Boaty McBoatface

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Replies are coming in thick and fast – quite interesting. At least one ex managing director of a shipping company is there! – Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

There are now 30 comments that make interesting reading;

I have just found this on the Internet. From the artists impression it looks gigantic, but is actually about the size of a four-masted barque. Principle dimensions 261 feet by 48 feet. Service speed 6 knots, so as slow as a four-masted barque as well! Powered by electric motors and a big battery. It is intended to operate within 12 nautical miles of the Norwegian coast between ports 30 nautical miles from each other. Sounds incredibly expensive for that sort of thing when a 3,000 ton coaster could do the same job without even working up a sweat, and for a fraction of the cost! It will be interesting to see how it goes.

**LINK**

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

I see it requires three shore stations to operate it as well! Would these be fully automated with no humans? If not, the wages of the shore staff would be far higher than the crew wages for a 3,000 ton conventional coaster! Maintenance and building costs: Shore station 1, Shore station 2, Shore station 3, plus ship itself!

Bob

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Bob

I am very impressed with the fervour of your comments and by the way you took the discussion to the wider world, the answers that you are receiving from your Facebook posting make for very interesting reading especially when coming from people actually involved in the day to day aspects of modern shipping.

I am still of the opinion that drone ships will be a common sight by 2040 but your commentary has revealed some of the practical problems that will have to be overcome before ships can be truly unmanned.

Paul

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Paul,

I was just curious about how much progress they had made, but now feel sure it will come to nothing, rather like the nuclear ship Savannah. It is not my Facebook group, but a lot of my former shipmates and colleagues are there, including the former managing director of one of my old companies. They range from long retired, to still serving in the industry either ashore or afloat, and in all aspects, including engineering, design and electronics. When you are dealing with the sea, you are dealing with the largest and most potentially dangerous element on the face of the earth – totally unpredicatable and as Conrad said "ready to bertray the noblest heorism as quickly as the basest greed!" It will not be like an unmanned lorry driving down a motorway. Only those who have seen the fury of a North Atlantic storm force ten will apprecate its destructive power. As we all know, it made short work of the Titanic on a flat calm night! Thank you for following the link, I doubt if many others did!"

Bob

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Bob

I might talk freely about emerging technologies but I have the greatest and deepest of respect for those who live and work on the sea, I can't claim to have been in a mid ocean force 10 but after seeing the King Orry trying to get into Douglas in the teeth of a force 9 I can well believe all of the horror stories.

It took the ship 2 hours to get behind the breakwater meanwhile the waves were breaking high over the sea wall and the Tower of Refuge was completely submerged.

Paul

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

I see they are still in heated debate, I haven't had much to say on it, as they are the experts, but if you need three manned shore stations to control a 3,000 ton unmanned ship engaged on 30 mile passages, not further than 12 miles from the shore, it doesn't sound like a very good deal to me. Insurance companies would also have very high premiums for shipping cargo unmanned. The failure of a single microchip can stop a modern ship, and I don't think the new unmanned ships will be exempt from that sort of failure. Look at this. Taken from the bridge of a 10,000 ton ship, winter, North Atlantic. Forward golapost masts were knocked two feet out of true at the top. Two derricks ripped off, and heels bent through 90 degrees, 4,000 tons of coiled steel sheeting (cargo), shifting badly, damaged rails, cracked frames, and the single wave that did the damage jolted the ship sufficient to damage electronic equipment that was a lot more robust than the moden stuff. This was in 1964.

Bob

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