Midnight Sun

Type Commercial Dry Cargo Vessel Owner Totem Ocean Trailer Express Builder NASSCO

National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) and Totem Ocean Trailer Express, Inc. (TOTE) christened M.V. Midnight Sun, the first commercial dry cargo vessel to be built in the U.S. in 10 years. The Midnight Sun is the first of two new Orca-class trailerships being built by NASSCO for TOTE's service from Tacoma, Wash., to Anchorage, Alaska.

It and its sister ship, MV North Star, are 840 x 118-ft. (256 x 35.9-m), RoRo cargo ships offering the option to carry trailers as large as 53 ft. in length. The ships' cargo can be loaded and discharged in nine hours, with the speed and efficiency of this process being an important competitive advantage for TOTE. The vessel, which will transport trucks, cars, trailers, trailer-borne products and equipment, military equipment, and project cargo, will have a hull arrangement consisting of a raised fo'c's'le deck with turtelback; transom stern; bulbous bow; deckhouse aft; six decks with fixed ramps fore and aft. Though not to be delivered until early 2003, M. V. Midnight Sun and M. V. North Star have already received several awards for their environmentally sensitive design. These include the States/British Columbia Oil Spill Task Force Legacy Award for 2000, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner's 2000 Pollution Prevention Award, and the Biennial William M. Benkert Foundation 2002 Environmental Excellence Bronze Award.

Main Particulars Class ABS Flag U.S. Length, (o.a.) 839 ft. (255.7 m) Beam 118 ft. (35.9 m) Depth 90 ft. (27.4 m) Draft, (max.) 30 ft. (9.1 m) Speed (at 90 percent) 24 knots Trailer capacity 600 FEU Auto capacity 200 FEU Cargo deck area 360,000 sq. ft. Design displacement 45,843 LT Lightship weight 23,975 LT Main engines 4x MAN B&W 9L58/64, 2x MAN B&W 9L 27/38 medium speed diesels @ 400 and 720 rpm, respectively