Autonomous Ships

[JK]

Another interesting article.
I've done tech support for ships for 16 years and more. I managed the largest ship we had, a mid sized ship and a couple of puddle jumpers. The small ones were far and away the most difficult because they could be considered training ships for new CEs. Not only did you have to manage the ship, you also helped the CE with some of the ship issues. It was difficult and time consuming, mainly because I didn't necessarily have the in depth knowledge of that engine room to give specific help.
So. Now they're talking no crew. Run the ship like a drone. I can just see some genius level geek saying, you know, we can do this. Just because you can, doesn't mean it's a good idea. We all know what happens when the technology starts to go wonky.

http://maritime-executive.com/editorial ... or-society

[JollyJack]

It's been tried before. Electronics is, as we know, extremely reliable, it will fail at the worst possible time.

[D Winsor]

Electronics and computers may be very reliable yes but sometimes the programs running on the computers or controlling the electronics are not nor are the machines they are monitoring & controlling.
Plus unless there are robots available to do the mundane but essential things humans do such as clean filters, fix leaks and the like or when Communications via Satellites is disrupted like when Mother Nature dumps any kind of nasty weather on the ship.
Then there could or are going to be a lot of lost or broken down ships with burned out or flooded engine rooms, destroyed engines, or with stopped engines because of a wonky sensor, drifting around the oceans or on the rocks somewhere. Not even a genius geek can solve that problem other than pick up a phone or send an email to the nearest tug to hook on to the ship and tow it into the nearest port.
Maybe when they start running autonomous ships it would be a good time to invest in a salvage tug, but then the salvage laws and the definition of a derelict abandoned ship would change protecting the autonomous ship and their cargoes from Open Form salvage claims

[Merlyn]

But here we have to remember in this space age auto era that we are all to be virtually scrap and as such an auto tug will attend.
A foreign power gives the Satellite controlling the ships one ( or more ) Missiles / Rays whatever is yet to be invented and all we can do is gaze at the out of date TV set in the nursing home and ponder.
Saw a Rolls Royce video of a control room operating these types of ships, they and others say the first one will be up and running within three years max.
Other countries are developing this too.
Race to be the first.
The RR film depicting the control room I saw was staffed by Americans so I figure that's me out of bed for the job.
Long long way from the bearing scraper and the flogging spanner methinks.
R R ship on their site had no fairleads/ ports in the ships side to take mooring lines/ springs etc so remembering the old Dan Dare comics I used to read I am fantasising about huge electro magnets inside the ships sides so no good coming alongside an old wooden pier head till wood magnets are invented.
Genset stops and off goes the ship adrift.

[JollyJack]

I said that electronic control is very reliable, it can be relied upon to fail at the worst possible time!

[Merlyn]

Job for you here J J methinks.
Just imagine being parachuted onto one of these auto canoes with your solar powered soldering iron.
A twist for your career indeed.
Have soldering iron, will travel.
Everyone's hero looking for the dry joints on the ECU boards whilst the ship drifts even closer to the lee shore and all the rocks.
The flying engineer indeed.
Bit like James Bond , you may have to change J J to J B for each mission to keep the fans at bay though.
The price of fame eh?

[JK]

Well you do know that JJs job description did say that he had to be able to be lowered onto a ships deck from a helicopter. Look at that!! Its a Ninja surveyor LOL

[Merlyn]

Glencannon is back!
New style model.
J J , the Mark two version.
No Bearing scrapers nor flogging spanners here.
I C's , resistors, capacitors, diodes and a steady hand with the iron mind.
The other requirement?
Free Fall Parachuting from high altitudes .
I allways knew my childhood hero would return one day.
Glencannon forever.

[JollyJack]

Favourite Glencannon story is when he left his nephew on the beach at Alexandria to keep watch for the rising tide. The Inchcliff Castle was at anchor, Glencannon and his cronies had rowed the dory ashore to sample the Egyptian delights.

BTW, there is no rising tide in he Med.

[Merlyn]

So you watched it too eh?
So knowledgeable to boot.
Reckon you're his grandson?
One time I saw a tide in the Med. a few years back in Menorca in Mahon.
Returned to the ship after a run ashore, in bed and awakened to screeching sounds from the gangway and mooring lines.
Rushed on deck to view all manor of creatures clinging to the pier uprights which under normal conditions you would never see.
Ship was down adrift by about ten feet.
Thought that Green Menorcan gin must be good, I'm seeing things here.
Turned out the whole harbour was adrift with ships, yachts, tugs and super yachts sunk everywhere.Harbour flooded up first and then dropped ten feet plus below normal height.
Scary stuff indeed.
Massive earthquake over in Algiers caused underwater waves to travel 150 miles plus to Menorca.
My problem was I and other crew members could just not understand what the hell was going on even with the ale on board.
Millions apon millions of pounds worth of damage done that night.
Never seen anything like it before or since and probably never will see the likes of it ever again.
But like Glencannon never to be forgotten. ( Even if he wasn't a genuine wee laddie jobby )
But the Mark two version, maybe?

[JK]

1959 or 1980?

[Merlyn]

Without wishing to give away my total hours on my hours counter is was 1959
Never clocked the 1980 stuff.
Maybe J. J. Would be the mark three version then?
Glencannon Three Remake.
Sounds good.

[JK]

you went to sea at 10?

[Merlyn]

Thank you for slicing off the years but alas I regretfully cannot honestly accept your removal of the years .
As such in Dec.1959 I would have been 16 and about to start my 5 year apprenticeship as a Marine Engineer.
We allways thought we would be like Glencannon however our fake Scotch accents rather gave the game away.
Then only this year I learn he was portrayed by an American actor with a plausible accent.
Talk about having ones dreams shattered or what.
Just goes to illustrate yet again all these years later that you should never take things in life at face value.

[JollyJack]

Never saw the TV series, if that's what you mean, but I have the Glencannon Omnibus and Short Stories. The other books which have me peeing my nappy with laughter is Tales of Para Handy. MacPhail seems to be the epitome of the long-suffering Engineer........Duggie himself would tell you, if he waas here.