Archives

How Do They Do That?

Every year millions of Americans embark on cruise ships for a week or more of leisure sailing, pampering, and epicurean adventure. From ports on both U.S. coasts, Alaska, Hawaii, the Baltic, Mediterranean, and Caribbean regions, the crews of these great ships welcome guests by the thousands each week, and somehow manage to make every one of them feel as though they are the most important guest to ever sail aboard that particular ship.

With impeccable service and unprecedented attention to detail, it’s small wonder that millions of Americans have opted to spend their hard-earned vacation money onboard these floating cities. It is also no surprise that cruise lines are busy increasing the size of their fleets to accommodate the growing demand of Americans ready to set sail and experience a week of true royalty upon the seas.

While most Americans have become familiar with the relaxed luxury of vacation cruising either by personal experience or by accounts from friends and family members who have cruised - very few may know anything of the hard work and extraordinary planning that goes on behind the scenes to make such vacations the perfect “at sea experience.”

In every sense of the word, these cruise ships are cities upon the sea. Like all good cities, they must be well administered and maintained. Public safety and security, water, electricity, sewage services, food distribution, recreation, education, and every other aspect of city administration can be found upon these great ships. But unlike land-based cities, these ships are most often found “in motion” upon the seas. This simple fact makes the operation and administration of modern cruise ships far more difficult than that of typical cities.

So how do they do it? That’s the question the Chief Engineer had when we first started looking at the cruise ship industry. To answer that question we turned to the premiere shipboard cruise line in the world - Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises. Little did we know when we first approached this company that our initial contact would bring to light the first of many major surprises we discovered about this remarkable company.

John Schneider serves as the Fuel & Energy Optimization Manager for Royal Caribbean International & Celebrity Cruises. After more than two decades at sea as an Engineering Officer and Chief Engineer, John accepted the challenge of helping to make the cruise ships owned by Celebrity Cruises and Royal Caribbean International “greener” than the deep seas they traverse.

“ The company is totally committed to minimizing environmental impact and conserving natural resources,” John explained. “This commitment extends to every member of the Royal Caribbean/Celebrity family of employees”.

Furnished with a company brochure printed for employees and guests, the Chief Engineer was more than impressed at the level of this commitment to the environment that John first told us about. Royal Caribbean/Celebrity has instituted a program called “Save the Waves®” that clearly demonstrates the largest and most extensive environmental program the Chief Engineer has seen from any major corporation.

The program is based upon four key principles:

1. Go Above and Beyond Compliance. Do more than is required by regulations.

2. Practice Pollution Prevention. Nothing may be thrown overboard.

3. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Reduce the generation of waste material, reuse and recycle as much as possible, and ensure proper disposal of remaining wastes.

4. Continual Improvement. Change is the only constant and innovation is encouraged.

To put teeth into this program, the company has placed Environmental Officers on every ship in its fleet. Given the rank of a senior officer, the Environmental Officer is responsible for overseeing and verifying that all environmental systems and procedures are being strictly enforced. In addition, the Environmental Officer is responsible for the training of crewmembers. Under the policy, every member of the ship’s crew receives instruction focusing on his or her responsibilities to operate with zero impact to the environment.

The program includes a system of checks that require frequent inspections by shipboard officers to ensure that no shortcuts are taken when it comes to operating “green”. Each week, on every ship in the fleet, the Captain and officers of the ship meet solely to discuss environmental operations and to discuss new ideas that might make the ship even more environmentally friendly.

At the company’s headquarters in Miami, they have established an Environmental Committee of the Board of Directors, which is chaired by William Reilly, the former head of the U.S. EPA. They have also established an “Ocean Fund” that has distributed more than $8 million in grants to organizations dedicated toward preserving and restoring marine environments.

The results of this program, though seldom seen by the thousands of guests on board a ship, are remarkable indeed. Metal, paper, and glass used on board every ship is processed and recycled. On board every ship, compactors and crushers are used to process metal and glass. Food waste is processed into pulp prior to disposal in environmentally friendly incinerators.

The ships have also eliminated or reduced the use of plastic plates, cups, shampoo bottles, and other items that most hotels furnish to their guests, relying instead on the recycling potential of glass and metals to take precedence over the lower cost of plastic products.

The above and beyond commitment of Celebrity Cruises and Royal Caribbean is also evident in the processing of bilge water, which is water mixed with oil or fuel. Environmental regulations permit bilge water to be returned to the sea following processing that reduces particulate content to 15 ppm. The company however, holds to a more stringent standard of just 5 ppm. In many locations, this high standard means that the ships return to the sea cleaner water than they originally took onboard.

As a result of this extraordinary effort, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean received both ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certification, the first cruise lines to receive such recognitions. But despite meeting these significant milestones, it was apparent from the start of our meeting with company officials that they consider these certifications more of a beginning than an end.

As our conversation with John Schneider progressed, he rattled off more than a half-dozen initiatives the company has underway to reduce the use of natural resources and make every ship even more environmentally efficient.

John told us of an initiative that Celebrity Cruises has underway with 3M Corporation. “We contracted with 3M to install their Prestige series of window film on the windows of our ships,” he explained. “3M, working as our corporate partner, undertook to train trainers from our own corporate family. These trainers in-turn, have trained other crew members to assist in installing the film on the ship’s windows.”

John explained that the window covering, which significantly reduces the heat load on air conditioning equipment, is virtually imperceptible after being applied. “You can’t tell the difference between a window which has the application and one that doesn’t,” he said.

Another initiative underway involves replacing hull paint on ships with a new silicone-based paint containing Nanites (material developed at the atomic or molecular level) that reduces friction and drag, improving fuel economy.

Still another energy conservation project John is working on involved the development of a new lamp designed and manufactured specifically for the Celebrity Cruises and Royal Caribbean. “We developed an LED lamp that is a suitable replacement for the traditional halogen lamps used in ceiling lighting throughout our ships,” he said. “While their initial cost is significantly more than the halogen model - their life span of 50,000 hours reduces replacement cost. “Just the replacement savings alone gives us a great ROI on the project,” he explained. “When you factor in the heat load savings from installing approximately 20,000 of these lamps and the wattage savings obtained from each lamp, you can see that this is a significant conservation initiative,” he concluded.

At this point, John invited us to tour one of the stars of the Celebrity Cruises’ fleet, Millennium, and to meet some of the remarkable people that make this ship a diamond upon the seas.

As we approached the magnificent vessel at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, activity was apparent everywhere as dockworkers and crew readied the ship to put back to sea on yet another Caribbean cruise. I would learn that the Millennium would complete its last Caribbean cruise for the season in a few weeks before heading across the Atlantic Ocean for her summer cruise service on the Mediterranean.

As you would expect, security was very tight and we were forced to undergo screening at several locations, and to await an escort to take us aboard. “Security and safety for our guests is our single biggest priority,” John said, as we waited for yet another computer to check whatever it is that computers check. Later on, the Chief Engineer would learn that security for Celebrity ships is overseen by very highly trained security officers who come to the job well prepared for any incident. Suffice it to say, if you are on board one of these ships, you are probably safer than you are in your own home.

As we stood dockside to the massive ship, we couldn’t help but be impressed with the enormity of its size and the meticulous care apparent in its upkeep. Not so much as a single smudge from a dockside fender was visible on the ship’s hull, and she looked as radiant as when she was first delivered from her shipbuilders in St. Nazaire, France.

We were met by a crewmember who escorted us to the office of the Chief Engineer. Upon entering the office, our first impression was that this was an office any Chief would envy. The spacious office had beautiful wood paneled walls and was surrounded on two sides by large windows that let the sun illuminate the fine furnishings within. The beauty and orderliness of the space nearly took our breath away. Soon, however, we would learn that senior officers onboard serve for 3 months, and during that time, it is rare that a Chief Engineer will set foot on dry land. After three months, not only would an office like this seem small, the entire ship would become small as well.

Chief Engineer George Spyrellis was nearing the end of his current three-month contract and would soon return home to Athens, Greece, and his wife and two sons. Spyrellis began his sailing career following graduation at the Maritime Academy in Athens. He served in the Greek navy aboard a retired U.S. destroyer before becoming a Merchant Marine engineer aboard cargo and tanker vessels. He advanced to Chief Engineer five years ago and was just completing his first 3-month cruise as Chief Engineer of the Millennium.

Like all great Chief Engineers, Spyrellis spoke in a rapid-fire language, carrying on a half-dozen conversations at once. He not only patiently answered our questions, but took questions and calls in two languages from half a dozen forms of communication. Despite the opulence of his surroundings and the abundance of food available aboard cruise ships, Spyrellis has the lanky, muscled figure of a Chief Engineer that races through nooks and crannies and up and down ladders tending to every aspect of his ship.

Obviously, we liked him immediately.

Prior to our meeting, I had emailed a list of questions and was pleased to learn that Spyrellis took the time to answer every question in a written format. What he presented to me laid out nearly everything any Chief would want to know about this magnificent vessel.

The Millennium has an electrical propulsion system. By this we mean that the prime mover, a gas turbine, is connected to generators that produce electricity. The electricity in turn not only furnishes the electricity used in passenger and crew space, but also powers electric motors that turn the props and make the vessel move through the sea.

The prime movers are two General Electric LM2500+ gas turbines producing 25 MW of electricity or 33,325 Hp each. The total output is 11,000 volts with a maximum turbine speed of 3,600 Rpm.

Exhaust heat from the turbines is directed into two Deltak waste heat boilers generating 32.5 bar steam pressure (470 psi) at a superheated temperature of 410 degrees C (770 degrees F) and capacity of 37,500 Kg/h. The steam generated is used for a seven-stage backpressure steam turbine connected to another generator producing 9.5 MW or 12,739 Hp. PRV’s reduce the steam pressure to 9-bar (130 psi) or 3-bar (44 psi) for heating, fresh water production, and other process work aboard the ship.

An auxiliary boiler is also aboard ship with an operating pressure of 8-bar (114 psi) with a capacity of 5,000 kg/h.

The main propulsion system is comprised of two Mermaid Pods of 19.5 MW each, manufactured by Rolls Royce for mechanical and ALSTOM for electrical components.

Steering is accomplished by hydraulic motors, which can rotate the Mermaid Pods in a complete 360-degree circle. In addition, three Brunvoil, FU-100-LTC bow thrusters with an input power of 2350 Kw at 225 Rpm provide the ship with 90-degree maneuverability, eliminating the need for tow or tugboat docking.

The two ships propellers are 4-blade, fixed pitch and each is 5.75 meters, or 18.8 feet diameter. Each propeller weighs in at 17.5 tons.

Total power generated by the prime movers of the ship is 59.5 MW or 80,461 Hp. That is about the same amount of power needed to furnish the electric needs of 40,000 homes.

Guests need not be concerned with spilling any Gray Goose vodka from their nightly martinis. The Millennium is equipped with Blohm & Voss, Simplex Combat fin stabilizers. These two, 19 square meter stabilizers counteract the motion of the sea by using a controlling gyroscope and producing centrifugal inertia to produce lift or dive which keeps the massive ship nearly rock solid in high sea conditions.

Four Sabre screw compressor chillers using R-410a refrigerant with a capacity of 4,892 Kw each provide air conditioning. Chilled water is directed to the air handlers, which also have hot water coils for environmental control. The ventilation system is controlled by a Valmarine computerized system that serves to monitor all equipment aboard the ship, thus eliminating multi-system configuration.

Domestic water is produced directly from seawater through desalination. Two Serck Como six-stage evaporators each produce 700 cubic meters (184,920 gallons) of water per day. Storage capacity of fresh water is 2,700 metric tons (715,000 gallons). There is more than enough water to provide for the average 250 Kg (66 gallons) of water consumed per day by each of the guests and crew.

Three York Stall screw compressors operating with R-404 refrigerant serve refrigeration needs for 8 freezer rooms, 30 walk-in refrigerators, and 340 catering refrigerators. The ship has the capacity to store enough food to furnish the needs of 3,500 people for 14 days. The ship does not carry pre-prepared food. All food aboard is made fresh, from fresh provisions, prepared onboard. Frozen meat and other frozen foods are taken from freezers and put in defrosting refrigerators eight hours prior to preparation. The ship has its own butcher shop, fish shop, and of course, a bakery for preparation of the lavish desserts guests crave.

Fuel capacity of the vessel is 3,400 cubic meters (898,184 gallons) and fuel can be marine gas oil or biodiesel. This fuel can keep the Millennium at sea for 12 days. Fuel consumption averages 125 metric tons (38,000 gallons) per day - per engine, at a cruising speed of 23.5 knots.

Onboard Millennium, approximately 30 cubic meters of garbage and food waste is produced each day. Approximately 75 percent of this volume is recycled. The remaining waste is treated through onboard incineration units.

Gray water (sewage from sinks, showers, etc.) and black water (sewage from commodes) total approximately 750 cubic meters and 48 cubic meters, respectively, per day. This wastewater is treated through onboard Hamman treatment units.

Because of the great attention to the environment exhibited onboard the Millennium, the ship has been awarded the Green Planet Award by the Kuoni International Organization (a leading European travel firm) three years in a row.

Life safety is never taken for granted aboard the Millennium. An Autronica monitoring system handles fire monitoring and detection. The ship has smoke detectors installed throughout in such manner that no blind space exists anywhere. This includes monitoring of passenger areas, crew areas, storage areas, and engineering spaces.

Backing up the fire monitoring system is a “high fog” automated fire extinguishing system that directs a high-pressure mist of water that permeates a space more effectively than simple water sprinklers. The fire system is monitored 24 hours per day in two separate locations, by two separate computerized systems. One is located in the navigational bridge and the second in the engine control room.

Eighteen lifeboats, each with a capacity of 150 persons, are located on each side of the ship, and two fast-rescue boats stand ready in the event someone falls overboard. In addition, 68 life rafts with a capacity of 25 persons each, are aboard the ship along with 5,500 life jackets - more than enough to accommodate all passengers and crewmembers.

Two electrical shops, two carpentry shops, one upholstery shop, one tailor shop, and a paint shop support maintenance aboard ship. As yet another indication of the attention to detail shown by the company, a Sanitation Engineer is assigned exclusively to the continuous monitoring of the two open-deck and one indoor hydro pools aboard the ship. The engineer is required to assure that water quality continuously meets U.S. Public Health standards.

At this time, we were pleased to be joined by the ship’s Master Captain, Zisis Taramas. Also a native of Greece, Captain Taramas immediately demonstrated that his command of the ship included command of knowing everything that was taking place onboard. Taking up exactly where Chief Engineer Spyrellis was during the conversation, the Captain, along with the Chief Engineer explained yet another major project Celebrity had planned for the Millennium. In April of this year, the ship will return to dry dock in Brest, France, where a hull section 25 meters by 10 meters will be cut out and a new diesel engine installed that will furnish the ship with a new source of power, allowing it to operate on both gas turbine and internal combustion power. Already, the ship has carried a 30-member work crew with Chief Engineer Manolis Voulgaris heading up the project, that has made numerous modifications and installed ancillary equipment to make the prime mover conversion. Plans call for the entire dry dock experience to take just 17 days, after which the Millennium will return to duty, sailing the Mediterranean while crewmembers and workers complete the installation and bring the great ship into yet another new life. Code-named the X-80 project, the conversion will allow the ship to burn less fuel by increasing efficiency and decreasing the use of the world’s depleted natural resources.

As we toured the engineering spaces of the ship, we were aware that a few decks above, hundreds of guests were entering the vessel for a fun-filled and relaxing vacation. While below, in the company of the men and women who make up the crew of the Millennium, we were given the opportunity to see the world changing. It was made very clear to us that the leadership of Celebrity Cruises and Royal Caribbean International has a vision for their company that will lead it into a new world where commercial enterprise is in balance with nature. We were also aware that the officers and crew of the Millennium and managers like John Schneider not only understood this vision - they are determined to see it realized.

As we watched the great ship slip into the Atlantic on its way to the Caribbean Sea, we not only watched a great lady fade upon the horizon, we witnessed the birth of a new paradigm where ships and the crews who sail them will no longer go forth to master the seas, but will instead go forth to nurture and preserve this precious and fragile resource we for too long have taken for granted.

Archives