Jumbo (company)
Jumbo Shipping or Kahn Shipping is a family-owned maritime company that specializes in heavy marine transport and offshore installations. Based in Schiedam, the Netherlands, the company has been active in ocean transportation since 1968, although its operations have roots in the 1940s. Jumbo currently operates 12 vessels with heavy lifting capacities ranging from 500 to 1,800 tons. Since its inception Jumbo has specialized in the transportation of cargoes not suitable for shipping in containers and to calling at undeveloped and shallow water ports.
History
In the middle of the 20th century, the shipping industry was becoming dominated by the container and the pallet which, at the time, were innovations in the ocean transportation sector. Hans Kahn, the founder of Jumbo, realized that there would always be cargo that would not fit inside a container. Large, heavy cargoes that were then being transported via a range of improvised, ad hoc means. He saw an opportunity to enter an undeveloped market, and set about developing the innovative Mv Stellaprima, the first of her name, having four 12 ton derricks.
In 1968 Hans Kahn’s company, until then known as Kahn Scheepvaart, took on the name Jumbo Shipping. The name was chosen, along with the logo of a giant elephant, to signify the strength of the vessels and the large, heavy nature of the cargo they were designed to transport.
The Jumbo fleet has seen continual upgrades, often as a response to a specific client requirement. For example, the Mv Stellanova, Jumbo’s first A class vessel, initially had a lifting capacity of 55 tons, and was later modified to a capacity of 70 tons to meet a customer requirement.
In 2003 Jumbo extended its range of services beyond lifting and transportation to include offshore subsea installation projects, in a process embodied by the term “Lift. Ship. Install. All in one go.” This is largely the realm of two vessels from the current Jumbo fleet; the Jumbo Javelin and the Fairplayer. The vessels carry out the projects with the aid of dual 900t Huisman mast cranes, a dynamic positioning system (DP2), large deck and storage capacity and a deepwater deployment system that enables the lowering of subsea structures to depths of up to 3,000m.