Life Inside Massive Car Carrier Ship: How the World's Largest Car Carrier Carrying 1.5 Million Cars

[@lobsterbisque7567]

In 2005, I was a crew member aboard NCLA's M/S Pride of America during her final weeks of construction at The Lloyd-Werft Shipyard in Bremerhaven Germany. In the few short weeks before the America's Sea Trials, I witnessed many Roll-On Roll-Off Vessels offloading & loading their cargo at a nearby port just adjacent to the shipyard. I found it fascinating to watch how quickly they could turn one of these MASSIVE vessels around! Thousands of passenger cars, trucks, & SUV's loaded in to the ship in a matter of hrs, only to have another massive roll on roll off come into port, empty it's cargo, and be reloaded, and sent off to it's destination within the same day as the first vessel. It's a sight behold, and I consider an enormous privilege to have a front row seat and a firsthand witness of multiple turn arounds/day, everyday for a few weeks. These vessels are truly modern engineering marvels!

[@helgeyndestad8562]

As a retired captain i spent the last 21 years of my career on ro/ro- car carriers, and i do belive you should have done better research on some of the items you described in the video. 1. You said that the lashing gang are officers, nope they are ordinary stevedores. 2. The rolltrailers used are called MAFI trailers and were invented by MAFI Transport Systeme GMBH in Germany. Not by any shipping company. 3. Large and heavy units are placed on the maindeck or if possible below. This for stabilityreason. Also the heavy cargo is spread evenly longitudinal vise to avoid excess trim, and excess stressmoment on the hull. This simply if the vessel is loaded wrong with to much weight in one end she will be trimmed to much on the stern and building up stressmoment, you will then have to ballast the in such way you get the bow down increasing the stress on the hull, this can then lead to the vessel breaking in two. Not a good situation.

[@wasserdrucker6227]

Can you tell more about firefighting strategies and did you have any fire event on one of your ships and if yes what was the reason and how did it end?

[@helgeyndestad8562]

@@wasserdrucker6227Yes i have had once a fire onboard a vessel, fortunatly it was in a voidspace that among other thinge maine engine exhaustpipe and also the fuealline for the boiler, The fuelline cracked and sewnt oil over to the exhaust line insulation wich got covered and ignited by the exhaust pipe, it was discovered by one of the enginers as he could feel the heat and also see that the paint on the bulkhead in the cargohold had started getting brown. Firealarm sounded and main engine was stopped. After the engine was stopped we carefully unbolted the manhole cover partially and sneaked a mist nozzle in the area and started misting it down, and finally extinguished the fire with that. Our way of conducting firedrills varies a little regarding if you are on a pure car/truck carrier or on a large ro/ro vessel due to the composition of the cargo, But pc/tc was usual team setup 2 smokediver teams 1 support team 1 tech team 1 first aid team and one engine team. Fifi was planned on 1 smokediving team to asess and fight the fire , 1smokediving team for boundry cooling, tech team to close all ventilation , support team to bring fwd hooses powder extinguishers, new tanks for the smokedivers etc. enginroom team was manning engine runnig pumps bothfor the firefighting but also for discharge any water from cargoholds. As of CO2 quenching of the fire we had to make sure that the compartment that had the fire ha to be compleatly sealed off from the rest of the vessel this due to the sad fact thet the size of the compartmant in some occasions would take most of the CO2 we had onboard. But we considered CO2 as the last resort to be used in the cargoholds.

[@skakdosmer]

Thanks Helge! You confirmed my suspicions.

[@nickviro2471]

100% agree.

[@jasonswift7098]

Righteo expert you know best!

[@Fishrokk]

Nice video on loading and unloading cargo. I still don't know what it's like to live and sail on one of these ships.

[@theodoreteo1408]

She has a very pleasant voice. Enjoy watching very much.

[@SMac-bq8sk]

RO RO RO your boat... Sorry, couldn't resist.

[@jimosullivan1389]

There is always one...lol

[@chimpinaneckbrace]

Driving cars onto a ship all day sounds like a lot more fun than my current job.

[@ChisomoTembo-vs1br]

I'm looking into this job 😅

[@blckbldng]

cars can probably load and unload themselves soon

[@rlu1956]

Can carry 1.5 million cars....hum, now that is quite the typo....LOL.

[@tappajaav]

Yeah... I'm sure it was just a typo...

[@patagualianmostly7437]

They are referring to the company (Hoegh, I believe.) as a whole that carries 1.5M per year...not an individual vessel. 🤣😂😅

[@tanwaukdewuyi7610]

Of cause😅😅😂😂😂

[@theodoreteo1408]

The largest can hold 6,900 standardized cars. Are you stup*d or what?

[@eacoincmubiru5894]

@@tanwaukdewuyi7610 of cause.... Now that is another typo😀😀😀 Unless you meant of course

[@honiideslysses12]

Pretty cool vid, but what about the crew accommodations, the engine room, bridge and other areas that are crucial to the running of the vessel and what the crew do on and off duty.

[@Robert-cu9bm]

Off duty they do donuts in the BMW's

[@betamaxrules]

I too was mislead by the title. This is not life, it's business.

[@RajeshA]

@@betamaxrules at the end it become life of the vehicles inside not crews !

[@skakdosmer]

The people who load and unload the vehicles aren't members of the ship's crew.

[@psychiatry-is-eugenics]

the crew when off duty have nightmares about a lithium battery fire

[@felixcat9318]

These vessels are masterpieces of engineering, ergonomics and reliability. The professionalism of the teams of drivers, loaders, tie down crews, inspectors, etc, make the process as straightforward as its possible to be. I hope they have specific EV holding areas which have fire resistant linings, smoke extractors and fire suppression systems.

[@richardkaz2336]

When will it catch fire, so far two in two years. Three's a charm.

[@TRPGpilot]

Thank for you for using internationally understood metric units!

[@lhenriquepa]

Excellent narration! I loved her voice!

[@b-radsadventures6846]

One of the only YT vids I haven't been able to speed up or skip forward on. It was just too good. Great job!

[@Nauctis]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@FeelinTangerine]

The lashing will continue until morale is improved!!

[@WilliaminOz]

Flay me, harder!

[@lifeonthefarm6001]

😂

[@barriewilliams4526]

The thought of 1.5 million battery powered cars onboard would frighten the crap out of any insurance company🙃

[@Lauren-vd4qe]

they will become uninsurable.

[@ge2623]

A lot of shipping and cruise ship companies are self-insured. Most, if not all insurance companies won't touch them.

[@janhansen554]

So far, battery cars have sunk one ship and made another to scrap.... Battery cars should not be allowed at any ferry or tunnel. Sadly, it have to happend a disaster before goverments do this, with hundreds of lives lost

[@EuroGuy85]

so, what does life inside one of these things look like? we have yet to see

[@edward9]

Thank God you finally have a voice over actor that doesn’t use vocal fry. THIS is a proper speaking / voice over voice. Congratulations 🎉🎊🍾

[@Fester_]

" Vocal fry " - good.

[@antoniok2015]

@@Fester_ yeah it's sexy as hell

[@abelflexes2]

As a guy who has worked as porter for the past 7 years moving high end vehicles from very tight spots. I would love to work there.

[@tgood5527]

Im a longshoreman at the port of LA and Long Beach and in the USA we are the one's who unload the auto ships.The job has it up's and downs. For instance new car smell in a brand new car that has not been open for a few months gives me a migraine after a few cars also the decks are just tall enough that you have to bend your head down to walk. On the up side the floors are smooth on each deck and when the cars still had hand break's you could do some drifting.

[@Cory69]

@@tgood5527 because that new car smell is all the plastics and chemicals/fumes lol

[@briancavanagh7048]

For loading & unloading of new built cars how does the organising the car’s keys work. I could imagine that would be a nightmare job keeping organised especially when multiple manufactures of 5000 cars are being loaded? Are ‘master’or even ‘grand master’ keys involved for each manufacturer? Those keys I would assume need to be set with compatible immobilisers fobs to let the keys function properly. Interesting security issue.

[@johnchapman3601]

The keys are left in the car generally. Some ships lock car at end of each row

[@tgood5527]

@@briancavanagh7048 They leave them in the glove box and i put them back when im done.

[@joshuakizito9779]

This video is very good. But this lady has one of the best voices I've ever heard and the clearest and cleanest accents I've heard

[@taitai907]

What's used to transport a RoRo ship?

[@skakdosmer]

Water. A lot of it.

[@tof3275]

Words escape me, I sat there with my mouth open in amazement, 6,000 cars WOW

[@robde-e-e]

1.5 million the title says 🎉

[@paultabone2010]

RO RO RO YOUR BOAT GENUINELY DOWN THE SEA .👏👏🙈 Sorry just had to do this 🤷‍♂️😃👍

[@priortokaraew7569]

Jeez. What a humongous task it appears to be. Everyone involved in this, from the car manufacturers to the loaders to the shippers really make the world go around. How many drivers do they have to load 7000 cars? How long does it take to latch and unlatch 7000 cars?

[@JimMork]

And then if you slip a LITTLE bit with the electric cars, you may have an 8 day fire that burns everything aboard. Sweet.

[@flopunkt3665]

​@@JimMorkwhat do you mean by slip?

[@JimMork]

@@flopunkt3665 There was a docked ROLO ship that burned for 8 days. NTSB says an employee did not quite stop a mechanism in an electric vehicle. That started a fire that the port couldn't put out FOR EIGHT DAYS. Millions of gallons of water. And everything was cinders at the end. That's the risk of these lithium battery assemblies. Can't "park" them on a docked ship! I know now I don't want one in my garage. I care about the houses of my neighbors. People's insurance companies should raise their home insurance due to EV hazard.

[@anthsarin070497]

I work for a car factory in distribution and sometimes work down our local port to help with this aspect of the process. The amount of staff is surprisingly low. We have a team of maybe 10 - 15 drivers who prepare the cars in the compound for boarding There is a separate team of maybe 20 or so drivers who actually load and unload the vehicles. A vessel can be docked for up to a few days generally

[@priortokaraew7569]

@@anthsarin070497 how many meters is it from car to car as they run or walk back to get the next one? about 20 cars per day per driver? thanks for the work you do.

[@bigbob1699]

Seeing the fires on RoRo ships, I think they need more and better firefighting crews and gear. They need to be able erect partitions quickly.

[@kaasmeester5903]

Don't want to see an EV fire on *that* sucker...

[@4TheMotorist]

I enjoyed this. I wouldn't have thought of ships carrying trains and tractors and mining equipment. Awesome. 2 thumbs up.

[@Z4Zander]

It was taking too long to teach them to swim.

[@joegran]

They need to tie down the cargo so that the car doesn't go

[@churchkey1278]

Question is how are they getting in and out of them cars without dinging the doors against the other car and or inside the containers. They must keep a lot of touch up paint on that ship.

[@Aethgeir]

I don't know why this surprised me, but for some reason I never thought they just drove all the cars onto the ship.That they actually have people where that's their whole job: just drive cars onto the ship, get off, get a new car, and repeat all day long. The container system at the end is more what I had in mind.

[@gearjammer3688]

A friend did this in the UK. Said it was very dull.

[@Aethgeir]

@@gearjammer3688 Yes, I imagine it would be!

[@gablan1468]

Yes, there are such jobs literally all around the world. The only thing people do is load and unload the cars. They are called Stevedores, and their boss is the Foreman.

[@JamesBlue28]

Longshoremen do it here in California. They load and unload everything that comes through the ports. Even luggage on cruise ships.

[@tgood5527]

As a longshoreman we load and unload cargo ships period including auto ships. AT the port it cant be moved unless a longshoreman touches it including the luggage on the cruse ship. It takes 150 people 8 hours to unload. An auto ship comes in once or twice a month so im working on a regular cargo ship most of the time.

[@DPPatel-pg9et]

Incredible video! So informative! So beautifully edited, narrated! Fabulous! The software used in preparing the video is unimaginable! Thank you (from Washington DC)!

[@Visionery1]

This provides clarity on just how quickly a fire can spread. No doubt future ships will be constructed with air tight sections and CO2 extinguishers to contain and extinguish fires before they spread.

[@uwehetman2320]

Unless someone sees, that you can carry only 6.000 cars instead of 6.900 and says: „Hmm, only 1% of all car carriers burn down. This is like a of 69 cars in transport capacity instead of 900 per transport. Let‘s build em as before and even bigger!“

[@HeadPack]

That's a good robo voice.

[@dumbotater2158]

Beautifully choreographed and narrated.

[@MuhammadKhaleeq-u8k]

I'm not able to explain my thoughts FANTASTIC

[@jimroberts1944]

I saw one in the Caribbean that had 5 k cars on it from Japan Impressive!

[@mikesmith8445]

I've always wondered how the drivers get out of the cars after parking them so close inside the ship ?? I would think lots of doors get dinged ?

[@Robert-cu9bm]

They park with the passenger door next to the other cars. Once he gets out then next car parks next to it.

[@flopunkt3665]

​@@Robert-cu9bmso they can't mix LHD and RHD vehicles.

[@kwadoskii]

​@@Robert-cu9bmhow about inside the container? How do they get out?

[@marylousherman5471]

Through the skylight?! 😎

[@csmith6237]

​@flopunkt3665 yeah why would you need to? If you're shipping cars to a specific destination (country) than they would either be LHD or RHD.

[@Sallaykargbo3480]

Thank you for sharing this video please keep sharing ❤❤❤

[@daves2552]

As someone who transports new cars off ships I assure you there’s more damage than that. On average 1 out of 30 has cosmetic damage. But true serious damage is rare.

[@skakdosmer]

You obviously know nothing about Swedish security measures.

[@daves2552]

@@skakdosmer wtf do security measures have to do with cargo damage?

[@skakdosmer]

@@daves2552 Sorry, English isn't my first language; I probably should have said safety measures.

[@GibsonVienna]

Can it caught fire?

[@dafterite]

I'm still waiting to see that ship that carries 1.5 million cars like the clickbait title says.

[@jpwillm5252]

Very interesting, but the background music is very annoying.

[@o2bnob]

Wow! That’s quite a process!

[@mohmoudfarah1897]

Informative; thank you!

[@Infinitrium]

1:39 SMRT! 🤣

[@Sidewinder1311]

Finally the term "cargo" makes sense!

[@djm5k]

I used to work at a navy base in Port Hueneme California. We had the only deep water port between San Diego and San Francisco. I used to see these ships come into the port a few times a week. The Navy used to lease large parcels of paved land to various vehicle manufacturers where the vehicles were driven on base by longshoremen personnel to large parking lots. From there, we had a constant flow of large vehicle transport trucks come in and pick up vehicles which were taken to dealerships all over the state. We also had rail lines on base where they would load new vehicles onto train cars. The Navy made lots of money leasing these parcels of land on base.

[@aldisgrantins8845]

Thanks for video!

[@iraf.official]

😎😎😎😎😎😎

[@nasosnasos8054]

Love

[@ReyOfLight]

I find it rather funny that I've lived in both Malmö and Copenhagen for some years, and also commuted over the Őresundbridge 5 days per week for a couple of years, and I had absolutely no idea about those massive ports of Malmö and Copenhagen, nor did I ever see one of those ships 😂 I was literally today years old when learning about this, and that's with me having spent almost 5,5 years of my life (that's how long I lived in the area) literally just miles away from the port on either side of the bridge!

[@steevoridgeline]

wow ! i learned a lot in this video 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@emadeldinhessain3272]

Great. Well done.

[@nadeemmustafa6450]

Very impressive

[@shadowfilm7980]

Very interesting. I like the narration too. She did a great job. 👍

[@ludwigslughole9403]

😂😂😂 you're complimenting an AI bot!!

[@DashPar]

Fire with Lithium Ion batteries onboard seems to be the biggest challenge of these ships today.

[@TshikaneMorwasi-ss5rm]

Lots of work

[@JamieW-o7b]

I remember watching the trains carrying cars from Ford's Dagenham to Harwich docks, when I was at school. Nothing like this scale!!

[@MuhammadKhaleeq-u8k]

Wow unbelievable performance

[@HailAnts]

_"The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the red zone."_

[@puhigeoffreywaynefuimaonok8656]

amazing

[@redcater3918]

misleading title

[@jermaineallen2915]

I would love to get Job to help drive off some of these Vehicles.

[@SlyGuy1985]

How the heck does the driver get out of the car after it’s pulled ito the container? 😂😂😂

[@Jason-wl5zm]

@@SlyGuy1985 I searched the whole internet for this question - there is no answer :(

[@REDMAN298]

click bait 1.5 million cars on one ship?????

[@andromeda9340]

the ship itself can only hold 3 thousand vehicles at once.

[@central5358]

5:33 and just after that , amazing driving by that oil tanker driver , reversing into the ship

[@sundarviswanathan6500]

Thanks for the interesting video.

[@Nauctis]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@warot359]

Human: an animal that move things from one place to another.

[@PYROWORKSTV]

Ah yes, Roll on roll over ships

[@KinGAsharaH]

Very useful channel ❤

[@goodasnewrepairs]

Awesome video, thank you!😊

[@etienne6641]

Can you make a video of what the crew is doing while on the water?

[@skakdosmer]

What crew? The people who load and unload the vehicles, don't go with the ship.

[@htc4898]

Thank you.

[@sergeiromanoff]

How does the driver gets out of the car inside the container?

[@bishamkumar1707]

Oklahoma 👍👍👍👍👍🌹🌹🌹🌹❤❤❤

[@joatmon101b]

In 1965 I watched a train being unloaded from a roll on roll off ferry in Whittier Alaska. Instead of ramps the decks raised and lowered. After unloading another set if train cars were loaded to go back to the Lower 48. The only problem with loading and unloading was when the tide went out and the ramp from the ship to the dock was too steep to move rail cars.

[@Technodude255]

Could this video be any more vauge with the details???

[@melonshop8888]

ITS A CLEAN DESIGN SHIP :3

[@andy530i]

It will be a brave person who fills that up with EVs.

[@ned4325]

"chain lashing is used, a tiedown of iron chains"

[@catherine59226]

Incredible!

[@sunnybiswas1294]

Hi !! I'm fm India and I find ds video ABSOULTLY INTERESTING n INFORMATIVE 👌👌👌👌👍👍

[@Nauctis]

Thanks and welcome

[@serjiosarkuni7838]

Noas Arc😂😂😂😂❤❤❤

[@mazdajay55]

Very nice show good job

[@philipaldrick5363]

This is truly amazing achievement. Just have to keep the EVs off them. ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@vishwawijekoon5876]

This is Awesome

[@markwienands]

How many days does it take to load and unload all 1.5 million cars???

[@TheKurtsPlaceChannel]

Very nicely put together video and very entertaining as well. Thanks for posting this.

[@Nauctis]

Our pleasure!

[@trong-tinnguyen1962]

How many units already built et functioning around the world?

[@salmanskippy]

Nothing but amazing indeed. Thanks for sharing 👍🇨🇦

[@grahambunton377]

It is very impressive that this car-carrier can transport so many vehicles but also very concerning. If just ONE of these is an electric vehicle and it ignites spontaneously then the whole ship is LOST as happened yesterday [July 26th 2023] in the North Sea.

[@gearjammer3688]

Maybe wait till the full details are released after the inquest!

[@gablan1468]

I just got back from working on such ship. During my time there, they had made a mistake and put 10 electric vehicles on the lowest deck (Deck 1), at the very aft of the ship (the engine room is located on that side as well). I had to go check the temperature of these 10 cars every single day because we were afraid that something might happen to them. It was just too hot - cars' temperature would go as high as 60-65 Celsius. Luckily, nothing happened this time. Nevertheless, we're risking too much because there's simply no time to think and plan properly when loading. There's a lot of pressure coming from the charter's side and they're always rushing not thinking about the life and safety of those on board.

[@Robert-cu9bm]

​@@gearjammer3688 The EV are the reason this ship has lost every car and likely the ship itself.

[@ahuehuete4703]

You beat me to it!

[@veritasjustus8543]

​@@gablan1468so there is a nano technology used in parking lots to check on empty spaces...there is similar tech for temperature monitoring...check it out and talk to your bossmen...you could easily place them under units.

[@coldbrewer003]

Very interesting!

[@jstudiosss]

That parking lot gotta be hella full of security

[@gregoryprouty4872]

I was a engineer on a large 🚗 car carrier. The vessel also carried large trucks and machinery items. I was on the Edmond Fitzgerald for 4 hours to get spare parts for my 🚢 ship the Reserve this was on the Great Lakes.

[@csmith6237]

The Ole sinker

[@4wheelliving132]

Is this the kind of ship that caught fire and eventually sank a while back?

[@markj9544]

Imagine trying to keep up with all those car keys!

[@nts_nathaniel]

Car keys are always in cars during shipping, nobody takes them out

[@florinbala8669]

@@nts_nathaniel : you are wrong ... sometimes are deliberate 'disappearing' (mainly by stevedores), to determine a delay or conplete stop discharging ops ... sometimes are even really gone - then professional prying thieves are highly valued ... found even one locked car with running engine - one stevedore was top curious to really just operate particular model, he easily entered and started engine, but get scared to be found and left car without stopping ...

[@Dave-in-MD]

@@florinbala8669 Nah, doubt there are any UAW idiots there. And the keys are kept in the vehicles.

[@MaxMustermann-zv8kq]

and it‘s burning down now

[@fortuner123]

Love it! Cool.

[@ahuehuete4703]

That's a lot of eggs to put in one basket. All it would take is for one EV to catch fire and they could lose all 1.5 million cars

[@tom99790]

This has happened, but with fire control, the fire doesn’t spread. Bigger problem is if the ship takes on water in a storm and sinks, which has happened.

[@jimosullivan1389]

did you not listen to or read the description ? it's 7,000 cars.... Joined up thinking is not your strong point is it.

[@JurivonStolzenberg14]

Bet those staff can park better than most Range Rover drivers at my local Salisbury 😅

[@Real_pic]

Parking job sounds cool here 😂😂

[@johnross6463]

Since the cars are placed so very close together on the ship, how do the drivers get in/out of the cars? Through the windows which would then have to be left open?

[@Jan96106]

If you watch closely, they park close to one car on the passenger side, so they can get out on the driver side before the next car parks close to it. And so on.

[@harveypost7799]

Course ur talking about Panama registry..😮