Fast facts about boats and other sea-going vessels
Nuclear ships are basically steamships and driven by steam turbines. The reactor just develops heat to boil the water.
English sailors came to be called Limeys after using lime juice to combat scurvy.
Four out of five boat sinkings occur at their mooring.
The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
A fully loaded supertanker traveling at normal speed takes a least 20 minutes to stop.
Sails were first used by the Phoenicians around 2000 BC.
The Egyptians created the first organized navy in 2300 BC.
The world’s earliest known plank-built ship, made from cedar and sycamore wood and dated to 2600 BC, was discovered next to the Great Pyramid in 1952.
Oar-powered ships were developed by the Sumerians in 3500 BC.
Rock drawings from the Red Sea site of Wadi Hammamat, dated to around 4000 BC show that Egyptian boats were made from papyrus and reeds.
The world’s oldest surviving boat is a simple 10 feet (3 metre) long dugout dated to 7400 BC. It was discovered in Pesse Holland in the Netherlands.
El Cano, captain of Victoria – part of Magellan’s fleet of 5 ships – was first to sail around the world, completing circumnavigation in 1522.
Nao Victoria replica, built 1992. Img Wikipedia Victoria
In 1958, traveling at up to 100 mph (160 km/h), Roger Klueh and his crew crossed the distance of 90 miles (160 kilometers) separating Key West and Havana in their powerboat Apache Star in just under 2 hours, a record that still stands. The previous record, by American Forest Johnson, was 6 hours 23 minutes.
Containerized maritime trade grew eight-fold from 1985 to 2007.
87% of international trade is carried out by the shipping industry, for around 4% of global carbon emissions.
There are approximately 6 million ship containers in transit at any given moment worldwide.
According to a Yachting World report an estimated 1700 shipping containers fall from ships every year.
All of the cobble stones that used to line the streets in New York were originally weighting stones put in the hulls of Belgian ships to keep an even keel.
At latitude 60 degrees South you can sail all the way around the world unobstructed.
The first ironclad warships were built by Korea in the 16th century.
The fastest unarmed warship in the world was the HMCS Bras d’Or (FHE 400), a hydrofoil that served in the Canadian Forces from 1968 to 1971. During sea trials in 1969, she exceeded 63 knots (72 mph; 117 km/h).
The fastest serving warships are the Norwegian Skjold-class corvettes; fully equipped, they reach 60 knots (70 mph; 110 km/h).
The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, moved only 6 inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
The ship, the Queen Elizabeth 2, should always be written as QE2. QEII is the British queen, Elizabeth Regina. The QE2 was in service from 1969 until 2008. (QEII started service in 1952 and this time of writing was still in service.)
QE2 docked in Sydney, Australia in 2007.
Many of the component of The Queen Mary – the grandest vessel of her day – was made Skoda, a car manufacturer.
The distress code “Mayday” comes from the French for help me, “M’Aide.”
The life boat was patented in 1845.
Dutch inventor Cornelius van Drebbel launched the world’s first submarine in the Thames in 1620.
The U.S. Navy decommissioned its last diesel submarine in 1990.
The launching mechanism of a carrier ship that helps planes to take off could throw a pickup truck over a mile.