Segment of Nieuw Statendam floating from yard in Palermo

Video footage by “Liveboat Crociere” (credits go to them), showing the christening and floating out of a large section of the Nieuw Statendam, (looks like bow section) on its way to the Marghera yard near Venice for the construction of the complete vessel.

Cool.

Thanks for sharing.

Nice

Thank you for sharing the video.

Thanks for the video!

Denise:)

I never would have thought that they would "christen" just part of a ship!

Amazing something so unfinished can sail off, and not just a short distance. The pride and fun shared by the workers was infectious. Putting a face on those Fincantieiri brass plaques we see on so many HAL ships. Thanks for passing this on.

Thanks for posting the link.

Allan

Thank you for sharing.

Nice! Thanks for sharing.

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May I add my thanks for your posting this video? As others have said, the pride of those shipyard workers who helped to make the forward section of Nieuw Statendam clearly shows. I hope the prideful quality of their workmanship will be demonstrated throughout the service of Nieuw Statendam.

I wonder why, though, a ship is built in sections, towed to another shipyard for completion. Probably an economic decision on the part of the shipyard. But, I would think that the "marriage" of different sections could/would pose engineering headaches for the builder. And, maybe create issues for the ship's Chief Engineers in her future as well.

May I add my thanks for your posting this video? As others have said, the pride of those shipyard workers who helped to make the forward section of Nieuw Statendam clearly shows. I hope the prideful quality of their workmanship will be demonstrated throughout the service of Nieuw Statendam.

 

I wonder why, though, a ship is built in sections, towed to another shipyard for completion. Probably an economic decision on the part of the shipyard. But, I would think that the "marriage" of different sections could/would pose engineering headaches for the builder. And, maybe create issues for the ship's Chief Engineers in her future as well.

I too, was pleasantly surprised by the obvious pride the workers showed on completion of this part of the job.

Regarding the section building of cruise ships, I assume that because of the sheer size of ships these days, a yard needs a large dock to build them, of which not many are around. Building a large ship from scratch in the same large dock, would mean that you occupy the large dock for the entire building time. Building in segments means that you occupy your large dock for a shorter time, thus resulting in a larger capacity to build more ships in the same time. I also think that within such a large company that Fincantieri is these days (they recently took over STX yards in France), they specialize certain parts of the build on certain yards within the company. Palermo maybe specializing in metal cutting and building blocks that they can handle in their space that is available and transporting them to Maghera that would not need metal cutting facilities, so they can concentrate on other skills. No knowledge on my side, just assuming what maybe a logical choice for this kind of building ships.

Alphen is pretty close. What Fincantieri is doing is sharing the work out to underutilized shipyards within the group. Palermo built as large a unit as they could handle, while Maghera built another. This allows Maghera to use some of their space to continue on another project instead of using their entire yard and people on one project while Palermo sat idle. Then the joining is a shorter process than even a mega-block by mega-block process. There will be some "adjustments" made when the segments are joined, but it isn't far different from when mega-blocks are joined in "conventional" shipbuilding.

In a similar process the Aker shipyard in Philadelphia builds ships in "series". They build the aft portion of the ship in the drydock, then "scoot" it forward to complete the hull. Meanwhile, they start construction of the aft portion of the next ship in the class behind the first hull. When the first ship is ready to float out, they put a divider wall into the dock between the ships, and flood the forward portion of the dock, move the ship out, and pump that part of the dock dry again. They then skid the aft portion of the ship forward, and repeat. They did this for a class of 12 tankers a few years back.

omg, I cried! Thank you.

Thank you for the video. I am so excited and love to see her progress.

I can't see our cabin yet. but I did imagine myself in the oceans bar having a cocktail.

Sandra

Video footage by “Liveboat Crociere” (credits go to them), showing the christening and floating out of a large section of the Nieuw Statendam, (looks like bow section) on its way to the Marghera yard near Venice for the construction of the complete vessel.

 

 

Wow! Thank you for passing the video along to us.

Cool video! A bit hard to tell from the angle but it looked a little scary to have those shards of glass raining down on the workers when they tossed that bottle over the side!

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Cool video! A bit hard to tell from the angle but it looked a little scary to have those shards of glass raining down on the workers when they tossed that bottle over the side!

 

 

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You got me curious to think how this ship launching, champagne smashing tradition evolved: http://mentalfloss.com/article/12612/why-are-bottles-champagne-smashed-new-ships

You got me curious to think how this ship launching, champagne smashing tradition evolved: http://mentalfloss.com/article/12612/why-are-bottles-champagne-smashed-new-ships

Fun to read, thank you for providing the link.

I can add that traditionally the official christening should be done by a woman, to prevent bad luck. Also not breaking the bottle is told to bring bad luck to the ship. If this is true or not, I do not know.

Costa Concoridia's christening bottle did not break back in 2006........

You got me curious to think how this ship launching, champagne smashing tradition evolved: http://mentalfloss.com/article/12612/why-are-bottles-champagne-smashed-new-ships

Fun to read, thank you for providing the link.

 

I can add that traditionally the official christening should be done by a woman, to prevent bad luck. Also not breaking the bottle is told to bring bad luck to the ship. If this is true or not, I do not know.

 

Costa Concoridia's christening bottle did not break back in 2006........

There are actually specialists who know just how much scoring a champagne bottle needs to break reliably, but not beforehand.

Great video, thanks for sharing.

Interesting.

Thanks for the video link.