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

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

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

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RoRo!

roll on, roll off, they transport cars

Vessel Finder

Time to put a big ass coexist sticker on the stern.

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

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.

Does the captain love his kids more than other captains?

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

Full of mdma apparently

Cool.

/r/fuckcars

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

When do they come in?

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.

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

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

Cah carria

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.

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.

I want to witness it how often is this?

RoRo ro your boat.

This is the best comment of the day.

Between the airport and the boats, I would get nothing done if I worked in your office space.

Trust me, it's a very real problem. ;p

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.

Looks like there's one on the 9th

Literally cope

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This boat literally pahks the cahs near hahvahd yahd

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.

^(MOL...)

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)

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

I see a ship in the harbor

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

Cool video of the ship unloading in Melbourne (Australia, I presume!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G1yuOOynFg

Charlestown?

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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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

Any ecommendations fo a theapist?

And EBJ gets a cut of every one of them.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

But it’s a ship

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.

Just hope the front doesn’t fall off.

It's funny because they also offload in Charleston

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

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

Those are factory installed now, Premium trims get a complimentary NPR sticker as well.

The cars came from Japan

https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/details/9777814

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

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

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

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

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

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.

And the AT-AT Walkers

More dangerous than molasses?

Did you get a Subaru?

Salt pile is in Chelsea

It's really not that big?

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

Ahh, the Minnesota loop hole of the ocean?

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

I had the exact opposite problem.

Edit: spelling

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

I can and shall obey.

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

Roll on, roll over!

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.

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.

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.

No I was joking. Does this one only bring Subarus?

Someone else said it was off loading 10,000 tons of Subarus.

Dammmmmmnnnnnn

I hope my GR86 is on there.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.