Mighty Ships

[j.sabourn]

Was watching a program the other night re Mighty Ships and as usual tried to compare then and now. The ship in question was a general cargo ship with reinforced ice breaker bow and was trading in the northern latitudes of Canada. The Bridge watchkeepers were dressed in white short sleeved shirts with of course epaulettes. The outside temperatures were minus in the 20"s. They must have been in a climate controlled environment never coming out of the shelter of the wheelhouse. All the outside temperatures must have been read from inside gauges together with gauges for the anemometer readings etc. Gone are the days of the 3 mate being chased out of the wheelhouse by the old man and doing his watchkeeping from the wing of the Bridge and listening for the likes of fog horns etc. in bad visibility. It shows that very little reliability is put on personal vision as everyone has their head stuck in a radar, full reliance must be placed on gyro compasses It makes one wonder if compass errors are ever taken now, as fail to see how this could be done from inside a cocoon. Maritime norm as we used to know must be completely gone by now and the usual compass variations and deviations not bothered with I do hope that they realize that the gyro is normally one or two degrees either high or low ( east or west). There are other outside jobs which were the norm for all the ships I ever sailed on, so they must draw straws if God forbid they ever have to go outside. Lets hope they never draw the short straw and get frostbite. Cheers John Sabourn

[alf corbyn]

now we know what happened to Concordia. compass variation

[Keith Tindell]

What about the lookout??, or is there such a thing these days?? KT

[Ron Kendall]

I don't think the crew numbers allow for a lookout, on some container ships, even the cook has been dispensed with, and everyone pops the ready meals (frozen) into the microwave oven at mealtimes.no 45 crew on a 10,000 tonner now, more like 12 on a 45,000 tonner, sad isn't it!

[Jim Brady]

Certainly no lookout and nobody down below so in fact the only one that would be awake would be the officer on watch on the bridge.The container ship I was on had two screens on the bridge,a large one showing the full course from the UK to Canada and a small one showing the immediate area I'm not sure of the radius covered showing the course and the ships position on the course any ships within the area would show up on that screen.I'm not sure if an alarm went off if a ship came within a certain range.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Colin Hawken]

Slightly different I know but isn't this a bit like the automated Lighthouses around the British coast? Less human eyes watching for ships in distress.

[John Arton]

John S
Big move afoot to remove the requirement to carry a magnetic compass from SOLAS. Problems with magnetic compass's being not corrected. Big lack of compass adjusters world wide and many officials will not accept a deviation card and compass corrected by the ships master (yes it is still taught).
As for radar (JP). All ARPA radars have a warning, visual and audible, when a target is detected that will come within a pre set circle of danger. You can turn off the audible but not the visual alarm (usually a flashing symbol indicating the target in danger)
rgds
JA

[j.sabourn]

What happens with a generator failure, after the probable so called battery backup has run its course. Apart from having to go back to the basics which are no longer going to be there, those poor sods in their short sleeved shirts are going to get frostbite after all. Cheers John Sabourn

[alf corbyn]

hi Colin. I'm not too sure about it but I thought they had decided to dispense with lighthouses altogether.

[Keith Tindell]

Think we still have automated lighthouses Alf, i know the Needles still is, and also the one at St Catherines KT