[HN Gopher] The secret language of ships
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The secret language of ships
Author : bookofjoe
Score : 170 points
Date : 2023-11-22 12:58 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (hakaimagazine.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (hakaimagazine.com)
| Obscurity4340 wrote:
| I want to see a treatment of The Secret Lives of Huge Ships,
|
| Edit: and maybe assorted biopics on their Kap'ns. It would
| amazing to have a workplace comedy of Huge Ships equivalent to
| The Office, the Taliban too
| pivo wrote:
| For years my wife and I would run around the piers near us.
| Occasionally we'd speculate about what these ship marks meant and
| I'd promise myself I'd look them up when I get home, but I never
| actually did. Very happy to have all those questions answered so
| clearly!
| rob74 wrote:
| > _See the crew members up on deck, at the far left and right of
| the photo? They're actually dummies dressed as mariners, meant to
| fool pirates into thinking someone is always on watch._
|
| The dummy crew complements the skeleton crew...
| TeMPOraL wrote:
| LOL, like an anti-pirate version of a scarecrow. Or that pigeon
| on the rooftop of a building in my area, that I'm 99% sure is a
| hidden camera or something, because it's _always there_ and I
| 've never seen it move (and it isn't the anti-pigeon dummy,
| because those mimic predators).
| bmelton wrote:
| I watched a documentary (I think it was "Stolen Seas") about a
| cargo ship that had been captured by pirates, held captive for
| (iirc?) months. After they were eventually released, the
| documentary captured their passage through the same Somali sea
| where they were captured last time.
|
| They turned all their steam exhausts to point out and blast
| everything on the upper deck. Took giant ropes, wrapped them in
| barbed wire, and tossed them ashore to bounce around in the
| seas to discourage any small vessels from coming near. I'm
| remembering this because I think they had zero people on deck
| (opposite of the mannequin strategy) -- as due to the steam, it
| would have been wildly unsafe to be there.
|
| In short, their preparations were _considerably_ more thorough,
| but I can 't help but wonder if they'd have considered
| mannequins if they'd thought of it.
| ok_dad wrote:
| They could just secure all the hatches and redesign any above
| deck elements to be locked down as well, kinda like how a
| secure door fixed aircraft hijacking's. Just keep the crew
| inside behind locked steel doors! You don't really need
| windows, a few cameras would be fine to drive with. Pirates
| can come onboard but couldn't do anything from the deck in
| this case.
| NoboruWataya wrote:
| Very good article, no BS just clear and comprehensive
| explanations of the various features and symbols.
| alfredpawney wrote:
| I also liked this article which goes deeper no pun intended
| into the invention of the Plimsoll Lines
| https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/story-samuel-plimsoll-develop...
| arethuza wrote:
| Where we live we have great view over the Firth of Forth - which
| is a reasonably busy waterway.
|
| The find the full LPG tankers making their way out to the open
| sea fascinating as they always have a gaggle of protective tugs
| around them - including one going backwards behind the tanker
| with a cable to the stern of tanker - presumably to stop it in a
| hurry!
|
| NB Yes I do wonder about the BLEVE risk - but the centre of the
| shipping channel is at least 2km away which you'd hope would be
| OK... ;-)
| CalChris wrote:
| The article mentions the _Bulbous Bow_ but it doesn 't really
| explain it.
|
| A ship going through water has hull drag which shows up as a bow
| wave. This drag is a (decreasing!) function of hull length
| (sqrt(LWL)). Longer boats have less drag. What the bulbous bow
| does is it creates a counter bow wave which further reduces this
| drag. However this magic only works at a specific speed tuned for
| this hull.
|
| On the San Francisco Bay, for example, a container ship will
| leave the container port (Port of Oakland) at a slow restricted
| speed (5 knots) inside the Bay. But once she exits the Bay and
| the shipping channel and hits the open ocean, she will increase
| her speed to maybe 25 knots to hit that tuned speed with less
| hull drag and efficiently cruise across the Pacific.
|
| However, the shipping industry noticed that no one wanted to pay
| for that speed. Enter _Slow Steaming_. Boats could be retuned for
| a slower but more fuel efficient speed, maybe 20 knots. The
| industry literally took existing ships into dry dock and re-nosed
| them. This meant transits took longer but also used less bunker
| fuel, the cheapest and worst fuel which is only allowed to be
| used offshore. This both saved money and reduced pollution.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulbous_bow
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_steaming
| pests wrote:
| It's not an article about ships and their parts. Its an article
| about how ships communicate things to each other - thus the
| focus on markings, writings, etc.
| chrisatthestudy wrote:
| Nevertheless it's an interesting addition, and I appreciate
| it.
| pests wrote:
| Yes me too, I was cranky this morning. Nice addition.
| gumby wrote:
| FWIW I didn't interpret that first sentence of the comment as
| criticism of the article.
| pests wrote:
| Oops, I may have too strongly. I agree it's still
| interesting.
| teddyh wrote:
| Now do USB cables.
| bookofjoe wrote:
| https://www.conwire.com/blog/ultimate-guide-usb-cables/
| teddyh wrote:
| Does not cover USB 4, nor does it show any of the symbols or
| their meanings.
| bookofjoe wrote:
| I apologize for failing to provide the information you
| want. I will try to do better in the future.
| bookofjoe wrote:
| Second attempt: https://visiontek.com/blogs/blog/a-quick-
| guide-to-usb-port-s...
| teddyh wrote:
| Very nice! That's more like what I was after. I also
| found these, which seem official:
|
| <https://www.usb.org/sites/default/files/USB-
| IF%20Integrators...>
|
| <https://www.enablingusb.org/certification>
| throwawayForMe2 wrote:
| They should add a section on the language of a ship's lights at
| night.
| newsclues wrote:
| Technical language isn't really secret and is a great way (social
| engineers) people can fool others that they belong, simply by
| talking the right way.
| scubbo wrote:
| A less cynical way of putting this would be - it's delightful
| that even non-experts can enjoy learning about technical jargon
| and the underlying processes they reflect!
| Duanemclemore wrote:
| Thanks OP - I love whenever this article comes back across the
| waves and give it a read when it does. While not directly
| related, if you want another lyrical look in to the world of
| containerized shipping, check out Sekula and Burch's The
| Forgotten Space. Well worth the watch.
| https://theforgottenspace.net/ Looking just now, apparently a lot
| of reviewers had a problem with how polemical it is. I didn't.
| But even if you disagree with the top line message, it's still a
| fantastic look in to a world (or worlds) 99% of humans will never
| get to see into.
| hasoleju wrote:
| I like the simplicity of the symbols. They really are
| international and it's interesting to see how they all have a
| clear purpose.
|
| 1. White rectangle above red rectangle with yellow borders:
| Pilot, please board here to guide us into the harbor.
|
| 2. Horizontal line through a circle: You should see this line
| above the water, otherwise the ship is overloaded.
|
| 3. Sketch of a bulk under water: Be careful, this ship has a
| bulbous bow that might be beneath the water surface.
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(page generated 2023-11-23 23:00 UTC)