The world’s ever-growing demand for gas is driving companies deeper and further into the ocean to drill for it. And, to do so, they’re building a new type of ship: small city-sized floating factories that drill, process, refine, and barrel gas while still out on the open sea. Think of them as one-stop gas shops that, crucially, can operate in international waters.
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How fast you’re going while out floating on the big blue can be notoriously tricky to judge if you’re just eyeballing it. One method used to get around this issue was introduced in the sixteenth century using a "chip log" or "log-line."
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Believe it or not, sailors are a big drag on shipping vessels. They weigh down the ship, take up space, cost thousands of dollars a day, and even cause most of the accidents at sea. So it’s no surprise that Rolls-Royce’s maritime division wants to replace them with robots.
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Despite a number of well-publicized design and construction shortcomings
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Today’s largest cargo ships can exceed 130 feet—in width—making any sort of passage through the arctic’s ice-encrusted trade routes nearly impossible without the help of not one but two conventional icebreakers. But with just a single one of these triangular ships leading the way, even the largest container vessel can forge through ice fields with ease.
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Today I Found Out about Violet Jessop, "Miss Unsinkable," the woman who survived the sinking of the sister ships the Titanic and the Britannic, and was also aboard the third of the trio of Olympic class vessels, the Olympic, when it had a major accident.
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As far as behemoth man-made objects, few things are more dwarfing than a cruise ship. That’s why it’s so incredible to see such a thing in the process of being taken apart. This striking timelapse video, posted at FStoppers, shows off the entire process.
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When a ship comes to the end of its working life, it has to be torn apart, piece-by-piece, to be disposed of. By that point, though, little care needs to be taken in getting it ashore—so they’re just intentionally run aground. This is what it looks like.
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It may not be the largest or most powerful ice breaker ever to set sail (that record is held by Russia’s nuclear-powered NS Yamal
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Done any swashbuckling lately? Want to try it in the sky? Look no further than this handmade sailing ship kite, which takes flight on sails made of nylon on a ship made of bamboo.
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This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
