
How to Squeeze a Huge Ship Down a Tiny River - sveme
http://www.wired.com/2014/09/conveyance-quantum-of-the-seas/
======
ColinWright
I once assisted getting a barge into a port. Technically it was a barge,
because it didn't have its own engines, but it was an FPSO[0] and it was 310
metres long and 80 metres wide - you could fit three football fields in its
footprint.

My job was to provide real-time live radar from the land-based VTS[1]. It had
been decided that only relying on GPS was a risk, and that independent radar
images would be necessary to confirm position, course, and speed. We were
transmitting live radar from Port Control over a 19.2k baud VHS data link to
my laptop on the barge. Using the radar data we re-calibrated and cross-
checked the GPS positioning to make sure there was no drift, error, or
distortion. There was some interesting math going on underneath.

Modern radars sample at 50 MHz, giving a 3m inter-sample distance. Getting
that 50 MBytes/sec data down a 19.2k bits/sec channel was a challenge. There
were some easy gains (inter-pulse dead-time, blanking) but we still needed a
radar image the pilots and captains could rely on, especially coming in from
open water.

There's a picture of it coming in to the river[2] and a video[3] of the
vessel, having been fitted, leaving the river. When it came in it didn't have
all the super-structure, and the highest point was the heliport, which is
where I stood for much of the time.

An interesting job.

[0]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_production_storage_and...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_production_storage_and_offloading)

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vessel_traffic_service](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vessel_traffic_service)

[2] [http://www.ship-technology.com/projects/bonga-fpso/bonga-
fps...](http://www.ship-technology.com/projects/bonga-fpso/bonga-fpso1.html)

[3]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKLXiHPNu8A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKLXiHPNu8A)

~~~
mjb
Cool story!

> Modern radars sample at 50 MHz, giving a 3m inter-sample distance. Getting
> that 50 MBytes/sec data down a 19.2k bits/sec channel was a challenge

Surely you would do the processing for target extraction on the radar's side
of that link, and send much less frequent samples from the estimated track
over the slow link? Tracking on scanning radars can be tricky, but I suspect
that would something so big and so slow the processing would be quite simple.
It's also a bit surprising that ports don't do this with secondary radar (like
airports do). Using the ship's signals with PCL or similar technology would
definately be feasible.

Radar is a technology with great promise. The advances in computing power,
signal processing, and radio technology over the last decade or so is a radar
revolution waiting to happen.

~~~
ColinWright

      > Surely you would do the processing for target
      > extraction on the radar's side of that link,
      > and send much less frequent samples from the
      > estimated track over the slow link?
    

That's the obvious thing to try, and it works well in ideal conditions when
there are only large targets, and no clutter. Lots of people track at the
radar head and only send what they believe to be the stuff that matters.

We work in contexts where there can be personal water-craft in areas of
moderate clutter, and plot extractors have a very poor record and even worse
reputation for finding the real targets that are most at risk of being run
down by vessels.

We transmit the actual radar video so the operators can put the Mark I eyeball
on the image. Customers like that, and we regularly out-perform our
competitors at getting customers to find and identify small targets at risk.

------
sveme
There is a second story to it: about a decade ago, the shipyard owners
realized that they had already reached the maximum ship size that they could
transfer from the shipyard to the sea. So they announced that they would
transfer the shipyard to the city of Eemshaven downstream the Ems river - a
sensible decision you might think, however, Eemshaven is unfortunately already
in the Netherlands. The state government, not wanting to lose a major employer
in a rather poor area of the state, built a storm surge barrier to the tune of
around 400 mio Euros, arguing it would be for flood prevention. Conveniently,
it also allows blocking the outgoing tide, leaving the river at high tide for
more than a couple of hours, allowing for larger ships to travel to the sea.
At apparently quite an ecological cost.

Well, surprisingly the shipyard stayed in Lower Saxony. So much for European
integration.

But it seems like they reached maximum ship size yet again, wondering what
they are coming up with next.

------
jug6ernaut
I regularly visit Port Aransas Texas, often fishing the shipping channel that
goes to Corpus Christi. The channel can not handle the biggest of tankers, the
supertankers. But even so, i can not overstate the size of these ships. It
never ceases to amazes me. When you are in the channel you have to take into
account them coming through the channel, and i dont mean simply getting out of
there way, the channel is plenty wide to hold two(as they go both ways) with
much space on both sides. I mean the effect they have on the channel,
specifically when they are coming in (full of cargo). When full they draft a
full 10-15' more of water. Displacing this much water causes mini tsunami in
the channel. If you are to close to the bank you could either find yourself
beached or slammed against something.

Its really a spectacle when they come by, even after seeing it hundreds of
times i still stop and watch.

One thing not mentioned in this article which is a HUGE factor with moving
these large ships is wind drift. Any boat /ship will act as a sail, but the
bigger you get the harder it is to control. As anyone who has piloted any
vessel can tell you it only takes seconds to get out of control. When moving
these huge ships through such tight quarters i can only imagine how difficult
it is to control.

~~~
gk1
I once got to experience the other end of that: Being _on_ a ship while it's
going through a tiny canal. In my case, it was the Kiel Canal in Germany.

(When you're standing on the deck of a ship, you can't see the small gap --
between ship and land -- unless you stretch your neck over the rail and look
down.)

So imagine this: You've spent many days on the open sea, with nothing but
water in every direction. It's become so normal to you that you forget there's
other life out there, beyond the steel hull.

Then one morning you wake up from a deep sleep and step outside, and... You're
surrounded by land! You can't see the canal beneath you, but you can see the
beautiful park you're in, with joggers, mothers with strollers, and couples
holding hands.

It's very bizarre, and I'm not sure I'd get used to it either.

~~~
tcopeland
Even transiting the Panama Canal in a smallish (210 foot USCG medium endurance
cutter) is kind of weird. One day you're underway making way in the Pacific,
the next day you've got mules pulling you through locks.

------
qwerta
It does not always go as planned. In 2006 boat caused major blackout in
Europe, more then 15M people were without electricity.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_European_blackout](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_European_blackout)

------
johnohara
_“Everything is unusual on this trip,” says Bernard Meyer, managing partner of
the firm.

Meyer is the great-great-great-grandson of Willm Rolf Meyer. He founded the
company in 1795, choosing a spot in Papenburg so construction projects would
be safe from storms._

In his wildest dreams, I doubt Willm Rolf Meyer could have ever imagined this
as a legacy. Or that his family business would survive 219 years and apply its
experience this way. Remarkable.

~~~
junto
I assume that this firm counts as one of the German "Mittelstand".

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mittelstand](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mittelstand)

~~~
johnohara
Interesting read. Thank you for posting it.

------
RyanMcGreal
> a full moon (or no moon) is ideal to ensure the water was at its deepest.

Here's a fun word: syzygy.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syzygy_(astronomy)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syzygy_\(astronomy\))

~~~
xenophonf
That's odd. I typed it in and nothing happened.

~~~
emjaygee
You have to type it three times.

------
sveme
A nice time lapse video can be found here:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=PHJ...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=PHJWbhq4qTE#t=84)

------
drzaiusapelord
Scroll down to the Medusa Challenger navigating the Chicago river in 72.

[http://galleries.apps.chicagotribune.com/chi-20131028-st-
mar...](http://galleries.apps.chicagotribune.com/chi-20131028-st-marys-medusa-
challenger-pictures/)

Talk about a tight fit. That must have been incredibly stressful.

------
dmoo
Not quite the same but big ships in the Corinth Canal in Greece just look
fantastic

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6xOPAetZuQ](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6xOPAetZuQ)
[http://hhvferry.com/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2009/05/orientex...](http://hhvferry.com/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2009/05/orientexpress_corinth2.jpg)

------
jhallenworld
The article reminds me of the "fitting a ladder around a corner" problem that
I saw in numerical analysis class years ago. Expanded forms of this problem
include the food trolley and sofa problems... take a look at

[http://www.researchgate.net/publication/220154823_Moving_a_F...](http://www.researchgate.net/publication/220154823_Moving_a_Food_Trolley_Around_a_Corner/links/0deec528ccc410c9cf000000)

------
idlewords
Reminds me of the A380, every one of which has to be squeezed through the tiny
French town of Levignac on its way to assembly.
[http://www.cnet.com/pictures/tiny-french-village-meet-
giant-...](http://www.cnet.com/pictures/tiny-french-village-meet-giant-
airbus-a380-photos/)

------
adnam
Unrelated, bit it irks me that in 2014 there are three countries left that
have not adapted to the metric system: Liberia, Burma, and the United States.
So when I read

"1,141 feet long with room for more than 4,000 passengers"

I have to mentally translate it to:

"348 meters long with room for more than 20-score passengers"

~~~
hughdbrown
A score is 20 so 20-score would be 400, not 4,000. Is that the joke?

~~~
pkaye
I'm guessing the joke that that a "score" is an obscure unit of measure.

~~~
hughdbrown
Little-used? Sure. Obscure, unknown? "Four score and seven years ago ..."

------
IanDrake
>It is a beast of a ship, 1,141 feet long with room for more than 4,000
passengers

"I want to be crammed on a ship with 4,000 other people" said no one ever.

I wonder how these cruise ships make money between the cost of fuel, food, and
expensive mishaps.

~~~
ceejayoz
With all the decks, it's likely roughly as much square footage per person as a
mall or a resort.

~~~
mcguire
Judging from my experience on a cruise several years ago, the only major
issues are arriving on/leaving the ship in port (and they somehow managed that
process so that it wasn't that big of a deal) and scheduling dinner in the
evening (there were two or three seatings and, by god, you had to be there on
time).

