Abstract: A novel barge structure for transporting fresh water from one marine environment location to another is described having critical parameters. The barge is constructed of flexible material and preferably is filled to less than 50 percent of its capacity, typically greater than about 25,000 tonnes, so as to float with flat upper and lower surfaces and to have a relatively shallow depth as compared with its length and width. The flexible nature of the structure enables waves to be accommodated without significant stresses which otherwise would require the use of high strength materials. A system of heavy straps acts to prevent propagating rips and to distribute the concentrated tow force over the bag.

Abstract: Flexible fabric barges are connected together in a string for towing. The barges are interconnected by fabric sleeves which have zipper connections. A fabric towing cone is zipper connected to the lead barge. Each barge includes an elongated opening that allows cargo to be efficiently discharged from the barge. The elongated opening can be a circumferentially elongated opening that divides the barge into front and rear sections or the elongated opening can be a longitudinal opening which divides the barge into right and left sections.

Abstract: A flexible barge containing fresh water is unloaded on a dry dock which is gradually raised from a submerged condition as the fresh water is pumped out of the barge. The deck of the dry dock is formed with a basin adjacent one end thereof and the dry dock is tilted near the end of the unloading operation so that water will drain in the barge toward the basin and collect in the barge in the basin to be pumped out.

Abstract: A semi-submersible offshore platform comprising a hull having at least one oil storage tank and a fixed centralized support member. The hull has a peripheral edge. The platform further comprises a deck coupled to the support member and a plurality of stabilizer buoys. Each of the buoys is coupled to the hull and is positioned adjacent the peripheral edge of the hull, whereby the buoys pitch, roll, heave, sway, and surge relative to the hull. Also provided is a system for stabilizing a semi-submersible offshore platform having a submersible hull. The system comprises a buoyant stabilizer and a constant tension device attached to the platform and coupled to the buoyant stabilizer, relative to the submersible hull.

Abstract: Flexible fabric barges are connected together in a string for towing. The barges are interconnected by fabric sleeves which have zipper connections. A fabric towing cone is zipper connected to the lead barge.

Abstract: The disclosure relates to a floating oil/gas production terminal comprising a multi-hull vessel having a plurality of vertically spaced barge form hulls interconnected together to form a unitary structure including an upper hull which floats the vessel and a lower hull which provides gas/oil/other liquid storage space. A vertical throughway extends through the hulls towards one end thereof and a manifold system is disposed in the free space between the hulls and is mounted for rotation on the upper and/or lower hulls about a vertical axis extending through the throughway to receive a plurality of pipelines connected directly or indirectly to seabed wellheads. A rotary fluid coupling is provided having two elements relatively rotatable about the vertical axis.

Abstract: The invention is a modular bladder system for confining a liquid cargo and carrying such cargo in a compartment of a transporter vessel. The cargo is confined in a modular plurality of bladders and cargo-filled bladders occupy substantially the entirety of the compartment volume. In one aspect, the system isolates ballast sea water and cargo without unduly limiting vessel cargo-carrying capacity. In event of an accidental hull penetration, the system limits the quantity of the potential spill and the modular bladders can be configured to substantially fill the compartments of a particular vessel.

Abstract: The invention includes an expandable closed-off container mounted within the tank. A pump system is coupled to the container for pumping the oil from the tank to the interior of the container. In one embodiment, the apparatus is mounted to a support structure located in proximity to the bottom of the tank and is expandable upward and outward therefrom with the pump system mounted in proximity to the bottom of the tank. In a second embodiment of the invention, the apparatus is mounted in proximity to the top of the tank and is expandable downward and outward. An individual pump is attached to the container.

Abstract: An on-board oil disposal and recovery system for emergency response to an oil spill comprising one or a plurality of wheeled oil disposal bladders, one or a plurality of bladder support brackets disposed about the periphery of the vessel and means to interconnect the oil transfer system of the vessel and a bladder of the system.

Abstract: A warship has a unit seating extending around an opening in a ship's deck with a platform mounted in the seating and levelled relative to the main scantling plane of said warship, and a functional unit installation, e.g., a weapon or a navigational apparatus, on the platform. A container carried beneath the platform, accommodates a part of the functional unit installation. Vertically resiliently acting supports carry at least a part of the weight of the platform, the container and the installation and allow limited horizontal movement of the container relative to the supports.

Abstract: The invention relates to a container for the ground material removed by a ground working device, for example, a mud plough or a suction device from the bottom of a watercourse. Such a container is known in the form of a compartment trough moved by the tugboat of the mud plough or the hopper barge. A disadvantage of such a container is that it is heavy and hence transportable only with difficulty while it is expensive and cannot be emptied by a simple procedure. The invention has for its object to obviate these disadvantages and provides to this end a container of the kind set forth in the preamble constructed in the form of a flexible bag that can be connected with the ground working device.

Abstract: A Cargo Torpedo comprises a floating semi-submerged vessel attached to a prime mover vessel by a stud installed in the center of the stern of a cargo vessel to match into an opening in the center into the bow of a prime mover vessel; the opening consists of a bushing to rotate with the motion of the cargo torpedo introduced by a plurality of mobile fins installed around the outer circumference of the cargo vessel whereby remote-controlled fins put in different angle positions synchronized in motion so the pitch of the fins will determine rotation or when put in neutral position stabilize the cargo torpedo, therefore, rotation of the cargo torpedo is transferred through the stud to a bushing of the prime mover vessel, whereby the bushing penetrates into the interior of the prime mover vessel to activate one or a series of generators or alternators to produce electricity needed to assist propulsion of the prime mover vessel.

Abstract: A floating container for receiving and transporting collected oil pollutants has an elongate, hose-shaped body with towing attachments and buoyancy bodies disposed on the outside thereof and serving as rubbing strakes or fenders, and a large filling and discharge opening surrounded by an inflatable buoyancy collar. The discharge opening is sealable by means of a cover and is sufficiently large to allow the introduction of an immersible pump intended for discharging of the contents of the container. The discharge opening is either triangular and has its one apex directed towards the towing attachments, or is oval and has its major axis directed in the longitudinal direction of the hose-shaped body.

Abstract: A buffer system for liquid cargo-carrying tankvessels including closed, flexible buffer tanks in way of at least the bottoms of the cargo tanks and apparatus to transmit a buffer fluid to and from the buffer tanks to selectively provide buffer protection for the cargo against penetration of at least the tank bottoms. The buffer tanks are also used for carrying clean ballast and for carrying cargo which is incompatible with the cargo carried in the cargo tanks.

Abstract: Method and apparatus are disclosed in a form particularly adapted for use in the handling of viscous liquids, such as viscous oil, on a barge. The technique includes provision of an engine for driving an oil pump, heat exchange mechanism through which the oil is pumped and arranged to effect heat transfer from the engine to the oil in order to maintain the oil at a temperature sufficiently high to facilitate pumping, for instance for the purpose of delivery of the oil at the destination of the barge.

Abstract: A ship has a plurality of open-top recesses in the deck thereof in which substantially fluid-tight, relatively light-weight, buoyant containers are held solely by the force of gravity and by frictional forces. Those containers substantially fill those recesses. If the ship were to sink, the containers would automatically eject, responding to the weight of the water which they displaced to rise up out of those recesses and float upright in open water. Thereafter, those buoyant containers would confine the contents thereof until those containers could have the contents thereof transferred into other ships at sea or could be towed to shore to be emptied, thereby preventing accidental spills of oil or other liquid cargo.

Abstract: An air or surface deployable, inflatable, flexible wall, fluid holding, towable container having a hollow, generally tubular, flexible wall container, at least one closeable inlet and outlet for directing fluids into and out of the container, gas inflatable barriers extending at least along the longitudinal side walls of the container in the zone of the water line of the container when it is filled with a liquid.

Abstract: A sea terminal having compartments for storage of fluids and adapted for the transfer of the fluids between the compartments and a ship. The sea terminal is constructed to eliminate the need for swivel hose connections as the ship swings in relation to the terminal. In another embodiment, the sea terminal may be sufficiently large to include drilling apparatus thereby providing a self-contained terminal which can drill into a sea bed, pump sub-sea oil into the compartments in the terminal and transfer the oil to a cargo ship. Alternatively, the sea terminal may be transported to a discharge point for discharging the oil.

Abstract: A sea terminal having compartments for storage of fluids at sea and piping connected to each compartment so that fluids may be transferred between the compartments and a ship. The compartments can rotate with respect to portions of the sea terminal which are moored to eliminate the need for swivel hose connections as the ship swings in relation to the sea terminal. In another embodiment, the sea terminal may be sufficiently large to include drilling apparatus thereby providing a self-contained terminal which can drill into a sea bed, pump sub-sea oil into compartments in the terminal and transfer the oil to a cargo ship. Alternatively, the sea terminal may be transported to a discharge point for discharging the oil.

Abstract: The mobile seafloor storage structure for storing POL (petroleum, oils, licants) comprising a pair of cylindrically-shaped enclosures having hemispherical-shaped end members. The two cylindrically-shaped enclosures are connected together by top, bottom and end members such that a center enclosure is formed between the pair of cylindrically-shaped enclosures. Various interconnections and related valves are utilized for moving POL, seawater, and gases from enclosure to enclosure thereby maneuvering the structure between the sea surface and the seafloor.

Abstract: A tug vessel and a plurality of transport modules connected together in a chain, each including a honeycomb core formed of an array of hexagonal cells (preferably formed of reinforced concrete), are disclosed. The modules and, if desired, the tug vessel are adapted to transport liquids, gasses, semi-solids (e.g. grain) and the like in the cells. Universal joint mechanisms connect the tug vessel and the modules together in a manner which allows the tug vessel and modules to move essentially independently with respect to one another. The tug vessel includes a pair of oppositely rotating propellers, located amidships at the rear of sponsons. In addition, gimbled jet exhaust nozzels are used to control the attitude of the tug vessel. Emptying and filling of the hexagonal cells is accomplished via a conduit array which uses a central cell to act as communication chamber for surrounding cells. Cells located along the lateral sides of the overall array are used to house ballast water.

Abstract: A marine trailer comprising an elongate collapsible, flexible container and at least one open-ended rigidifying conduit of a flexible-walled construction extending along the container with the cross-sectional area of the conduit decreasing from the front towards the rear of the container. Thus ambient liquid enters the conduit and, on flowing therethrough, exerts a pressure on the flexible wall of said conduit which is greater than the external pressure.The trailer may also have a safety reservoir which is disposed at the rear end of the container and is automatically communicable with the container in the event of rupture of the container.

Abstract: A flexible floating tank for conveying liquids comprising at least two elongated flexible elements of revolution joined side by side by a flexible linking harness and provided with inflating gas for maintaining their geometric shape by internal pressurization during various stages of use. The elements are provided with oblique conical end portions and are internally divided by bulkheads. Each element may have a sump which forms a stabilizing keel and also facilitates emptying through a dip pipe while internal pressurization is maintained through a separate duct.