US Patent:
20050235892, Oct 27, 2005
Inventors:
Paul Pollinger - Washington DC, US
Timothy McAllister - Severna Park MD, US
International Classification:
B63B035/28
Abstract:
A system of transporting and process of handling cargo efficiently utilizing water trade lanes and appropriate apparatus. The system enables the optimum use of apparatus in such a way as to handle cargo most efficiently between land and water as well as from port to port; a close-functioning system with each piece of apparatus matched to the others specifically to work together collaboratively; including river or ocean port slips, traversing gantry cranes and vessels; includes the actual handling of cargo at each port by the apparatus as well as transporting cargo between the originating ports and the destination ports; first at the ports where the cargo surrounds the vessels in the port slips on three sides for maximum efficiency when transshipping cargo via the gantry cranes; then when the vessels themselves are transporting cargo between ports, the method includes apparatus which provides optimum handling of cargo by addressing and resolving, via vessel configuration, the problems of the vagaries of channel characteristics, primarily depth changes, but also lock sizes in shallow draft waters; the vessels designed to transport cargo in short sea and ocean sea states and then return to shallow draft conditions, if required; note that all apparatus continues to be compatible with legacy (traditional) apparatus; thus total efficiency for handling and transporting cargo with our system using our process, compared to present systems and processes, is significantly enhanced.
