Vale Brasil
It is indeed a matter of pride for all Chandorkars that a co-villager Savio D’Silva has just returned home after captaining the world’s largest vessel afloat in present times in terms of dead weight that is to say its cargo carrying capacity.
The ship is the first Very Large Ore Carrier (VLOC) that was built at Daewoo Shipyard in Korea and delivered to Vale Shipping, its Brazilian owners on 31st March 2011.
Originally the ship was named “Vale Brasil” but on 3rd July 2014 its name was changed to “Ore Brasil”.
The statistics of the ship are: length – 362 mts., width – 65 mts and depth – 30 mts. Its deadweight is 4,02,348 metric tones!
Although the ship is flagged with Singapore, it is manned by many Indian Officers, and heading them on its latest trip was Captain Savio D’Silva.
The ship normally loads ore in Brazil to be taken to the Far East at Subic Bay in Philippines. Captain Savio had the honour of taking the ship to three ports in Japan. The ship left Tubarao in Brazil on 17th April 2014 and arrived at the Oita port in Japan on 5th June 2014 and transported 3,98,000 metric tones of iron ore.
When the ship anchored at Kashima, the Brazilian Ambassador to that country visited the port and also had a look at the ship.
The ship has a total crew of 23 including the master. It takes about 40 hours to load the cargo and discharging the cargo takes longer being around 48 hours.
