Hi, as per Oldendorff site,,this ship has a belt,,not a screw

Got it (I think!). The conveyor belts are protected from having the full weight of the cargo resting on them by hydraulically operated, and probably quite small, doors. I expect these can be opened individually to avoid too much choking the conveyor. A definite benefit must be that the holds empty completely and do not need sweeping out.
Other designs cheat by having their own grabs that dump into a deck mounted hopper, from where it is discharged by the arm.
Holedriller

In 2010 while in Tampa FL the Belts on the upper d UnLoader set on fire,while unloading a cargo of granite, from Canada. After the fire was out she moved to Port Manatee, where Ibelieve temporary repairs were made,I remember seeing hr in Pt. Manatee

Hi holldriller, haha keep on shovellin' no the poor old River Torrens only took "soft" cargoes such as salt, gypsum, wheat etc and as Clyde has pointed out in one of his previous photos of her in her new guise as CSL Pacific, soil excavated from the Barangaroo site

Thank you for your thoughts. I would put my money on a giant screw, but it would have to be a substantial piece of engineering to stretch the length of all the holds, and to start off with 30,000 tons of stone on top!
In the days of coal powered steam locos (my passion) a lot of US ones had automatic stokers powered by a screw, which was always getting jammed and had to have a reverse to free it. In UK we only had three, all the rest the fireman had to shovel like there was no tomorrow.
Holedriller

Hi holedrille, I don't know about this vessel but ANL's converted self discharger "River Torrens" has what I can only describe as like a large metal screw type system running along the bottom of the hold to push the cargo along to the header.
best wishes
Ron

This may help http://www.oldendorff.com/index.html

Look at both items under Unloaders on the left hand menu

@holedriller
I never was on one like that,,but I can imagine that the conveyor belt runs in a tunnel,, on top are gratings with appropiate sized holes to let fall the cargo through and direct under them plates/doors which can be opened or closed via hydraulic. The holds are
shaped like a "V" that the cargo slides down as below the belt transports it away.
What you say on this Capt Peter ?

Capt peter - Is other one Yeoman Bank, currently in Falmouth dry dock, some excellent pictures yesterday. Don't quite understand your question, the arrangement on deck is the pivot for the unloading conveyor belt, many Great Lakers have similar but less substantial gear. What I find hard to understand is how the contents of all the holds are 'mined' out of the bottom of them. If it was a conveyor belt it would get crushed by the weight when fully loaded and seize. How does it work?
Holedriller

Hmmm,, perhaps only small quantity for discharging, even when she looks like ballast, could still be like 5-6000 tons

I really have no idea :-(

Hi Capt Peter,, question.
She seems ballast,,but what bulkers load in cortes ?
any idea ? I am blank on that one

Nice EO-Selfunloader! When I was with them end of the 80ies they just begann with this system (Yeoman Brook, Yeoman Burn, and another one which name I don't recall).

brgds
Cypt Peter