Vulnerability at Sea?

 Oil and gas tankers, hijacked and hit by Missiles!

With the current situation developing now between Iran and the U,S, revenge for the overnight attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities is putting the Hormuz strait and others in danger of being blocked and shipping lost, but revenge may come in the loss of aircraft and British interest as much in the region, if not in our own lands?

Shipping is large and hard to protect, this has been seen in the Red and Arabian seas already with the Houthis and earlier by Somali pirates, but now Iran has long range tentacles and they will use them to cause economic disaster on the world markets, if they want too with loss of life and limb!

Security guards will not be able to deal with missile attacks, they can prevent hijacking and maybe take down a few drones, arming ships with anti-aircraft weapons would make them military vessels and not civilian?

Cargo Ships. Part-Three.

Differing Loads.

Most of today's cargo traffic is part of the container world, the container protects goods and also hides them from prying eyes. But not all goods that need moving by sea can fit into a container and so a group of ships have been designed to meet this criteria in the term General Cargo.

Some vessels carry odd shaped loads, other pre-built housing and machinery, others have been adapted as internal tankers, others for fertilisers, various types of ground down rocks and still others for coal. They all fit the category for sea and large canal operations and are flexible in what they take from A-to-B.

Today there are thousands of these types of vessels operating right across the world, some are quite aged and still chugging along while newer ones are more state of the art with low loading and their own cranes.

Cargo Ships. Part-One.

General.

This is the official term used for most shipping under that of the Bulk carrier, Chemical and Oil tankers. The general cargo ship comes in various sizes and they are used for a mixture of cargo's, basically what ever order or contract they can get.

Timber, fertiliser, gravel, grains scrap, rubbish are some of the general cargo's, they operate into and out of all sizes of ports and facilities. Some of this ships are in fact glorified river barges, while others at one time were known as Coasters because they kept close to the coasts in their travels.

Most of these ships today carry their own excavators or small cranes, if the quay has no facility.

Today there are so many specialised ships that are dedicated to various roles, but the cargo ship will live on because of the demand to move all sorts of small amounts of goods and 'that is a great thing in its self.'

Ships. Part-One.

A Essential Need.

The first ship ever built, was perhaps Noah's Ark? What we know of this vessel is to be found in the Bile, Tanakh and the Koran. We believe it to be made of Gopher wood, but since we do not know what Gopher is, it may not have been wood/

Ever since humans have had water, they have built all types of boats from hollowed out trees to reed rafts, boats and coracles. The boat was a vehicle to move from A to B/Z, to carry one or two persons across a lake or a river and eventually the sea's and Oceans.

Goods, weapons and other loads, boats for warfare and for fishing were perhaps the first essentials. Today ships come in all sizes and shapes, some are used to carry general cargo, others are much larger such as the bulk carriers and carry coal, ores and even the largest tankers are for gas and crude oil.

They all work on the same design and principles and are mostly of the same shape, apart from specialist ships. Humans have increased size and development in the warship from sailed cannon carriers to nuclear powered aircraft carriers such as the Nimitz class.

We also live in the age of underwater travel and their are a whole host of passenger ferry ships from river craft to super luxury liners. 

But what is the future of shipping?

Bulk Carrier.

Large Cargo Vessels.

As long as humans can go to sea and there will be trade between nations, there will always be a need for large cargo vessels. Super tankers for crude oil and gas, bulk carriers for all dried goods.

These are the best means of moving 70-80,000 tonnes of coal, mineral ores, wheat, other grains and man made goods. Ships seem to be getting bigger and crews to service them lower, yet more vessels are being built every year. South-Korea and Japan seem to be the places to get the latest vessels, with their state of the art computer control systems.

Super Tankers.

Today the world needs energy and when it cannot be piped, it has to be shipped. So how big can we get with those ships? 

I suppose what limits size is the ability to be able to pass through, the Suez (Egypt) and Panama (Panama) canals. 

But the deep oceans still have many possibilities for ship sizes. Other factors to the size of ships are docking,and manoeuvrability.  

While all shipping is vulnerable to disasters through human failure or computer error. Spilt crude oil is not nice as was experienced in Alaska, U.S.A. The Shetland islands, N-Scotland, UK and off S-Wales. (UK).