Modern ships and small craft
Move the world's goods by sea safely and with falling emissions, and build and equip small boats to the standards that keep their crews alive.
Everything for this step
- Field guide
- Boats and water travel → 11 sections Astronomy → 5 sections
- Builds
- None yet.
- Reference sheets
- 4 sheets on this page ↓ · 7 sheets in Boats and water travel
- Sciences it rests on
- Engineering · Physics · Computer science · Earth sciences
- Track
- On water, level 6 of 6
Why this matters
More than 80 % of the volume of world trade goes by sea: 12.3 billion tonnes in 2023 (UNCTAD). What makes it safe is less the ships than the rules and the kit: the safety conventions, radio and beacons that raise a rescue from anywhere, and for small boats, design categories and lifejackets. What it must fix is its emissions: the International Maritime Organization's 2023 strategy aims at net zero by or around 2050 (IMO).
The shape of it
- Carry cargo in standard containers that move from ship to rail to road unopened.
- Build and run ships to the conventions: SOLAS, load lines, MARPOL and crew training.
- Carry the radio kit: VHF with DSC, AIS, and a 406 MHz beacon.
- Build small boats to a design category, with built-in buoyancy and a capacity plate.
- Cut emissions: slower speeds, cleaner fuels, batteries on short routes.
Doing it, step by step
The summary above says what has to happen. This says how, with the numbers that decide whether it works.
1 — The container
The ISO container — 20 or 40 ft long, 8 ft wide, lifted by its corner fittings — moves from ship to train to lorry without being opened or its cargo handled. The unit of capacity is the TEU, one 20 ft box.
✓ Check: Cargo is packed, weighed and secured in its box before it reaches the port, and the box's gross weight is declared.
2 — The rules that make shipping safe
- SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea, 1974): construction, fire protection, lifeboats and lifejackets for all, radio, navigation.
- Load Lines (1966): the mark on every hull, and how deep a ship may load (IMO).
- MARPOL (1973, with its 1978 protocol): oil, chemicals, sewage, rubbish and air pollution from ships.
- STCW (1978): the training and certificates of every officer and crew member.
Each one followed disasters. They work only when ports inspect ships against them.
✓ Check: The ship holds valid certificates under each convention, and has passed its last port-state inspection.
3 — Radio, AIS and distress beacons
- VHF radio with DSC (digital selective calling): one button sends a distress call with the boat's identity and position.
- AIS broadcasts a ship's identity, position, course and speed every few seconds, so every other ship and shore station sees it. Required on ships of 300 gross tonnage and over on international voyages, and on all passenger ships.
- 406 MHz beacons (EPIRB on a vessel, PLB on a person): satellites relay the alarm to a rescue centre; with GPS the position is good to about 100 m. Register the beacon, so the rescuers can call someone about it (NOAA).
✓ Check: The VHF and AIS are on and transmitting, and the beacon is registered and within its battery date.
4 — Small boats today
- Design category A to D for the water it may go on, from its builder (boats guide).
- Built-in buoyancy: fibreglass and metal are heavier than water, so a modern boat carries foam or air tanks enough to float swamped. FAO's guide gives the sum: a 5.8 m fibreglass boat needs about 0.28 m³ of foam (FAO).
- Capacity plate and lifejackets to ISO 12402 for everyone aboard, worn.
- Materials: fibreglass laid up in a mould (FAO's manual), plywood glued with epoxy, welded aluminium, and moulded polyethylene: each is built to the ISO 12215 scantling rules.
✓ Check: The boat carries a capacity plate and design category, has passed the swamp test, and everyone aboard wears a rated lifejacket.
5 — Cutting emissions
IMO's 2023 strategy: cut total emissions from international shipping by at least 20 %, striving for 30 %, by 2030, and at least 70 %, striving for 80 %, by 2040, against 2008, and reach net zero by or around 2050 (IMO).
- Slow down: the power a hull needs rises roughly with the cube of its speed, so the fuel for a voyage rises with the square: 10 % slower saves about 19 % of the fuel for the same distance.
- Batteries on short routes: the car ferry Ampere has crossed Norway's Sognefjord on batteries since 2015, carrying 120 cars, and saves about 1 million litres of diesel a year (Norled).
- Wind again: rotor and wing sails on cargo ships cut fuel on long routes.
✓ Check: The ship's fuel per tonne-kilometre is measured and falling year on year.
What it looks like
Reference sheets
One drawn sheet covering the whole subject at once — the breadth a photograph cannot give, bought at the cost of accuracy. Read them for range and vocabulary, never as the thing you identify from.
How this fails
A distress beacon never registered, so the rescue centre cannot call anyone about the alarm.
A fibreglass or metal boat with no built-in buoyancy, which sinks when swamped.
A small boat taken beyond its design category.
An AIS set switched off in busy water.
Lifejackets aboard but not worn.
How you know it worked
VerificationThe ship or boat carries rated lifejackets for everyone and they are worn on deck in small craft; its 406 MHz beacon is registered; its radio and AIS work; a small boat bears its capacity and design category and has passed the swamp test.