When’s the last time you looked at a ship?
Not in a while, huh?
Well picture a cruise ship or container ship in the harbor.
Did you happen to notice that the bottom of the hull is always painted red?
It’s not like you can see that snazzy paint job under the waterline, so what gives?
The thing is, in early times, ships were mostly made of wood.
That's why sailors had to cover their hulls (the part that’s sitting in the water) with
copper paint to protect the vessel from wood-eating worms, barnacles, and seaweed.
It was the copper that added a red tint to the paint.
Thanks to this substance, ships could stay intact and wouldn’t be weighed down by all
the stuff that collected on the hull below the waterline.
By the way, this muck not only impaired the vessel’s structure but also increased the
drag.
That means ships wouldn’t move as fast as they could, or they might use more fuel while
getting through the water.
Nowadays, you can add special ship-protecting ingredients to any kind or color of paint.
But the hulls are still painted red to honor and maintain the old nautical tradition!
It’s a hull of a thing.
You also might’ve noticed numbers painted vertically on the side of the hull, usually
toward the bow.
The red background helps those stand out more.
And that’s important since these numbers help you understand how much load a ship is
carrying.
The more weight there is on board, the lower in the water the vessel will sit.
It doesn't matter how well you protect the hull of your ship with special paint – it’ll
never help you completely avoid the harmful growth of barnacles and whatnot.
Yeah, bummer.
And don’t assume you can just scrape all that gunk off once you dock – most ports
don’t allow ship owners to do that.
You see, ships that arrive from faraway waters can bring along non-native species of seaweed,
and other sealife which can severely harm the local ecosystem.
Let me know down in the comments what other unusual things about ships you’ve noticed
or wondered.
As for me, I’ve got plenty of other fun facts about gigantic cargo ships and cruise
liners:
- You might not realize it, but almost 95% of all the world's cargo is transported by
ship.
All those goods you see at your favorite clothing, tech, or even grocery store – yep, they
probably arrived on a big boat!
- Right at this moment, at least 20 million containers are moving across the world.
- Unfortunately, 2,000 to 10,000 containers fall off the ships carrying them and get lost
in the sea every year.
That might be where your long-lost parcel is right now!
- Within one year, the average container ship travels the same distance as going three-quarters
of the way to the moon and back.
- The largest cargo ship can carry 18,000 containers with a whopping 745 million bananas
inside!
That has a lot of …appeal!
- A regular cargo container is so big that it can transport more than 8,000 shoe boxes.
- Maersk has been the biggest container ship operator in the world since 1996.
If you stack up just their containers alone, it would equal 7,530 Eiffel Towers.
If you lined these containers up, they’d go almost halfway around the planet.
And if you unloaded all the cargo they carry onto trucks, the traffic would stretch for
more than 60 miles!
Hey let’s try that.
- One-third of all ship crews in the world don't have any kind of communication with
the outside world when they're out at open sea.
And only 10% of sailors have free access to the Internet.
- The shipping industry is one of the largest employers on the planet: more than 1.5 million
seafarers work for it.
- A cargo ship engine is over 1,000 times more powerful than that of the average family
car.
At the same time, such a ship usually travels no faster than 26 mph.
- Cruise ships are no speedier than cargos – they only go about 23 mph.
Now I know why it takes them forever to get to the next destination!
- If you're afraid of heights, a cruise ship might not be for you because these monsters
are really tall.
In fact, the biggest cruise ships can be as tall as a 16-story building!
- Cruise ships often perform rescue operations.
So, don't be surprised if the one you're traveling on stops to save a few fishers in desperate
need of help.
Such missions happen more often than you might think.
Your cruise ship can get a distress call and change course to pick up stranded sailors,
or it may just come across a damaged vessel.
- After what happened to the Titanic, all ships were required to carry enough safety
equipment for every passenger.
But one time, this rule caused one to sink!
It happened in 1915 when the SS Eastland was traveling across the Great Lakes.
The vessel was equipped with extra rafts, life jackets, and lifeboats for all the passengers.
But the weight of all this stuff made the ship capsize and sink!
Oh the irony.
- Cruise ship cabins are built separately from the ship because, otherwise, there wouldn't
be enough space for their construction.
Once they’re finished, they’re moved to the shipyard and added to the vessel.
In most cases, the cabins and the ship itself are even constructed by different companies.
- Some operators offer their clients cruises that span for months!
For example, there’s a super-long cruise that lasts 245 days and takes you to 6 continents,
51 countries, and 112 ports.
Hey, count me in!
If only I had $100,000 sitting around…and a lot of time off…and I didn’t get sea-sick…oh
well.
- Cruise ship anchors are unimaginably massive, like 25,000 pounds of massive!
(FYI, that’s the weight of two African elephants.)
No wonder they try to avoid dropping anchor if it's possible.
Otherwise, it can really damage or even destroy delicate underwater ecosystems.
Hey speaking of anchors, is it true that Popeye the sailor, was the first Anchorman?
Weigh in down in the comments.
- Cruise ship cabin walls are made of metal, and the main reason is fire safety.
But you can use it to your advantage, for example, by putting up magnetic hooks and
clips.
Well that’s clever.
- During a one-week cruise, a large ship uses 1,800 pounds of coffee, 9,000 pounds of lettuce,
45,000 eggs, and 20,000 ice cream cones!
But what do they feed the people?
- A big cruise ship functions like a small city, and it even has a water filtration plant
directly on board.
So no need to worry about drinking the tap water next time you’re on a cruise!
- Although there are doctors and nurses on cruise ships, if you have a dental emergency,
no-one will be able to help you out.
Since there are no dentists on ships, you'll have to hold off until you get to the next
port.
Ouch!
- If you've ever traveled on a cruise ship, you might know that the interior cabins aren't
very exciting to stay in.
But some cruise companies have found a solution to this problem by installing virtual balconies
inside the rooms!
These balconies show real-time images of what's happening outside your cabin.
A nice detail is that the view even coincides with your location on the ship!
- Cruise ships consume a lot of fuel.
For example, a large vessel needs about 121,000 gallons of fuel for every day it spends at
sea.
- They produce a lot of waste too: an average of 7 million gallons a year!
- There are cameras everywhere on cruise ships, but they’re not just for security reasons.
With their help, the crew can watch the activities on board and understand which ones are the
most popular among their guests.
Also, they can figure out the peak meal times or where people prefer to spend their time.
Later, they analyze this information and decide how to best fulfill passengers' needs.
- The largest cruise ships have more than 2,000 crew members.
On top of that, such vessels are incredibly expensive to build: they may cost more than
$1 billion.
- Cruise ships are much larger than they seem at first sight.
The truth is that the ship's hull, which, as you know by now, is located under the surface
of the sea, is as massive and long as the vessel's visible part.
By the way, unlike passenger cabins, the sleeping quarters of the ship's crew are also below
the waterline.
So, you're unlikely to come across many crew members at night.
Well now, it’s now time for me to weigh anchor, cast off, head out into the open sea,
and …probably barf over the rail!
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