A bridge too far...

[Twister_Ken]

...back.

On seeing a fully loaded container vessel proceeding the other day it is obvious that it only has restricted fwd visibility because there is a big stack of containers at the front almost as high as the bridge, while the bridge itself is about 7/8th of the way back down the ship. OTOH, liners and warships have the bridge about 1/4 to 1/3rd of the way back from the bow, while some ships have the bridge even further forward.

Why are container ships not built with the bridge further fwd to improve visibility?

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[ParaHandy]

harrumph ... it gives 'em ready excuse "sorry, gov, didn't see yer" .....

or "sorry gov, that one just fell off, didn't often count 'em all, see?" ....

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[ccscott49]

main reason, is to have everything required for the crew/equipment in one area, engine room etc.

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[ParaHandy]

thon's the dumbest, most sensible explanation i've heard in a long time ...

ah, but ... must get more uninterrupted sleep if the engines are at t'other end to bridge?

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[mikesharp]

Something to do with the length of the morse cable?

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[mikesharp]

Something to do with the length of the morse cable?

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[Guest]

And ULCC's with 1300 ft of deck in front Bridge .....



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[Guest]

My first ships used to be mid-ships accommodation tankers and steam !

They were bliss .... no vibration from engines, engineers and crew were all aft in their accom. block with the engine room. Us Deckies were up there in the quiet. BUT when it came to meaals - we had to fight the weather to get aft to the saloon.

Later having sailed on RoRo's with accommodation right forward ..... I hated every minute of it. The accommodation had a Rodeo style movement where the bow was in / out of the swell...... terrible. I was glad to get back to tnakers and aft accom.


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[ParaHandy]

morse eh ... if its cable then what about voice pipe ... "FULL POWER ASTERN" shouts the deck johnny down the pipe "whas that, ah didnae hear youse" comes the reply from the chief engineer ...

if twas voice pipe, i reckon diameter of pipe to ensure no frictional air loss to be 22 mtrs so .. if the auld fart of an engineer is a bit hard of hearing, can always climb down the pipe and tell him personally ...

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[jamesjermain]

Don't these ships have to have a look-out in a sort of satellite bridge in the bows?

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[Guest]

The 'nest' in the foremast ..... is for fog / reduced viz use.

It is true that some ships do have 2 pilots when entering port etc. one on bridge in command, second on bow advising ...


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[Aeolus_IV]

With the cost of modern technology wouldn't two or three video cameras do the business at the sharp end?

Jeff.

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[Sybarite]

This way they can keep a tally of the containers falling off.

John

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[Mirelle]

location, location, location

You want the engine room as far aft as you can reasonably get it, so as to keep the shafting short, avoid having a shaft tunnel, keep the prop immersed when in ballast and help the tanks to drain back to their sumps. Having done that, you might as well plant the accomodation block on top of it, because containers are stowed vertically so if you put the accomodation block anywhere except over the engine room you are losing cargo space underneath it.

Old tankers had the bridge amidships and the engine room aft because oil is not lowered into the ship by cranes, so no cargo space was lost.

Also, if you put the bridge and accomodation block forward, as some US flag containerships did, you subject the crew to near impossible living conditions at sea when the ship is pitching.

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[Guest]

So who's going to keep the things going and cleaned ???? They are big greenies over that bit at times you know !!!


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