What is a ship?

Ship is a very large ocean-going vessel propelled by sails or engines having a displacement larger than 500 tons used for transporting people or goods by sea. This definition has been varied, as different methods of power generation are used on modern ships.

How do ships float?

How ships float is simple it is all about buoyancy principle, that a ship will float when the weight of the water it displaces equals the weight of the ship and anything will float if it is shaped to displace its own weight of water before it reaches the point where it will submerge with buoyancy a ship will float when the weight of the water it displaces equals the weight of the ship and anything will float if it is shaped to displace its own weight of water before it reaches the point where it will submerge.
  This is kind of a technical way of looking at it. A ship that is launched sinks into the sea until the weight of the water it displaces is equal to its own weight. As the ship is loaded, it sinks deeper, displacing more water, and so the magnitude of the buoyant force continuously matches the weight of the ship and its cargo the metacenter had to be determined which is a point where an imaginary vertical line (through the center of buoyancy)intersects another imaginary vertical line (through a new centre of buoyancy) created after the ship is displaced, or tilted, in the water. The center of buoyancy in a floating ship is the point in which all the body parts exactly balance each other and make each other float. In other words, the metacenter remains directly above the center of buoyancy regardless of the tilt of the floating ship. When a ship tilts, one side displaces more water than the other side, and the center of buoyancy moves and is no longer directly under the center of gravity; but regardless of the amount of the tilt, the center of buoyancy remains directly below the metacenter. If the metacenter is above the center of gravity, buoyancy restores stability when the ship tilts. If the metacenter is below the center of gravity, the boat is unstable and capsizes.It's a simple matter of physics. If something has a relatively low weight compared to its surface area, it will have more buoyancy, and will float.

Seamanship Poster

We are providing you knowledge and skill pertaining to the navigation, safety, and maintenance of a ship and also the characteristics of the ship herself.