The new ship is expected to provide a six-day weekly service between Devonport and Melbourne
SeaRoad Shipping has launched its new roll-on roll-off freight vessel for the Bass Strait trade route .
Searoad Mersey II is aimed at improving the connectivity of Tasmania with the rest of the world, with a planned six days per week overnight service between Devonport and Melbourne beginning in December.
It will be the first coastal ship in Australia to use green liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuel-and-power technology.
The ship’s principal engines are dual-fuel, burning LNG as the primary source of energy, which is expected to reduce emissions, cut down the risk of oil pollution and improve operational efficiencies.
In regular service, the new ship will use diesel for less than one per cent of its operational requirements.
SeaRoad says the new ship is “significantly larger and faster than the namesake vessel it replaces, adding critical capacity for Tasmanian exporters (and importers) as the Bass Strait freight task continues to grow”.
“This is a Tasmanian-grown project that ticks the right boxes about environmental responsibility, clever thinking, world-leading technology and commercial sustainability,” Searoad Holdings chairman Chas Kelly says.
“SeaRoad customers will be able to tell their own clients that the produce, goods and equipment they’re shipping from or to Tasmania will be transported by the most environmentally efficient method.
“Clean and green not only defines Tasmania, it ships from here too”.
The ship will undergo completion work and trials before voyaging to Australia in late October.