Titanic vs Modern cruise ships

[Nuno Viriato R R Cruz]

Would Titanic for today standards, be a big ship? I mean, today we have some huge cruise liners from Carnival Cruises, etc.. some of them are more or less the lenght of titanic but (of course) with much more superstructure, which means more decks! As we speak(that is, write ) we have the gigantic Queen Mary 2 being built... I mean, liners of the size of the german four stackers are today more then common. But what about when we reach the lenght of the 800/900 feet? and the 40.000 ton?

Hope you understand what I'm trying to say/ask..
Nuno Cruz

 

[Dave Gittins]

Nuno, Titanic would be fairly small compared with many cruise ships, and she was a totally different shape. On Thursday I was looking at SuperStar Virgo. She is only 25cm shorter than Titanic but she is much wider. Titanic's beam was 28.19 metres but SuperStar Virgo is 32.2 metres wide. SuperStar Virgo is 75,338 Gross Register Tons compared with Titanic at 46,328 GRT. SuperStar Virgo needs 7.9 metres of water where Titanic needed 10.5 metres.

The masts of Titanic and her funnels would make her impressively tall alongside many modern ships, even those of greater tonnage. At New York, she'd only just get under the Verrazano Narrows bridge, which wasn't there in 1912. So she'd still attract a lot of attention if she arrived in a port.

 

[Nuno Viriato R R Cruz]

Thanks Dave!

Liner design in the early 1900s was of course very different from today. These days, cruise liners have a different beam/lenght ratio, which probably makes for that big difference between a 269m ship like Titanic and some other cruise ship with that lenght, in terms of gross tonnage (a cubic number, not of the actual weight of the ship). Besides that modern cruise liners have at least two more decks then those old ocean liners, which increases even more that figure..


Please correct me if I'm wrong!

Nuno

 

[Nuno Viriato R R Cruz]

By the way, here it is a photo pf a modern cruise liner (the one Dave tell's about, SuperstarVigo). Looks very fat if we compare it to Titanic, doesn't?

 

[Nuno Viriato R R Cruz]

UPS! Here it is:

 

[Tracy Smith]

Ugh, a floating condominium! This cruise ship has none of the sleek grace that the Titanic had. It looks more like a cattle hauler than a ship.

 

[James Doyle]

Speaking of the Verrazano Narrows, are there any past ocean liners that would today be too tall to safely pass under the bridge?

 

[Dennis Smith]

Nuno,

Great photo, but please tell me, is it the ship, or the box it came in??

I`m afraid I`m of the old school when it comes to ships, I like graceful lines and sleekness not the boxiness we have with cruise ships these days. Still horses for courses as they say (who are these"THEY"!!!)

Just thought I`d get my 10 pence worth in,

Best Rgds

Dennis

 

[Nuno Viriato R R Cruz]

Hello there Dennis!

I have the same opinion as you when it comes to liners. I'm not an expert in ships and ship design. But to me there are 3 design periods: end XIX bigining XX (Lusitania, Olympic, etc), mid XX (queen mary, Caronia, Rex, Bremen (maybe one of the first..) and the modern day design cruise that you can see above, which are all pre fabricated hotels that are not even launched but simply putted to float! Do they use the same design for cruise ships and automobile carrieres? and they simply cut the portholes and windows?

No! Not me! I prefer those old sleek, upright bows, tall and round funnels, and a superstructure that actually is visual to the eye as being different from the hull!!

Nuno

 

[Dave Gittins]

"It looks more like a cattle hauler than a ship."

On Thursday a large sheep transport was anchored offshore. They frequently visit our port. Some spectators driving along the coast thought it was SuperStar Virgo.

Nuno might like upright bows but today they are illegal. That's because in a collision they act like an axe blade and make a mighty hole. One thing I'll give the cruise ships credit for is the high standard of finish. Modern paints and plenty of work make it possible to keep those big white blocks of flats in mint condition. It's not always done by traditional methods though. When Amsterdam needed a bit of TLC the painting was done by men in big cherry pickers on the wharf. Not very nautical!

 

[Charles B. Weeks Jr.]

Gentle men:
You're quite right about the comparison between transoceanic liners and modern cruise ships. Most of the liners had nice lines, the cruise ships on the other hand don't, but that is a matter of opinion. Dave is correct about the newer raked and flared bows verses the older plumb stems. The insurance industry noticed, starting with Andera Doria/ Stockholme the damage that could be done by a hard nosed stem. The new bows act like a maritime crumple zone, supposedly does less damage to the other ship. Also gives more fore deck space for mooring machinery while having
sleek narrow bow at the waterline. The cruise ships have better utilization of their principle dimensions than the liners with their long entrances.
Regards,
Charlie Weeks

 

[Matthew Lips]

I must admit I didn't realize that upright bows have been outlawed. I thought they had just gone out of fashion.

I guess that's yet another nail in the coffin of the phantom, never-to-be-seen Titanic 2.

 

[Nuno Viriato R R Cruz]

It really is a pity that those bows are now illegal. About TITANIC 2. I really think people should see this issue more as a NEW Olympic class liner then a TITANIC 2. Of course, if it was named with other name other ten that, it would have any impact at all. But in reality, it would be a new, modern, Olympic class! AH! Utopias....

PS - Do modern cruise Ships have bulbous bows?

 

[Charles B. Weeks Jr.]

Dear Nuno:
I believe you will find that most do have bulbous bows. It creates a low pressure area ahead of the ship and also fills in the void between the bow wave and the stern wave. This helps the ship run faster on the same power, or the same speed on less power.
Regards,
Charlie Weeks

 

[Nuno Viriato R R Cruz]

Thanks Charlie!

My felling is, all of us titanic fan(atic)s should be progressive other then regressive concerning ship evolution in every way. Those designs of the XIX/XX are now largely surpassed. To me, the old ones are very much beautiful then today's cruise ships which (almost) all look alike,but of course, regulations are regulations and they can not be skipped in any time (right?) Safety is a very important issue in the world today, and economy always was.. And we have also to count with the normal evolution in design, etc

Another question: do this bulbous bows also work (even if its function isn't that) for the ships stability?

Nuno

PS - a TITANIC 2 to built exactly as its predecessor (minus engines) wold give a great convention center and hotel just as the Queen Mary.. AH UTOPIA!

 

[Charles B. Weeks Jr.]

Dear Nuno:
I don't really no the answer on stability. If the bulb can be filled with water it would have an effect on Trim, which is a part of longitudinal stability. By the same token if its empty it would also have an effect on trim. It would depend on the ship and how the space was used. Alternatively it could have some small damping effect on pitching due to resistance the up & down motion of the bow. Not all parties had the same reading of the rules, ie. the USCG had fits about atriums, but foreign naval architects and shipyards felt that the rules allowed them.
Regards,
Charlie Weeks

 

[Lee Gilliland]

"Ugh, a floating condominium! This cruise ship has none of the sleek grace that the Titanic had. It looks more like a cattle hauler than a ship."

Tracy, that has got to be the most perfect description of those things I ever encountered.

 

[Lee S.Everitt]

To all -

Have you ever noticed that the new liners simply look like a bunch of pizza boxes stacked one on top of another. That was the first thing that I thought of when I saw the Grand Princess moored in Ft. Laughterdale FL, and it reminded me of it when I saw the Photo above!

"missing the ships of old......"

Lee Everitt

 

[Matthew Lips]

If you mated an alien spaceship with an aircraft carrier and painted the result white, you would get something that resembles the monstrosity pictured above. UGH!!!!

 

[Samuel Halpern]

Grace, style, majestic, beautiful, .... just some the words that cannot be used to describe the cruise ships being built today. Monstrosity is, however, and good word.