Ship Thickness Gauging at the Port of Sunderland on the River Wear

Inspection services for ships at Sunderland

Each service has its own page with the method, the class requirements and what the report contains.

Quays and docks for gauging at Sunderland

At the river quays, the gauging plan follows the discharge. Hatch covers and coamings are measured from the deck while cargo operations continue, holds are taken one at a time as the stevedores finish them, and the team works out of the way of grabs and crane hooks. Hold frames, brackets, lower hopper plating and tank tops are where cargo damage and wastage show first on a coaster, so those come first in each hold. Ballast tanks are only entered if the crew has prepared them in advance and the master has issued an entry permit, which is why we ask the superintendent to have the tanks pumped and ventilated before arrival.

In the enclosed docks, ships waiting for cargo or orders give a calmer window, and tanks can be opened in turn over a longer stay. There is no working drydock on the Wear that we would plan around. A ship trading to Sunderland that needs docking goes to UK Docks' four-dock yard on the Tees or to the drydocks at Hebburn on the Tyne, and readings taken alongside in Sunderland beforehand let the yard plan its steel renewal before the ship arrives.

• River quays: hold, hatch-coaming and deck gauging on coasters during discharge, one hold at a time.
• Hudson Dock and Hendon Dock: ships waiting for cargo or orders, where ballast tanks and double bottoms can be opened over a longer stay.
• Heavy-lift and project cargo calls: crane pedestal weld checks and tank-top gauging beneath heavy units.
• UK Docks on the Tees and the Hebburn drydocks on the Tyne: where a ship trading to Sunderland goes for docking after an afloat survey here.

Inspection drivers for short-sea ships on the Wear

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency carries out port state control in Sunderland, as a member of the Paris MoU. The Paris MoU targets ships by risk profile, weighing ship type, age, flag and company performance and the ship's own inspection history, and older general cargo ships tend to fall into the higher-risk groups that are inspected more often and in more depth. Corroded hatch covers, wasted air pipes and leaking weather-deck structure are the kind of finding that leads to a detention. Owners who know where their ship's steel stands, from a recent gauging, deal with those findings before an inspector raises them.

Most coasters calling at Sunderland are below 5,000 gross tonnage, which keeps them outside the EU Emissions Trading System and FuelEU Maritime even when they trade to European ports. For these ships the pressure to gauge comes from class surveys and from the market rather than emissions rules. Dry-cargo charterers increasingly screen ships through RightShip or their own vetting, and buyers in the busy second-hand coaster market want to see steel condition before they commit. A thickness record taken during a cargo call answers both without taking the ship out of service.

Ships trading to Sunderland are inside a sulphur emission control area, where fuel must not exceed 0.10% sulphur unless an exhaust gas cleaning system (scrubber) is fitted. Scrubber wash-water piping, the overboard discharge and the hull penetration around it are among the fastest-corroding parts of a modern ship, so they belong in the gauging scope at every docking and, on open-loop systems, between dockings.

How a thickness measurement job runs at Sunderland

Most of the work on a Sunderland job happens before the team boards: scope, plan and access are settled first, so the time on board goes on measurement.

Newcastle International Airport is the usual arrival point, and the Tyne and Wear Metro runs from the airport through to Sunderland, which makes the last part of the journey straightforward. Technicians travel from India on UK visit visas, applied for well before the ship's expected call. Port access is controlled by the port's ISPS arrangements, with passes requested through the ship's agent, and the agent's berthing schedule tells us when holds will be free.

• Send the vessel name or IMO number, ship type, class society, the survey due (annual, intermediate, renewal survey number, CAP or owner's condition survey), the port and dates, and the scope you expect.
• We confirm the scope against the class rules for that survey, prepare the thickness measurement plan with frame and section references, and say whether the measurement will be credited to a class survey.
• Mobilisation is planned around visa lead times and the vessel's schedule; the ship's agent arranges port access, and the yard or ship arranges staging, lighting, ventilation and gas-free certificates.
• Gauging with calibrated ultrasonic thickness gauges: through sound coatings only where the gauge's through-coating mode has been verified on a coated reference, otherwise on cleaned bare steel, with every reading tied to its frame, strake and location on the sketch.
• Readings are compared with original thicknesses as work proceeds; substantial and excessive corrosion and any cracks are reported to the attending surveyor and the superintendent the same day.
• The final report is issued on the class thickness-measurement formats with sketches, a summary of locations exceeding the allowable margins, piping tables where piping was in scope, and the gauge calibration and technician certificates.

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