A recent contract to transport two 620-ton warships from Belgium to Pakistan as deck cargo has set records as Peters & May’s heaviest and longest double ship movement

As Peters & May’s Global Commercial Sales Manager, Robert Blades, says it’s not unusual for the company to transport one vessel of this size, but two of them going onto one ship is highly unusual: “This contract followed on from the shipment in 2018 of the first of these vessels. Following the client’s positive experience with Peters & May, the double shipment was due to be made in 2020, but the global pandemic put this back to September 2022. Finding a heavy lift ship to tackle such a movement was the first challenge. There are not many ships out there with the capacity to lift two warships simultaneously, along with suitable lifting equipment, however United Heavy Lift had the MV UHL Fame in position.”

Preparations were extensive with over 1.35 kilometres of cable used on the lashings for each ship. Sixteen slings were required to tandem lift each of the warships into place on board the UHL Famewith a mixture of the ship’s main spreaders and Peters & May’s extensive inventory of sub spreaders and sling equalising assemblies.

The receiving deck also required significant work with the use of heavy lift platforms to spread the load, preventing point loading and deck damages. Integrity of the cargo for the trip was ensured by Peters & May’s specialist cradling beneath the hulls. All were delivered with the peace of mind brought from Peters & May’s many years of experience in shipping commercial marine vessels.

Loading was a major operation, even by Peters & May’s standards, requiring two senior loadmasters and two trainee loadmasters. Each ship required around two days to prepare lifting gear, lift then cradle, then a whole further day was required to complete the lashings aboard UHL Fame.

Simon Judson, Peters & May’s CEO sees the successful completion of this job as a further illustration of how well the company’s commercial sector has been performing this year: “Our strength lies in our experienced technical department and our loadmasters’ combined knowledge and experience ensures a safe loading of large vessels like these.”