Astilleros Espanoles Delivers Marie Knutsen, A 124,000-dwt Double-Bottom Shuttle Tanker

Built by Astilleros Espanoles' estao factory and delivered to [nutsen Boyelaster I of Norway in )ecember 1992, the Marie Knutsen 3 a 265-meter, 124,000-dwt doubleiottom shuttle tanker.

The vessel is powered by a MAN 5&W 6S70MC diesel engine, which :an generate 20,000 bhp at 88 rpm. The diesel power plant drives a :unial-made, controllable pitch propeller. Propulsion and maneuverability is aided by three C.P.P.-supplied thrusters, two fore, each driven by a 1,600-kW engine, and one aft, driven by a 1,000-kW engine.

Four Alconza, 1,200-kW generators provide the ship with electrical power. Each is driven by Bergen KRG-8 type, 1,800-bhp engines. The Marie Knutsen is equipped with two combined windlasses, five mooring winches and two chain stoppers, supplied by Aquamaster Rauma, Rapola and Navacel.Electronics equipment onboard includes: Furuno FM 7000 VHF radio, M1940 radar and LC 90 loran; SAIT TRP 3000 VHF radio and TRP 87515 SSB radio; a Thomson Trepat AE 180 compass; Simrad Albatros DPS 702 Dynamic Positioning System; and Sperry SRP 686 autopilot.

The ship was finished with coatings from Hempel.

For additional information on the shipbuilding capacity of Astilleros Espanoles,The U.S. Navy has awarded Litton's Ingalls Shipbuilding division, Pascagoula, Miss., a $15.5 million contract modification to continue providing engineering and planning support to the Navy's Arleigh Burke- (DDG 51) class Aegis guided missile destroyer program. Ingalls currently has construction contracts for nine of the 504- foot, 8,300-ton warships. The first Ingalls-built Aegis destroyer, USS Barry (DDG 52), was commissioned into active service in December 1992. The Ingalls support contract is now in the fourth element of a sixyear program which began in December 1988.

The program has a total projected value of about $120 million. Approximately 300 Ingalls employees perform technical, engineering and design tasks under the contract.