The present publication by Captain Aristotelis Komianos was release in order to provide interested readers with a sort of truly big picture of the recently completed and ongoing projects in the field of autonomous shipping, with the particular attention to the issues connected with the entire concept of autonomous ship. There are numerous studies and reports referenced by the author for further and deeper research, that may be useful.
According to the reviews submitted by the readers, the content of this book will definitely retain its relevancy for the decades to come, taking into account that the majority of the topics addressed lie within the human and regulatory nature, and are not only and/or purely technical.
Apart from the clear descriptions and associated studies, all relevant operational, quality assurance-related and regulatory aspects are dealt with in detail, and note that here the author follows a combined qualitative and quantitative method of scientific research, bringing best and most accurate outcome. All major operational procedures have been reviewed and analyzed together with the relevant standards and regulations, challenged expected, and so many other important areas, such as the safety and productivity.
As Jack Coote mentioned in the preface to the first edition of this book sixteen years ago, it is not a pessimistic work. Its purpose is not to discourage anyone from setting out on a well-equipped yacht after thorough preparation. Nor should it be seen as a morbid or voyeuristic account. When a sailor loses a yacht, regardless of the reason, it is like losing a partner in great adventures. Frank Mulville described in the chapter Girl Stella’s Going: “A boat has a soul, a personality, eccentricities of behavior that are endearing.
It becomes part of a person, coloring their entire life with a romance unfamiliar to those who don’t understand a lifestyle connected with boats. The older a boat gets, the stronger its aura... People look at boats with admiration and say, “She’s been to the South Seas,” or “She’s just returned from the North Cape,” and the boat’s reputation surpasses that of its owner. “A boat is always there—you never stop worrying about her, whether you are aboard or ashore.
She might be laid up for winter in a safe harbor or hauled out in a yard... Wherever you are, part of your consciousness always remains with her. Men lie awake worrying about their bank accounts, their wives, their mistresses—actual or potential; but sailors worry about boats”. Mulville felt that losing Girl Stella was a “dead weight of responsibility”—a burden that could never be fully lifted. Similarly, Mike Richey experienced “no going back” after losing Fester. As he watched her fade into the distance—still looking as trim and beautiful as ever—he realized how deeply he loved her. “Men personify their boats like no other artifacts,” he reflected. “I felt I had failed her, that I should have stayed with the boat...
That was one of the saddest moments of my life,” he recalled. Bill Tilman expressed that the loss of Mischief meant more than losing a yacht. “It felt like I had betrayed and abandoned a friend who was stricken,” he said. “I shall never forget her.” Bob Roberts faced a scene that nearly broke his heart: seeing Thelma, the brave 27-foot vessel that had carried him safely through 7,000 miles of both calm and storm in the Pacific, pounding on rocks along a lonely shoreline. Coral had sliced through her anchor chain as if with a file.
The role of a historian extends beyond merely recounting or explaining the past; it involves demonstrating how present circumstances have been shaped over time. This book explores how a single institution - the British navy - crafted the modern global system, which continues to define our world, for better or worse. It began by challenging and dismantling the global order established by Spain and Portugal in the age of Columbus.
Later, during the 18th and 19th centuries, it reconfigured the world to serve the needs and ambitions of the British Empire. These needs -market access, free trade across borders, a stable international order that favors peace over conflict, and rapid communication and travel across oceans and skies - still underpin modern globalization today. Naturally, such a complex historical process involved many actors and factors beyond just the British navy.
However, removing it from the narrative makes the history of globalization appear more uncertain, more chaotic, and less inevitable. The existence of the British Empire - a foundation for half of today’s independent nations - would have been unimaginable without the navy’s influence. Moreover, without the Empire and its successor, the Commonwealth, the political map of the world would look quite different. While other nations could have forged a unified global structure, they likely would not have achieved it as swiftly, efficiently, gracefully, or humanely. Since the days of the Roman legions, no military force has had as profound an impact on both national and global history as the British navy.
Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, an American naval officer, famously argued that the history of Western civilization is largely the history of sea power - the ability of nations and empires to control the vast “common” of the oceans and deny that control to others. Through mastery of sea power, even smaller nations could dominate their rivals by controlling access to vital resources and shaping events, trends, and even the course of the globe itself. This demonstrates the core meaning of “ruling the waves.”
It goes without saying that the transportation of today is deservedly considered a core foundation of the modern international trade and one of the critical conditions of the economy growth. Today, there is a huge number of the people employed in the transportation industry, keeping the world living and moving, and contributing to the actual progress of the industry. They have traditionally been at the cutting edge of the change; however, today there are new challenges to face.
Nowadays, the introduction of the automation concepts and other new and developing technologies creates ongoing transformation of the society and economy. It should be noted, however, that they also create opportunities and their harmful effects, where present, can eventually be stopped.
This would require collective effort of all workers involved. The current paper is there to tell the industry people that in the numerous different areas of the global transportation chain the automation is going to be introduced gradually. Take some time to acquaint yourselves with the content of this report if you want to stary updated with the very recent happenings in the field of international marine transportation.
Jack-up drilling rigs are built as drilling platforms with jack-able legs. The platform will float when the legs are retracted and can thus be moved around the world on water. The jack-up rig is one of the most versatile rig designs available. The largest jack-up type rigs can work in water depths up to 150 meter and can also work in very shallow water depths. Among the many advantages of the jack-up rig is the fact that as soon as it is jacked up and into drilling position, it is a very stable platform and does not need motion compensation of any sort as required by a floating rig type.
Most jack-up designs today consist of a triangular hull with one leg in each corner. The hull is several floors high (thick) and contains most of the “indoor” equipment required to make the rig work. Indoor equipment includes generator sets, mud pumps, mud mixing and cleaning systems, bulk stores, mud tanks, water and fuel tanks as well as all the systems required for a hotel with accommodation for at least 100 people.
Attached to the top of the hull is first and foremost the living quarters and offices; on relatively old oil rigs, these can still be located below deck level, but this is not allowed anymore). Also on the topside is the drilling package itself, often contained on a cantilevered skid which enables the drilling package to center itself over different slots or wells. The rig is often used to drill production wells from templates or jackets with many well slots and for this reason is required to be able to crisscross over a grid of well heads.
The drilling package is located between two of the corners and positioned in such
a way that the drilling package is stable and has maximum load bearing capability.
The legs on a jack-up rig are special. They not only have to withstand and be able to lift the entire weight of the rig, the legs also have to resist twisting forces and high wind loads as well.
Modern Jack-up legs are often triangular in shape and have something called a spud can mounted on bottom of each leg. The spud can is a large dome shaped tank and is working as the foot of the leg absorbing weight of the rig and due to its large area prevents high leg penetration into the seabed.
The present file, or e-book, will be greatly appreciated by the people involved with mechanical engineering, including both professionals and the students. The content was prepared by the collective of mechanical engineering experts who shared their knowledge and experience, not only purely technical, but also considering the way of presenting the material.
Their combined efforts have eventually resulted in this brilliant publication. Note that the present volume was computer-based from the beginning, no scanning as such. Meaning, that it is easily searchable and also provided with some additional features for better navigation across sections and throughout the text.
The book is really big, so the authors managed to put it all in a single volume, covering literally all important areas of mechanical engineering, such as the kinetics and kinematics of motion, simple mechanisms, simple harmonic motion, velocity using the instantaneous and relative velocity methods, acceleration, friction, inertia forces, toother gears, and so many others, up to and including automation.
Before 1375, ships rarely appeared on maps. By 1550, they had become prominent features, depicted across oceans, seas, estuaries, rivers, and lakes in various kinds of maps - ranging from the most extensive to the highly detailed. This dramatic shift can be attributed to broad changes in map-making techniques, an explosion of geographical knowledge, and evolving European perspectives about themselves and their place in the world during the Renaissance.
Understanding the subsequent disappearance of ships from maps in the 18th century involves examining similar underlying factors - shifts in artistic fashion, technological advancements, and new ideas about Europe and the physical universe. To truly grasp the reasons behind the rise and fall of decorative vessel illustrations on maps, one must explore the ideas, representation issues, and the social and economic structures that regulated map production. This inquiry is akin to a long voyage through an array of images - starting from simple, small sketches of the landscape around the mapmaker, to some of the most exquisite works of Renaissance art.
Such explanations highlight the cartographic revolution of the 15th and 16th centuries, reflecting changes in perceptions among thinkers, writers, and policymakers. They also reveal how the practical needs for new knowledge and user demands shaped both the art and function of maps. Maps always simplify a complex world.
They serve as external, physical representations of the earth’s surface—multifaceted, yet inherently limited. Since it is impossible to perfectly replicate the land’s reality, maps are essentially portrayals—likenesses and simplified models. The precise duplication of any geographical setting is unattainable; therefore, maps, like all forms of communication, intentionally fragment and streamline reality to convey understandable information.
Let us spend a couple of minutes on the land-based oil rigs. Yes, most of the materials and information presented herein are related to the offshore units; however, it would make sense to know a bit about how this all started. Just read this short article.
As we know, the very first drilling rigs used were land rigs and were invented and subsequently both in Texas, USA and in Germany just over hundred years ago.
Nowadays, the land-based oil rigs constitute an advanced piece of machinery and when thinking of the amount of engineering and care in manufacturing, racing cars can look a bit sedate.
Land rigs come in all sizes, from small trailer mounted rigs to very large rig systems requiring more than 100 trucks to move. One of the first criteria for design of a land rig is how to move it. If the rig has to move on normal roads, it has to be dismantled to pieces that can be easily be transported by truck and does not exceed axle load restrictions.
In addition to weight limitations, the sizes of equipment that has to be moved will also impose problems and cost. In most countries, there are rules for height and width of goods to be transported on roads. When exceeding these rules, police escort and road and bridge modifications may add significantly to the overall cost of drilling a well.
Rigs dedicated for work in deserts are quite often built without regards for road transport. Some of the EDC, standing for the Egyptian Drilling Company, rigs working in Syria and in Egypt have large wheel assemblies, or moving gears retrofitted so the entire Rig with mast and substructure can move in one piece.
This is quite a reduction in loads to move and makes quite a difference in the time it takes to move the rig. If it takes seven days to move a rig without the moving gear attached it will take approximate sixty hours for the rig move with the moving gear attached.
Land rigs have a distinct advantage over rigs made for working on water, space and weight is not a problem. Contractors build rig sites to suit the rig and the equipment not the other way around. A standard desert foot print for a rig location is 400 ft x 400 ft.
Another advantage is that if a project requires special equipment this can be added to the rig inventory without worrying about deck loads and permissions. Also, note that a rig may require additional mud tanks for a well and this will then be no problem as land locations can be expanded easily enough.
Newer land rigs are also designed for fast rig up and rig down as well as minimizing the impact on the landscape and environment. Drive past a pad of producing wells today and there will hardly be anything to evidence that a big rig and a large rig location has been in use. All that can be seen is a few square meters of concrete where the wellhead is located and safely fenced in.