Maritime Time: ask some insiders about the insides of a ship

[rkacruiser]

The third call is:

 

SECURITE SECURITE SCURITE

 

 

 

Securite: A radio call that usually issues navigational warnings, meteorological warnings,and any other warning needing to be issued that may concern the safety of life at sea, yet may not be particularly life-threatening.

 

For those of us who watch some of the port webcams with audio, we have heard the Pilot issue this call as the ship begins her transit to the sea.

[Copper10-8]

We can assume technology and design vastly changes when the newer ships are built for the navigation and engineering portions of the ship, but do things change much for the cabin stewards and dining staff on the newer ships?

 

Is making beds and cleaning cabins pretty much the same whether it is the Maassdam or the Konigsdam?

 

The answer is yes; not much his changed in the Housekeeping Dept. Back in the days when HAL was strictly a Dutch company, the HK stewards and cabin assistants were, for the most part, Dutch. Then starting in 1971, Indonesian (male) crew took over in HK. The change in the last decade or so has been the addition of more and more female Indonesian housekeeping crew. The job itself has, for the most part, remained the same

[rkacruiser]

I had the privilege of sailing with and speaking with Captain van Biljouw on the Zuiderdam. He's a class act and a true gentleman. I did not know that he brought out Oosterdam or Volendam III.

[TiogaCruiser]

Just getting caught up

 

Christopher Columbus circumcised the world with a forty foot cutter!

 

So when the question comes up in trivia as to what the rigging plan was of Columbus boat, everyone reading this thread will get it right!:D

[Topsham]

Just getting caught up

 

 

 

So when the question comes up in trivia as to what the rigging plan was of Columbus boat, everyone reading this thread will get it right!:D

 

 

More on the same maritime theme....

 

 

Q: How do you circumcise a whale? A: With four skin-divers. :eek:

[RuthC]

More on the same maritime theme....

 

 

Q: How do you circumcise a whale? A: With four skin-divers. :eek:

<groan>

[Copper10-8]

More on the same maritime theme....

 

 

Q: How do you circumcise a whale? A: With four skin-divers. :eek:

 

Double rimshot for Captain Card! :)

 

Hi from the VEDM, Captain; just left Montreal on the way to Ville de Quebec

[Cruise_More_Often]

Double rimshot for Captain Card! :)

 

Hi from the VEDM, Captain; just left Montreal on the way to Ville de Quebec

Bon voyage! Following your "live" thread.

[Topsham]

Double rimshot for Captain Card! :)

 

Hi from the VEDM, Captain; just left Montreal on the way to Ville de Quebec

 

 

 

John, You are on the VEENDAM right now? Pity you were not in Bermuda last week. A good dinner ashore at Ruby Murray's for a couple of your most able Netherland's Seafarers!

 

Stephen

[whogo]

I'd like the experts take, please, on something from a cruise from Hawaii to Ensenada, Mexico. The captain said he would sail a steady course of 71° (a rhumb line) instead of a great circle course that would be 35 miles shorter. I assumed that a great circle course must be inconvenient in some way, maybe a nuisance to change from a course of 73° to 72° to 71° to 69°, etc, for instance. What are the actual challenges of sailing a great circle course on a modern cruise ship?

[chengkp75]

I'd like the experts take, please, on something from a cruise from Hawaii to Ensenada, Mexico. The captain said he would sail a steady course of 71° (a rhumb line) instead of a great circle course that would be 35 miles shorter. I assumed that a great circle course must be inconvenient in some way, maybe a nuisance to change from a course of 73° to 72° to 71° to 69°, etc, for instance. What are the actual challenges of sailing a great circle course on a modern cruise ship?

 

Actually sailing the great circle route is not challenging at all. Calculating the route, and entering the waypoints (where the course changes) into the ECDIS (Electronic Chart Data Information System) electronic chart, is a significant amount of work for the Navigating officer, but typically if the ship is doing the same course repetetively, he/she can calculate the course once, and save it for reuse on the ECDIS. Once the course is saved, the ECDIS will display all the waypoints on the electronic chart display along with time and course to the next waypoint, a projected course line, etc, so the watch knows what course to steer, and when they will need to reset the autopilot at the next waypoint. For 35 miles over a 2300 mile passage, that's only 1.5% difference, and if the ship doesn't need to save the distance to make the fixed arrival time that cruise ships operate on, then it makes sense to sail a rhumb line. Cargo ships, with no fixed arrival and departure times will more commonly use a great circle course as getting there 2-3 hours earlier at 14-16 knots can mean beating another ship to the berth and avoiding delays.

 

Over long passages, the course of a great circle can vary from the rhumb line by quite a lot. Take a rhumb line from New York to Southampton, England, and then compare to a great circle for the same voyage (the flight an aircraft would take). The airliner flies over Gander, Newfoundland and close to Iceland before dipping south again to get to England. This change in route, while maybe only a few miles different can result in totally different weather conditions, such as wind and wave directions in relation to the ship's course, resulting in more or less rolling or pitching, something the "passengers" on a container ship don't care about.

[TiogaCruiser]

Hope this isn’t too off topic, but thought I would share this, anchoring gone haywire. :eek:

 

[whogo]

Thanks, chengkp75, very informative. Cruise lines have a reputation on Cruise Critic for saving pennies, I thought they would try to save a few by taking the shorter route.