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Dontleave t1_j6iugdr wrote

It’s a vehicle carrier (new cars) coming from Davisville RI

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nobbyv t1_j6jg1wy wrote

I didn't realize Boston could handle these ROROs. All the cars I've bought have been taken off in Davisville and then shipped via carrier to me up in NH. Thought Davisville covered basically all of NE.

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BigHmmEnergy t1_j6jqpao wrote

They offload in Charleston. You can see the massive parking lot on google maps [here] https://maps.app.goo.gl/2tjVkNNHAZ2ndWc9A?g_st=i Dropped pin)

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ahecht t1_j6jtlwe wrote

Seems like a bad idea to store new cars next to a giant salt pile, but what do I know.

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CapeAnnimal t1_j6kudrw wrote

Salt pile is in Chelsea

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BostonUrbEx t1_j6l2lby wrote

The one in Chelsea is there year round, and there is a second one at the Moran Terminal in Charlestown during the winter.

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CapeAnnimal t1_j6l75ie wrote

Oh there you go, thanks for straightening me out. I worked at Chelsea high, sometimes the kids would play in the salt piles on the way to school, come in all crusted with salt.

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dyslexda t1_j6lcy59 wrote

That area is the size of Kendall Square, and it's a parking lot for storing offloaded cars? Some prime /r/fuckcars material there.

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TheSausageFattener t1_j6kcbvm wrote

Any idea why they would run it from Quonset to Charlestown like that? It seems like a lot of effort to take the ship into the bay, then take it back out and sail it up to Boston. Ive always been under the impression these are usually transatlantic haulers.

Is there no more efficient way to do it? Theyve got rail freight.

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RufusTCuthbert t1_j6kez3a wrote

Essentially this is more efficient. But also the rail infrastructure to Moran Terminal in Charlestown, which is aka Boston Autoport, is in poor shape and not been used in many years. It also snakes it’s way through a highly congested area (both streets and rail) and would be a very slow and disruptive way to ship that many cars, using various freight railroads, routes, etc.

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BostonUrbEx t1_j6l3az5 wrote

Most of the cargo is loaded on in Japan. In Davisville and Boston they unload. Most of these auto ships that call on Boston seem to only sail east. Japan -> Panama Canal -> Carribbean and East Coast -> Davisville -> Cape Cod Canal -> Boston -> Suez Canal -> Japan. I'm not sure why the ships that call on Boston always seem to go the same direction. There's also a bunch of destinations, but I noticed they always unload in Davisville before unloading in Boston.

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ibleedblue t1_j6mjjyf wrote

Google ocean currents and you’ll see that it’s more efficient to travel east along the Gulf Stream to the Mediterranean than it is to travel back south to the Panama Canal.

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Rindan t1_j6kqlua wrote

Shipping by water is hilariously cheaper than anything else. Money is always worth "a lot of effort".

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PHOTO500 t1_j6kk56a wrote

Somewhere a Russian oligarch is on his yacht reading OP’s headline and laughing his ass off.

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mini4x t1_j6kndx7 wrote

This is a Japanese built and owned ship, somehow fagged to Panama, bringing Japanese built cars to the US.

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gronkspike25 t1_j6kxdgp wrote

The flag is of convenience. It’s significantly cheaper for the company.

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mini4x t1_j6kxoof wrote

Ahh, the Minnesota loop hole of the ocean?

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BostonUrbEx t1_j6l3wvb wrote

And almost entirely staffed by Philippinos for some reason, too. And not unique to these ships. Lots of Philippinos on cruise ships working behind the scenes. Never could figure out why.

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mini4x t1_j6l49jl wrote

Pretty easy - one of the poorest countries in the world so they will work dirt cheap. I met a bunch of Filipino workers on Wake Island ages ago, they were some of the nicest guys too.

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Rindan t1_j6kr0w5 wrote

I don't get it. Why would a Russian oligarch find it funny that a big cargo ship moved cars between two American states via the cheapest means possible?

I think Russian oligarchs probably have some more serious stuff to worry about - like finding a way to keep ingratiating themselves with Putin so they don't accidentally fall out a window with three gun shots in the back of their head.

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Simon_Jester88 t1_j6ivcwz wrote

RoRo!

roll on, roll off, they transport cars

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meatfrappe t1_j6k1ppd wrote

In Boston we drop our Rs so we just call it an oo here.

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DMala t1_j6k776q wrote

If you’re dropping the leading R’s you should probably talk to a speech therapist.

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Simon_Jester88 t1_j6kadbz wrote

I actually have a speech impediment and have a problem with Rs and everyone at college thought it was a Boston accent.

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Exciting-Ant4077 t1_j6o7tut wrote

I had that same impediment as a kid. I said "wed" instead of "red." I finally learned to say R correctly when I was 7. The most embarrassing thing is that both my first name and my last name begin with the letter R.

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BostonUrbEx t1_j6iuscr wrote

10,000 tons of brand new Subarus. Love that new car smell.

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davdev t1_j6k8xkf wrote

And EBJ gets a cut of every one of them.

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hyperside89 t1_j6izfb6 wrote

A shot from my office in the seaport - I think it gives a good sense of the sheer size of it.

https://imgur.com/a/M9WY56R

It docks at the autoport in Charlestown. You can see it pretty well from the Tobin if you drive over when it's docked.

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shmeatballs t1_j6j6gfb wrote

Fairly routine. You should see the chaos when LNG tankers come through .

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mattgm1995 t1_j6j7egw wrote

When do they come in?

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shmeatballs t1_j6j8i48 wrote

Fairly frequently. New England doesn’t have access to some of the major pipelines in the US, so we import a lot via tanker. There’s also the Jones Act but that’s another rabbit hole.

This is a website which tracks the expected arrivals into Boston Harbor if you’re curious.

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BigEnd3 t1_j6jjmx0 wrote

I've worked those ships. The grand irony is a handful are US made, but Norwegian flagged, and owned by a boston/French conglomerate. I'm not sure if they are still sailing the Old LNGC Matthew anymore, but she used to go to Everett once every two weeks.

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Exciting-Ant4077 t1_j6o81fr wrote

I used to work in Charlestown, and my office building had a view of the Mystic River and I frequently saw tankers going by.

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bostonvikinguc t1_j6jacde wrote

You will know when they shut down the harbor, the bridge, and have gun boats on the Charles. Living in Chelsea sucked then.

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IphtashuFitz t1_j6jxytj wrote

Back before 9/11 they didn't bother shutting anything down, they'd just warn boaters over VHF that it was inbound, and they'd send a couple USCG patrol boats to escort it and shoo other boats out of its way. I crewed on some USCG Auxiliary escorts back in the 90's and it was crazy how many sailboats thought they had the right of way over that thing and other big cargo ships. I bet the skippers on these things love having the harbor shut down these days.

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bostonvikinguc t1_j6jy4qe wrote

That big tub is slow. It’s also terrifying to think how much damage could be done if it was to pop

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IphtashuFitz t1_j6k0e6x wrote

I saw an article years ago that indicated that the danger of such an incident is seriously overblown. I forget the specifics, but it said that LNG requires a LOT of oxygen to become explosive, and a leak, etc. in the open is likely to dissipate the gas long before it reaches an explosive mix. The more likely scenario would be a fire that burns the fuel off. While that would severely damage the ship itself, as long as the fire was contained to the ship it could just slowly burn itself out with no significant damage to the surroundings.

Think of it being similar to lighting a bucket of gasoline on fire versus what happens when it's the vapors from gasoline that ignite.

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RufusTCuthbert t1_j6kfdx6 wrote

The LNG tankers are more dangerous empty (fumes) than full (when it’s full of what is essentially gas jelly).

IIRC (and not sure if it’s still the case) they used to have to time the LNG ships so that the tide was just right; if it was too high it would not clear the Tobin, and if it was too low there was a possibility of the ships crashing the harbor tunnels.

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bostonvikinguc t1_j6k3j5z wrote

More concerned about a car going over the top off the bridge.

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Hribunos t1_j6meiqo wrote

Sure, the LNG probably wouldn't detonate (not enough O2 like you said- it would burn but it would burn relatively "slowly") but if the hull on one of those ships ever failed you would get a wave of cryogenic liquid washing ashore. It would do a lot of damage from freezing. And then catching on fire.

No boom, still a big problem.

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dyqik t1_j6p34o3 wrote

It wouldn't stay frozen or have much ability to freeze anything for long - the ocean is big [citation needed] and cryogenic liquids really don't have a lot of heat capacity compared to water.

Freezing stuff also usually doesn't damage much, unless there's water to expand inside it.

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Hribunos t1_j6pfqs9 wrote

Have you ever seen LN2 skittering across a floor? It's like that. There wouldn't actually be that much heat transfer from the ocean- the LNG would skate across the surface on a thin layer of vapor.

I used to work in the seaport, and we ran the numbers - it's not enough to destroy building or whatever but anyone standing on the pier is gonna be a popsicle.

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dyqik t1_j6pgjcm wrote

I build cryostats and operate superconducting detectors - I've been handling liquid cryogens for over twenty years.

I've stuck my hand in liquid nitrogen hundreds of times.

The main danger from liquid cryogens is the displacement of oxygen from the area when it flash boils.

While small amounts of liquid will skate around on a vapor barrier (leidenfrost effect on solid surfaces), in volume, the boiling at the interface between water and the liquid will produce some amount of turbulence and mixing that increases heat transfer.

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BigHmmEnergy t1_j6jr5lw wrote

They shut down the Tobin bridge whenever they come in so that some terrorist can’t blow up the bridge with the ship underneath it

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fenwayb t1_j6jjuc3 wrote

Looks like there's one on the 9th

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jonnielaw t1_j6m59lf wrote

Mostly later at night. We used to have a restaurant right on the harbor and every so often you’d see a bunch of police boats and copters followed by this ginormous ship.

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Wumaduce t1_j6jnn5m wrote

We were doing the sprinks over in rhe Navy Yard parking garage for MGH, we'd always go over and watch the tanker ships come in, and all of the police and coast guard escorts. It was crazy.

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mini4x t1_j6knpp0 wrote

Isn't there some offshore do-hickey for those now?

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TakenOverByBots t1_j6jeul9 wrote

I used to live in East Boston near Jeffreys Point and I would still be excited every time a massive ship came through. My wish for us all is never lose that childlike wonder.

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frenetix t1_j6iwm06 wrote

Vessel Finder

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Academic_Guava_4190 t1_j6j1xwj wrote

Damn it! I just bought a new car now they are bringing in more options /s

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Main-Ad-4912 t1_j6k94dj wrote

Back in the 70s Ernie Boch sr. (The llama commercials) was the only person to buy into Japanese cars. He bought the rights to Subaru New England and as an AWD car it became a staple up here. Every Subaru dealer in New England has to pay EBJ for each one of those cars. He owns the port in RI and here in Boston. Also fuck EBJ

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randomlurker82 t1_j6knkiu wrote

Yup I remember being in total shock when I heard that. Subaru is practically ubiquitous around here. I'm on my second one!

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Capt_5187 t1_j6ky8zy wrote

I’m driving the small white red and black ferry(Samuel Whittemore)off the port bow.

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NAFAL44 OP t1_j6l0w2l wrote

No way! I take the Crispus Attucks to work every day!

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Capt_5187 t1_j6l5bld wrote

I usually do the North Station run during the winter and Provincetown during the summer but I do that one every once and awhile. Say good morning to my guy Vance who is working crew tomorrow!

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a_swarm_of_nuns t1_j6iu788 wrote

Car freighter. They are there on monthly cycles. Surprised you haven’t seen it before

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aaypan t1_j6iz8z5 wrote

Saw it on my morning walk by Revere Beach. I guess this was it!

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thejosharms t1_j6ofg56 wrote

Watching these things navigate into and out of the port from Admiral Hill in Chelsea is a sight to behold. The size of scope of the car carriers makers me so uncomfortable but I also can't look away.

One time I was eating lunch over near Piers Park and one of these was leaving port and blasted it's horn (I think the layman's explanation is it's a "hey I'm coming around a blind corner and by the time you see me it's too late for me to stop to gtfo of my way"

I felt it my fucking soul. Talk about brown sound.

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IAmRyan2049 t1_j6j90uo wrote

I have a reoccurring dream that I die on one of these. Never even been on one, somehow my brain knows about them. So this image is frightening

You have stupid dreams all the time but this dream is vivid

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botulizard t1_j6k5dvh wrote

I have one about swimming next to one. It's horrible.

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botulizard t1_j6k452o wrote

I used to work in one of those converted warehouses next to the Autoport. Up close, these things are so big that it's unnerving.

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biggybakes t1_j6keyvg wrote

More color for it's size, flag, etc...

What kind of ship is this?

ORCA ACE (IMO: 9777814) is a Vehicles Carrier that was built in 2018 (5 years ago) and is sailing under the flag of Panama.

Her carrying capacity is 15495 t DWT and her current draught is reported to be 8.4 meters. Her length overall (LOA) is 199.95 meters and her width is 32 meters.

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spoonweezy t1_j6kiafa wrote

Just hope the front doesn’t fall off.

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thewal68 t1_j6kjswu wrote

They typically show up in the port by Charlestown! When I lived there I loved seeing the vehicle carriers show up. Absolutely enormous. They look huge even up on the Tobin

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smedlap t1_j6kntps wrote

I saw this go by my house this morning. I have never seen it before. It is huge!

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iheartconcentrates t1_j6kwb98 wrote

It's really not that big?

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NAFAL44 OP t1_j6l0puk wrote

Dunno where you're from, but anything that's bigger than my office and moves counts as big in my opinion.

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bigtigerbigtiger t1_j6jn1kg wrote

This boat literally pahks the cahs near hahvahd yahd

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