LASH Ships
Barge-aboard, or lighter-aboard, ships, also called seabees
(sea barges) or LASH (lighter-aboard ships), resulted from a
development of the containership in the early 70-ies. Vessels
of this type are large with no sheer and very little superstructure.
They are capable of carrying about 83 fully laden barges, or
up to 1600 containers, or a combination of containers and barges.
The barge-carrying ship is an extension of the container ship
concept. Here, the container is itself a floating vessel, usually
about 60 feet long by about 30 feet wide, which is loaded aboard
the ship in one of two ways: either it is lifted over the stern
by a high-capacity shipboard gantry crane, or the ship is partially
submerged so that the barges can be floated aboard via a gate
in the stern.
This method of intermodal transportation allows a parent ship
to carry lighters, or barges which are lifted in port from the
stowed position, lowered to water level and towed away without
the use of quay space. Regardless of the type of port, the turnaround
time on these ships can be as little as 8 hrs. Similar door-to-door
transport services are operated by BACAT (Barge Aboard CATamaran)
vessels as well as by the latest BACO and CONDOCK vessels designed
to carry both barges and containers