INTRODUCTION TO SHIPS AND SHIPPING

Professor Proshanto K. Mukherjee

World Maritime University

Lund University

INTRODUCTION TO SHIPS
The Ship
- earliest form of transportation known to
humankind
- predates the cart and wheel
- largest man-made thing that moves
General Profile of a Power-driven Ship
- hull; machinery; super-structure
Types of Ships (see pictures)

INTRODUCTION TO SHIPPING
Shipping and International Trade
- trade: the life blood of a nation
- seaborne trade: the dominant means of transportation in
international commerce
- shipping: organized means of carrying out seaborne trade
Actors in the Shipping Scene
- shipowners, charterers, ship brokers, managing owners,
freight forwarders, cargo owners
Types of Shipping
- tramps
- liners
- conferences (cartels)

TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF SHIPPING

A. Physical Attributes of a Ship
- ship as a magnet; polarities of a ship;
- earth as a magnet
- magnetic relationship between ship and earth
B. Basics of Direction-Finding
- points of compass; boxing the compass
- variation and deviation; the deviascope
- courses and bearings; true, magnetic compass and relative
- the horizon and the ship
C. Basics of Coastal Navigation
- the terrestrial fix
- soundings and bathymetry; isobath
- the nautical chart
- traffic lanes
- external aids to navigation: buoys, beacons, lighthouses, light ships,
leading lights, RACON

D. Elements of Pilotage and Ship Handling

- conning the ship
- engine manoevers
- sailing manoevers
- anchoring, docking and berthing; mooring lines
- relationship between rudder and propeller
- squat; bank effect
- turning circles
- twin screw effects
- variable pitch propellers
- stopping distances
E. Elements of Astro-Navigation
- position-finding at sea: latitude and longitude Greenwich
meridian, position lines
- great circles, loxodrome or rhumbline
- projections: gnomonic, lambert conformal, mercator
- time at sea GMT, LMT, SMT

F. Electronic Navigational Equipment and Navaids

- the compass: magnetic and gyroscopic
- the log, speed through water and speed over ground, RADAR,
ARPA, hyperbolic navigation systems, LORAN A and C,
DECCA, SATNAV, GPS
- ECDIS; electronic chart
- course recorder; rudder indicator; echo-sounder
G. Navigational Meteorology
- type of clouds: cirrus, stratus, nimbus, cumulous
- atmospheric pressure systems; isobars
- T. R. S. (Tropical Revolving Storms)
- state of sea
- state of wind; Beaufort Scale
- currents and tidal phenomena; high water, low water, spring
and neap tides

H. Elements of Seamanship
- anchors and chains, cables, windlass, hawsepipe
- ropes and wires
- life boats, inflatable life rafts, life jackets, life buoys
- gravity davits
I. Communications at Sea
- International Code of Signals
- single-letter signals; flags and morse code
- frequencies for radio communications: V. H. F, radio
telephone, channel 16, radiotelegraphy 2182 kcs
- satellite communication, INMARSAT network

J. Cargo and Cargo Gear

- blocks and purchases

- derricks and cranes, jumbo derrick for heavy lifts
- MacGregor hatches, pontoons, coaming, hatch boards
- tween deck, lower hold, deep tanks
- types of cargo: bulk, break-bulk, dry cargo, liquid cargo;
drums
- stowage factors and broken stowage
- stowage plan, overstowage

K. Ship Construction and Naval Architecture

- floatation and buoyancy, Archimedes principle, block
coefficients
- ship stability, centre of gravity, centre of floatation,
metacentric height (GM), positive and negative GM, inclining
experiment
- ballasting, free surface effect, rolling period, hogging and
sagging stresses
- parts of a ship, keel, transverse framing, strakes, shell plating,
bilges, bilge keel, box keel, bollards, freeing ports, bulwarks,
double bottoms, cofferdams
- concept of tonnage, relationship between weight (mass) and
volume
- types of tonnages, displacement load and light, deadweight,
gross, net, limitation
- draught marks, load lines, freeboard

Suggested Further Reading

Ademuni-Odeke

Shipping in International Trade Relations

Bruce Farthing

International Shipping

Alan E. Branch

Elements of Shipping

Bernhard J. Abrahamsson International Ocean Shipping

Peter Kemp (Ed.)

The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea

G. L. Danton

The Theory and Practice of Seamanship

John V. Noel

The VNR Dictionary of Ships and the Sea

G. J. Sonnenberg

Radar and Electronic Navigation

Charles H. Brown

Nicholls Concise Guide Volume I

Charles H. Brown

Nicholls Seamanship and Nautical Knowledge

Types of Ships

Dry bulk carrier

Cargo: minerals, cereals, ores

Bulk loading on a geared vessel

Roro ship

Cargo:
everything
Cargo:
everything
except
but not
liquid
liquid
bulk

Pure Car Carrier (PCC)

Container ship

Cargo: containers only

Geared container ship

Cellular container ship

Crude oil tanker

Cargo: crude oil

Product tanker
Cargo: products

Chemical carrier

Uniqueness LNG carrier

Uniquely sophisticated
Cryogenic features

Boil off gas

Steam turbine engine

General cargo ship

conventional cargo handling

Cargo: dry, break-bulk or

conventional cargo

Project cargo

Stowed timber on deck

The backbone of
dry cargo fleet
Fairplay April 2007

Modern dry cargo classic

Heavy Lift Ship

project cargo

Heavy Lift Ship

project cargo