SHIPS

Ships were invented before the beginning of recorded history. The Egyptians developed true sails by 3500 b.c.e., and the first sail-only boats were being used by 2000 b.c.e. For almost 4,000 years the leading technological developments involved refinements in sails and the design of larger and more powerful ships. The nineteenth century brought the development of steam power; after that time ships driven by electricity, fossil fuels, and even nuclear energy were developed.

Humans have used ships in warfare for almost the entire period of their development, first as a means of transporting soldiers and supplies, later as tactical vehicles for raids and looting expeditions, and then for strategic control of the seas. During the cold war era nuclear-equipped ships and submarines that were dispersed across the oceans to render them less vulnerable played a significant role in the nuclear deterrence strategy known as mutually assured destruction (Till 1984). Today, in a world where loose aggregations of terrorist organizations are considered the enemy, the role of a navy is being redefined again in light of incidents such as the 2000 suicide attack on the U.S.S. Cole by men in a small, innocuous motorboat packed with explosives.

Commerce

Throughout history ships have served as unifying forces, promoting multilateralism and cultural diversity through trade. However, ships also were used as tools of colonialism and exploitation. Some analysts have observed that the more contact Europeans made with African culture, the more contempt they manifested and the more violence they committed (Scammell 1995). Ships also served as unwitting vectors of diseases such as smallpox, which decimated the native population of the Americas. Chartered shipping companies often acted as proxies of government, carrying out policies of ruthless exploitation that went well beyond what governments could do in the face of public opinion (Jackson and Williamson).

Safety

The most common type of ship collision involves two ships heading toward each other on a course that would lead them to pass each other without incident. At the last moment one of the ships turns into and collides with the other. These accidents always involve a classic misinterpretation of visual data: The captain of one ship assumes that the other ship is going away from his or her vessel and is turning to set a course landward of the first ship (Perrow 1984).

Technology, usually improperly used, can make captains complacent and careless. Studies of ship groundings have revealed that officers did not take soundings even though they knew they were in shoal water, failed to monitor the tide and current, did not keep a proper record of bearings, did not recheck the radar, and failed to adjust a magnetic compass, which in one disastrous case deviated 20 percent from true north (Moody 1948).

Design Issues

Huge ships, like skyscrapers, present safety issues that are implicit in their design. "[L]uxury passenger liners constitute the most serious fire risk afloat. Superimpose a hotel, a cinema, and a pleasure pier onto a very large cargo vessel..." with all of the possibilities for chaos that would entail (Sullivan 1943).

After the Titanic disaster in 1912 it was revealed that the ship did not carry enough lifeboats to accommodate every passenger and crew member. The Titanic had twenty boats that could carry only a third of its total passenger and crew capacity (Jim's Titanic Website 2004). When the Andrea Doria sank in 1956, it listed an angle greater than that envisioned by the designers, and so the lifeboats on the uphill (port) side could not be launched ("Andrea Doria: The Life Boats" 2004).

The Environment

Ships have a significant environmental impact. They act as a vector for invasive species such as hydrilla weed and zebra mussels, which arrive attached to a ship's hull or in the ballast and are released into local environment, where they drive out native species. Ships sometimes accidentally hit and damage fragile coral reefs such as those in Pennekamp State Park, Florida, and marine mammals such as whales, dolphins, and manatees frequently are maimed or killed after colliding with ships' propellers.

The public consciousness long retains the names of ill-fated oil tankers that dump their cargoes into the marine environment. On the evening of March 23, 1989, the Exxon Valdez, as a result of navigational errors, grounded in Prince William Sound, Alaska, with more than 53 million gallons of oil aboard. Approximately 11 million gallons of oil were spilled, resulting in the deaths of 250,000 seabirds, 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, up to 22 killer whales, and billions of salmon and herring eggs (Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustees Council 2004).

However, the quiet dumping of engine oil during normal operations accounts for a majority of the oil that pollutes marine environments (Boczek 1992). A variety of treaties provide an international regime that governs dumping and oil spills. Those treaties include the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, four 1958 Geneva conventions, the 1969 Brussels Convention passed in response to the Torrey Canyon disaster, another 1969 Convention on Civil Liability for oil spills, and a December 1988 annex to the Marpol agreement that established strict controls over garbage disposal from ships at sea (Boczek 1992).

Dangerous cargoes sometimes explode in port, as occurred in the July 17, 1944, incident in Port Chicago, California, when a Pacific-bound navy ship being loaded with explosives by a work crew consisting mostly of black sailors exploded, killing 320 men. Concerned about another explosion, 258 black sailors refused an order to load ammunition on another ship and were court-martialed ("A Chronology of African-American Military Service" 2004). Later large-scale peacetime ship explosions include the April 16, 1947, explosion of the S.S. Grandcamp at the pier in Texas City, Texas, killing 576 people (Galvan 2004), and the May 26, 1954, explosion aboard the carrier U.S.S. Bennington at sea, which killed 100 sailors (Hauser 1954).

Status of Seafarers

Contrary to popular belief as reflected in movies such as Ben Hur, most oared ships in antiquity were not operated by slaves. Citizen rowers were less expensive because they were paid only when aboard ship and their deaths did not cost the state anything. However, Athens turned to the use of slaves at a point in the Peloponnesian War when it ran out of available citizens (Casson 1994).

In 1598 the chronicler Hakluyt wrote of sailors: "No kinde of man of any profession in the commonwealth passe their yeres in so great and continuall hazard ... and ... of so many so few grow to gray haires" (quoted in Scammell 1995, p. 131). Sailors faced a high mortality rate from disease, accidents, and combat. Unable to recruit enough sailors, the British government began the impressment, and essentially enslavement, of unwilling agricultural and industrial workers in the 1500s, a policy that would continue for almost three centuries (Scammell 1995). However, the sea was one of the few careers that allowed people of humble rank to move up to positions of status and power (Scammell 1995). A significant path out of the working class was blazed by engineers (Dixon 1996).

Today the lives of itinerant seamen on cargo ships are still dangerous, grindingly hard, and poorly compensated (Kummerman and Jacquinet 1979).

JONATHAN WALLACE

SEE ALSO Roads and Highways.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Boczek, Boleslaw A. (1992). "Global and Regional Approaches to the Protection of the Marine Environment." In Maritime Issues in the 1990's: Antarctica, Law of the Sea and the Marine Environment, ed. Dalchoong Kim. Seoul: Institute of East and West Studies. Summary of international law pertaining to the marine environment and shipping.

Casson, Lionel, (1994). Ships and Seafaring in Ancient Times. London: British Museum Press. Overview of ships in antiquity.

Dixon, Conrad. (1996). "The Rise of the Engineer in the 19th Century." In Shipping, Technology and Imperialism, ed. Gordon Jackson and David Williams. Hants, UK: Scolar Press. An account of the engineering profession as a pathway out of the working class.

Kummerman, Henri, and Robert Jacquinet. (1979). Ship's Cargo, Cargo Ships. London: McGregor Press. An overview of issues pertaining to modern cargo shipping.

Moody, Lieutenant Alton P. (1948). Why Ships Ground. Address to the fourth annual meeting of the Institute of Navigation. In the collection of the New York Public Library. An interesting brief analysis of the reasons why ships hit obstacles at sea.

Perrow, Charles. (1984). Normal Accidents: Living with High Risk Technologies. New York: Basic Books. Fascinating analysis of the elements of human error which contribute to high technology accidents.

Scammell, G. V. (1995). Ships, Oceans and Empire: Studies in European Maritime and Colonial History, 1400–1750. Brookfield, VT: Ashgate. Includes essays on ships as tools of colonialism.

Sullivan, A. P. L. (1943). Ships and Fire: Suggested in Outline by the Deputy Chief of Fire Staff. Liverpool and London: C. Birchall & Sons. In the collection of the New York Public Library. A brief summary of the reasons ships catch fire.

Till, Geoffrey. (1984). Maritime Strategy and the Nuclear Age, 2nd edition. London: Macmillan. The continuing relevance of warships in the age of nuclear weapons.

INTERNET RESOURCES

"Andrea Doria: The Life Boats." (2004). Available at http://www.andreadoria.org/TheLifeboats/Default.htm. Why half the Andrea Doria lifeboats weren't available after the collision.

"A Chronology of African-American Military Service from WWI through WWII." (2004). Available at http://www.africanamericans.com/MilitaryChronology4.htm. Includes a summary of the port Chicago incident.

Hauser, Don. "A Personal Account of Explosion Aboard U.S.S. Bennington, May 26, 1954." Available on the Crew Stories website, http://www.uss-bennington.org/stz-explosion-dhauser54.html.

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustees Council. (2004). "Exxon Valdez Q&A." Available at http://www.evostc.state.ak.us/facts/qanda.htm. Useful summary of facts relating to the causes and impact of the Exxon Valdez grounding..

Galvan, Jose. (2004). "The Texas City Disaster." Available at http://www.useless-knowledge.com/articles/apr/july107.html.

Jim's Titanic Website. (2004). "Titanic Facts and Figures." Available at http://www.keyflux.com/titanic/facts.htm. Contains a description of the inadequacy of the Titanic lifeboats.