#SuperTanker

[floridanative]

[n0ts0phism-art]

Here's a collection of environment pieces I've done throughout 2020 to 2022. They still have some of the roughness inherent to my earlier art, but I still like what I accomplished with them.

The first two were colored sketches, and both were products of me experimenting a bit with Firealpaca's tools. The first one I don't have too much to say about, aside from it being wonky and the clouds looking more like smoke. The second one has this almost dreamlike quality that I wish to recapture with my newfound knowledge someday.

The character in the third image is Floyd Maddox, another OC like Matrona who came from that old, scrapped story project. Unlike Matrona, I had the foresight to scrap Maddox earlier when I realized he wasn't going to work out.

While not one-to-one, the bridge and mountain pieces borrowed their palettes from PS1 Spyro levels--Spooky Swamp and Skelos Badlands, respectively. The latter piece holds up the best in my opinion, as it showcases a better understanding of atmospheric perspective, and I intend to reuse the method I used to set it up again in future pieces.

I'm not sure what direction I was going for with the alleyway piece; maybe I was going for that aforementioned dreamlike vibe in the second image. But the last image, depicting a supertanker at sunset, is probably the best of the bunch. Even though I wasn't trying too hard, I like how I accomplished this by making some brush strokes, duplicating the layers they were on, and playing around with the transparency of each copy. I tried this method again with the cloud piece--my last background like this for some time. I wonder how something these would look now that I've gotten over my fear of anti-aliasing.

We're starting to approach some of my most recent work now, and for that, I'll eventually start uploading pieces individually, as I have significantly more to say about my single pieces during late 2022 than I do about most that came before.

#notts' texts#art#supertanker#alleyway#mountains#old art#notts' art#clouds#oc art#spooky#woods#dead tree#cityscape#oil rig#night#sunset

[hargo-news]

Diduga Lakukan Aktivitas Ilegal di ZEEI, Kapal Super Tanker Bendera Iran Ditangkap

Diduga Lakukan Aktivitas Ilegal di ZEEI, Kapal Super Tanker Bendera Iran Ditangkap #BakamlaRI #Penangkapan #KapalAsing #SuperTanker #BenderaIran

Hargo.co.id, JAKARTA – Kapal super tanker diduga milik Iran tertangkap oleh Bakamla, di Laut Natuna Utara pada Jumat (7/7/2023). Penangkapan tersebut karena kuat dugaan Kapal Super Tanker melakukan aktivitas ilegal di Zona Ekonomi Eksklusif Indonesia (ZEEI). Proses penangkapan berlangsung dramatis, karena kapal tersebut berupaya kabur. Namun, berkat kesigapan Bakamla, Kapal Super Tanker itu…

[kaelor0409]

Try throwing some apostrophes in there. That's the standard fantasy cheat, and Eldar are literally space elves. Ti'tania, Tita'nia, etc. If that isn't exotic enough, just move some letters around too. Ti'ana, Tat'inia...

Or, if this is the name she is introducing herself to humans with, maybe it is Titania. That's not her real name, of course, but that's what she tells them her name is. She's an Autarch, after all. She is ancient and has access to secrets humans can't even dream of. She did her homework on her opponents and did it so well she uncovered a 38,000 year old cultural reference, something so obscure even the best scholars of the Imperium wouldn't know about. She came prepared, she knows humans better than they know themselves, and she's telling them that to their faces. But they won't get it, and she knows they won't get it, because humans are ignorant beasts with such short memories they don't even recall their own past. They might even think it means "Master of Titans" in Eldar and start worrying she brought along Phantoms.

It's a boast, an inside joke, a forgotten truth, an insult, and a deception all in a single word, and if that doesn't perfectly sum up the Eldar I don't know what does.

It's not a name she'd use with other Eldar though. A human name would be ugly on Eldar lips, and the point of the joke is that the humans should get it and they don't. That she spent a great amount of time and resources wading through the dreck that is human history isn't something to brag to other Eldar about, any more than you'd brag about a really cool thing you found diving through a dumpster.

Naming things for Warhammer is so hard because on one hand the bar is set so low, but on the other hand I feel like I still need to hold myself to some sort of standard.

Like I want to name a Biel-Tan Autarch after Titania, Queen of the Faeries. It's thematically fitting, but since titans are already such a big thing in 40k, it feels so stupid for a character to be named Titania.

But then sometimes stupid is on brand for Warhammer?

[zealousduckbread]

Tommy saved the day in 2 x 14

Not only did he fly into a hurricane in S7. He flew the C130 supertanker over the burning house in 2x14 after Chimney called him. He’s an absolute keeper.

[mariacallous]

On March 2, she was gone. The Belize-flagged, British-owned bulk carrier Rubymar sank in the narrow water lane between the coasts of Yemen and Eritrea. The Rubymar was the first vessel that has been completely lost since the Houthis began their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea—and its demise, with 21,000 metric tons of ammonium phosphate sulfate fertilizer, spells ecological disaster. A similar substance—ammonium nitrate—caused the devastating explosion at the Port of Beirut in 2020. It had been stored there after being abandoned on a vessel and authorities intervened to prevent an environmental disaster.

Because the Houthis have no regard for the environment, there are likely to be more such disasters. Indeed, groups set on destruction could also decide to attack the carbon storage facilities now beginning to be built underneath the seabed.

For two weeks after being struck by a Houthi missile in the Red Sea, the Rubymar clung to life despite listing badly. The damage caused by the missile, though, was too severe. At 2:15 a.m. local time, the Rubymar disappeared into the depths of the Red Sea. The crew had already been rescued by another merchant vessel that had come to the Rubymar’s aid, but there was no way anyone could remove its toxic cargo.

The ship’s owner had tried to get it towed to the Port of Aden—where Yemen’s internationally recognized government is based—and to Djibouti and Saudi Arabia, but citing the environmental risk posed by the ammonium phosphate sulfate, all three nations refused to receive it.

Now enormous quantities of a hazardous substance are about to spread into the Red Sea. IGAD, a trade bloc comprising countries in the Nile Valley and the Horn of Africa, points out that the Rubymar’s fertilizer cargo and leaking fuel “could devastate marine life and destroy coral reefs, sea life and jeopardize hundreds of thousands of jobs in the fishing industry as well as cut littoral states off from supplies of food and fuel.”

Not even shipping’s option of last resort, salvage companies, seems available. “The salvage companies that normally recover vessels are reluctant to go in,” said Cormac Mc Garry, a maritime expert with intelligence firm Control Risks. That’s because salvage ships and crews, too, risk being targeted by Houthi missiles. “If a salvage company knows it’s likely to be targeted, it will hesitate to take on the task. It has a duty of care for its crew,” said Svein Ringbakken, the managing director of the Norway-based maritime insurance company DNK.

It was only a matter of time before a Houthi missile brought down one of the many tankers and bulk carriers that still traverse the Red Sea every day. (In the first two months of this year, traffic through the Red Sea was down by 50 percent compared to the same period last year.) “The Houthis have no regard for life and even less for the environment,” Ringbakken said. “They shoot missiles at ships even though they know that there are humans and hazardous cargo on them.”

For years, the Houthis allowed an oil supertanker ironically named Safer that was moored off the coast of Yemen to rust away even though she was holding more than 1 million barrels of crude oil. By the beginning of last year, the Safer was close to disintegration: an event that would have cost hundreds of thousands of Yemenis their livelihoods because it would have killed enormous quantities of fish. Indeed, had the Safer’s oil leaked, it would even have forced the Houthi-controlled ports of Hudaydah and Saleef to close, thus preventing ordinary Yemenis from receiving food and other necessities.

It would, of course, also have caused permanent damage to all manner of marine life, including coral reefs and mangroves, in the Red Sea. Then the United Nations pulled off an almost impossible feat: It got Yemen’s warring factions, international agencies, and companies to work together to transfer the oil off the Safer. Disaster was averted. “It was a massive undertaking,” Ringbakken noted. “But for years and years and years, the Houthis were adding impediments against this undertaking, even though the Safer was sitting just off the Yemeni coast.”

Indeed, maritime terrorism itself is not new. “Besides guerrillas and terrorists, attacks have been carried out by modern day pirates, ordinary criminals, fanatic environmentalists, mutinous crews, hostile workers, and foreign agents. The spectrum of actions is equally broad: ships hijacked, destroyed by mines and bombs, attacks with bazookas, sunk under mysterious circumstances; cargos removed; crews taken hostage; extortion plots against ocean liners and offshore platforms; raids on port facilities; attempts to board oil rigs; sabotage at shipyards and terminal facilities; even a plot to steal a nuclear submarine,” researchers at RAND summarized—in 1983.

Now, though, the Houthis have upped the nihilism, and unlike the guerrillas, terrorists, and pirates of the 1980s, they have the weaponry to cause an ocean-going vessel to sink. The joint U.S.-U.K. military operation against the Houthis has failed to deter the Iranian-backed militia’s attacks; indeed, not even air strikes by U.S. and U.K. forces have convinced the Houthis that it’s time to stop. On the contrary, they’re escalating their attacks. They do so because they’re completely unconcerned about loss of life within their ranks or harm to their own waters.

It’s giving them a global platform. That, in turn, is likely to encourage other militias to also attack ships carrying toxic substances—even if it ruins their own waters. The local population is hardly in a position to hold a militia accountable. Indeed, militias interested in maritime terrorism could decide that the world’s growing sea-based infrastructure is an attractive target. And there’s a new form of sea-based infrastructure they could decide to make a preferred target, not just because it’s set for explosive growth but because attacking it would guarantee a global platform: CO2 storage.

With the world having failed to reduce its carbon-dioxide emissions enough to halt climate change, CO2 storage has become an urgent priority. Through this technique, carbon dioxide can be captured and buried underground, typically underneath the ocean. Norway has, for example, begun auctioning out licenses for CO2 storage exploration on its continental shelf. So has Britain. The United States has 15 carbon-storage sites, and another 121 are being developed. Even Big Oil has discovered carbon storage. ExxonMobil is buying offshore blocks to use for carbon storage instead of oil drilling.

Carbon storage sites are, of course, designed to withstand both natural perils and man-made attacks, but that won’t prevent destructive groups—especially ones backed by a powerful state—from trying. And because groups like the Houthis are so unconcerned about all forms of life, it won’t matter to them that releasing concentrated CO2 would cause extreme harm to the planet—including themselves. Even a tiny carbon-storage leakage of 0.1 percent per year can lead to additional CO2 emissions of 25 giga-tonnes, researchers have established.

Until recently, sea-based infrastructure was only lightly guarded, because it was in everyone’s interest that it worked. The sabotage of Nord Stream and various other pipelines and undersea cables over the past two years have demonstrated that such peacefulness can no longer be taken for granted. The new CO2 sites will need not just AI-enhanced monitoring but regular patrolling to communicate to potential attackers that it’s not even worth attempting an attack.

And for now, attacking merchant vessels remains a promising and economical strategy for the Houthis and their ilk. It doesn’t seem to matter that ammonium phosphate sulfate will soon be poisoning Yemeni waters and thus depriving locals of their livelihoods. Indeed, other bulk carriers and tankers may soon join the Rubymar on the bottom of the sea, poisoning the future for even more Yemenis.

For the Houthis, what matters is not the outcome: It’s the attention. That’s what makes them such a vexing problem for the U.S. Navy and other navies, shipowners, maritime insurers, and especially for seafarers. But there is another group that should be just as worried about the rampant insecurity on the high seas: ocean conservationists.

There is, in fact, a woman with an unsurpassed green platform who could make the growing scourge of maritime terrorism her new cause. (Nearly) everyone would thank you, Greta.

[dashalbrundezimmer]

franz-geuer-straße // köln ehrenfeld

completion: 1973

demolition: 2023

last year it was unfortunately demolished the old siemens branch in cologne-ehrenfeld. sometimes referred to as the supertanker, it dominated the street views in this corner of the veedel. it's a pity that it had to go and that, as so often, no creative and meaningful use was found for the building.

im letzten jahr wurde sie leider abgerissen die alte siemensniederlassung in köln-ehrenfeld. manchmal auch als supertanker bezeichnet dominierte sie in dieser ecke des veedels die straßen an- und aussichten. schade das sie weichen musste und man wie so oft keinen kreativ-sinnvollen umgang mit dem gebäude fand und wieder viel energie beim abriß verloren wurde.

[i-identify-tanks-in-posts]

why did people beleive this was real?

I have no idea, aside from the Russian history of building goofy shit. The original was made as a joke by a scale modeler in the 90s and people with less braincells than I've had sexual encounters took it and ran with it as some Soviet Supertank. The closest they ever got to something like this was the T-35.

[trivialbob]

At work I sometimes answer questions or provide data to people who don't exactly know what they want. It's just part of my job. I try to interpret requests and explain what users probably need.

It makes things easier for both of us.

Sometimes though there's that guy. He doesn't really know what he wants or how to ask for it. But he thinks he does.

He is Very Smart and deigns, "Just give me the entire file," not understanding that it is so large if each line were an ounce of oil he'd be getting a supertanker's worth of the black gold. No, we can't navigate a 100,000 ton ship to Bicknell, MT. They could never store or use that much oil.

In the early days I remember AOL people posting about clueless tech users. Because if you were on AOL you knew what was goin' on.

Someone claimed to have boss who requested "the internet" be put on a disc so he could use it without having to dial up each time. We all laughed. Haha, stupid bosses.

Yesterday it was me on the other end. I needed something because I was told to do it but didn't exactly know what I was doing. At the end of the day I hesitantly sent an email. Then I signed off, shut down my computer, and tore the internet cable out of the wall.

Someone would be rolling their eyes like slot machine wheels after opening my email.

This morning I was delighted to find a nice reply. The writer explained it to me like I was 5. I hadn't been far off the mark in my request. Her explanation really helped me though.

It also didn't hurt that I helped her once a long time ago, and she remembered me.

[milk5]

2.8 billion chickpeas were ruined when hummus supertanker Exxon Mustafa crashed into the stony shores of the Aigosthina Bay, resulting in the second greatest garbanzo-based environmental disaster in history; this incident is second only to the Gümüşhane falafel plant meltdown of 1987 that left the immediate area uninhabitable for two decades.

Despite efforts to clean and rehabilitate the hummus-soaked wildlife, many seabirds and marine mammals died shortly after being reintroduced to the Gulf of Corinth.

[bracketsoffear]

Bolo (Keith Laumer et. al.) ""Bolos might fail. They might die and be destroyed. But they did not surrender, and they never — ever — quit."

A series of stories, originally by Keith Laumer, that were later expanded into a Shared Universe by other authors. They detail the exploits of the Bolo, autonomous AI tanks that are supposed to have evolved from the standard main battle tank of the 20th century.

These aren't your normal tanks. For one, their designers decided that bigger was better, and since the only thing that could really take down a Bolo was another Bolo, they just kept building the Bolos bigger and bigger, to the point where even the stealth tanks mass 1,500 tons. Or in some novels the Mark XXXIII weighs 32,000 tons.

There are plenty of examples of why this is Slaughter, but the aptly-named Final War, culminating in a mutual campaign of total extermination between humans and Melconians that turned a whole spiral arm of the Milky Way into a lifeless waste of dead or hopelessly contaminated planets, takes the cake. It is notable that plans of Operation Ragnarok, the human half of the equation of genocide, were based on a scenario initially created to illustrate utter madness of such campaign. Even the eponymous sapient supertanks start cracking under the weight of their orders by the end, succumbing to bloodlust. When one of the very few surviving Bolos, Shiva, reawakens, he is horrified by the atrocities that he himself had not been above committing under the pretense of following orders."

The Iliad (Homer) "(Unless otherwise noted, translations are by Peter Green.)

"Goddess, sing of the cataclysmic wrath of great Achilles, son of Peleus, which caused the Greeks immeasurable pain and sent so many noble souls of heroes to Hades…" (translation by Emily Wilson)

The Iliad is the archetypical war story. It traces the destructive path of the demigod Achilles, who sets in motion a devastating series of events when he refuses to fight the Trojans in a pique of pride. The infamous catalogue of ships in Book 2 gives a sense of the mind-numbing scale of a war fought over something as intangible as the pride of men and gods. The lavish descriptions of battle and the accounts of individual deaths and wounds give a sense of the utter devastation of war and the grief it leaves behind:

"Not in vain from [Diomēdēs's] hand did the missile fly, but struck Phēgeus full in mid-breast, threw him clear of his horses. Then from the fine-crafted chariot Idaios sprang down, but dared not make a stand over his slain brother, nor would he himself have escaped the black death spirit without the aid of Hēphaistos, who saved him, hid him in darkness, to ensure that aged Darēs [father of Phēgeus and Idaios] was not wholly undone by grief."

Without the help of Achilles, the Trojans begin to gain ground on the Greeks. Torn between his pride and his concern for his comrades, Achilles agrees to let his beloved Patroclus disguise himself in Achilles' armor to hearten the Greeks and scare the Trojans:

"All at once [the Greeks] came charging out like a swarm of wasps by the roadside that boys have a way of provoking to fury, constantly teasing them in their nests along the highway, as children will, creating a widespread nuisance, so that if some traveler passing by should happen to annoy them by accident, they with aggressive spirit all come buzzing out in defense of their offspring-- like them in heart and spirit the Myrmidons now streamed forth from the ships, and an endless clamor arose…"

Hector, prince of Troy kills Patroclus and unleashes the unbridled wrath of Achilles, who becomes so enraged he slaughters every Trojan in his path so gruesomely he enrages the River itself:

"Achilles, scion of Zeus, now left his spear on the bank, leaning against a tamarisk, and charged in like a demon, armed only with his sword, horrific deeds in mind. He turned and struck at random, and ghastly cries went up from those caught by his sword: the water ran red with blood…"

"My lovely streams are currently all awash with corpses; I can't get to discharge my waters into the bright sea, I'm so choked with the dead, while you ruthlessly keep on killing!"

When the River almost drowns Achilles, he's terrified--not of death, but of being robbed the glory of his promised death at the hands of the Trojans: "If only Hektōr had killed me, the best-bred warrior here, / then noble had been the slayer, noble the man he slew…"

In The Iliad, war is destruction and grief but simultaneously honor and glory, and Achilles is only one of the many characters who move through its battlefields like the incarnation of Slaughter itself."

[lizalfosrise]

Honestly Ho’olheyak is just so funny and delightful to me, let’s review:

Event starts off with Ho’ol vs Mumu - “Hey Muelsyse why did you leak info again... Just because you’re a pretty Elf (yes we know you’re an Elf dear) doesn’t mean that your bloodline can keep you exempt from punishments so now I have been sent to eliminate you. Don’t try to resist because I can immediately shut you down.” Mumu tries to resist, is immediately shut down Yet Ho’ol disobeys her client in order to go ‘this Mumu is a useful tool that will help us later’; laments how people nowadays don’t seem to know about the Elves and What Happened To Them anymore.

Gets ordered to take down noted tougher-than-steel bone wyvern supertank Saria, whom Ho’olheyak seems to have quite a fascination with. Instead shows up to merely intimidate Saria’s informant buddy into using the suicide tooth implant he’d installed behind Ho’olheyak’s back, yet she still knew of. Downing his drink just to show she didn’t use poison. That guy doesn’t even get killed but it makes Saria go into reckless aggressive fighting mode where Ho’olheyak cannot beat her 1v1 (let alone the 2v1 with Mechanist in the mix), yet manages to keep up with her before deliberately not blocking Saria’s lethal blow towards her vitals. Only to use the localised atmospheric manipulation technique that shut Mumu down to shunt the entirety of Saria’s Punch Of Explodes You behind her as she dodges to whisper sweet nothings useful hints into Saria’s ears before leaving through the convenient escape hole that formed.

Because this was a setup to lure Saria to that disguised&paralysed Elf to test multiple things in a Fun Trial gauging the effectiveness of the power armour for Ferdinand (ostensibly), the newer variable of Rhodes Island, and Saria’s wit/resolve - if she’d be smart enough to realise what Ho’ol had meant before she killed an ally (and potentially how that might affect her suitability for the role of a champion in whatever unfolding prophecy Ho’olheyak seems to be aiming to guide & witness?). That done it’s time to go camp around Rhine HQ (Look Ferdinand I’m totally intending to stop her meeting Control, honest!)

Gets intercepted by Mechanist as she’s pacing about while going “Actually I want to talk with Saria some more!”. They get into a hilarious standoff going “Oh I know ALL about you too!” to each other, essentially like Ho’ol is pouting “You’re not Saria but she’s finally sorting out her breakup with Control and Rhine itself but you’re not Saria and I want to be talking with her!” whereas Mechanist went “Hm, you’re reaaaally not fighting? Okay, then share about the cool technology within your custom staff. I am something of an Engineer. Wherever cool technology is- yum yum- all is my workshop- yum yum-”

Absconds from Rhine HQ and Mechanist to enter Site 359 via the back entrance, presumably letting off some steam by destroying Ferdinand’s getaway car to regain her composure shortly before the “Oh, hello Ferdinand. Are you running away? So sorry but your car is already torn to shreds ufufu~” moment and that delightfully ironic speech as she sends him off to his fate - not killing him herself but going “get in the power armour. go out there pointing to the wasteland as you like to say, ‘reach prosperity with your own effort. not heading to another nomadic city but carving out your survival. good luck - Pioneer~’”

And then the epilogue cutscene where oh, the real winners were Kirsten (who is Totally Coping after Saria Divorced Her Round 2: Jerboa Boogaloo) and Ho’olheyak after all. She wasn’t particularly bluffing about that huh, Ho’olheyak has importance under several roles and affiliations actually. This funny snakebird is so Powerful and Knowledgeable that even Control of Rhine Lab is just another piece to be guided around. Observing with maximum smugness over “Do they know? The horrors? Will they manage to overcome what shall happen next? Ufufufu~” She somehow sets off the magic astrolabe Astesia has??? She is related to the Space Magic? The space and stars made of lies and deceit? This is another way that if like Kjera - the only other snake-bird we’ve met being an immortal called as goddess, Ho’olheyak turning out to be immortal would make her this sort of Nega-Kal’tsit given how Kal’tsit was the one apparently preventing people like Kirsten trying to investigate space.

In the city-state of morally-warped unethical scientists and researchers, it feels fitting that the flavour of messed-up evil historian we encountered so far appears to be less “I will be the God of this new era!” and more “How WILL they face this trial? I shall be the one to record it firsthand!”. The outcomes of choices in this event were presented as seemingly not mattering to her; she was more delighted at observing the responses, managing her expectations while Knowing. Fucking with people the way she was itself likely placed the players where they ought to be for the big reveal hopefully next installment of this storyline.

I absolutely need to bring her into Rhodes Island next time it will be incredibly fun actually she will fit right in, trust me.

[argumate]

wow for a while there was a jumbo jet working as a fire fighter

[mt-lowercase-m-derogatory]

Obsessed with that moment when someone decides that whatever thing they didn't know/use/prefer must be a more recent idea, based on nothing but having encountered something else first

(this turned out long and ranty so here's a cut)

My father complains about how "the Green party (in Austria) demonize diesel and it's such nonsense, a single supertanker emits as much co2 as [...]"

And when I mention how it's about local air pollution, which it has long been a big deal to safeguard here, he just goes. "okay but like- that's new you know that right? You know that's new that they're saying that?"

(meanwhile restrictions on low efficiency grades of diesel trucks have already been in place for a decade... And hey, look at that: it's only around cities. Weird.)

An example I had to sleuth around a lot more to figure out is when I saw someone writing that "the meaning of severely disabled is being stretched thin", because "only people who need support for basic activities of daily living (ADLs) are severely disabled".

Reader, I looked for so long for any paper, whether legal, academic, informative, or just some informal group's mission statement that actually says that. I could only find way more inclusive definitions, including the EU one by which I am severely disabled, and all the other disabled people I know were in the same boat. The ADL framework itself is very well substantiated and established, but it just... Doesn't say anything about the term "severely disabled". I haven't been able to find anyone put forward that severe disability exclusively refers to basic ADS limitations outside of tumblr.

My best guess is that the actual "#severely disabled" tag is rightfully used for people with disabilities that affect basic ADLs to find each other, and equating the two just... Somehow stuck around here on some parts of tumblr.

I wouldn't even mind the reasoned desire to make that the real meaning, if it were approached as a budding move to actively foster and not a mainstream definition with major historical grounding that other people are wearing thin in their ignorance.

Still, no harm done. As it stands, I just spent a few hours confused about what someone thought, then a few days confused about why they thought it, and now probably a few weeks confused about how they thought it

[greatwyrmgold]

Cruise ships are neat, in that way all big artificial things designed to support human life are.

To be clear, the largest cruise ships are enormous. Royal Caribbean's Oasis-class vessels are nearly a quarter mile long and can carry over 5,400 passengers. Container ships and supertankers are larger, but most of their space is storing mostly-inert cargo, not passengers and things for passengers to do. And most towns have more people, but they don't float alone in the middle of the ocean for a week at a time.

And aside from scale and complexity, cruise ships are also varied. The largest have multiple high-last restaurants, multiple theaters, multiple casinos, countless shops, fitness centers and carousels and water slides and sportsball courts and everything else several thousand rich people need to feel like they got their money's worth out of the cruise. All of these are, of course, made as spacious and luxurious as those guests would expect.

But all cruise ships also need other facilities, engines and computers and generators and desalination plants and navigation equipment and freezers, things which are necessary to keep the ship functional and its passengers happy. But no matter how reliant the passengers are on these facilities, they should never see them; they don't need to be spacious or comfortable. And since space is at a premium—even the largest cruise ships only have so much space, and it needs to be reasonably streamlined—these facilities face the same pressures as facilities on military ships and the like. Industrial, spartan, cramped.

Cruise ships aren't, like, a consistent fixation for me. But whenever I'm reminded of how huge and complicated they are, they ensnare me. They're so intricate, so staggering, so evocative.

[osrphotography]

Busby moored at Hobsonville Pt.

This charming little tug was built in Tāmiki Makaurau for the Northland Harbour Board* in 1963 by Mason Bros.

Busby and her sister ship Marsden were both designed as line handling tugs and sailed in the Whangārei Harbour, dealing with the supertankers that were beginning to arrive at the brand new oil refinery.

For some unkowable reason, the Ports of Auckland Authority Ltd (POAL) then purchased Busby and brought it down to the Manukau Harbour. It replaced the much more powerful Manukau (2x Ruston 400hp engines, designed to handle ships of up to 6200 gross tonnes) and quickly proved to be completely unsuited to the job. On 28/01/01, she tried and failed to rescue the Spirit of Enterprise off the Motukaraka Bank.

Unsurprisingly, POAL brought Busby back to the Waitematā. It is now owned by STF Marine and does maritime construction jobs.

*Later renamed to Whangārei Harbour Board.