The structure of the ship. Types and purpose of ships

2025 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Movement along rivers and seas on ships has been known in history for more than five thousand years. Today, according to generally accepted terminology, a sea vessel is a cargo, passenger or fishing large-sized water craft, a ship is a military one. You can list the types of ships and vessels for a long time. The most famous marine are sailboats and yachts, passenger liners and steamers, boats, tankers and bulk carriers. Ships are aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers, destroyers and submarines.

Ship structure

Whatever type or class a watercraft belongs to, it has common structural elements. First of all, of course, the hull, on which superstructures for various purposes, masts and deckhouses are installed. An important element of all ships are engines and propellers, in general, power plants. Devices, systems, electrical equipment, pipelines and room equipment are important for the life of a watercraft.

Sailing ships are equipped with spars and rigging.

Nosecalled the front, stern - the rear end of the hull, its side surfaces - the sides. The starboard side in the direction of travel is called the starboard, the left side is the backboard.

The bottom or bottom is the lower part of the ship, the decks are horizontal ceilings. The hold of the ship is the lowest room, which is located between the bottom and the lower deck. The space between decks is called twin deck.

Ship hull design

If we talk about a ship in general, be it a military ship or a civilian ship, then its hull is a streamlined waterproof body, hollow inside. The hull provides the ship's buoyancy and is a base or platform on which equipment or weapons are mounted, depending on the purpose of the ship.

The type of vessel determines both the shape of the hull and its dimensions.

The hull of the ship consists of a set and plating. Bulkheads and decks are elements specific to certain types of ships.

Sheathing can be made of wood, as in ancient times and today, plastics, welded together or riveted steel sheets, or even reinforced concrete.

From the inside, to maintain the strength and shape of the hull, the skin and deck are reinforced with a set of rigidly fastened beams, wooden or steel, which are located in the transverse and longitudinal directions.

In the extremities, the hull most often ends with strong beams: in the stern - with a sternpost, and in the bow - with a stem. Depending on the type of vessel, the contours of the bow may be different. They reduce the resistancemovement of the vessel, ensuring maneuverability and seaworthiness.

The underwater bow of the ship reduces water resistance, which means that the speed of the ship increases and fuel consumption decreases. And on icebreakers, the stem is strongly inclined forward, due to which the ship crawls onto the ice and destroys it with its mass.

Case set

The hull of any ship must have strong bracing in the vertical, longitudinal and transverse directions to withstand water pressure, wave impacts from any storm and other forces that act on it.

Underwater parts of the ship are experiencing the main load. Therefore, in the middle of the bottom set, the main longitudinal connection is established, which perceives the forces arising from the longitudinal bending of the vessel - the vertical keel. It runs the entire length of the hull, connects to the stem and stern, and its design depends on the type of boat.

Parallel to the keel, bottom stringers run along it, their number depends on the size of the ship and decreases towards the bow and stern, as the width of the bottom becomes smaller.

To reduce the effect of the ship's roll, side keels are often installed, they do not go beyond the dimensions of the hull in width and have a different design.

Vertical steel sheets, called bottom floors, are installed across the hull and welded to the keel and can be permeable or impervious.

The bead set continues the bottom set and consists of stringers (longitudinal beams) and frames (transverse stiffeners). The stem is considered in military shipbuilding as a zero frame, and the middle frame is considered amidship. The deck set is a system of intersecting longitudinal and transverse beams - beams.

Ship shell

The ship's shell consists of the outer bottom and side plating and deck plating. The outer skin is made of horizontal separate belts connected in various ways: overlay, end-to-end, smooth, herringbone.

The underwater parts of the ship must be the strongest, so the lower (sheet piling) sheathing belt is thicker than the intermediate belts. The same thickness is the skin belt, which is called sheerstrake, at the beams of the upper continuous deck.

Deck decking consists of the longest sheets, which are based on the same deck set, and limits the interior space of the ship from above. The sheets are arranged with the long side along the vessel. The smallest thickness of the metal deck plating is 4 mm. Wooden flooring can also be made from planks.

A deck is a combination of framing and flooring.

Ship deck

The ship's hull is divided by height into several decks and platforms. A platform is a deck that does not run along the entire length of the vessel, but only between several bulkheads.

Decks are named according to their location on the vessel, lower, middle and upper. At the ends of the ship (along the bow and stern), platforms pass under the lower deck, which are considered from top to bottom.

The number of both decks and platforms depends on the size of the vessel, its purpose and design.

River boats andships of mixed navigation have one main or upper deck. Marine, such as a passenger ship, more precisely - a passenger ship, three decks.

Large lake passenger ships have an intermediate deck, in addition to the main one, forming the inter-deck space.

A cruise ship can have significantly more decks. For example, on the Titanic there were four of them, stretching along the entire length of the ship, two platforms that did not reach either the bow or the stern, one was interrupted in the bow, and one was located only in the front of the liner. The newest liner Royal Princess has nineteen decks.

The upper deck, also called the main deck, or the main one, withstands the greatest stresses during transverse compression and longitudinal bending of the hull. The ship's deck is usually made with a slight rise in the center to the bow and stern and a bulge in the transverse direction, so that water that has fallen on the deck during sea waves can more easily flow down to the sides.

Ship add-ons

Deck superstructures are above-deck structures located across the entire width of the ship. They form closed volumes that are used as service and residential premises. Onboard superstructures are called superstructures, the side walls of which continue the side of the ship. But most often the rooms above the upper deck do not reach the sides. Therefore, there is a somewhat conditional division into the actual superstructures, which are located on a rather large length of the vessel, and the felling, also superstructures, but short.

Since the upper deck of the ship is divided into sections that have their ownnames, the same names are given to the superstructures located on them: tank or bow, stern or poop and middle. The forecastle - a bow superstructure - is designed to increase the bow of the hull.

The tank can take up to 2/3 of the ship's length. Cabins are located in an elongated forecastle on passenger ships, and cargo tween decks on cargo ships.

Between the superstructures, the deck is protected by bulwarks, which should protect the deck from flooding.

On sea vessels, depending on the type and purpose of the vessel, felling is carried out in several tiers.

On river ships, only the rooms in which the helm and radio are located are called cabins, and all other structures on the upper deck are superstructures.

Ship compartments

The structure of a military or civilian ship implies the presence of watertight compartments that increase its unsinkability.

Internal vertical walls (bulkheads) are waterproof, dividing the length of the internal volume of the ship into compartments. They prevent the entire internal volume from filling with water in case of damage in the underwater part of the ship and the spread of fire.

Compartments of the ship, depending on the purpose, have their own names. The main power plants are installed in a compartment called the engine or engine room. The engine room is separated from the boiler room by a waterproof partition. Goods are transported in truckscompartments (holds). Living quarters for the crew and passengers are called residential and passenger holds. Fuel is stored in the fuel compartment.

The rooms in the compartments are protected by light bulkheads. To be able to get into the compartments, rectangular hatches are made in the deck flooring. Their dimensions depend on the purpose of the compartments.

Ship power plant

The power plant on the ship is the engines and auxiliary mechanisms that not only set the ship in motion, but also provide it with electricity.

The ship is set in motion by the main engine, the ship's propulsion unit, connected by a shaft line.

Auxiliary mechanisms provide the ship with electricity, desalinated water, steam.

According to the principle of operation and type of the main engine, as well as energy sources, the ship's power plant can be steam or steam turbine, diesel, diesel turbine, gas turbine, nuclear or combined.

Ship devices and systems

The structure of the ship is not only the hull and superstructures, it is also ship devices, special equipment and deck mechanisms that ensure the operation of the ship. Even people who are far from shipbuilding cannot imagine a ship without a steering or anchor device. And on each ship there is a towing, mooring, boat, cargo device. All of them are powered and serviced by deck auxiliary mechanisms, which include steering machines, towing, cargo and boat winches, pumps and more.

Ship systems are many kilometers of pipelines with pumps, instruments and apparatus, with the help of which water is pumped out of holds or drains, drinking water or foam is supplied in case of fire, heating, air conditioning and ventilation are provided.

Mechanisms of the engine room are served by a fuel system for powering engines, an air system for supplying compressed air, cooling engines.

With the help of electrical equipment, lighting is provided on the ship and the operation of mechanisms and devices that are powered by the ship's power plant.

All modern ships are equipped with sophisticated navigational equipment to determine the direction of movement (course) and depths, measure speed and detect obstacles in the fog or oncoming ships.

External and internal communication on the ship is carried out using radio equipment: radio stations, ultra-shortwave radiotelephones, ship telephone exchanges.

Ship premises

Ship premises, no matter how many there are on the ship, are divided into several groups.

These are accommodations for the crew (officers' cabins and sailors' cabins) and for passengers (cabins of various capacities).

Passenger liner today is already a rarity. Few people allow themselves to move at low speed over long distances. Air travel is much faster. Therefore, passenger cabins are already more a property of cruise ships.

Passenger cabins, especially on cruise ships, are divided intoseveral classes. The simplest cabin resembles a compartment of a railway car with four shelves and practically without furniture, often facing the inside of the hull and not having a porthole or window, with artificial lighting. And the Royal Princess liner provides passengers with luxurious two-room suites with balconies.

A cabin on a ship, specifically on a military ship, is a room for the crew officers to rest. The ship's commander and senior officers have separate single cabins.

Public premises are salons, cinemas, restaurants, libraries. For example, the cruise ship Oasis of the Seas has 20 restaurants on board, a real ice rink, a casino and a theater for 1380 spectators, a nightclub, a jazz club and a disco.

Sanitary facilities include sanitary facilities (laundries, showers, bathrooms, baths) and utility rooms, which include kitchens, all kinds of pantries and utility rooms.

Passengers are usually denied access to office space. These are the spaces in which the ship is operated, or where the radio equipment, engine room, workshops, storerooms for spare parts and other ship stores are located. Special purpose spaces include cargo holds, storage of solid or liquid fuels.

Sailboat

The structure of a sailing ship is not much different from an ordinary ship. Only sailing, spars and rigging.

Sail equipment -a set of all the sails of the ship. Spars - parts that directly carry the sails. These are masts, yardarms, topmasts, bowsprits, booms and other elements familiar from books about pirates of past centuries.

Special gear, with which masts, bowsprits and topmasts are fixed in a certain position, are called standing rigging, for example, shrouds. Such rigging remains stationary and is made of thick resinous, plant-based, or galvanized iron or steel cable, and in some places chains.

Movable tackle, with which the sails are set and removed, perform other operations related to the management of a sailing vessel, are called running rigging. These are sheets, halyards and other elements made of flexible steel, synthetic or hemp cables.

In all other respects, even in the number of decks, sailing ships are similar.

The multi-deck sailing vessel appeared in the 16th century. On the Spanish galleons, depending on the displacement, there could be from 2 to 7 decks. The superstructure was also built in several tiers, which housed living quarters for crew officers and passengers.

The structure of the ship, at least its main structural elements, does not depend on the type and purpose of the ship, whether it be sailboats driven by the force of the wind that inflates the sails, or wheeled steamers with a steam engine as a propulsion, cruise liners with a steam turbine plant, or nuclear icebreakers.