Rolls-Royce, a company known for old-world luxury autos and massive jet engines, can now put another feather in its cap, builder of a fleet fit for fish.
For the past, oh, 4 or 5 thousand years people have been fishing the world’s oceans looking for their next delicious catch. Today, fish farming operations are a massive business and moving fish from their farming grounds to processing plants presents a big challenge.
While you might think that simply scooping the fish out of the water and sending them down a shoot to be turned into fresh or frozen fillets is a good idea, those in the industry say that method can bruise and damage the fish, resulting in low-quality product. To get around this problem some fisheries simply load their schools into tanks and ship them to processing facilities via boat—and that exactly what’s happening in the Faroe Islands.
Rolls Royce’s NVC 386 is a 75.8 m (249ft) long, is 16 m (52ft) wide fish ferry with a capacity of 3,000 cubic meters. Inside its huge hull the NVC can carry some 442 tons of the world’s finest salmon. Equipped with aquadynamic hull the Rolls’ body helps stabilize the craft and ensures that the ships two Bergen C6 engines and its diesel-electric propulsion system run efficiently.
According to a deal struck between Rolls Royce and salmon-giants (not giant salmon) Bakkafrost the new NVC 386 will be built in the Tersan shipyard in Turkey. The $9.5M vessel will be Rolls’ 3 rd fish carrier with one model currently operating in Norway and the other under construction in Spain.
Image Courtesy of Rolls Royce