While there is much talk of short-sea shipping in North America, many would say that trucks still receive much more infrastructure support. However in Europe there is a greater acceptance and encouragement to use the inland waterways to move, not only bulk cargos, but shipping containers as well.
Recently the de Roeck family took delivery of a 443 ft by 46.5 ft container vessel. With a depth of 13 ft and a telescoping wheel house the MS Isabelle is capable of handling five layers of containers. For visibility over the containers, the wheelhouse can extend to nine meters when the vessel is fully loaded.
Homeported in Brecht the hull of the Belgium-flagged vessel was built in the Russian Astrachan Plant and finished at the Veka Shipbuilding BV at Werkendam the Netherlands. Propulsion power is provided by a pair of EU Stage IIIa and EPA Tier 2 compliant Cummins QSK50-M engines each delivering 1600 hp at 1800 RPM. The vessel also has dual Cummins-powered 560 hp bow thrusters and a Cummins 4BT3.9-G4 powered genset.
Because of the family de Roecks good experience with Cummins engines in their other vessels, they decided to continue their cooperation with Cummins. The MS Isabelle will be used to transport containers throughout the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and France.