Maritime Science and Technology: Maritime Our World Changing
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Changing our world Maritime science and technology: Maritime science and technology: Changing our world Nigel Watson Managing Editor: Barbara Jones Nigel Watson Managing Editor: Barbara Jones Spine Front Cover (silver) (silver text and logo & logotype, embossed image) Maritime science and technology: changing our world Nigel Watson Managing Editor: Barbara Jones Assistant Editor: Louise Sanger, MA 1b+w.indd 1 01/10/2019 16:08 First published in the United Kingdom in 2015 by Lloyd’s Register Group Limited, 71 Fenchurch Street, London, EC3M 4BS www.lr.org Republished as a text-only version online in 2017 by Lloyd’s Register Foundation, 71 Fenchurch Street, London, EC3M 4BS www.lrfoundation.org.uk Design, text and layout The moral rights of the authors have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or used in any information storage retrieval system without prior permission being obtained in writing from Lloyd’s Register. Designer: Dawn Smith – Pipeline Design Picture Research: Mat Curtis Researcher: Luke Sanger Additional Research: Charlotte Atkinson, MA, Sean Clemenson, Victoria Culkin, MA , Anne Cowne Printed and bound in the UK by Amadeus Press A CIP catalogue record is available from the British Library. The publishers and authors have made every effort to ensure the accuracy and currency of the information in Maritime science and technology: changing our world. Similarly every effort has been made to contact copyright holders. We apologise for any uninten- tional errors or omissions. The publisher and authors disclaim any liability, loss, injury or damage incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use or application of the contents of this book. Lloyd’s Register is most grateful to the copyright holders who have kindly permitted Lloyd’s Register to reproduce photographs and illustrations in this publication. Lloyd’s Register also extends its thanks to those copyright owners of photographs and illustrations which are reproduced but whom Lloyd’s Register is unable to trace. Every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this publication is correct. However Lloyd’s Register accepts no responsibility for any inaccuracies. 1b+w.indd 2 01/10/2019 16:08 Contents Foreword i Acknowledgements 201 1 Towards a revolution 3 Photograph and illustration captions 205 1760-1850 12 Glossary and abbreviations 235 2 New marine technologies – iron and steam 12 Works forming the basis of each chapter 241 3 The innovators 30 Bibliography and sources 253 1850-1900 42 4 The metal screw steamer 42 Index 269 5 Specialisation shrinks the world 60 6 Science, standards and safety 72 7 The impact of shipping technology on the nineteenth century world 88 1900-1945 96 8 The motorship and the oil tanker 96 1945-2015 112 9 Energy, specialisation and bigger ships 112 10 The container revolution 122 11 The decline and revival of the large passenger ship 134 12 The search for cleaner fuel at sea 142 13 Technology and the seafarer 150 14 Regulation and technology 160 15 The classification societies and the application of science and technology 168 16 The impact of shipping technology since 1945 180 17 The future 188 1b+w.indd 3 01/10/2019 16:08 Foreword With the opening of our Global Technology Looking into the future, the technologies Centre on the campus of the University of are becoming ever more diverse and more Southampton, five years after our 250th complex at an increasingly rapid rate, including anniversary, I decided to mark the occasion nanotechnologies, big data analytics, LNG fuels, with a technology book to sit alongside our hydrogen cells, autonomous operations, advanced corporate history book. materials and human factor interfaces. It has become abundantly clear that Lloyd’s Register (LR) I have long championed the role of naval by itself cannot possibly stay at the leading edge architects and the contribution that they, together of all these sciences and technologies. with marine engineers, have made to the changing world of global economics. Without But nevertheless, with LR’s mission to enhance the advanced drill ships and VLCCs developed the safety of life, property and the environment, by these highly skilled professionals, how could we have to approve their application; that is the we distribute oil – the substance that currently reason for our very existence. So now that the powers the planet – from source to refinery to University of Southampton, through investment user? Without 18,000 teu container ships, how in our Global Technology Centre, has become could China have become the world’s factory? our partner in that goal, we are confident that Without Capesize bulk carriers, how could the we can continue to fulfil our mission reliably huge quantities of iron ore be taken to the ever- and responsibly. hungry blast furnaces that turn it into the steel so vital to our western society? This book attempts to document those developing technologies and the ways global economics have Did the marine sector drive the developing changed as a result. I hope you enjoy the read! technologies? Or did it just adopt them? It would appear that the former is the case - as the industry has moved from sail to steam, Richard Sadler, Chief Executive Officer, from steam to internal combustion engines, Lloyd’s Register Group Limited from wood to steel and to increasing sizes and types of specialist vessels - the pioneers of naval architects and marine engineers have applied the latest technologies, and our global society has benefited. i 1b+w.indd 4 01/10/2019 16:08 The University of Southampton gained its Royal Charter in 1952; it was the first university to be created by Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth. For more than half our history as an independent university, we have been collaborating with Lloyd’s Register, bringing our strengths in engineering, science and technology to bear on real industrial challenges. We are incredibly proud of the joint engineering campus which has been created here in Southampton, with the promise this holds for developing the technologies of the future. In 2014, the university was rated number one in the UK for its research quality and volume in engineering, a great testament to the strength, and the depth of knowledge, of our academic staff. Working together with Lloyd’s Register, we believe we can keep the UK at the forefront of engineering technology for the next generation. Professor Don Nutbeam, PhD, FFPH, Vice-Chancellor, University of Southampton 1 1b+w.indd 1 01/10/2019 16:08 TOWARDS A REVOLUTION 2 1b+w.indd 2 01/10/2019 16:08 1 Towards a revolution The ship has been fundamental to the process of globalisation. Integral to this transformation has been the significant contribution of countless naval architects and marine engineers. They were able to take advantage of the many new technologies that accompanied industrialisation, enabling the ship as the world’s principal cargo carrier to set the pace for the expansion of international trade. In this evolution the classification societies too would play an important part as they developed their own research capabilities and analysed their survey records in order to assess the way in which ships were changing. At the time of the foundation of Lloyd’s Register as the world’s first classification society in 1760, there was a boom in world trade, but there had been little innovation in ship technology; the average sailing ship was still small and the science of naval architecture was still elementary, even though innovative shipwrights built many different types of sailing vessel. Very soon, however, with the application of steam power to shipping, all this would begin to change and the pace of development would increase. 3 1b+w.indd 3 01/10/2019 16:08 TOWARDS A REVOLUTION Lloyd’s Register (LR) became the world’s first LR, and the other classification societies that classification society in 1760. In the intervening followed in its wake, played an important part 250 years LR’s story has been intertwined in this process of technological change. They with almost every important advance in ship originated because of the pressing need for a technology, from sail to steam or wood to iron reliable system of assuring merchants and insurers and steel, from riveting to welding, from the about the condition and safety of ships as the general cargo ship to the containership, as value and volume of seaborne trade increased. shipping has shaped the world. With the gradual adoption of new forms of propulsion and new materials as well as the The changes wrought by globalisation would have carriage of new types of cargo, the societies been unachievable without the ship. Advances found it necessary to validate the new in technology, derived from flashes of genius, technologies on behalf of their clients. mainly driven by commerce, and developed by talented scientists and entrepreneurial engineers, They began to gather data and develop technical transformed the wooden sailing ship. The metal expertise, which proved immensely valuable in steam ship was one of the technological marvels helping to overcome the challenges facing those of its age, capturing the public imagination. Bigger, who were adopting the new technologies, while faster, safer and more efficient, it proved supremely the best of the surveyors and engineers they flexible, evolving into a variety of specialised vessels employed were of the highest intellectual calibre. in response to the growing volume and more Through practical research and learned papers complex nature of world trade. The pace of this they contributed towards the growing reputation cumulative technological change may have been of naval architecture and marine engineering as evolutionary but its impact was revolutionary.