Wooden warships sickened and killed their own crews due to poor food, disease and dangerous work. Iron shipbuilding allowed safer and healthier ships but their internal compartmentation created communication problems which were gradually solved with mechanical systems Ships developed their own 'nervous system' allowing a central director to fire every gun. The creation of high- powered machinery meant that small ships were driven into seas up to the limits of human endurance. Coal fuel created its own back-breaking workload and industrial hazards until replaced by oil The displacement limits in arms reduction treaties forced Navies to study trading-off crew quality with carrying more armament. The adoption of the peacetime-forward- deployment mission meant sending ships to sea for 100-200 day periods that hadn't been seen since the days of sail. The loss of overseas bases and the threat of terrorist attack has greatly complicated going ashore for liberty compared to the 1950-60s. The long term trend of sailor's job has been changing from providing muscle to brains. On submarines, aircraft carriers and low-signature surface combatants, sailors have lost places topside to quietly view the sea and sky. The seaman is gradually losing the pleasure of the contact with the ocean.
Ships and the Sailors Inside Them
2004
24 pages
Report
No indication
English
Online Contents | 1996
|Online Contents | 1994
|Discovery at sea; a heady mix of scientists, ships and sailors
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2005
|British Library Conference Proceedings | 1997
|