Introduction
This blog post is aimed at explaining the stowage plan of container ships so further you’ll be reading about how containers are stored on the ships how are they assigned a position and how do you understand those positions.
You can find the link for the blog post on Container lashing equipment below
This blog is a must for those of you who have not been sailing on container ships as it helps you become familiar,with the numbering system that is used on container ships.
Numbering System – Bay Row Tier
The numbering system is based on which is the bay row and tier assigned to a container .
What is the cell position? The cell position is the position where a container is placed ,its call it cell location or cell position
So the cell, a particular cell on a ship where a container is stored is assigned bay row and tier number.
The cell position is to be identified by the three factors the first one is bay, the bays are counted from the forward part of the ship to the aft part of the ship starting from bay 2 or bay 1 but it starts from the forward and then goes all the way to the aft.
Odd numbered bays (1,3,5 etc) means that it is a 20’ stow and Even numbered bay (2,4,6 etc) means that it is a 40’ stow..
Bay numbers are indicated by odd numbers starting from the forward to half for 20 feet containers and for 40 feet containers is the even number thus the odd number bays show 20 foot bay number 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 are all 20 feet containers.
If a 40 feet container comes in we don’t say bay 1 or bay 3 they are addressed as bay 2 so bay 2 is between bay 1 and bay 3 and bay 2 assigns a 40 feet it’s assigned to a 40 feet container
The row is counted in the direction from the ship’s center line to the port side or starboard side they are numbered with even numbers from the center leftward and odd numbers from the center rightward.
Where there is an odd number of rows, the middle row is numbered 00.
Now, the tier is of course the vertical direction from bottom to upward so the first container on deck or under deck that is loaded is the first high container then you have the second tier container which is the second high container then you have the third tier container which is the third high container and so on…
The container tiers are numbered with even numbers, starting from the bottom. The conventional way is start with 02 in the hold and then count up with 04, 06 etc. In the case of deck cargoes, it is conventional to start numbering with 80 or 82. There are sometimes slight differences between ships.
 | |
| Numbering of horizontal container layers, or tiers |
On this ship, the containers standing directly on the main deck are numbered 80 and those standing on the hatches are number 82. The number is incremented by two for each higher layer.
These bay row and tier numbers are noted in tier plans
 | |
| Bay plan |
The loaded containers, with their alpha prefix, their container numbers, the port of destination or discharge and other important details are noted in the bay plans.
 | |
| Color-labeled containers in a bay plan |
According to the bay row tier system, the colored containers were given the following stowage space numbers:
- a 20′ container in the red-colored slot: 531212
- a 40′ container in the blue-colored slot: 540788
- a 20′ container in the green-colored slot: 551184
The system illustrated is the most widely used. However, other numbering systems do exist, in which the coordinates are stated in a different order, for example row-bay-tier systems and similar combinations. On ro/ro ships, the slots are usually organized along lanes running lengthwise. In individual cases and if required, such information may be obtained from shipping companies, cargo-handling companies or other competent persons.
Abbreviations and Symbols
All of duty officers are expected to read and understand the schematic plan given by the local cargo planner and this schematic plan uses a lot of symbols and abbreviations, you have to make yourself very familiar with these abbreviations and symbols.
Apart from the abbreviations and symbols that are commonly used and you can see information on container by looking at the number of container. these are the symbols that are normally used on a schematic plan or a storage plan in different ports and it’s a good idea for you to become familiar with these.
This is an example here, the zebra mark or the danger mark that is highlighted tells you that it’s a high cube container .These are eight feet six inches high so you can compare the container which is just right next to it, its lower in height whereas the other containers is eight feet six inches so every high cube container will have that yellow and black diagonal marks painted or rather placed across it like a sticker that tells you these are high cube containers which are eight feet and six inches high
Conclusion
So it finally comes down to finding the location of cargo which is based on the bay plan, the location of cargo is based in the order of bay row and then tier number , the bay plan will also give the general description of cargo such as whether it is 40 feet or 20 feet then the content of the cargo whether they are hazardous dry or reefer.