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- Thread starter Rokket
- Start date
Terre
Renowned
Yipe!
Just how far over did the ship list?
Rokket
Dances with Bees
We were taking mostly 10-15 degree rolls, but there were some as far as 20 degrees, from what I was told. It seemed like more, but in reality, we are a very stable platform. Most ships are designed to let things like cranes and smoke stack break away to keep the ship upright. And that's at 40-45 degrees. If you are taking rolls like that, your captain messed up big time and let you get too close to a storm.
Remember the merchant vessel that went down when the captain got them underway in that storm in the Atlantic? We would never do that. We skirted the outside borders of the storm. It's ok if we get in port a little late. We are not carrying domestic cargo. It's more important not to put ourselves in harm's way for nothing.
Rokket
Dances with Bees
I don't think the company that owns them thinks like that. Time is money. If they are late, they are charged for that. Most of those ships are controlled by computers connected to GPS and satellites. There may only be one person on that bridge at any given time. I've seen them blowing by us at sea. We travel at 14 knots most of the time. The slowest of these ships is traveling at more than 20 knots. They only go from point A to point B, and the faster they get there, the better. They lose money because the tugs, pilots, and berth are all paid for ahead of time. If they are not where they are supposed to be, the company has to pay anyway, and then pay again when they show up. There is a lot of pressure on those mariners to get their goods delivered on time every time.
Rokket
Dances with Bees
Um, yes it does. We have it on our ship. It's called NavTrak. You load in the course you want the ship to sail on, and it will stay on that course no matter what.
The problem with an unmanned ship is that there are things out here that will sink a ship if they hit it. Tsunami's create submerged objects. You need someone looking out for things like that. You need someone trained in navigation to make sure the computer is doing it's job. And you need someone in the engine room to keep an eye on that equipment.
Terre
Renowned
I consider an autopilot that can do all of that with robots it runs to be the kind needed for those ships and that is a rather long way off yet.
Yes, I grew up reading science fiction.
Rokket
Dances with Bees
The thing you are not seeing is how many human jobs that will take away. The shipping industry is shrinking all the time. There are a lot of people who have been sailors their whole lives that don't know anything else. What would they do for work if you automated all the ships?
Lorraine
The Wicked Witch of the North
There has already been thousands of jobs lost with the almost ubiquitous use of container ships. So many of these ply the world's waters with skeleton crews, under flags of convenience. One went aground off the coast at Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty and it's cost our country millions for the cleanup. I would hate to see ships plying our waters with even less crew on them, I believe they actually need more on board and more on watch.
Rokket
Dances with Bees
The average crew size for those ships is around 20 people. That is split up between 3 different departments, deck, engineering and supply. Only deck stands watches on the bridge when the ship is underway. Engineering is obviously in the engine room. And supply does the cooking and cleaning. The crews are small to save the company money. The average Able Seaman on those ships is getting about $350 USD per day. If they are US flagged. They get a lot less than that on other flagged vessels.
And you're right. They don't have large enough crews. I read a report that stated that somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 ships go down per day world wide. That's a lot of loss.
And you're right. They don't have large enough crews. I read a report that stated that somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 ships go down per day world wide. That's a lot of loss.
Rokket
Dances with Bees
I was on hiatus while I was working on my promotion package. I will start writing again in a couple of days. We will be busy and not getting much rest until then!