Royal Caribbean’s Enchantment of the Seas’
2,666-ton mid section was built in Finland at the Aker Finnyards over
a seven month period that began last September. When the midbody section
was completed this April, it was welded with steel beams to the deck of
the barge carrying it on a 1,430 mile journey on the Baltic and North
seas to the Keppel Verolme dockyard in Rotterdam where the Enchantment
was in dry-dock for the refit.
Upon arrival at the Rotterdam dry dock, a major hurdle was the positioning
of the midsection as close as possible to the area of the ship where it
would be inserted. With the use of a compute- generated model and laser-measurement
equipment, workmen were able to place the midsection little more than
an inch from where it would be inserted. The dock area was then pumped
dry and hydraulic towers secured the midsection. During the insertion
process, most of the ship would rest on concrete blocks.
With 16 men on each eight-hour shift working round the clock, it took
six days to split the ship, cutting though more than 1,969 linear feet
of steel with gas and oxygen torches and circular saws as well as severing
more than 1.100 cables, 120 pipes and 60 air ducts.
The cut was made 427 feet from the ship’s bow, leaving the yard
with a foreship section weighing 11,315 tons that had to be moved forward
to accommodate the midbody.
Once the ship was split in half, the ship’s bow and aft sections
were positioned with skids and hydraulic jacks and the new midsection—
measuring 73 feet long, 106 feet wide, 144 feet high and weighing 2,939
tons—was guided into place by a laser-alignment system.
The ll,315-ton bow section slid first. Then the midbody was moved into
alignment and pushed back to touch the ship’s aft section. After
that, the bow section was moved back into place. Finally the workmen rewelded
the ship together, a job that took 15 days weeks and involved the attachment
of nearly 1,300 individual cables, pipes and ducts on each end of the
new midbody.
With the use of the innovative new procedure, the entire lengthening process
was completed in only 31 days.
Click images for larger view:
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Midsection being barged to Rotterdam
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Ship and midsection side by side at Keppel Verolme Shipyard
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Foreship moved forward to make room for new midsection
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New midsection in alignment