![]() There are regulations in place for essential services to stay functional in case certain sections were lost to fire or flooding. Every one of these compartments are capable of being fully isolated in case water came in and the ship would still be operational. If the ship did hit an iceberg, and started taking on water, what would happen?Įngineers: There are 5 main vertical zones along the ship, and split further into compartments. How quickly could it change direction and navigate around an iceberg, if one was detected?Įngineers: As above, the azipods make a large ship really maneuverable for it's size, much more so than a ship with conventional propellers and rudders. That and proper binoculars for the lookouts.Ĭruise ships are pretty huge. Be it small craft, other large ships, or icebergs. Speaking of Titanic, what technology is in place to keep cruise ships from hitting icebergs?Įngineers: Much better equipment for detecting objects in the water. So fresh water generators, a wastewater treatment plant, stabilizers for minimizing ship movement etc, not only the engines like you see in the movies. The engines are a large part of the engine room, but the whole lower part of the ship is the engine rooms and compartments with auxiliary equipment used to supply a whole ship. However a modern engine room is bright and clean and nothing like Titanic. What does a cruise ship engine room actually look like?Įngineers: Well it can be a hot working environment, there is a lot of heat generating machinery in the engine rooms. People tend to imagine engine rooms looking like the one on Titanic, with sweaty laborers shoveling coal into the engine. They can turn 360 degrees for maneuverability, and the rpm of the propeller varies depending on the required ship speed. Basically think of how a jet engine pushes air across a plane wing - that's how an azipod and propeller pushes water across the rudder and drive/steer the ship. The electrical power created by the engines drives this big azipod motor which turns the propellers, and pulls the ship forward. There are 3 bow thrusters to provide maneuverability when arriving/departing a port.Īzipods are a motor with a built in propeller and rudder. The main engines are generators which produce electricity which then powers the azipods. Cruise ships use Diesel-Electric propulsion systems. Where is the engine located, and how are cruise ships powered?Įngineers: Cruise ship engines are located near the bottom of the ship as they are heavy, and they are usually towards the aft of the ship. Why a tree trunk will float but a brick will sink despite the tree trunk weighing more. Basically the bit of the ship in the water weighs less than the weight of water it replaces (lots of tanks to create buoyancy). Archimedes Principle to be exact, positive buoyancy. Maybe a stupid question, but how does such a massive boat stay afloat, anyway?Įngineers: Science. If you knew nothing about ship mechanics before, that’s about to change. They break down how cruise engines work, where the water you’re drinking comes from, how cruise ships detect icebergs, how they avoid icebergs, and - yeah, a lot of other iceberg-related questions. That’s why we interviewed Chief Engineer Rhea Wilson and her team to get the inside scoop on everything related to ship mechanics and operations. Since we’re in the cruising business, we find this stuff fascinating, too. These are interesting questions, even for the non-mechanically inclined. But even if you’re not contemplating the Archimedes Principle of positive buoyancy while you’re soaking up rays on the pool deck, you might have always wanted to know how cruise ships stay afloat, or how they avoid obstacles at night. And we certainly don’t want our Sailors to be preoccupied wondering, “how do cruise ships work?” or “no seriously, how do they stay afloat like that?” Our engineers worry about these things so you don’t have to. ![]() As a Sailor on one of our cruises, there’s some stuff we don’t want you to worry about.
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