I’ve seen in over a dozen years on the river…

Thanks!

2

The tall structure aft is where the bridge, engine room, mess and crew quarters would be. If you look at the photo it’s clear there is no other place to put that stuff. It’s so tall because containers can be staked high on the ship’s deck and the bridge has to be tall enough to see over the containers. It also has to do with balancing the weight of the containers on the ship.

I’m curious what cargo is likely to be shipped from Albany to Algeria. I didn’t think Albany was a big manufacturing city. Perhaps it’s a rail head.

3

The ship in that picture is riding high, which suggests to me that the few containers on board are mostly empty.

Fully laden, virtually all the hull that you can see would be under water. If there was any weather, the decks would be awash most of the time.

4

General cargo ship… built in 2011, Algerian flagged. It’s a feeder container ship, with a capacity of 681 TEU*. By comparison, the big boys have 15,000-20,000 TEU capacities.

Typically these are used for what used to be called the coastal trade- they go between ports along the coast. Typically it’s to transport containers to/from central terminals, where they’re loaded onto the big ships for trans-Atlantic or trans-Pacific shipment. So for example, they might go back and forth between say Boston and NYC, taking containers to NYC for shipment elsewhere, or from NYC for offloading in Boston.

I imagine it’s probably a consequence of not too much trade between the US and Algeria that such a small ship is being used for a trans-Atlantic voyage.

Or… with those huge cranes on board, it’s possible that it’s as much or more some kind of heavy cargo transport ship, as merely a small container ship. It might also mean that they visit some fairly unimproved ports without their own dockside container cranes.
(TEU = twenty foot equivalent unit, meaning 1 TEU = 1 20’ standard shipping container.)

5

IANA expert, but I suspect that Algeria is simply the flag of convenience for the ship. It has nothing to do with where the ship is home-ported or where it picks up or delivers cargo.

I thought that cargo ops between US ports had to be on US-registered vessels, but that may be obsolete info and I’m too lazy to look it up right now.

It’s certainly plausible that such a ship could make runs between Canada and the US, or the US and Caribbean ports without ever in its life having crossed the Atlantic to visit Algeria.

6

It is a container ship. The hotel structure is the house. It will house the bridge, crews quarters, ship offices, crew and officers salons, and some shops. Underneath the house at and below the water line will be the engine room. She is not fully loaded. The bridge is high so more containers can be loaded on her. Where the blue and black paint would be the water line, if the ship was fully loaded you would not see the black line in smooth water. I would also agree the Algerian flag may be just a flag of convenience. I do not believe the Jones Act has been repealed though every year there is an attempt. The jones act requires ships carring cargo from one US port to another US port be US flaged.

7

Such laws are called Cabotage laws, and most nations with significant coastline have them. The US law is the so-called Jones Act, as currently ammended. “Cabotage” has grown to mean within-nation transport by any means, not just shipping.

8

The Jones Act is still in effect: Merchant Marine Act of 1920 - Wikipedia

ETA: Ninja’d by yabob.

9

Thanks for the replies thus far. One thing that confused me is that the ship, when I saw it, had no containers aboard (or very, very few at any rate) as it does in the photo I linked to. So the hotel-like structure (the house) REALLY stood out. It makes sense that when the ship has several layers of containers aboard it will be important to be able to see ahead, thus the height. The explanation of providing extra balance also makes sense.

I don’t know anything about flags of convenience or the Jones Act, except what I have just learned from reading these replies. CNAN, as noted above, is an Algerian company (Compagnie Nationale Algerienne de Navigation) and does do quite a bit of shipping in and out of Algerian ports.* And there’s no question that this particular ship does cross the Atlantic, which surprises me because it looked both kind of small and kind of low, and its destination after leaving Albany is indeed Algeria. See Position | CNAN Nord.

So the Jones Act, whether still in force or not, would not seem to apply, right? and the question of the flag of convenience seems immaterial as it does go to its “home” country, correct?

*CNAN’s website has a map of their shipping destinations, which in fact does not include Albany or indeed any US destination except Houston…possible that it needs updating, or maybe it’s just wrong. In any case the great bulk of the ports they say they serve are Algerian.

Again, thanks for the responses. Very interesting!

10

REAL barges are pulled by mules named Sal.

The linked photo appears to be a barge named the No Smoking.

11

Which works on the Erie Canal. But the Hudson is…a bit wider.

Yes, the massive letters were visible from a long way off. I guess they REALLY MEAN IT.

12

Albany is a fairly busy “saltwater” port. Cargo is shipped to and from western and central NY.

13

My father used to be an officer on ships very similar to those, I spent my first Christmas and New Year in one of them, and a few others afterwards; best New Year ever when as a kid I was on the bridge pulling on the fog horn, seeing the ships around the harbour lit up with signal flares and the radio buzzing with New Year greetings in every language.

The “hotel”, IIRC, was divided with the officers and captain cabins under the bridge, the mess hall on the floor bellow that and the crew cabins under the mess. All connected with steep stairs and permeated with a grease/sea salt smell that brings me back every time I’m at a port.

There was actually at least one cabin for guests, it wasn’t unheard of for the captain or some of the officers to take their families on one voyage, although me or my family only used them one or two days at a time when my father had to stay on watch with the ship at anchorage or berthed. He would do two trips (two or three months long) and then take a trip off as vacation, so it could be the case that we would see him only for four or five days during a six month period and it made sense to stay on the ship to make the best out of it.

14

Um, another name for the “hotel” is the “superstructure”.

15

A ship may never or seldom go to its “home port”. I worked on a Keystone Tanker the “Katawba Ford” home port Delaware. We sailed the West Coast. From Martinez Calif- Portland Or- Anticortes Washington and back to Martinez. It was interesting I was working on the west coast dispatched out of San Francisco. But my W-2 was from Delaware.

As for size gross tonnage 8161 Tons. Not a super or jumbo but still a full size ship.

16

Interesting that it would be leaving Albany empty, and that it’s next stop is Algeria. I would think the owners would be practically begging to get some cargo on board. Any revenue they could get for the trip would be better than nothing.

Is that the consequence of a trade deficit; when you import more than you export, sometimes the ships have to go back empty?

17

No not a feeder container ship. Your second guess was nearer the mark. It’s a small geared tweendecker multipurpose vessel with substantial heavylift capacity, on an international trading pattern (not coastal, not container feeding).

It seems reasonably well fitted for containers with outboard container lashing bridges on deck, and power and plugs for 100 reefers (refrigerated containers). However, those cranes are 200mt which is seriously heavy lift, and they might well be useable in a twin configuration by the look of the heavy lifting beam on deck. Also, as a tweendecker, it’s fitted for carriage of breakbulk (odd sized) cargo on two levels.

No. If it were fully loaded it would be down to the level at which the boot topping (the darker paint) was fully submerged.

Well no. Firstly a vessel’s home port is by definition where it is flagged so your statement is self-contradictory. Secondly, Algeria is not a classic flag of convenience (“FOC”).

The classic FOC is where a vessel has literally nothing to do with the country under which it is flagged, other than bare registration. For example, the Liberian registry is actually run from an office in New York. The Panamanian flag is run from Panama I think but other than payment of dues, a Panamanian flagged vessel probably has no connection at all to Panama.

However, this vessel is actually owned by an Algerian company, and managed from Algeria, and employs Algerian crew. However, there would be a good chance that the money behind the company is French and they use Algeria because it’s cheaper to operate from there.

Or “accommodation block”. I’ve never heard the term “hotel”. I suspect that’s a US term.

An astute comment but we can’t say if the vessel is in ballast (empty), unless the OP can remember how deep the vessel was sitting. For all the OP knows the vessel could have been loaded with project cargo below decks. The vessel’s draft on leaving Albany is given as 7m which is certainly not down to her marks but sounds to me like she was part loaded.

18

Stidia is currently doing feeder work between southern med ports.

19

Hang on, no the entire fleet seems to be similar ships, which go to Europe and back… (perhaps Stidia does USA and back…)

I think its because of the lack of rivers in Algeria, the docks are only small,
they do not extend into the meditteranean to get to deep water, the distance out to deeper water would be excessive…

So the ports of Algeria would have water to a depth of 6 meters, which blocks the larger container ships…

Also the ports are small, and the congestion is bad, the large ships would be too costly to run as they would be stalled at the ports… waiting a week to get in ?
Well they’d block all the other ships… The other ships will claim to be broken down… the delays…

20

That’s a cute little ship! I spent a decade in shipping, which is how I met my husband, a captain. My first trip with him back when we were in our 20s was in a similarly -sized ship. Terrible cruise, and no casino. :wink:

It is no uncommon for ships to return empty, or with just empty containers. However this could be carrying bulk or even container cargo below deck, which is typically where you start loading.

And I never heard of Algeria as a FOC, but I left the business a decade ago. The husband tells me he has never heard of it as an FOC either. He would expect the ship to actually be Algerian.