Questions over ship design

[philipb]

These megaships look very top-heavy. This disaster proves that they are top-heavy. Older designed ships would not roll-over in this way. I am no expert on the subject - just an interested onlooker, but is it not time for a radical re-think in ship design?

[sidari]

Cruise ships are not Top Heavy due to the use of Aluminium in the upper parts of the superstructure! the ship more than likely rolled over because there was less than 26 feet of water under the keel which Concordia needed in order to stay upright! that coupled with the massive amount of water taken onboard and possibly the efforts to move water in the ballast tanks for stability became too much for the ship.

[guernseyguy]

Older designed ships would not roll-over in this way.

 

Lusitania?

Empress of Ireland?

Andrea Doria?

Normandie?

 

Any ship with a large hole in the side will eventually lose stability then roll over - the fact that they were able to get 99.6% of those onboard off, and that it took several hours to role over, is a testament to modern ship design...

[philipb]

I'm still not convinced! These ships have a higher centre of gravity which in normal operating conditions would make no difference, but when 'holed' would surely make them more unstable than a conventional ship design and therefore more liable to roll over and sink more quickly? The only reason that the Concordia didn't totally sink was that she was run aground. What about if this had happened in the open seas and the ship had hit a reef? I think it poses huge questions over the ability to evacuate so many passengers and crew in an orderly fashion when the numbers are as huge as this.

[marinearchit]

If anything, modern ships are considerably safer than ships of the past. Any ship, regardless of size, will capsize if the center of gravity shifts severely enough. Therefore, as has been said above, any ship would be likely to capsize with a hole the size of that in the Concordia. The only way this would occur in the open sea is if the ship were involved in a collision with another ship, resulting in the creating of an equally large gash. Otherwise a severe fire or something along those lines would have to occur.

 

Now, if you mean "What if a ship this size were to sink in the open ocean," that is an entirely different topic.

[cruisinfanatic]

I'm still not convinced! These ships have a higher centre of gravity which in normal operating conditions would make no difference, but when 'holed' would surely make them more unstable than a conventional ship design and therefore more liable to roll over and sink more quickly? The only reason that the Concordia didn't totally sink was that she was run aground. What about if this had happened in the open seas and the ship had hit a reef? I think it poses huge questions over the ability to evacuate so many passengers and crew in an orderly fashion when the numbers are as huge as this.

They may look top heavy, but are not. Check you facts instead of stating your opinion,

If they were top heavy, the top decks would be swaying side to side uncontrollably.

Since when are there reefs in open sea?

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