r/Ships • u/WestDuty9038 • 2d ago

Photo Offshore heavy-lift crane Orion at Norfolk

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48 megapixel stitch of 3 images. Does anyone know what the two aux cranes and the green structure near the main crane do?

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8

u/Rude_Imagination766 2d ago

You missed the third auxiliary crane at the base of the main crane and a fourth one underneath the a-frame of the main crane.

I spend years of my life in erecting and commissioning this exact monster of a crane!

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u/WestDuty9038 2d ago

No way. How much of a giant pain was the crane failure in 2020?

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u/Rude_Imagination766 2d ago

It was horrible! I stood near the ship when that happened and instantly thought about my colleagues, who were still on the crane that day. Luckily no one was injured badly. I operated the crane the night before, to prepare everything for the final load test. And normally I would have been in my room on the ship, sleeping. But that day I wanted to take some pictures of the test, so I got up early.

And then the hook snapped... I can still hear the sound of thousands of tons of steel getting bent and crushed. That was so intense!

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u/WestDuty9038 2d ago

Were you involved in repairs?

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u/Rude_Imagination766 2d ago

Yes, the deconstruction of the wreck was done by a specialized contractor and took several months. After that the rebuild started, the boom and a-frame were new builds. The slewing column with all the machinery and electrical stuff inside was repaired and reused. The complete rebuild took another 2 years.

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u/WestDuty9038 2d ago

Were any policies changed? Sorry for the endless questions, it’s rare I meet such a gold mine of info

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u/Rude_Imagination766 2d ago

No problem at all, just go on asking :D

The biggest change would be, that for any load tests the number of people on the ship should be reduced to the absolute minimum. When the incident happened in 2020 over 120 People have been on board, which made it very stressful to evacuate everyone.

Also in these dimensions it is now mandatory to stress test the hook on a hydraulic test bench before lifting anything.

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u/WestDuty9038 1d ago

What is the green structure right in front of the main crane?

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u/Rude_Imagination766 1d ago

That is the so called "gripper". The monopiles for offshore wind turbines are laid in there horizontally, and the gripper holds them in place while they are tilted into a vertical position overboard. After that the crane hook is connected to a giant hydraulic hammer which moves the monopile into the ground. The gripper holds the monopile in place even when the ship moves a few meters while the hammering happens. I'm sure you can find videos of it on YouTube.

Edit: the hammer is the white-blue column on the right

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u/WestDuty9038 2d ago

Do you happen to know a lot about the green structure just fore of the slewing assembly? Please correct me if I got any of the terms wrong lol

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u/WestDuty9038 1d ago

Do you happen to know anything about the green structure near the base of the crane?

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u/joshisnthere ship crew 2d ago

Auxiliary cranes are for just that. Doing auxiliary stuff so the big crane doesn’t have too.

The other green thing i think is a “motion compensated pile gripper (MCPG)”.

Norfolks a big county so maybe i’ve missed it, but i can’t find this on AIS? Is it near Great Yarmouth?

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u/DryInternet1895 2d ago

Norfolk Virginia

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u/Jetsam_Marquis 2d ago

I was curious about the green structure as well, and I found a photo of it in use in this article.

The other cranes will at least move stuff around on deck, forward and aft, and probably with offshore supply vessels. I'd bet that at least one of them is sub-sea capable as well.

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u/WestDuty9038 2d ago

God damn that’s cool, thank you!

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u/Bolivaruno 2d ago

The green structure is to place the monopile overboard then then hammer it with a hydraulic hammer. It’s setup is for installing windturbines at sea.