#tonnage measuring

[ltwilliammowett]

Methods of Measuring Ships for Tonnage

Measuring Ships for Tonnage. The methods at present in use (1833) are as follow:

England.

By the 13 Geo. III. cap. 74, it is directed that,

The length shall be taken in a straight line along the rabbet of the keel of the ship, from the back of the main stern-post to a perpendicular line from the fore-part of the main stem under the bowsprit.

The breadth shall be taken from the outside of the outside plank, in the broadest part of the ship, either above or below the mainwales, exclusive of all manner of doubling planks that may be wrought upon the sides of the ship.

In cases where it may be necessary to ascertain the tonnage of vessels afloat, by 26 Geo. III. cap. 60, the length is to be taken as follows. Drop a plumb-line over the stern of the ship, and measure the distance between such line and the after-part of the stern-post at the load water-mark : then measure from the top of the said plumb-line, in a parallel direction with the water, to a perpendicular point immediately over the load water-mark at the forepart of the main stem, subtracting from such admeasurement the above distance; the remainder will be the ship's extreme length, from which is to Be deducted the three inches of every foot of the load draft of water for the rake abaft.

From the length, taken in either of the ways above-mentioned, subtract three-fifths of the breadth taken as above, the remainder is esteemed the just length of the keel to find the tonnage: then multiply this length by the breadth, and that product by half the breadth, and, dividing by 94, the quotient is deemed the true contents in tons.

France

The three measures of length, breadth, and depth are multiplied together, and divided by 94 for the tonnage.

In Single-decked Vessels.

The length is taken from the after-part of the stem on deck to the stern-post; the extreme breadth is taken, being measured inside from ceiling to ceiling, and the depth from the ceiling to the under surface of the deck.

In Vessels of two Decks.

At Bourdeaux, the length of the upper deck, and that of the.........

With various adjustments for the remaining main European maritime nations.

[probablyasocialecologist]

The global food economy is massively inefficient. The need for standardized products means tons of edible food are destroyed or left to rot. This is one reason more than one-third of the global food supply is wasted or lost; for the U.S., the figure is closer to one-half. The logic of global trade results in massive quantities of identical products being simultaneously imported and exported—a needless waste of fossil fuels and an enormous addition to greenhouse gas emissions. In a typical year, for example, the U.S. imports more than 400,000 tons of potatoes and 1 million tons of beef while exporting almost the same tonnage. The same is true of many other food commodities and countries. The same logic leads to shipping foods worldwide simply to reduce labor costs for processing. Shrimp harvested off the coast of Scotland, for example, are shipped 6,000 miles to Thailand to be peeled, then shipped 6,000 miles back to the UK to be sold to consumers. The supposed efficiency of monocultural production is based on output per unit of labor, which is maximized by replacing jobs with chemical- and energy-intensive technology. Measured by output per acre, however—a far more relevant metric—smaller-scale farms are typically 8 to 20 times more productive.

5 November 2024

[slyandthefamilybook]

okay because I'm seeing some misinfo, here's the story on the Key Bridge collapse

What was the Key Bridge?

The Francis Scott Key Bridge (also called the Key Bridge, the Beltway Bridge, and the Outer Harbor Crossing) was steel-arch continuous-through-truss bridge spanning the Patapsco River south of the Baltimore Harbor. The bridge took 5 years to build and cost an estimated $145 million ($735 million in today's dollars). The full bridge project (including approaches) was 10.9 miles long, but the stretch over the Patapsco was 1.6 miles long and 4 lanes wide, and comprised a length of I-695, the Baltimore Beltway. It traveled between Hawkins Point and Dundalk, and in addition to the I-895 Harbor Tunnel was the primary way for Marylanders to cross from the Eastern Shore to the West. The bridge carried an estimated 11.5 million vehicles per year. There is a lane for ships to pass under the Key Bridge with enough clearance.

Was it structurally sound?

The bridge received its latest inspection in 2022 and received a 6/9 score, which is considered "fair" by federal standards. There was a concern with one of its columns, which was downgraded from a health index of 77.8 to 65.9, but it is not clear yet if this was one of the columns struck by the ship. In 1980 the bridge was struck by a different cargo ship which destroyed a concrete support structure, but the bridge itself was unharmed. There is as of yet no evidence that the bridge collapsed because of poor condition. Experts say the lesson to be learned is about the size and weight of modern cargo ships, and that the bridge was not to blame. Engineers have noted, however, that the bridge's piers lacked protective devices such as fenders.

What was the ship?

The MV Dali is a container ship flying the Singapore flag. It is owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and operated by Synergy Marine Group Ltd. The ship is currently being chartered by Maersk, a Dutch shipping company. It was built in 2015 by Hyundai. The ship is 980 feet long and 157 feet wide. The ship's gross tonnage (its internal volume) is 95,128 tons (190,256,000 pounds). Its deadweight (the weight of cargo it can carry) is 116,851 tons (233,702,000 pounds). The ship was carrying 3,000 containers. The engine is a MAN-B&W 9S90ME putting out 41,480 kilowatts (55,626 horsepower).

Over its lifetime the Dali has been inspected 27 times, and only 2 faults were ever found. On June 27, 2023 the Dali was held in port in Chile due to an issue with the propulsion system. According to an inspector the pressure gauges on the heating system were "unreadable". The fault was fixed before the ship left port.

The Dali is crewed by 22 Indian nationals including 2 maritime pilots.

What happened?

The Dali arrived at the Port of Baltimore on March 23, 2024. At 12:44 AM on March 26, 2024 the Dali left port, beginning its journey to Colombo, Sri Lanka. At 01:26 AM the ship suffered a "complete blackout" and began to drift out of the shipping lane. It is not yet known what caused the electrical failure. The backup generator did not power the propulsion system. At around 01:26 AM the crew of the Dali sent a mayday distress call to the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) informing them of the loss of power and that a collision with the Key Bridge was possible. The anchors were dropped as an emergency measure to attempt to slow or stop the vessel. At the request of one of the pilots traffic flow over the bridge was immediately halted. Black smoke was seen coming from the Dali, which experts believe was the result of the crew managing to restart the power system to regain some maneuvering capability.

At 01:28 AM the Dali, traveling at 8 knots (considered to be a fast speed) collided with a support strut beneath the Key Bridge's metal truss at the southwest end of the bridge. A Baltimore resident said he heard the collision and that it "felt like an earthquake". Emergency teams began receiving 911 calls at 01:30 AM, and the Baltimore Police Department were alerted at 01:35 AM. One of the officers present radioed that he was going to go onto the bridge to alert the construction crew as soon as a second officer arrived, but the bridge collapsed seconds later.

What was the damage?

The Key Bridge has completely collapsed. The metal truss relies on structural tension from the bridge itself to maintain its rigidity. As soon as one of the support columns was destroyed, the rest of the bridge quickly followed.

The damage to the Dali is reported as minimal. The ship was impaled by the bridge's structure above the waterline, but has maintained watertight integrity. The crew has not reported any water contamination from its 1.8 million gallons of marine fuel. 13 containers carrying potentially hazardous material were damaged, and are being inspected by a team of Coast Guard divers. At least 5 vehicles including 3 passenger cars and a cement mixer were detected underwater, but authorities do not believe they were occupied

Who was hurt?

The crew of the Dali reports no casualties, except one crewmember who was hospitalized for minor injuries. There was a crew of 8 construction workers on the Key Bridge filling in potholes. 2 were immediately pulled from the water by rescue crews, with 1 being rushed to emergency care and the other reporting minor injuries and refusing treatment. The hospitalized worker has since been discharged. 1 of those rescued was Mexican. The remaining 6 remain missing. Of those 6, 2 have been identified:

Miguel Luna from El Salvador

Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval from Honduras

Of the remaining 4, 2 are Guatemalan nationals. Neither have been identified, but the Guatemalan Foreign Affairs Ministry has stated that they were a 26-year-old from San Luis, Petén, and a 35-year-old from Camotán, Chiquimula. The other 2 are presumed to be Mexican.

Rescue Efforts

The Coast Guard was immediately deployed for search-and-rescue operations. Military Blackhawk helicopters were seen over the river. Rescue efforts were ended at 07:30 PM on March 26, 2024 due to darkness, fog, and cold temperatures. Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath said "Based on the length of time that we've gone in the search, the extensive search efforts that we put into it, the water temperature -- at this point, we do not believe that we're going to find any of these individuals still alive". Recovery operations resumed at 07:30 AM on March 27, 2024 with all 6 workers presumed dead.

No divers have yet entered the water underneath the bridge. Supervisory Special Agent Brian Hudson of the FBI's Underwater Search and Evidence Response Team said "the debris field is pretty sizable and I know that’s why they’re hesitant to send divers down because some of the debris is still shifting, the heavy weight of the rocks". The FBI has deployed Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) equipped with cameras and SONAR.

Aftermath

At 05:08 AM on March 26, 2024 Transportation Secretary Pete Buttegiege posted on X (formerly Twitter):

"I’ve spoken with Gov. Moore and Mayor Scott to offer USDOT’s support following the vessel strike and collapse of the Francis Scott Key bridge. Rescue efforts remain underway and drivers in the Baltimore area should follow local responder guidance on detours and response."

At 07:30 AM on March 27, 2024 President of the Maryland State Senate Bill Ferguson posted on X (formerly Twitter):

"Over 15,000 in the Balt region rely on daily operations at Port of Baltimore to put food on the table. Today, with Del. @LukeClippinger and colleagues representing Port, we are drafting an emergency bill to provide for income replacement for workers impacted by this travesty."

At around 09:40 AM on March 26, 2024 Maryland Governor Wes Moore and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott declared a State of Emergency to take effect at 10:30 AM March 26, 2024, and to last 30 days. Baltimore's Emergency Operations Plan was put into effect.

More than 1,000 personnel from the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) have been deployed to assist with clearing the debris and rebuilding efforts. President Joe Biden has pledged that the federal government will pay for the entire reconstruction of the bridge.

Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recovered the Dali's data recorder, and will be inspecting both the Key Bridge and the Dali to determine the cause of the crash and the collapse. She says the investigation could take up to 2 years to complete.

Was it intentional?

According to William DelBagno, head of the FBI's Baltimore field office: "There is no specific or credible information to suggest there are ties to terrorism in this incident".

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said: "There are no indications this was an intentional act".

At least 3 people have been killed in accidents related to ships operated by Synergy in the past 6 years. In 2018 a person on board a Synergy ship in Australia was killed in an accident relating to the vessel's personnel elevator. In 2019 an officer aboard a Synergy vessel in Singapore fell overboard while performing maintenance. In 2023 at least one sailor was killed when a Synergy ship collided with a dredging ship in the Philippines. In the first two cases safety inspectors noted that proper safety procedures had not been adhered to.

Sources

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

[doublebellyman]

Big Boy, Short Story

A short story featuring a fat man getting fatter at the hands of a relentless feeder. Written so the reader can select their gender of choice for the feeder.

***

His bloated reflection completely filled the medicine cabinet mirror so he didn’t see them stealthily sneaking up from behind, that is until they delivered a thunderous slap to his left butt cheek, sending ripples and shockwaves through the two hundred pounds of soft jiggly fat he’d added to his already fat form since moving in just two short years ago. “Didn’t see me coming did you Big Boy? But I just couldn’t resist those juicy round cheeks of yours … when you moved in you carried all your tonnage in your belly but now you’re just massive all over … and I mean ALL OVER … here let me give my blubbery boyfriend a quick tour …”

At that, they reached their arms as far as they could around the vast circumference of his belly (“love this belly, we’ll need to measure this today to see if you’re over six feet around yet”). Then they shifted their hands to his swollen stretch marked moobs (“oh babe, your tits have just gotten so massive … I swear they’re bigger now than that old 400-pound girlfriend of yours and she what, a triple J cup?”).

By then moaning at their soft touch against his sensitive nipples, they moved on to his broad fat-encrusted shoulders and his meaty upper arms that hid any muscle tone he once may have possessed.

And then they moved their hands downward, asking him “do you realize that your front boobs now reach all the around so you now have back boobs too? They’re so delicious but I think I like your massive love handles even more, the way they reach around front and join with your giant saggy bottom roll … you know if you put on another fifty pounds that thing is gonna completely cover your knees!”

“That feels SO good,” he finally spoke. “I know it does Tubby and I just love playing with all your rolls and folds and bulges, and the way it gives you pleasure!”

“Please keep it up,” he pleaded.

They giggled— “you mean my massage or my endless feedings or the incredible sex, what do you want me to keep up Fatty? TELL ME!”

“ALL OF IT!”

“Very well, your wish is my command, Your Lardship … now turn around and let me work on that saggy baggy belly a bit more. But first, wait here a second …”

They stepped away and returned bearing a silver tray with a half dozen extra large chocolate eclairs stacked high.

The fat boyfriend’s eyes bulged at the sight and his cock instantly grew rigid under his panniculus, the one they mentioned was hanging precariously close to his knees.

“I love you baby — I was so hungry!”

“When aren’t you hungry?”

“Good point, I suppose.”

“Don’t worry Two Ton, these will all be in your belly soon enough, now open up wide!”

They proffer the first eclair and he takes a giant bite with chocolate icing and vanilla custard smearing his lips, cheeks, and chins.

“You can’t believe how much it turns me on to see you eat like this — you’re such fat mess! Now kiss me Fatty and let me taste all that chocolate and custard goodness … you’re so delicious and I can literally see you getting fatter in front of me!”

“I can feel it making me fatter, so keep shoving ‘em in —I want, no I NEED for you to make me the fat man I’ve always dreamed of being!”

“Here goes then Big Boy — now pretend you’re going down on me and suck the custard out of this bad boy … let me see you use your tongue then suck it all out Fatty …that’s so sexy I’m actually getting wet, Oh God … now grab the remains with both hands and cram it all in your mouth at once … and here’s another … now grab your rolls with your chocolate-covered hands and give them a big shake while I feed you eclair #4 … that’s it my messy Piggy … now let me lick that mess of your belly before I stuff the last two in you!”

“But Baby, I’m full and fit to burst …”

“Are you telling me that my gluttonous boyfriend can’t polish off a mere half dozen eclairs?”

#5 was down in two giant bites and #6 in three, as they caressed his tight swollen upper belly and played with his super soft lower belly and panniculus.

“You’re just such an obedient feeder, doing whatever your feeder orders … now lift that underbelly for me and let it drop … again (she squeeled with delight) … now shake your hips and let it sway back and forth for a few times …”

“Babe, I hate to interrupt but I really gotta sit down …”

“OK, you’re just so pathetically out of shape … just a total blimp … but let’s get you on the scale first and see if you’ve reached your two year goal … “

He gingerly balances his bulk on the bathroom scale hoping it won’t break in half after his latest gains at the hands of his relentless feeder.

Not able to see the result over the crest of his enormously curved upper belly, he impatiently asks “so?”

With a huge smile on their face they deliver a playful slap to his ridiculously protruding belly, again sending ripples and waves throughout … “my Rotund Romeo, we need to buy you a new scale ‘cause you maxed this 500-pound model out! … I’m thinking we need to get you an industrial thousand pound capacity model — what do you think Lardo?”

He just smiled and asked “can you fix me breakfast now?”

“I’m so happy your hunger has returned so quickly!”

Patting his belly for emphasis and giving his bottom roll another good shake, he responded “I’ll definitely need the thousand pound model if I spend two more years living with you!”

“Oh you’re definitely up for it my big blubbery Butter Ball!”

[raz-writes-the-thing]

Crotch-Punching Distance

Aziraphale x Crowley x GN!Reader

Summary: Jim, short for James, James short for Gabriel- or was it James, long for Jim and short for Gabriel? Is really getting on your nerves

CW/AN: this is just a bit of a crack fic request

Requests are OPEN

Gomens tag list: @coffee-and-red-lipstick

___ ___ ___ ___ ___

You are really fucking tired of Jim, Armageddon, Heaven, Hell and everything in between. Well, except for Zira and Crowley, of course. But you were tired of the sheer metric tonnage of bullshit that seems to follow them no matter where they go, what they do, or who they talk too.

Hell, even those they don’t talk to. For God's sake, Gabriel, or Jim, or James had just shown up at the bookshop doors one day unannounced. It was enough to drive a person to pack up and move half a continent away (or half a Universe away, if Crowley’s plan was to be taken into serious consideration) just to get some peace and quiet. 

Anyway, it was safe to say that Jim was annoying the shit out of you today. Every day, yes, but today specifically. It may have been a good question to ask as to when Jim did not annoy the shit out of you. The answer to that question was ‘not very often.’ Wow, you think to yourself. It’s a good thing Aziraphale can’t read your mind. He’d be absolutely mortified at the amount of poor language and blasphemy filling up your mind this morning. 

Speaking of your Angel… He and Crowley were doing their utmost to ignore Jim, short for James, James short for Gabriel. Or was it James, long for Jim and short for Gabriel? Whatever. Your two loves had left Jim/James/Gabriel to your mercy and were not entirely certain whether that was a good idea or not yet. Only time would tell. 

Currently, Jim was standing before you and continuing on with his ridiculous project of arranging the books by alphabetical order of the first sentence of the first chapter. It was driving you mad, but Aziraphale had just told you to leave him be. He’d fix it up later. 

“You know,” Jim says, stopping his work to turn to face you. He was looking at you with a glint in his eye that meant he had something that he thought just absolutely had to be said. “You are the smallest person I’ve ever seen!” 

You blink once, twice, and then pinch the bridge of your nose with a sigh. 

“No, really-” he says enthusiastically. “Like… hmm, what are those things? Oh! Yes, like children! But bigger.” 

You glare up at him. It was true you were on the rather small side, but that didn’t mean it needed to be pointed out like that. 

"You know, Jim,” you reply, giving him a very tight smile. “You’re talking mad shit for someone in crotch-punching distance."

Jim cocks his head and blinks in confusion. “Crotch-punching distance? What’s that?” 

Your smile grows tighter, if that’s possible and your fingers twitch, itching to just punch him.

“Would you like to find out, Gabe?”

Jim splits into a wide grin, echoing your question with an enthusiastic “oh, boy!” 

You wouldn’t actually punch him. It’s not his fault he doesn’t remember what an arse he is. But it doesn’t stop you from fantasising about it either. 

“Alright, love?” You hear a suave voice from over your shoulder. You sigh, and nod. 

“Peachy, Crowley, but I’m tapping out. Your turn for Jimsitting.” You give Crowley a peck on the cheek and escape before he has the chance to protest. You can hear his spluttering from the other side of the shop. 

“I’m going to make some tea, Zira, love. Would you like some?” 

Aziraphale looks up from over his glasses and smiles warmly, the thought of tea appealing indeed. 

“Oh, that would be wonderful, dear. Thank you.” He goes back to his papers, trying to decipher something terribly interesting, you imagine. You give Aziraphale a peck on the cheek too for good measure on your way past. 

That Jim, though. He better watch it, because you did not take bullshit lying down, that was for sure.

[scotianostra]

John Elder, marine engineer and shipbuilder, died on the 17th of September, 1869.

John Elder was a marine engineer and shipbuilder, who developed practical compounding marine engines and conceived the modern integrated shipbuilding yard, basically without his work the shipbuilding yards of the Clyde would not be the same. Elder gave the world major contributions to engineering and shipbuilding:

The practical development of compounding in marine engines. This made long-distance steam shipping both possible and economic, and also improved the economics of shorter-haul steam navigation. It allowed the extension of steam power to cargo liners and tramp ships, and greatly accelerated the substitution of steam for sail in the world's shipping. To this should be added his patent for triple and quadruple expansion marine engines, foreshadowing later 19th century developments.

He initiated the conception of the modern heavy engineering workshop, with overhead gantry cranes developed, as seen in the still-existing Fairfield Engine Works in Govan.

The conception of the modern integrated shipbuilding yard. With only minor alterations the plan of the present Govan Shipyard survives largely as John Elder conceived it. It was the foremost yard on the Clyde until the great liners were built at John Brown's, and has outlasted most, including the builder of the "Queens". As one of BAe Systems' yards, it is still a highly effective production unit, notable for building the largest elements of the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers.

At its peak production in 1868-69, the final eighteen months of Elder's life, the Fairfield Yard employed 4,000 people and produced 18 engine sets of 6100 aggregate horsepower and 14 ships of 27,000 aggregate tonnage. Elder had created one of the greatest enterprises of its kind in the world.

Elder was also a model employer of his 4,000 workforce, with a real concern for the well-being of his men and their families. At his funeral, as reported by the Rev. Norman MacLeod "a very army of workmen, dressed like gentlemen, followed his body - column after column. Respectful crowds lined the streets, as if gazing on the burial of a prince; and every one of us .. felt that we had left a friend behind us."

His statue in Elder Park, Govan, erected by public subscription in 1888, carries the inscription: "By his many inventions, particularly in connection with the compound engine, he effected a revolution in engineering second only to that accomplished by James Watt, and in great measure, originated the developments in steam propulsion which have created modern commerce" and: "His unwearied efforts to promote the welfare of the working classes, his integrity of character, firmness of purpose, and kindness of heart, claim, equally with his genius, enduring remembrance".

If you have ever been in The Lord of the Isles Wetherspoon bar in Renfrew, you may have notice some prints and memorabilia of Elder in the pub. Elder Park, Govan is also named in his honour, you will also see the statue there.

[your-resident-boat-person]

I noticed there are dates on your top liners list, ranging from the 1870s to the 2000's. I think on my alt you told me it was one of the last made, and the last in current use (as a hotel [and apparently haunted house according to the third video?]).

Anyway, I was wondering if you had an overview on the history of Ocean Liner design and how they've changed over the years, both technical in terms of operation, and aesthetic from the point of view both as a theoretical passenger and a learned liner enthusiast!

Plus any fun details about your examples would be nice as well.

Svjsvphsvpusvpusv okay. I am going to need to split this up into multiple posts, because I can not convey all this information with the 10 Pic limit. So periodically, check the reblogs of this post. I will periodically be adding more to it over time. Also, I'm not really citing any sources because this is mostly from memory, so there MAY be some mistakes. Also, I'm typing all this on my phone, so... please forgive the formatting, grammar, and spelling mistakes.

To begin, let's quickly discuss what an ocean liner is. An ocean liner is a ship you travel on to cross the ocean. It's called a liner because it goes in a line across the ocean. In this sense, “cruise liners” don't really exist. The proper term is cruise ship. Many people mistake liners for cruise ships and vice versa, but they are different in both function and design. As wikipedia puts it, “Though ocean liners share certain similarities with cruise ships, they must be able to travel between continents from point A to point B on a fixed schedule”. This means liners need to be both durable, and fast, something cruise ships are neither of. Cruise ships also almost never do trans-Atlantic crossings unless absolutely necessary. They just aren't built to handle the Atlantic at its worst. Cruise ships usually stay relatively close to land and reschedule for bad weather. For example, the only liner still in service is the RMS Queen Mary 2, built in 2004. Her construction used 60% more steel than a cruise ship of the same size. She also has a top speed of about 30 knots, whereas a cruise ship never really needs to exceed about 18. So, to summarize, an ocean liner is a ship you use to cross the ocean. A cruise ship, while it may take you to numerous excursions, is essentially the destination itself, and it will return you to where you started once the voyage is over. Last thing before we start, GRT. Gross Registered Tonnage is essentially a measure of the total usable internal volume of a ship. Generally, this is a much better measure of the size of a ship than length. For example, the RMS Adriatic was 729 ft long. The Titanic was 882 feet long. Only 150 feet longer, no big difference, right? WRONG. The Adriatic was 25,000 GRT. Titanic was 46,000 GRT. Britannic, which was the same length as Titanic, but 2 feet wider, was 48,000 GRT. Nearly double the size of Adriatic, even though she's not much longer. The Lusitania was 787 feet, and she was 31,000 GRT. So even though Britannic was only about 12% longer, she was about 55% bigger. Last thing, a knot is a unit of speed 1 knot is 1.150779 miles per hour, or 1.852 kilometers per hour.

Anyway, now that we have that sorted out, let's get into the history >:3

So, it starts with the steam engine. At the start of the 19th century, if you wanted to get from Europe to America (or vice Versa), you needed to book passage in a sailing ship. In just 4 short months, you can cross the ocean :D! Between extremely unsanitary conditions and the high chance of you not making it to your destination at all, something needed to change. There were some experiments with bolting steam engines to old sailing vessels, and these were very successful, but really only proofs of concept. Railway engineer Sir Isambard Kingdom Brunel realized that if ocean travel could work like the railway, travel between continents could be much more efficient and safe. With a sailing ship, you were dependent on the wind and weather, so your departure and arrival dates couldn't be predicted with any guarantee of certainty. With a steam engine, the ship could move at a consistent speed over a set distance, regardless of the conditions. Now, ocean travel was consistent, regimented, and much safer. All of these came together in 1838 with the launch of Brunel's SS Great Western, which crossed the Atlantic in 18 days, going at 8.66 knots. She was 1,700 Gross Registered Tons (GRT, a measure of internal volume) and 234 ft 11 in long (71.6 meters). She was the first ocean liner. Granted, she was essentially just a sailing ship with paddle wheels attached to a very rudimentary steam engine, she even Still had sails, and she had a hull made from oak, but she was the first commercial venture to bring passengers across the ocean on a regimented schedule. She was also the first purpose built liner.

Now, these very early years of ocean liners aren't really my specialty, so I'll cover some major events.

In 1839, Sir Samuel Cunard was awarded the first British transatlantic steamship mail contract, and in 1840, formed what would later be known as the Cunard Line, one of the most famous lines ever, And still around to this day.

In 1858, Sir Isambard Kingdom Brunel was back at it again with the SS Great Eastern. With this ship, Brunel set out to solve a problem: He wanted to make a ship big enough to carry enough coal to not need to stop and refuel on the voyage to Australia. The Great Eastern was the largest ship in the world by a WIDE margin. Before Great Eastern, the largest ship in the world was the SS Adriatic of the Colin's Line. She was 3,670 GRT, and 354 feet (108 meters) long. The Great Eastern was a whopping 18,915 GROSS REGISTERED TONS. 5.5 TIMES BIGGER! SHE WAS 692 FEET LONG. As wikipedia puts it, “Her length of 692 feet (211 m) was surpassed only in 1899 by the 705-foot (215 m) 17,274-gross-ton RMS Oceanic, her gross tonnage of 18,915 was only surpassed in 1901 by the 701-foot (214 m) 20,904-gross-ton RMS Celtic and her 4,000-passenger capacity was surpassed in 1913 by the 4,234-passenger SS Imperator.” IT IS WITH HONOR THAT I INTRODUCE YOU TO BRUNEL'S “GREAT BABE”, THE SS GREAT EASTERN.

LOOK AT ‘ER! AIN'T SHE A BEAUT? IN A WORLD WHERE MOST SHIPS DIDN'T HAVE ANY FUNNELS, AND THE ONES THAT DID ONLY HAD ONE, THE GREAT EASTERN WAS THE ONE AND ONLY F I V E F U N N E L E D L I N E R. Even though she later lost one in an explosion, which was never replaced. She was rigorously mocked for her size and number of funnels, which is strange considering the 4 funneled superliner boom just 50 years later.

She FAMOUSLY didn't work, and the stress of trying to MAKE her work ended up sending Brunel to an early grave. SHE INDIRECTLY KILLED ONE OF THE GREATEST ENGINEERS OF ALL TIME! She then spent nearly a decade laid up as a glorified billboard:

She damaged or sunk at least 10 ships in her short Career, had a penchant for spontaneously exploding (which is where her 5th funnel went), and when she was scrapped in 1890, all of her size records were still at least 9 years from being bested. She was NEVER profitable, and the DEFINITION of an outlier. Whenever discussing the largest ships in the world from 1848 to 1890, it goes without saying that the Great Eastern is not included. There is a REASON she's on my top 25, and I've only skimmed the surface. She was a hot mess, and I love her for it. I'd be happy to make a post entirely dedicated to her.

Next, we have the birth of the White Star Line. In 1870, they got their first ship: The SS Oceanic. (Not the RMS Oceanic of 1899 mentioned previously).

Many consider her and her 5 sisters to be the first “modern” liners, in the sense that they were starting to evolve past glorified sailing ships. She was 420 ft 4 in (128.12 meters) and 3,707 GRT. While her size PALED in comparison to the MIGHTY GREAT EASTERN, she was the “largest” ship in the world. Again, the great eastern kinda doesn't count. As modern as she was, Oceanic still had sails, and she had an INCREDIBLE top speed of… 14.5 knots. It was fast for the time. In fact, she won White Star Line their first Blue Riband for the fastest trans-Atlantic crossing. The ships of the Oceanic class were the Oceanic, Atlantic, Baltic, Republic, Adriatic (not the aforementioned RMS Adriatic, OR the SS Adriatic of the Colins Line), and Celtic. One of the big innovations of these ships was that they had a longer length to width ratio. Most sailing ships have a 6:1 ratio of length to width. The Oceanic class increased it to 9:1. With a thinner hull form, it reduced drag and allowed for a higher speed, albeit at the cost of stability. She was also one of the first ships at sea to use electricity. Not for lights, though. Those were still oil lamps. No, the electricity was for buttons in the cabins, which, when pressed, would summon a steward. Founder of the White Star Line, Thomas Ismay, realized that most of the profits of shipping lines came from The hundreds of steerage passengers, rather than the ultra wealthy first class/saloon Class passengers, so he made sure that he had THE BEST steerage accommodations by a scenic mile. He wanted to make sure that he'd be the one getting their business. Her steerage accommodations (3rd class) were fuckimg REVOLUTIONARY in their standards. In an era where poor people were treated like literal cattle, the steerage accommodations on the Oceanic class must have seemed like heaven on earth. Certainly better than anything they would have ever experienced on land. Steerage passengers had FRIGGIN PORTHOLES, which was a new thing for them because, like I said, before White Star, no one gave a shit about poor people. Also, for decks beneath the water line, there were skylights that reached all the way down to the bottom decks. The designers went through great pains to make sure everyone had fresh air and natural sunlight. Which, again, not something you'd find on other ships of the era, as basic as it seems. Anyway, the SS Atlantic, the White Star Line's second ever ship, was their first loss at sea. While we associate the line with Disaster today, history shows quite a different story. In their 65 years of operation, from 1870 to 1935, they operated at least 89 ships. They only lost 5 during peacetime disasters. This is a genuinely phenomenal track record, especially for the time. The aforementioned Collins Line lost literally 2/5ths of their ships (although they did have a much smaller fleet, so it's not an entirely fair comparison). Anyway, the SS Atlantic ran aground near Halifax Nova Scotia, with a loss of 535 people, leaving only 429 survivors. In the 30 minutes the ship took to fully sink, not a single lifeboat could be launched. I'd highly recommend Part-Time Explorer's videos on the subject.

In part 2, we'll cover from 1874 to 1900, with some of the most famous ships of all time. Like I said, this early stuff is where I'm weakest. Part 2 is where I'll become REALLY knowledgeable. >:3

[ultrajaphunter]

Icon of the Seas is the largest cruise ship in the world, with a gross tonnage of 250,800 and measuring 1,196 feet in length. It has a passenger capacity of 7,600 and accommodates 2,350 crew members. The ship features 20 decks, with 18 accessible to passengers. The vessel includes a range of innovative amenities, such as the largest waterpark at sea called Thrill Island, which boasts six record-breaking waterslides. There are seven pools on board, including the largest swim-up bar at sea, Swim & Tonic, and nine whirlpools. The ship is divided into eight distinct neighborhoods, each offering unique experiences. For dining, there are over 20 venues, and for entertainment, there are 15 live music venues and bars. Icon of the Seas is also environmentally advanced, powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG), making it one of the most eco-friendly ships in the Royal Caribbean fleet.

[mariacallous]

On the sidelines of July’s NATO summit in Washington, a new industrial alliance quietly came to life. The leaders of the United States, Canada, and Finland announced the Icebreaker Collaboration Effort, or ICE Pact, a trilateral deal on polar icebreaker production. The agreement aims to leverage the technological expertise and production capacity of these three Arctic states to build a modern fleet of icebreaking vessels for NATO countries and their global partners.

The ICE Pact is a response to two strategic challenges facing the United States and its allies. Both are tied to growing competition with China.

First, the United States’ atrophying shipbuilding industry risks being pushed further into irrelevance by China’s sprawling shipbuilding empire; this could also hamstring Washington’s ability to compete with Beijing’s naval modernization efforts. Second, rising geopolitical competition in the Arctic has laid bare the need for deeper coordination among NATO allies and their partners to counter the growing alignment between China and Russia in the region.

The deal remains in its early stages; July’s announcement was merely a public commitment to begin negotiations toward a memorandum of understanding that will be announced by the end of the year. As negotiators shape the pact over the coming months, they will need to overcome considerable political obstacles.

The decline of U.S. shipbuilding is a crisis long in the making. For decades, foreign shipbuilders in Asia took advantage of low input costs and leveraged state subsidies to undercut competitors in the global market. Today, just three countries—China, South Korea, and Japan—build over 90 percent of global tonnage, a metric used to measure shipyard output. The United States accounts for a meager 0.2 percent.

China’s rise as the dominant global producer of both commercial and naval vessels has refocused minds around shipbuilding in Washington. Last year, China alone accounted for over half of the world’s production of civilian and merchant ships.

This surge in commercial production has occurred in dual-use shipyards, which are built not only to construct tankers and container ships for global clients, but also warships for China’s navy. Combining commercial and military production has helped China’s shipbuilders keep their orderbooks full and revenues flowing, turbocharging the country’s naval-industrial development. The practice is common across China’s military production ecosystem, where blurred lines between civilian and defense firms help the People’s Liberation Army access foreign technology and capital that may otherwise be restricted.

The Biden administration has introduced an expansive slate of policies aimed at slowing China’s ongoing military buildup, now including its shipbuilding prowess. In April, the White House announced an investigation into Beijing’s use of non-market industrial practices, including billions of dollars in state subsidies and cheap credit for its shipyards that will likely result in new tariffs on Chinese-built ships in the coming years.

Now, the White House is searching for ways to revitalize the United States’ own battered shipbuilding industry. Taking a cue from the nuclear submarine agreement unveiled between the United States, Australia, and Britain in 2021 known as AUKUS, the ICE Pact seeks to fuse the combined industrial capacity and technological expertise of U.S. allies into a shipbuilding consortium focused on polar icebreakers.

The decision to home in on icebreakers was prompted both by strategic necessity and market opportunity in today’s environmental and geopolitical landscapes. The Arctic has grown in importance as melting sea ice unlocks new sea lanes and access to natural resources. With Moscow and Beijing tightening their military and commercial cooperation in the region, NATO countries must urgently boost their operational capabilities there, too.

China’s growing role in the Arctic is of particular concern. Leaders in Beijing have dubbed the country a “near-Arctic state” and are actively seeking to boost its influence over the region’s governance. More worrying, high-level Chinese strategic documents promote the use of dual-use scientific and economic engagement to make inroads for its military to operate in the Arctic.

The U.S. Department of Defense’s most recent Arctic Strategy, published in July 2024, identifies China’s increased activities in the region as the top strategic challenge, and NATO has taken an increasingly hard rhetorical line against China’s northern advances in recent years. “The increased competition and militarization in the Arctic region, especially by Russia and China, is concerning. … We cannot be naïve and ignore the potentially nefarious intentions of some actors in the region. We must remain vigilant and prepare for the unexpected,” Rob Bauer, the chair of NATO’s Military Committee, said last year.

But there is a widening gap between NATO partners and their competitors in icebreaker production. These highly specialized vessels are crucial for enabling military forces to reach and operate in the Arctic’s frozen waters. Russia alone operates a fleet of over 40 state- and nonstate-owned ice-class vessels, including several nuclear-powered icebreakers. China now has four in operation—two were put to service in the last five years—and has plans to build more.

Meanwhile, Finland has 12 operational icebreakers, Canada boasts nine, and the United States has just two aging hulls in dire need of upgrades. Yearslong delays and cost overruns have plagued an existing plan to build several new heavy polar icebreakers for the U.S. Coast Guard via the Polar Security Cutter program.

Although these dynamics are concerning, they also create opportunities. The expanding strategic importance of the world’s polar regions is expected to spur a demand for 70 to 90 icebreakers among U.S. allies and partners over the next decade, according to U.S. officials. If successful, the ICE Pact will ensure that this demand flows into orderbooks at U.S., Canadian, and Finnish shipyards.

It will take decades of sustained investment to put U.S. shipyards on a viable path to global competitiveness. Yet the ICE Pact serves as a creative first step in chipping away at China’s shipbuilding dominance.

By working with allies, U.S. officials hope to “build economies of scale in American, Finnish, or Canadian shipyards to create polar icebreakers,” according to a White House press briefing, and spur the demand needed to incentivize private and public investment into a shared production ecosystem. If successful, this approach could offer a model for broader collaboration with allies on advanced sectors of the shipbuilding market.

The deal has three components: information and technology exchange, workforce development, and attracting orders from international partners. The ICE Pact’s core wager, however, is that by combining the three countries’ production capacities, it can sufficiently reduce the costs of building each vessel to attract interest from global buyers.

Finland—which officially joined NATO in 2023—will be a critical partner in this effort. Finnish firms lead the world in polar icebreaker development, boasting an 80 percent market share in icebreaker design and 60 percent share in global production. Several Canadian companies are likewise global powerhouses in design and production. The United States, for its part, can take advantage of its thriving high-tech ecosystem to lead on the development of next-generation technologies, such as space-based monitoring systems and unmanned surface, air, and undersea assets optimized to support polar missions.

While the ICE Pact so far shows promise, its path to success will require deft negotiation around several potential sticking points.

First, several top Finnish firms involved in icebreaker design and production have significant operations in China. Aker Arctic, a world leader in ice-class ship design based in Helsinki, played a critical role in design and testing for the development of China’s first domestically produced polar icebreaker, the Xue Long 2. Another major Finnish firm, Wartsila, helped build the ship’s power system.

Security-minded officials from the United States may be hesitant to partner with companies that are actively supporting the buildup of China’s polar capabilities. The risk of sensitive technology transfer to Beijing’s dual-use shipyards will likely prove a particularly strong point of concern.

Another possible stumbling block is the ongoing dispute between the United States and Canada over the latter’s claims to exclusive jurisdiction over vast swaths of Arctic waters along the critical Northwest Passage sea route, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the islands of northern Canada. Until recently, the decades-old dispute—rooted in differing interpretations of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea—had remained on the back burner. It has returned to the fore in recent years as politicians on both sides increasingly turn their attention to the Arctic’s rising importance to global trade and security. Addressing these roadblocks is critical to the ICE Pact’s long-term success.

Looking forward, building collective capabilities to safeguard peace and security in the Arctic must remain one of NATO’s north stars. Maintaining a NATO presence in this remote frontier is key to preserving the alliance’s Arctic influence—and protecting U.S. interests.

[liminal-lesbian]

here's a titanic fun fact, titanic was marginally larger by her sister ship olympic in gross tonnage bc that measurement is calculated via enclosed space of a ship. they replaced half of what was a promenade on olympic with extra cabins on titanic, increasing her gross tonnage!

[queering-ecology]

Chapter 13. Biophilia, Creative Involution, and the Ecological Future of Queer Desire by Dianne Chisholm

Our essence as a species binds us to explore and affiliate with all life. We are lovers who can add up glucose, amino acids, water, fragrant oils, pigments, and other issue and call it both a flower and a mystical gesture. We can also decimate pollinators with an unloving tonnage of pesticides, precipitating the extinction of entire populations of those mystical gestures, once and forever. Lives without access to sensations are lives that edge out the earth’s raw, pervasive sweetness, that deeply biophilic connection to all life. –Ellen Meloy

Biophilia can be a mindful reverence for the infinity of organic sexual-social order; a love for the diversity of non-human life that stirs the mind to infinity for the beneficial enlightenment of humanity Biophilia can be an earthy curiosity for the erotic vitality with which life affects fidelity to extreme geography; an erotic-ethical affiliation between humans and nonhuman life in experimental symbioses whose ecological benefits are sensed and desired, if not fully cognizable (360)

Biophilia, Episemophilia, Cognitive Adventuring

What do nature writers want?; nature writers desire to know what nature desires (361)

“What does a prickly pear cactus desire that couples it so tenaciously to bare basalt sandstone with a sexual rhythm that erratically keeps pace with drought and flash flood? What conjunction of organic and inorganic elements add up to such a thriving, if exotic, symbiotic assemblage?

 the ‘intercourse’  that can develop is not zoophilic bestiality nor anthropomorphic romancing; rather it is a transmutation of human being into something other, prompted by the closeness of the human body to the vibrating heat and rhythms of the animal pack (361)

‘Becoming-other-than-human’; by being so close to animals (in this case big horn sheep) Ellen Meloy becomes caught up in the pack's migrations and affections in an other dimension of belonging to place. She senses an otherworld with de-familiarized, or deterritorialized human sensibility—a sensibility pushed to the limit of being human on the threshold of becoming other and she wishes to “bring back their startling news” to the human side, where human knowledge of the nonhuman can be put to mutually beneficial work.  

The human mind evolve(s/d) in contact with animal life (Meloy). Children playacting the animal; children are drawn to animals, animating the senses, connecting and communicating with others, to explore and affiliate with nonhuman lifeforms.

“Touched by indigenous life to the desert heartland, Meloy allies herself with native nature/culture and she foregrounds and reconnects pre- and post-colonial territorial practices” (372)

“To Touch an Otherworld”:Biophilic Ethics

Species interdependence is the name of the worlding game on earth, and that game must be one of response and respect…Queer messmates in mortal play, indeed.—Donna J. Haraway

For humans to aid bighorn survival, it is crucial to understand the zoogenic factor (or the autopoiesis of animal life) in co-evolutionary ecology.

Synthesis weds symbiosis in a post-anthropocentric recovery of the wild—a becoming-animal of wildlife management that “runs contrary to the historical imperative to press everything alive, dead, or otherwise into human service” (307) (374)

Deleuze emphasizes the anti-utilitarian, communal ethics of becoming-animal. “it is no longer a matter of utilizations or captures, but of sociabilites and communities” (1988, 126) (375)

Human alliances with wild animals that do not only protect animal territoriality but also promote animal-earth symbiosis. How can human interference proceed while respecting and/or preserving the other’s own relations and world? (375)

The Ecological Future of Queer Desire

“Opponents to native fish recovery programs…measure worth as most of us do, by human ego. What good are these fish? You can’t eat them, they appear to have no medical, economic, sport, or industrial value…even their file drawer in the wildlife management bureaucracy ---“nongame”---assigns them not their own innate something but that which they are not: not sport, not food. These fish, many people believe, are dead-end. Tertiary detritus with strange humps, and weird lips. They are just too queer….what does a humpback chub want?” ---Ellen Meloy

Rejects the ‘survival of the fittest’ in favor of cyborg syntheses and unnatural symbiosis (survival of the queerest?)—sexual selection that refines and perfects the family tree

‘sexuality is badly explained by the binary organization of the sexes, and just as badly by a bisexual organization within each sex. Sexuality brings into play too great a diversity of conjugated becomings; they are like n sexes, an entire war machine through which love passes” (Deleuze and Guttari 1987, 278) (375-6)

“Only queers can battle an imperative that unites Left and Right, thereby neutralizing domestic politics” (Lee Edelman, 2004)

“A better science and monitoring is required if variants are to be identified as sympatric (species that cohabit the same region, which do not usually interbreed but which do hybridize naturally, if rarely) or extrinsic (hybridization due to human civilization). More than improved technology , it takes devotion to distinguish variations that signal either adaptive evolution or “the last-ditch, high-pitched shriek of preextinction”. For life’s sake—or more precisely, for life for life’s sake—our biophilia is put to the ultimate test. (379)

[ltwilliammowett]

Glossary of Nautical Terms - as used in the late 18th and early 19th centuries

Aft: at or towards the stern or after part of a ship, the opposite of bow.

Aloft: overhead, or above.

Athwart: across.

Bank: a rising ground in the sea, differing from a shoal, because not rocky but composed of sand, mud or gravel.

Becalmed: to halt through lack of wind.

Bow: the foremost end or part of a ship, the opposite of stern.

Bowsprit: a large mast or piece of timber which stands out from the bow of a ship.

Burthen: the older term used to express a ship's tonnage or carrying capacity. It was based on the number of tuns of wine that a ship could carry in her holds, the total number giving her burthen.

Chase, to: to pursue a vessel in wartime with the aim of capturing, acquiring information from her, or destroying.

Colours: the name by which the national flag flown by a ship at sea is known, used to determine nationality.

Dead reckoning: a system of navigation where the position of a ship is calculated without the use of any astronomical observation whatever.

Fair wind: a wind favourable to the direction a ship is sailing.

Fathom: a measure of six feet, used to divide the lead (or sounding) lines in measuring the depth of water; and to calculate in the length of cables, rigging, etc.

Fore: the forward part.

Hail, to: to call to another ship.

Helm: the instrument by which the ship is steered, and includes both the wheel and the tiller, as one general term.

Jib: a triangular sail set by sailing ships on the boom which runs out from the bowsprit.

Jury-mast: a temporary makeshift mast erected to replace a mast that has been disabled or carried away.

Jury-rudder: a makeshift arrangement to give a ship the ability to to steer when she has lost her rudder.

Keel: the lowest and principal timber of a wooden ship - the single strongest member of the ship's frame.

Knot: the nautical measure of speed, one knot being a speed of one nautical mile (6,080 feet) per hour. As a measure of speed the term is always knots, and never knots an hour.

Landfall: the discovery of the land.

Land-locked: sheltered all round by the land, so that there is no view of the sea.

Lead: an instrument for discovering the depth of water, attached to a lead-line, which is marked at certain distances to measure the fathoms.

Lee: the side of a ship, promontory, or other object away from the wind; that side sheltered from the wind. It is the opposite side to windward.

Lee shore: a coastline on to which the wind blows directly - consequently it can be dangerous as the wind tends to force the sailing ship down on it.

Leeward: with the wind; towards the point to which the wind blows.

Letter of Marque: a commission issued in Britain by the Lord High Admiral or Commissioners of the Admiralty authorizing the commander of a privately owned ship to cruise in search of enemy merchant vessels. The letter of marque described the ship, her owners and officers, the amount of surety which had been deposited and stressed the necessity of having all prize vessels or goods seized condemned and valued at a Vice Admiralty Court for the payment of 'prize money'.

Lie-to: to prevent a vessel from making progress through the water - achieved by reducing sail in a gale. The objective is to keep the vessel in such a position, with the wind on the bow, as to ensure that heavy seas do not break aboard.

The Line (or 'Crossing the Line') Sailing across the Equator. Nautical tradition where seamen celebrate the crossing of the equator by dressing up and acting out a visit by King Neptune. Those who have not previously crossed the line are summoned to the court of Neptune for trial, followed by a ritual ducking (in a bathing tub of seawater) and sometimes lathered and roughly shaved.

Mainsail: the principal sail of a sailing vessel.

Mizzen (or mizen): the name for the third, aftermost, mast of a square-rigged sailing ship or of a three-masted schooner.

Muster: to assemble the crew of a ship on deck and call through the list of names to establish who is present and accounted for.

Muster-book: the book kept on board a vessel in which was entered the names of all men serving in the ship, with the dates of their entry and final discharge from the crew. It was the basis on which victuals were issued and payment made for services performed on board.

Pintle: a vertical metal pin attached to the leading edge of the rudder; it is fitted into the metal ring or 'gudgeon' bolted to the sternpost of a vessel. This provides the means for hinging the rudder on the sternpost and allows a rudder to be swung or turned as desired (by use of the tiller); where necessary (ie. when the rudder needs to be removed or repaired) the pintles can be unshipped quickly and the rudder detached.

Port: the left-hand side of a vessel as seen from the stern; also a harbour or haven.

Privateer: a privately owned vessel armed with guns which operated in time of war against the trading vessels of an enemy nation. Each privateer was given a a 'letter of marque' which was regarded as a commission to seize any enemy shipping as a 'prize'. The name 'privateer' has come to refer to both the ship and the men who sailed in her.

Prize: name used to describe an enemy vessel captured at sea by a ship of war or a privateer; also used to describe a contraband cargo taken from a merchant ship. A 'prize court' would then determine the validity of capture of ships and goods and authorize their disposal. 'Prize' in British naval history always acted as considerable incentive to recruitment with many men tempted to join the navy in anticipation of quick riches.

Prize Court: Captured ships were to be brought before prize courts where it was decided whether the vessel was legal prize; if so, the whole value was divided among the owners and the crew of the ship.

Prize Money: the net proceeds of the sale of enemy shipping and property captured at sea - these proceeds were distributed to the captors on a sliding scale from highest rank to lowest seaman.

Road or Roadstead: a stretch of sheltered water near land where ships may ride at anchor in all but very heavy weather; often rendered as 'roads', and does not refer to the streets of a particular port city but rather its anchorage, as in 'St Helens Roads', the designated anchorage for shipping located between St. Helens (Isle of Wight) and Portsmouth, or 'Funchal Roads' at the island of Madeira. (see Elizabeth Macquarie's 1809 Journal).

Quarter: (1)the direction from which the wind was blowing, particularly if it looked like remaining there for some time; (2)the two after parts of the ship - strictly speaking a ship's port or starbord quarter was a bearing 45° from the stern.

Ship: from the Old English scip, the generic name for sea-going vessels (as opposed to boats). Originally ships were personified as masculine but by the sixteenth century almost universally expressed as as feminine.

Shoal: a bank or reef, an area of shallow water dangerous to navigation. Sounding: the of operation of determioning the depth of the sea, and the quality of the ground, by means of a lead and line, sunk from the ship to the bottom, where some of the sediment or sand adheres to the tallow in the hollow base of the lead.

Sound: (1) to try the depth of the water; (2) a deep bay.

Sounding: ascertaining the depth of the sea by means of a lead and line, sunk from a ship to the bottom.

Soundings: those parts of the ocean not far from the shore where the depth is about 80 to 100 fathoms.

Spar: a general term for any wooden support used in the rigging of a ship - includes all masts, yards, booms, gaffs etc.

Squall: a sudden gust of wind of considerable strength.

Starboard: the right-hand side of a vessel as seen from the stern.

Stern: after-part of a ship or boat.

Tack: the nautical manouevre of bringing a sailing vessel on to another bearing by bringing the wind round the bow; during this manouevre the vessel is said to be 'coming about'.

Tide of Flood: the flow of the tidal stream as it rises from the ending of the period of slack water at low tide to the start of the period of slack water at high tide; its period is approximately six hours.

Trade Winds: steady regular winds that blow in a belt approximately 30 N. and 30 S of the equator. In the North Atlantic the trades blow consistently all year round, from the north-east; in the South Atlantic they blow from the south-east, converging just north of the equator. The meeting of the trade winds just north of the equator created the infamous 'doldrums', where sailing ships could be becalmed for days or weeks waiting for a wind to carry them back into the trades.They were known as trade winds because of their regularity, thereby assisting sailing vessels in reaching their markets to carry out trade.

Under way: the description of a ship as soon as she begins to move under canvas power after her anchor has been raised from the bottom; also written as 'under weigh.'

Voyage: a journey by sea. It usually includes the outward and homeward trips, which are called passages.

Watch: (1) one of the seven divisions of the nautical day; (2) one of two divisions of the seamen forming the ship's company.

Wear: the nautical manouevre of bringing a sailing vessel on to another tack by bringing the wind around the stern.

Weather: in a nautical sense (rather than a meteorological) this is the phrase used by seamen to describe anything that lies to windward. Consequently, a coastline that lies to windward of a ship is a weather shore; the side of a ship that faces the wind when it is under way is said to be the weather side a ship, etc.

Weigh: to haul up.

Weigh anchor: the raising of the anchor so that the ship is no longer secured to the sea or river bottom.

Windward: the weather side, or that direction from which the wind blows. It is the opposite side to leeward.

Yard: (1) a large wooden spar crossing the masts of a sailing ship horizontally or diagonally, from which a sail is set. (2) a shortened form of the word 'dockyard, in which vessels are built or repaired.

Sources: JEANS, Peter D. Ship to Shore: a dictionary of everyday words and phrases derived from the sea. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, 1993.

The Oxford Companion to Ships & the Sea. (ed.) Peter Kemp. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976.

[a-student-out-of-time]

Also the irony of going down to check a ship that sunk due to pride and hubris and suffer the same fate due to falling for the same vices.

//Actually, here's something really interesting: the stories about the Titanic being a tale of hubris seem to have come much later

//While the Titanic was enormous for its time, most of the details about its voyage were fairly unremarkable. Most of what you may hear- its touted unsinkability, going too fast, the sea lanes being cleared for its maiden voyage, less lifeboats being provided because the people in charge thought it would look unsightly, the third class passengers being locked below deck- all of those are actually myths.

//James Cameron's movie helped perpetuate a lot of them, and really wanted to lay the blame on White Star for the incident. Others weren't conclusively disproved until the wreck was discovered in 1985.

//Here's something wild to consider: ships of that size having so few lifeboats was actually a common practice, because lifeboat count was based on ship tonnage and not passenger capacity. I believe it had something to do with weighing the ship down, but mainly it was because they were supposed to ferry lifeboats to rescue ships, which weren't supposed to be too far away.

//The Titanic launched so many of its lifeboats early because they thought that another chip, the Californian, was on its way to save them and thus the situation would be quickly resolved. The Californian, for whatever reason, had its radio off that night and the operator had gone to bed.

//The actual rescue ship, the Carpathia, not only heard the messages because the radio operator decided to stay up a bit longer, but they hightailed it so hard to help the passengers that their engines were overheating and I think the propellers were starting to melt. Yet they made it there anyway

//And if the idea of having lifeboats measured by that metric sounds stupid and dangerous, you can see why they stopped ^^;

//Sure, the ship was definitely a bit of a vanity project, but it wasn't quite the Tower of Babel a lot of people believe it is

[rodgermalcolmmitchell]

Inertia and the American oil tanker

An oil tanker can measure up to 1300 feet (400 meters) in length and carry 550000 DWT (dead weight tonnage), making them the behemoths of the seas. Because of their mass, tankers have large inertia. A loaded supertanker could take as much as 4 to 8 kilometers and 15 minutes to come to a complete stop and has a turning diameter of about 2 kilometers. The U.S. economy is the ULT (ultra-large…

[potatoes83]

I truly hate this planned obsolescence in software business. Coupled with everything going to a subscription service. We have a weighing system on one of our front end loaders. It scoops up materials, the scale system measures back pressure in the hydraulics somehow, it establishes a tonnage weight that you can assign to the truck in the cab. When the loader is within reception distance of the wi-fi at our building, it dumps all that data into a proprietary software on my computer where I can then spit out reports. It's got a forever license, but when my laptop gets bricked or something or other happens to it, which has happened two or three times since I've had it, it has to be reinstalled, and we have to reach out to these nice people in New York, who have to reach out to these nice people in New zealand, to get a new activation code.

The last time this happened, when IT pushed a bad software patch and bricked my laptop a year ago, the scale company informed me that, and it's either at the end of this year or the end of next, this software is being discontinued. I won't be able to get another license code, I will have to upgrade to the cloud-based subscription service.

Here's the thing. This software can handle all kinds of different units scooping all kinds of different stuff, I mean like picture if you're running a gravel yard or a transfer station or something. I have one loader. That scoops one material. Only for about half the year. This software will continue to serve my needs for the life of the equipment. But I'm one upgrade away from losing that functionality. And when that happens, I'm going to be paying for a subscription service that can do all kinds of different functions and things that I have absolutely no use for.

It's the same thing with our fuel management system, we're monitoring one site. Gas, diesel, two pumps, a nozzle on each pump for each product. Very simple. Until our software was a casualty of the Internet Explorer end of life, and we had to go with the cloud-based version. With which we could handle multiple sites across the country with all kinds of different products, but again, I don't need that.

The fact that the software that preceded that, and the Fleet Management software for that matter, we literally still had floppy disks for in the old files, this software lasted 20 years. Obsolete, perhaps. Out of any kind of service interval, definitely. But it sat there, and it did what it needed to do, and would have continued to do so had we not upgraded the fuel site. We have another software that we had purchased, it was going to stop working because it used Adobe flash. Okay, how about a patch to run on the HTML 5 protocol? Nope. End of life. Cloud-based option.

It's completely counterintuitive, back in the day you could buy like the home or professional version of a software. Deluxe or lite. But you were still really kind of limited to what was on that disc. If it had more functions than you needed, well either you needed a simpler version, or you were going to pay that premium. You would think the one good thing coming out of this whole cloud-based software as a service model would be the ability to instantly customize it, and let the price reflect accordingly. Which I have come across once or twice on a rudimentary level, but as a general rule, it's one size fits all. And a small shop, or say a single gas station, does not need the same enterprise level system as a nationwide corporation. Nor do they want to invest in the absolutely insane level of tech required to run it.

Instant customizability at your fingertips, you don't even have to leave your living room anymore to program this stuff for these companies, and the software companies have gotten even lazier with a one size fits all model. One size which, incidentally, is routinely shockingly expensive. 🥔

we should globally ban the introduction of more powerful computer hardware for 10-20 years, not as an AI safety thing (though we could frame it as that), but to force programmers to optimize their shit better

[scotianostra]

September 17th 1869 saw the death of John Elder, marine engineer and shipbuilder.

John Elder was a marine engineer and shipbuilder, who developed practical compounding marine engines and conceived the modern integrated shipbuilding yard, basically without his work the shipbuilding yards of the Clyde would not be the same. Elder gave the world major contributions to engineering and shipbuilding: The practical development of compounding in marine engines. This made long-distance steam shipping both possible and economic, and also improved the economics of shorter-haul steam navigation. It allowed the extension of steam power to cargo liners and tramp ships, and greatly accelerated the substitution of steam for sail in the world’s shipping. To this should be added his patent for triple and quadruple expansion marine engines, foreshadowing later 19th century developments.

He initiated the conception of the modern heavy engineering workshop, with overhead gantry cranes developed, as seen in the still-existing Fairfield Engine Works in Govan.

The conception of the modern integrated shipbuilding yard. With only minor alterations the plan of the present Govan Shipyard survives largely as John Elder conceived it. It was the foremost yard on the Clyde until the great liners were built at John Brown’s, and has outlasted most, including the builder of the “Queens”. As one of BAe Systems’ yards, it is still a highly effective production unit, notable for building the largest elements of the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers.

At its peak production in 1868-69, the final eighteen months of Elder’s life, the Fairfield Yard employed 4,000 people and produced 18 engine sets of 6100 aggregate horsepower and 14 ships of 27,000 aggregate tonnage. Elder had created one of the greatest enterprises of its kind in the world.

Elder was also a model employer of his 4,000 workforce, with a real concern for the well-being of his men and their families. At his funeral, as reported by the Rev. Norman MacLeod “a very army of workmen, dressed like gentlemen, followed his body - column after column. Respectful crowds lined the streets, as if gazing on the burial of a prince; and every one of us .. felt that we had left a friend behind us.”

His statue in Elder Park, Govan, erected by public subscription in 1888, carries the inscription: “By his many inventions, particularly in connection with the compound engine, he effected a revolution in engineering second only to that accomplished by James Watt, and in great measure, originated the developments in steam propulsion which have created modern commerce” and: “His unwearied efforts to promote the welfare of the working classes, his integrity of character, firmness of purpose, and kindness of heart, claim, equally with his genius, enduring remembrance”.

If you have ever been in The Lord of the Isles Wetherspoon bar in Renfrew, you may have notice some prints and memorabilia of Elder in the pub. Elder Park, Govan is also named in his honour, you will also see the statue there.