The Science of Ship Stretching | How Ships Grow

These are the giants of the oceans. Be it cars, oil, hazardous goods or containers, freighters transport all kinds of goods around the world. Freighters. Without these floating giants, world trade would come to a halt. More than 7 billion tons of goods are transported by sea every year. Consequently, these steel giants are the most important means of transportation, ahead of both aircraft and trains. And the demand keeps on growing. Shipping companies all over the world are in need of ever bigger cargo and container ships. To build a new ship is very costly. Shipbuilders have therefore found a less expensive and time-saving solution. They cut the ocean giants in half and extend them. It may look easy, but the process is highly complex. To cut a ship weighing 15,000 tons in half, engineers have to plan months ahead. The cargo ferry, Torbegonia, is also going to have more loading capacity in the future. A shipping company has decided in favor of an extension. The 200-meter long Colossus will be extended by another 30 meters in the next few weeks. Precision work on a steel giant. Germany, Bremerhaven, four weeks earlier. In the German shipyard Motorenwerke Bremerhaven, everyone is getting ready for the ship extension. It is shortly before six in the morning. The final preparations are on the way. After an 18-hour journey, the ferry, belonging to a Danish shipping company, is coming in. The ship will be at the dock in 10 minutes. We're checking if everything's ready. Are you nervous? No. The docking process is a totally normal procedure, but it's the beginning of 35 days under pressure. Detlef Nunke is the project manager and will be in charge of time management. He and his team have already performed nine extensions in the past four years. It is important to stick to the deadline. Every day the ferry is not operational is costing the shipowner 15,000 euros. The docking process has to be precise to the meter. With absolute precision, the 26-meter wide ship enters the mere 35-meter wide dock. Jörg Palanton is the man responsible for the actual extension. As the technical project manager with a degree in mechanical engineering, he coordinates all the tasks and is the contact person for everybody involved. The most beautiful thing for me is the conversion of big ships. It's a thrilling task. It's very exciting, a lot of fun. Of course, there's the necessary preparation phase, all the planning, which is part of it, but the actual phase of converting is the most fascinating part and, for me, the most beautiful thing in the world. As opposed to a dry dock, where the water is drained out, a floating dock lifts the out of the water. As soon as the freighter is in its position, the docking maneuver begins. Normally, the Torbegonia travels on the route between Gutenberg and Immingup. Several times a week, it covers the 1,143 miles with a heavy load of cars, trucks, and hazardous goods such as oil and gasoline. So far, the cargo ferry has been able to carry about 32,000 tons of goods. Not enough cargo space, not profitable enough, in the opinion of the Danish shipping company. They decided to have the ferry extended instead of purchasing a new one. To monitor the process, representatives of the shipping company are present during the docking maneuver. Morning. How are you? Fine, and you? Morning, Jorg. Has everything gone well so far? The ship arrived on time. Draft was okay. We pulled her in. At the moment, we're experiencing a bit of wind. She moved a bit to port, and we're pulling her back into position now. Everything's looking good at the moment. More draft than the other one, yeah? Yeah, a bit, I think. We're not pretty sure, but the ship lived in anyway, so it's okay. Pretty much we emptied everything, so it's perfect. So we will start for the next 35 days, yeah? Yeah, lovely. Lars-Olof Aldert is the technical representative of the shipping company DFDS Torline, which owns the Torbegonia. For him, the extension has clear advantages. We need to increase our capacity on our line to Gothenburg to Immingham, and by doing this, we increase it about 25 percent. Instead of getting, building a new ship, so to say, it's more cost-effective. The purchase of a new ship costs about 50 million euros. An extension, on the other hand, costs between 10 and 14 million euros. For the shipping company, this means a 25 percent increase in cargo space. This is about 600 tons more per trip. In addition, the shipping company expects a reduction in its operating costs. Extended ships can transport more goods with almost the same amount of fuel, especially for ships with fixed routes and secure long-term freight volumes. Extensions are a worthwhile option. Jörg Palanten is on his way to meet the Swedish crew. Although owned by a Danish shipping company, the ship travels under a Swedish flag. The mechanical engineer will be working hand-in-hand with the Swedish crew in the next few weeks. Good morning. My name is Palanten, I'm the project manager. Joakim, chief officer. Welcome. Welcome in Bremerhaven. Thank you. How it seems? My colleagues are on the bridge. Yeah. Everything okay? Everything's fine so far. All in the end? Yeah. Before the dock has completely raised the ship up, certain things need to be discussed. We would like to do it with shore power, so you can shut down the diesel engines. Or we are fitting our cooling water connection, and then you can run the diesels, or one diesel at least, with cooling water from the shore. Because when we fit the shore power connection, then you can run the pumps with the shore power connection, and we can go ahead with the flooding. It's better to do it on the shore power. Yeah. We'll have to open the large stern ramp to get access to the ship. And there's the usual discussion with the officers in charge of the ship, whether we should do it with the diesel engines, which would mean that the ship produces its own power, as well as the hydraulic power for the ramp, or whether to use external power. As we are installing a shore power connection anyway, to supply the ship with electricity. Because if the ship's power supply is off, the diesel engines can't work anymore. Sometimes they don't trust the shore connection. They are afraid we might not be able to supply enough power, and the ship's system could collapse. But we're capable of supplying her with enough power, and we just agreed to operate the ramp with shore power, and to raise the dock further. Well, it's a quite interesting project, and right now we're trying to get all the pieces together, and understand what's going to happen first. And I'm going to stay here during the entire reconstruction, so I think it will be an interesting experience, and a lot of things will happen here. So I'm looking forward to see the ship get cut off in two pieces, and then grow 30 meters bigger. That's a big project. In a few hours, the ship will sit on supports on the dock floor, called blocks. At this point, all Jörg Palanton and the rest of his team of 100 engineers can do is wait. Are you under pressure at the moment? Yes, for sure. The most difficult time for me starts from the moment the ship arrives in dock, when the bow section is pulled out. Until the bow section is put back again, that includes the floating in of the midsection. That's the most difficult time for me, because that's when things can go wrong. Due to its shape, the ship's original stability is not very good to begin with. It can easily capsize. And this is the midsection, the extension piece for the Torbjörn. This here is the midsection. A midsection of 30 meters in length, 1250 tons of steel. It was manufactured eight weeks ago in another shipyard, and brought here by tugboat. This section will be inserted into our ship during the course of next week. What we see here is the joint. The ship is not only welded together from the top, but also lengthwise. Each individual profile has to be welded together. It's not enough to weld horizontally. All joints have to be fully welded. Tugboats will later push this new midsection, also called midbody, on the waterway towards the cut-off stern section. Both parts will then be welded together. With this type of ship, it's not quite as simple, because this is a rather narrow ship. It barely has a main structural rib. That's why the cut has been placed in a rather difficult spot. But it's the only one that works. Because the top structures are protruding that much, we'll have to burn off the outer skin up here to be able to float the bow section and move it out of the dock. Then we will raise the dock again right away and float the midsection in, which will be inserted as midsection here. As soon as it is in, the ship is put into dry dock. It will be aligned and we will start with the rear joint, connecting the old ship with the new midsection. According to schedule, we should do the same process again six days later. Move the bow section back again, align, weld. Sounds simple, but it isn't. With a speed of about five centimeters per minute, the dock is lifting the ship up. Suddenly, the dock maneuver comes to a halt. The diesel tanks are not empty as they were supposed to be. To empty the tanks, the crew needs their diesel generators to produce the necessary power. The docking process has to be interrupted. 400 tons. This pumping process will take several hours. George, can you please find out how long this is still going to take? It'll just take a moment. Okay, thanks. We can't give a precise estimate of how long it's going to take because 400 tons is an unusually large amount. If it were 200 tons, okay, but 400 tons will certainly take another moment. These are, of course, unforeseeable delays. According to the instructions, the ship was to arrive with low draft and, above all, with empty fuel tanks in front. For whatever reason, that's not the case. We're now faced with the first delay. Jörg Pallenton is on his way to see the ship's crew. Good morning. The engineer in charge of the freighter is in the engine room. Hi, Dean. Stefan, second engineer. Second engineer, nice to meet you. Welcome in Bremerhaven. The problem, the diesel generators extract cooling water from the ocean. If the ship is raised, they won't have access to the water to cool the generators. Therefore, the dock has to stay down. Well, he estimates another three hours from now because these are the tanks in the front where we still have close to 300 cubic meters and in here there are still 112 cubic meters left. These are the tanks we are emptying out now into the temporary tanks and later into the service tanks. We had everything perfectly planned and timed. Work that was supposed to start at one o'clock will now only start three hours from now. Then we'll have overlapping work shifts. The time we're losing here is certainly a considerable fact. Suddenly, the dock is moving up again. Jörg Pellenton has found a solution. In three quarters of an hour we're going to be dry. The delay is not that bad after all. Why not? Because the crew or the officers have given us permission to continue pumping, although the fuel has not been totally transferred. They've agreed to run the pumps on shore power and not with their diesel engines and that's why we can raise the dock higher up. The ship's diesel generators can be switched off. The pumps will be powered by shore power. The docking maneuver can continue. At a height of seven meters, the ship has reached its final position. The workers immediately move onto the dock and start preparations for the cutting. Machines, tools, construction materials, everything has to be moved to the dock. When ships are extended, it is in general important that the cut is made at the main structural rib of the ship. This is the load-bearing component at the widest part of the ship's hull. Here is the area where we want to cut. This is the ring joint. It's a welded joint that goes around the whole ship and that's exactly where we'll cut the ship in half. To do that, we'll first have to remove 300 millimeters of paint on each side, inside and outside, to prevent toxic fumes from developing during the cutting process, which would make the work difficult. That's going to be the next step. The painters are about to set up their equipment. With 2400 bar pressure, the paint will be power washed away with water. To be able to do that, the tanks will have to be opened from the inside to let the water run out. That's what's also happening right now. Up there in front, you can see where the first tanks are being opened, the leakage valves, where the ballast water is running out. Then, the tanks have to be cleaned on the inside, because experience has shown that silt tends to collect inside, which has to be removed so that the workers can do the cutting from the inside. The ship has four decks, all of which have to be separated. Here we are on the upper deck and the welded joint runs along here and up here. All the connections we're seeing up there will have to be cut. Here you can see the longitudinal supports, which will all have to be cut. Over there, you can see the first connections being cut. The day has gone really super so far. Now we can go full steam ahead. Three days later, everything is ready for the big cut. All requirements for this marathon operation have been met. All tension-bearing cables have been removed. All systems cooled down and emptied. In 20 hours of non-stop work, everything has been separated that used to be connected. Steel girders, pipes, wiring, cables. Last night, we have prepared everything to finalize the cutting. Now we have two meters remaining. Now we would like to show you the last cutting that we can. This is a crucial moment. The indestructible steel giant is cut into two halves. The 15,000-ton freighter is separated from its 6,000-ton bow section. This is also a happy moment for Arne Blader, the boss of the DFDS tour line shipping company. It's a big project we started one and a half years ago. There's been a lot of hard work to prepare the drawings and everything. I'm looking very much forward to finalizing this one because then it's summer holiday. But before they reach that point, they still have five hard weeks ahead of them. In the coming weeks, they will pull the bow section away to insert the midsection and weld everything together. We finished all the preparations for the cut. We are now going to start cutting on the outside on the port side. We'll cut the so-called pipe tunnel so that we will be able to perform and, above all, finish the cut all the way around. The tension is mounting. The interesting part of the job starts now. Making sure everything has been cut. If only one centimeter of the joint is still intact, we have to stop pulling. It is so strong that you can't pull any further. It has to be carefully inspected and checked. That's the important thing. To separate the ship, 80 shipbuilders are working at the same time. The ring seam is the joint where the ship was welded together when it was originally built. The ring seam at the main structural rib is at the widest section of the ship. It is now being cut open by the shipbuilders. The joint has a circumference of 100 meters. Jörg Palentin is supervising the work. Stop! Cable! Only a few more centimeters are connecting the ship's halves. The welders are cutting the ship further and further apart. An exciting moment for everyone involved. We're about to cut the last few centimeters. We're almost there. Ideally, the bow and stern sections should remain parallel to each other after the separation. It would be a problem if the ship shifted now. That's the stern. That's the bow section. Here is the cut. The ship has been cut through and it is still aligned. It has not changed position. That's because she's sitting on adequate supports, an hydraulic shifting system and on blocks to make sure the ship stays in position and can be pushed forward in a controlled fashion and remain stable. With a temperature of 1500 degrees, the welders are separating the steel hull and all cross connections on the decks. Done. The cutting process is now finished. Now we can go back to the cut and have another look. It is important that both halves are parallel to each other. A shift is an indication that something got stuck. It's still properly aligned. That means the ship did not change position. It didn't veer to either side. The support we built underneath the ship is right on. Now we're going to check the whole cut again from top to bottom to make sure we didn't miss a spot. And then we can start to pull the bow section forward. The tour begonia has been cut through. There will be one more final check. Before the hydraulic system starts pulling the bow section away, Jorg Pallenton has to make sure that there isn't a spot that hasn't been cut through or a cable that may have become stuck. To that effect, Jorg Pallenton checks the ship's alignment on each deck. We are now checking the alignment of the whole substructure. The difference in height is normal because of the weight on the deck. But the longitudinal alignment of the substructures, the fact that they remain the same in the front and rear section after cutting, is proof for us that the ship is still aligned. The ship's halves are well aligned. The engineers are now in a position to pull the bow section 20 meters ahead. The team of shipbuilders has carefully separated 800 cables, 60 pipe connections, and 250 meters of steel. The first officer of the Swedish tour begonia, Joakim Dahlberg, is satisfied. So far it looks like there is a hole in between. So now we'll see in about 40 minutes if it's completely cut and if it will split apart. So we still have 40 exciting minutes to wait. That's all I know so far. But it looks good, I think. The critical moment is imminent. Bow and stern section are about to be pulled apart. Although project manager Jorg Pallenton has inspected the joint, they will only know for sure that no cables or scaffolding have become stuck after the first few centimeters. This is a dangerous moment. A force of several thousand tons is pulling on the bow section. With a speed of 30 centimeters per minute, the hydraulic sliding system is pulling the bow section backwards. The first 50 centimeters are done. Nothing is stuck. Bow and stern can be pulled apart. It's always amazing to see such a big steel construction move. We are talking about around 5,000 tons. So it's amazing to see. The whole bow section is placed on a special hydraulic sliding system. That way it can be moved horizontally and vertically. We've pulled half a meter and now we've stopped in order to adjust the hydraulics before we continue. The ship is pulled forward step by step. Of course, we have to be careful that nothing falls into the gap, that none of the scaffolding inside falls over, that everything is secure. The worst thing that can happen when pulling the ship forward is something falling over. In this hydraulically powered sliding system, a steel structure is pulled over Teflon plates. Due to the use of Teflon, the friction is kept low. Everything looks good. Detlef Nynka and his Swedish colleagues are satisfied. Yeah, I think we have started very good now. And hopefully everything will be so well that we can unlock everything on Thursday. We can close the pipe tunnel tomorrow and go as planned. It looks very good. I think on Thursday we will do with the flooding at seven o'clock and the tugboats ordered for nine. That means I think we will bring the mid-body in at noon. The bow section has now been pulled eight meters along. It will be 20 meters in total. They're proceeding millimeter by millimeter. The sliding system is a perpetual system. The shipbuilders can continually extend tracks at the rear and remove them in the front. The bridge is the nerve center of the freighter. It is where all the information comes together on the ship. It is now hanging 15 meters in the air, only held up by a few supports. There is a crunching sound coming from the sliding system. Jörg Palanton is looking into the situation. The Teflon plates could be damaged. He gives the all-clear signal. Dirt on the tracks is causing the noise. We're pushing a weight of 5,500 tons. If we get a bit of sand onto these Teflon plates, they will produce this crunching sound due to the heavy weight on top of them and due to the shifting. It is transformed into vibrations, which produce this nasty sound. It's nothing serious, but has to be monitored. The areas in front and behind are being cleaned, re-lubricated. Only the area underneath, where the sand is located, cannot be accessed. We just have to move over. That's okay. The gap is growing, making space for the 30-meter-long new midsection. The Torbjörn is the third ship of the Danish shipping company to be extended by 30 meters here in Bremerhaven. We've moved it 10, 12 meters along. I assume we'll need another six to eight meters until we're out of the area on top. The cut looks good. It's nice and clean. The next thing will be setting the pipe tunnel. These are the sections where water must not enter. The bow section and also the stern section will be lowered when the bow section is floated out. The next move will be the lowering and pulling out of the bow section. The most critical part of the whole operation is still ahead. The bow section has to be floated out. And that happens a day later. Overnight, the shipbuilders welded all pipes and cable connections shut. With bulkheads, they closed off the lower deck, making sure that no water can get in, as this would compromise the stability of the bow section. In a few minutes, the dock is being lowered. Today, we're going to float out the bow section. That means we are going to lower the whole dock with both sections that have been cut and pulled apart. The bow section has been stabilized through ballast and by closing the openings with bulkheads so that it can float. We are now going to pull out the bow section. We are a day ahead of schedule. We therefore scheduled the docking maneuver a day earlier because tomorrow we are expecting worse, less favorable weather conditions. The wind will put side pressure on the ship. As the bow section alone is less stable than a whole ship, we can only work up to a maximum wind speed of five. In the worst case scenario, the ship could end up on its side if this rule is ignored. The weather conditions for floating out the bow section are perfect. The dock is being lowered. Nevertheless, there is a problem. Water is entering into a pipe tunnel in the bowels of the ship. Although a freighter of this kind has to undergo a technical inspection every two years, this cargo ferry is six years old and the possibility of leaks cannot be excluded. By the looks of it, it's probably a valve that's not tight. That means water is entering from a and this pipe tunnel is the longest artery that runs through the whole ship. It contains everything, cables, pipes. There must not be any water in it. That means we have to stop working until we're sure that the valve is shut again. Only then can we continue. Yorke-Palinton shuts off some valves, but that doesn't help. It is still not clear where the water is coming from. Every day the ship is not operating on its normal route is costing the shipping company 15,000 euros. A good reason to avoid unnecessary delays. Shipping company boss Arne Blauberg doesn't have an answer either. We are checking whether water is coming from the outside or it's coming from inside the vessel. So we have shut off some valves to be sure it's somewhere inside the vessel. Yorke-Palinton has found the faulty valve. It didn't shut properly. Water has entered into a pipe tunnel. Arne Blauberg and his shipping company are lucky. Had the leakage not been discovered, the shaft could have filled up completely and caused the freighter to become dangerously imbalanced. Yeah, exactly what we thought. A defective valve. We found a temporary solution to stop the leakage, which enables us to continue with the docking process. How long will it take to stop the leakage? I'm afraid it'll take a quarter of an hour, 20 minutes. Is it still within the time frame? We had no choice. Things have to be done, although we're exceeding our time frame, but that can't be changed. After a few minutes, the problem is solved. We can now continue with the docking. Despite the fact that this is only half a ship, it floats, even upright. The valves are tight. A total of three tugboats have arrived. In a few minutes, they're going to pull the bow section out of the dock and to the pier. It will stay there for the next few days until the midsection is firmly attached to the stern section. Basically, any ship can be extended. There are no limits to the size of the midsection. Worldwide, ships have been extended by as much as 55 meters. It is always necessary to move the bow section. For Jörg Palanton, one of the most exciting moments. The most exciting moment is when we move the bow section for the first time, when it is afloat. That's the most exciting part, because then you know you had the right ballast. The bow section is afloat, and it can be safely transported to the pier. In spite of these risky maneuvers, an extension has clear advantages. It is less expensive than building a new ship, and it saves time. Building a new ship takes six months, whereas an extension only takes five weeks. The crew of the freighter has pumped 1,500 tons of ballast water into eight healing tanks. This way, the bow section stays level. It's always interesting to watch the bow section float out, because as we have seen, it was leaning slightly to port, almost listing. But we were well prepared so that we could counteract it by pumping. It's now straight and stable and controlled. Now we're going to pull it out. The engineers of the Motorenwerker work for an international clientele. Their customers are from Norway, Denmark, Germany, and Dubai. The Swedish cargo ferry is a so-called Roro ship, a roll-on, roll-off ship, which means that trucks and cars can drive aboard, and other cargo units are brought on board with a special pulling mechanism, as opposed to the Lono ships, where goods are loaded exclusively by cranes. On the last few meters, a team of 12 dock workers is navigating the bow section. Then a tugboat takes over that half of the Colossus. The Torbegonje is a double-hulled ship. It has two outer skins. Between them, there are 16 ballast tanks distributed over the whole ship. This type of construction provides protection in the event of an accident. The moment each of the 280 engineers and dock workers have been waiting for, the arrival of the 1,250-ton midsection. By sea, the midsection has been towed from Volgast, where it was built, to Bremerhaven, almost 500 kilometers. Ballast tanks are keeping the midsection in a level position, a scene that never ceases to impress project manager Jörg Palentin. Isn't it unbelievable that a part like that just comes floating in? I think it's beautiful. Anything can happen, but the weather is perfect. We've almost no wind. We're well prepared. As soon as it's far enough in, we'll take over the lines and then we'll pull it in. The midsection was custom-built in a period of six weeks. 18 kilometers of cable and 1,000 meters of pipes have been installed in this section by the shipbuilders. The midsection has to correspond to the ship in every detail, such as width and height, and with respect to the pipes and cable connections. So far, everything went very well. The midsection was brought in very quickly. We are now going to bring it into center position, which is of course also exciting. We will now have to center it and for the last few meters pull it towards the ship. Of course, one can't wait to see if the midship that was manufactured somewhere else will fit together with the old ship. Although everything was manufactured according to plans, it remains to be seen if it was really manufactured within the acceptable margins of error. When we move it ahead centimeter by centimeter, only then will we find out if everything fits perfectly together. The acceptable margins of error in shipbuilding are a few millimeters. That's how much the midsection is allowed to differ from the existing ship. By adding ballast to its individual integrated tanks, the floating dock is able to create a bending motion. This way, the midsection can be aligned with a precision of less than five millimeters. This is an advantage which dry docks cannot offer. Project manager Jörg Palentin keeps in constant contact with Walter Schalk, the manager of the dock. Walter Schalk is making sure that the quarterdeck, which is the side braiding of the midsection, and the overhang of the stern section don't collide. He's now measuring the height between our overhang and the quarterdeck so that we will fit underneath it. These are the famous few millimeters of air that we have when moving the midsection in. We now have 50 millimeters of air on port side. On starboard, it's 100 to 150 millimeters. That's quite sufficient. 1,250 tons of steel are being moved toward the old stern section millimeter by millimeter. Midsection and stern section are almost parallel to each other, which is also to the credit of the surveyors one deck below. They're using what is called the level alignment method. Certain fixed points are used as constant points of reference. This allows them to precisely determine if the section is sloping or not. Considering that this morning we started out with marginal weather conditions, the wind fortunately died down, the undocking went well. We had a few problems with leakages, which although not the responsibility of the shipyard, were able to be solved. On the whole, everything went very well. We were successful and we are one day ahead of schedule. During the next five hours, Jörg Palanton and his crew are going to align midsection and stern section with millimeter precision. The engineers will then have to connect the ring joint, 60 pipe connections, 800 cables, and various shafts with each other. Six days later, the midsection is now an integral part of the stern section. The joint is still under tension. The cross connections of the joint were used as support during the welding process to hold both parts in their exact positions. If a high wave hits the middle of the ship, the bow and stern sections will broaden. Due to the additional 30 meters in length, the ship's leverage has changed. There are much stronger forces at work. To protect the crew of 26, the engineers had to reinforce the outer skins, decks, and walls of some tanks. The welded joint looks very good. The concern that the new section doesn't precisely match the existing ship, which is of course natural when the section is built somewhere else, that concern doesn't exist anymore. Everything had been manufactured with precision. It all fits perfectly together. The welding job is superb, technically faultless. The advantage of roto ships is that they provide flexibility as to the types of loads they can carry. In addition to containers, these cargo ferries can also transport trucks and cars and their respective people. The dock workers still have a long way to go before the extension is completed. Today tugboats are going to bring back the bow section, which was tied up alongside the pier for a few days. This is another critical situation, because even a slight wind can cause the bow section to lean sideways. The engineers are working on a tight schedule. The ferry is supposed to be operational in a few days. Today we'll pull the bow section back into the dock again, align it, and attach it to the now extended stern section. The difficult part is returning it to the dock, as we don't have much room there. The alignment of the bow section will be the exciting event today. While the dock workers are tying up all the lines, Jörg Palentin can hardly hide his tension. This is a hairy, slightly dangerous situation, because the lines are tight, but everything goes well. Roro ships are of great importance. They already carry a large portion of all the freight transported on the Baltic Sea. For Jörg Palentin, it is the third ship of this type which he has extended by 30 meters. In a port, nothing may be moved without a pilot, not even half a ship. That's why a pilot is now boarding the ship. He keeps in constant contact with the The shipbuilders of the Motorenwerke Bremerhaven are experienced. So far, they've extended four bulk cargo ships by 24 meters. These ships transport loose goods, so-called bulk goods, like iron ore, coal, or grain. They were also entrusted with the extension of a fishing trawler and two heavy lifts, short for heavy load ships, by 20 meters. These transport extremely heavy goods. A trawler is a type of ship used in the fishing industry. Their latest projects were the three Roro ships for the Danish shipping company DFDS. The lines have been untied. The tugboats have arrived. The bow section is ready for the short trip to the dock. And here we go. At this point, once again, there is a danger that the bow section might dip down or tip to the side. There is nothing that could stop that. Now we can't influence anything anymore. The ship is now in the hands of the tugboat captains and the pilot on board. A moment of helplessness for project manager Jorg Palat. One is tense during this process, but that's due to the situation. At least the bow section is floating upright. The port pilot has everything under control. Valves and bulkheads are tight. The amount of ballast is correct. When it arrives at the dock, the bow section is taken over by the 11 dock workers and the dockmaster. With their lines, they pull close to 6,000 tons of steel into the dock. Here too, it remains to be seen if the other side of the midsection will fit to the bow section. Millimeter by millimeter, the dock workers are pulling the bow section along, alternately pulling left and right. Only a few meters separate the two halves of the ship. Dockmaster and dock workers are working with utmost concentration to keep the bow section centered. With a difference of nine meters, the dock is only slightly wider than the ship. The Roro ships have a long history. The first ships of this kind were built during the crusades in order to transport horses. The ships were called landing ships. The horses could walk on board by a ramp. Today, it is cars and trucks that drive aboard up a stern ramp. Jorg Palat is closely monitoring every step. This, of course, requires precision work right now to pull the ship exactly parallel to the aft section. It's absolutely necessary to be very precise and careful now. That's why it's relatively quiet here. Nobody says anything. Everyone's highly concentrated on their jobs. The ship just jerked enormously, though. Concentration on the last few centimeters. The bow section has arrived. A weight of 6,000 tons is butting against the ring joint of the midsection. This requires careful handling. We now seem to have the first instabilities. We're now only a few millimeters away, and the bow section may have touched some scaffolding or something like that. And that's why we have to be a bit careful in that area. As they did with the midsection a few days ago, the engineers are now aligning the bow section with millimeter precision. Not an easy task. Again, tons of ballast water are required to keep the ship level, both horizontally and vertically. An extremely time-consuming task. With steel chains, the workers keep both sections in position. On the ship, several points of reference have been established. Based on these, the bow section is being aligned. Before both parts are welded together, the ring joint or edges of the cut have to be cut parallel. Like with a loaf of bread that has been sloppily cut, every piece that sticks out has to be sanded off along the 250 meter long edge. It is of course exciting to watch the ship come in on her last few millimeters. Is she going to assume the position she is supposed to? It really is precision work to move the ship in like that, because we're dealing with protruding railings and things like that, that she could hit. We are still in the process of adjusting everything with hoists. And in the next few hours, we will probably arrive at a good fit so that we can start doing precision measurements. Time to take stock. Considering we started to bring the bow section back this morning, floated into position, and in spite of some difficulties, managed to pull it within 250 millimeters of its final position, it has on the whole been a successful day. Although occasionally it took some serious effort, but we did it again. Two and a half weeks later, the Tor Begonia has been extended, and the ship has also received a fresh coat of paint. Now it will be put to the test. Today we're going to launch the ship for the first time since its extension. It makes one slightly nervous for sure. We'll find out if everything is tight, if everything is okay. But I am positive. With her new length of 230 meters and the new cargo space, the Tor Begonia will leave port today. An 18-hour journey to Gutenberg is ahead of her. The engineers have thoroughly checked the welds with x-rays and vacuum tests, but Jörg Palunton wants to give it a final once-over. I have to check it all. This will be insulated again. There are fuel tanks behind here, which heat up during operation, and that's why this needs to be insulated as a fire protection if something happened here on the ramp. It requires sealing. And until the insulation is put on, I'd rather keep an eye on it. He has to check even the smallest details, like these bilge wells. They are collecting wells where rainwater normally accumulates. These are bilge traces, and when we take on ballast, there may be a chance of water coming in if a valve hasn't been shut properly. The floor would fill up and the water would reach the deck, and this way we can check if everything is tight. A bit of water may accumulate in here during cleaning. That's why the wells are here, but it will be pumped out into the appropriate tanks. If they filled up relatively quickly now and the water reached the deck, then we would have to make sure. Every welded joint has to be inspected. Behind here there is a healing tank. The healing tank is half filled with fresh water. There are two healing tanks, one portside and one on the starboard side. And with these healing tanks, I'm able to keep the ship level. That means when the ship is slightly leaning to one side, the other side would receive more ballast, and that's how the ship would be brought back to its horizontal position. And back here are about 160 tons of water. And if something wasn't neat and tidy here, water would in theory leak out. But everything is neat and tight. Tight and ready for sealing. Every joint has to be sealed to protect it from environmental damage through salt water, for example. Without preservation, a ship would rust within a short period of time. Wolter Scholke and Jörg Pellentin have finished their obligatory inspection round. They are satisfied. In the past five weeks, we were faced with continuous ups and downs. We did a lot of work. Right where we are now, we've pulled in the bow section. The last time, we still had a 400 millimeter gap here. Now that everything has been welded, aligned and prepared for sealing, one realizes that it was a major job we've accomplished here. I can't be proud of. Where there was seemingly chaos a few days ago, we now have an almost new ship. It is hard to imagine that this steel giant has been cut through in the middle. Looking towards the stern to where the forklift truck is now, we've inserted a 30 meter long midsection. And from there, further towards aft, we're looking at another 85 meters of old ship. And from this position here to the front, we were looking at 115 meters of the old ship. The last few details are being wrapped up, like the final blasting of the ring seam. Here you see the so-called ring joint untreated. It has only been welded. It now has to be treated for the paint application. The whole section has to be blasted. Blasting means that the deck will be hit with half millimeter steel pellets to remove all rust and paint residue, so that the deck is clean metal. So that the paint has perfect adhesion, because this deck will be subjected to extremely heavy loads with trucks driving over it. After her extension, the Tour Begonia now has 4,650 lane meters. This is the whole length of the truck lane on deck. Before, she only had 3,831 lane meters. Jörg Palanton does his final inspection of the bridge. Together with the ship's crew, he checks the levels of the 16 ballast water tanks. The tugboats are expected to arrive in a few minutes. On this screen, one can see nicely where the valves are, or the various tanks. When the tanks are red, they are completely full, or completely empty. Here one can see the filling levels of the various tanks, the setting of the various valves, open or shut. Everything is controlled via a trackball. Nobody has to go down and do anything by hand. Everything is controlled electronically from up here. Only a few more meters, and the ship will be afloat. The 16 ballast tanks are still being filled with more than 2,000 tons of water from the port. After all, a ship doesn't float that properly. With ships of this size, balancing weights are very important to keep the freighter stable on the water. The dock has been lowered far enough that the whole ship is now in the water. As you can see, we are sitting very well horizontally. Vertically, we have to go lower in front. Via this instrument panel, pumps can be started, valves opened, and water transferred until we have reached the desired position of the ship. It's a matter of minutes until the tugboats can tie up and pull the ship out. The tugboats have arrived. Joy and relief. Now I feel kind of relieved that everything seems to be finished. As far as it looks, we are floating. The dock just went down, and the vessel is now afloat 30 meters longer than when we came in. Now we are going out of the dock again as a total new ship. So it feels good to me. In spite of her new length, the Torbe Gonia will be able to reach her original maximum speed of 22.5 knots without a problem. The ship runs on heavy oil. Its fuel consumption has increased by five tons per day due to the additional weight of the mid-section. More than three months of work and planning were involved in this project. How do you feel? Excellent. Very good. It's nice to be so close to the end for a long summer. Very good. The ship is 30 meters longer, and it floats. Extended from 200 to 230 meters, a new weight of 16,250 tons of solid steel, an increase in cargo space of 25 percent. The ship can now transport 6,000 tons of additional freight. Reborn, the Torbe Gonia is conquering the North Sea once again. She will resume her route between Gutenberg and Emmingen. A first-class extension marathon lies behind Jörg Palanton and his team of 280 workers and engineers. This is the third extension that has been successfully completed by the shipyard in the past few months, and the tenth extension in the past four years. In spite of several problems, the engineers were able to meet the deadline. It took five weeks to totally remodel the ship. Two months before that, Jörg Palanton and his team started to plan the project. In Europe alone, there are 20 shipyards performing ship extensions. Given the increase in the transport of goods by water, this is a cost and time-saving alternative to the purchase of a new ship. An extension is also environmentally friendly. By increasing the cargo space by 25 percent, the shipping company is saving one in four trips.