dossier per als docents "att full sail"

At full sail! Museu Marítim de Barcelona 1

AT FULL SAIL! Educació Primària Àrea d’Educació i Activitats

MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION. WHAT’S A SHIP? Means of transportation are those which let us go from one point (A) to another (B). As long as going from one point to another was the only objective of human beings, means of transportation used to be quite simple: horses, canoes… But as commercial relationships started to establish things changed: goods’ volumes were gradually higher and had to cover longer distances, keeping costs lower as possible at the same time. Those are the reasons why means of transportation needed to evolve. Ground transportation Ever since prehistory human kind has travelled round the world on foot and on foot has human kind carried his belongings. It is not easy neither to cover greater distances nor carrying heavy volumes this way, and that’s the reason why next step in transport evolution involved pack animals. The kind of animals used for this purpose varied depending on the geographical location: donkeys, mules, hors-es, camels, elephants, llama…

The load was initially carried by the beast itself, but it soon came evident that pull-ing on the cargo had to be rather more effective. The first vehicles then ap-peared (carts, carriages, cars…), which meant that loads could be bigger and heavier and distances to cover, longer and longer.


Ground transportation worked this way for centuries. Steam engines made its ap-pearance in the 19th century, followed soon after by combustion engines. Carts and carriages were gradually substituted by cars, buses, lorries and specially by the rail-way system, the biggest novelty at that time. Nevertheless, the ship was still the means of transport par excellence in order to cover great distances until the 20th Century. Ground means of transport are in the need of an important infrastructure: roads, highways, tracks… Air transport This means of transport is faster than any other, but it’s dedicated mainly for people’s travels. Some examples are airplanes, heli-copters, rockets… These inventions are in no need of any kind of infrastructure on route, but they do need them on the ground: airports, hangars, control towers… Water transport Transport over rivers and seas is as old as ground transportation. The first and main purpose of a boat was that of letting people cross water surfaces. But purposes were gradually getting more complex, and so the size and profile of boats. First boats were a mere surface made of tied tree trunks. But over time ships were slow-ly changing forms and propulsion systems in order to adapt to objectives, sizes, technical improvements… Over the centuries, the Mediterranean Sea has been home to all kind of amazing ships, from traditional and fearsome war galleys to modern, enormous aircraft carriers.


BUT, WHAT IS A SHIP? A ship is a means of transport which travels over a water surface, this way trans-forming an obstacle (the sea), into a communication route. And why does it float? Theoretically, an object floats or sinks whether it is heavier or lighter than water. Tree leafs, a piece of cork, tree barks… All these things float because they’re lighter than water. Meanwhile, an iron pipe, marbles or cobble-stones sink because they’re heavier than water. However, if we put a glass on the water surface it won’t sink unless we start filling it up with things until it’s so heavy that it goes down to the bottom. There are two reasons that explain this behavior: firstly, its shape (similar to that of a ship) which makes that, when partially immersed in the water, the weight of fluid it displaces is smaller than the total weight of the glass. And secondly, on the inside of the glass there’s only air, an element with a lesser density and weight than water. In fact, if we start filling up the glass with objects, we’re emptying the air out at the same time, increasing its weight until it finally sinks. The concept behind a ship is quite similar, and that’s why ships can be built from heavy materials like iron or steal, provided that they have a suitable shape and we never exceed its load capacity.


PARTS OF A SHIP Sailors use a special vocabulary when referring to its work; that’s the reason why the names of the different parts of a ship are different to those used with other ve-hicles or means of transport. The front side of a ship is called bow. The back side of a ship is called stern. Starboard is the right side of a ship, when facing the bow. And the left side of a ship, when facing the bow, is called port. But there are many other parts in a boat, and each one has a specific name. We’re not going to list them all, but we can learn the most important ones. For example, in a sailing ship, sails are tied to the masts, and each one of the masts has a different name: • Mainmast: it’s a sailing ship principal mast. • Foremast: It’s the mast nearest the bow of a ship • Mizenmast: It’s the mast nearest the stern of a ship

Mainmast

S T E R N

BOW

Mizenmast Foremast

Bowsprit

Trapezoidal sail Jibs


Sails come in a great variety of shapes and sizes, but they can be divided into these categories: • Triangular sails (also known as lateen sails) • Quadrangular sails (also known as square rig: when the wind blows, sails

inflate and adopt a round shape, similar to that of a hot-air balloon). • Trapezoidal sails (also known as jiggers), and topsails (triangular or trape-

zoidal sails fitted over jiggers) • Jibs (small triangular sails hoisted in front of the foremast).

Quadrangular sail (square rig)

Triangular sail (lateen sail)


PROPULSION SYSTEMS Quite probably, the first thing human beings used to cross a water surface was a tree trunk; and it’s very likely that those first sailors took advantage of their hands to propel their boats. But the needed effort was exhausting, and they rapidly came up with new methods to drive their boats. The pole: When there’s not much depth and the bank or the shore is near, a per-son standing on the boat can use a pole to sail. The sailor pushes the pole against the bottom with his/her hands so the boat can move forward.

The oar: When there is a short distance to cov-er, the oar is an ideal propulsion system for a boat. With the oars, sailors push against the wa-ter, not the bottom of the sea/river.

Sails: Sailing ships where the kings of the seas until the invention of the steam engine. In pushing against the sailcloth, the ship takes profit from the wind force and moves forward. There are basically two types of sails: triangu-lar sails, also known as lateen sails, typical of the Mediterranean fishing boats; and quadran-gular sails, those typical of great sailboats.

Engines: During the 19th Century sails were gradually substituted by paddlewheels, in the first instance, and by screws soon after, both of them propelled by steam engines, turbines, nu-clear propulsion…


PORTS

The development of ships as the main worldwide means of transport has run paral-lel to the development of ports. But, what is a port? A port is a place where ships may take refuge from storms, and/or a place where ships load or unload their cargo. There are natural ports or harbours, taking profit of the coastline profile, and artifi-cial ports. A natural port is a place on the coastline with a strategic situation and a set of features (protection against wind force, easy access to land…) which make the ideal place of it for ships to reach land and to load and download their cargo without any further intervention over its physical profile. That is, people who make use of these ports don’t have the need to build any port structures in order to undertake any kind of maritime commerce operation. When natural shape of the coastline makes it difficult to carry out commercial activi-ties but the need of a port in that place is imperative, specific structures like docks need to be built. These kinds of ports built by people are called artificial ports.


Port types There are several types of ports. Here we are some examples: Fishing port. It displays the infrastructures and buildings needed for fishing practice: fish market, docks, garages… Naval bases. A naval base is a port where warships may take refuge and, moreo-ver, it displays everything needed for maintenance purposes: ammunition dump, warehouses, barracks…

Commercial ports. They’re the biggest and most relevant ports nowadays, and offer plenty of space to store ships’ cargo: con-tainer port, cars port, grain ports…

Yachting harbours. There are lots of yachting harbours in the Catalan coastline, because many seaside villages have built these kinds of ports in order to attract people who like to spend their lei-sure time on board of a leisure boat. These ports are smaller and they usually incorporate fun zones, berths… Some ports are so big that they are divided into different areas, each one dedicated to one of these purposes. This is the case of the port of Barcelona.

Fishing port

Containers unload inside a com-mercial port


THE SPECIALIZATION OF SHIPS Basic function of a boat has always and everywhere been letting people cross water surfaces. But objectives rapidly started to be more complicated, and so were ships’ shapes and sizes. The features of a ship are de-termined by its function. For example, warships carry weaponry and several defensive elements. There are lots of types of merchant ships, because trade is its main purpose nowadays. Merchant ships have to offer a great load capacity (big holds to store goods) and need to be economic. Passenger ships need to be comfortable (full equipped cabins, dinner rooms…); they have to offer leisure activities for passengers to enjoy a funny trip; but above all, these ships must guarantee a high secu-rity level for all passengers. When talking of leisure related to the sea, we find a great variety of options. Cruise ships to spend the holi-days, yachts and even sports boats: dinghy sailing, ca-noes… Fishing boats vary depending on the kind of fish they are designed to catch. In the Catalan coast we can find encesa boats (with fishing lights to fish at night), bot-tom-trawling boats (a fishing technique which consist in trawling the net by the bottom of the sea), purse-seine boats (they set the net in a circle and catch fishes from the boats); but we also find big modern fishing ships capable of spending several months in the open sea.


Specialized ships It’s a long a time since the ship has become the most important means of transport. And for a long time ships were also the fastest, safest and most profitable means of transport. Ground routes used to be dangerous and in bad conditions, whereas sea routes let traders transport bigger amounts of goods at a cheaper cost. On the 20th Century, the airplane climbed to the top of the ranks as the fastest means of transport, but nowadays no other means can compete with ships regard-ing to goods volume and respect for the environment. In fact, maritime transport represents 80% of world transport at present. 20% left is represented by ground transport.

In ancient times, the same boats were used for several purposes: fishing, trading, traveling, war… There were no significant differences between ships.

But from the 19th Century on, ships started to specialize

depending on their use; that’s why their shapes and sizes started being designed according to their function. Fishing boats, commercial ships, warships...; each one of them was different to the rest and adapted to its function. Nevertheless, the biggest worldwide revolution in maritime transport (and also in ground transport) came with the invention of the container. The container is the perfect solution for one of the main problems of maritime transport: cargo load and unload. For centuries, load and unload were manually carried on, with the resulting waste of time and money. All goods were stored in sacks and loaded or downloaded to or from carts or lorries manually, or with the help of small cranes.

Coca, a typical merchant ship from the Middle Ages


American truck driver Malcom McLean found a solution to the problem: instead of taking the cargo out from a lorry to load it in the ship afterwards , he thought it would be a great idea to load the whole back part of the lorry directly into the ship. And he got down to business. He bought two T4 tank ships (similar to oil tankers) and ordered some metal boxes the same size of his trucks, but without the rolling system. The two ships could store 58 of these big metal boxes, which he called containers, taking into account that they could be stacked up. At present, the biggest container ship can carry up to 18.000 containers; just in one trip it can transport 111 million pairs of snickers. It has a length of 400 meters, a beam of 59 meters and a draught of 15 meters. This simple invention shook up the world of transports. The speed of cargo loading and downloading directly from the ship to trains and trucks, ready to distribute all goods throughout the land, was a complete revolution, comparable to the invention

of the wheel, the steam engine, the internal combustion engine or the microchip. On its first trip, on April 1965, both ships carried 58 containers from New York to Houston. In 2002, container ships moved 9,200 million tons of goods worldwide.

The advantages of this transport system are more than evident: loads arrive on destiny without being manipulated; it is very easy to pass from one means of transport (ship) to the next (truck/train), due to the standard sizes of containers; and ports have become fast pass places, contrary to what it used to be in the past. But all along the 20th Century maritime transport sector lived a fast process of spe-cialization, resulting in the conception of lots of ship types: oil and gas tankers; reefer ships; ro-ro ships; bulk carriers…


Oar boats Rowing is the most ancient maritime propulsion system, and it was used in small boats as well as in big ships with dozens of oarsmen. An oar is a long pole with a broad, wide blade at one end used as a lever against water for moving a boat. Oars and sails combined together in ships with a mixed propulsion system for centuries: these boats took profit of wind force as an auxiliary propulsion system. Rowing boats’ benefits were evident: maneuvers like starting, turning, braking… were made with ease. That’s why these kinds of boats were ideal when entering or leaving ports, or even in case of naval battles. To achieve the same effect with a sailing boat a greater forecast of time and space was needed. At present, oars have been left for lesser boats used for auxiliary tasks, small fishing and leisure and sport boats.


Sailing ships Sailing ships were the kings of the seas until the invention of the steam engine. In pushing against the sailcloth, the ship takes profit from the wind force and moves forward. The type of sailing ship was determined by the combination of sails and masts (also known as rig). FRIGATE Capacity: 400-700 tons Three square-rigged masts vessel, although there were some with four, five and even six masts. Each mast was divided into three pieces.

CORVETTE Capacity: 300-500 tons Three masts vessel; square-rigged foremast and mainmast divided into two pieces, mizenmast divided into two pieces with spanker sails.

BRIG Capacity: 200-300 tons Two square-rigged masts vessel. Each mast was divid-ed into three pieces.

POLACRE Capacity: 200-250 tons Two square-rigged masts vessel. Each mast was di-vided into two pieces.

SCHOONER Capacity: 200 tons Two or three masts vessel. Each mast was divided into two pieces, with spanker

sails. BRIGANTINE Capacity: 200-300 tons Two masts vessel, square-rigged on the foremast and fore-an-aft rigged on the main mast.


Merchant and passenger ships For centuries, passengers and goods travelled on board the same ships. In fact, until the great migration period to America on the 20th Century, people who travelled were few. The introduction of the steam engine and the steal hull and the need of improving passengers’ re-ception resulted in the proliferation of big ocean liners, where passengers and load share the same ship.

Passenger ships People have travelled all around the world on board of ships since ancient times, but the amount of trips was massive during the great migrations to America. Also during this period wealthy people started doing pleasure or business trips; they crossed the Atlantic sea taking profit of the comfort offered by the great ocean lin-ers for the first time. These ships became a showcase of each nation power and wealth, and its maximum exponent is the Titanic. Long sea trips were left aside after the irruption of aviation, and passenger ships started specializing in short trips (from the Iberian Peninsula to the Balearic Islands, for example) and pleasure trips on board of cruise ships, where the journey itself becomes the leisure option. Leisure boats are another kind of passenger boats typical of ports, rivers and lakes, like the Golondrinas in Barcelona or Bateau Mouche in Paris.


War ships Ever since the beginning of navigation ships have been used for military purposes. When artillery didn’t exist, sea battles were resolved by boarding, fighting hand to hand on board the assaulted ship. The galley was the main Mediterranean warship, descendant of Roman bireme and trireme. Ships of the line came later on, loaded with cannons on both sides that were shot when “in line” (hence their name) with coastal villages or enemy ships. At present warships are equipped with the most advanced military technology and tough structures to make front to the powerful enemy projectiles.


Discovery ships Until the development of aviation, ships were employed for coastal navigation in or-der to draw the outline of islands and continents for navigation charts. Marco Polo was one of the first men who left graphical evidence of western lands beyond the Mediterranean. Nevertheless, the most profitable period took place dur-ing the Age of Discoveries, in the 15th and 16th Centuries, when Portuguese and Spanish expeditions added the outline of Africa (just the northern coastline of that continent was known at that time) and the recently discovered American lands to maps. They as well circumnavigated the Earth, this way demonstrating its round-ness. One of the reasons that helped explorers venturing in discovery trips was the devel-opment of new vessels, especially the caravel: it was a light (small tonnage), fast (thanks to its narrow and sharp shape) and maneuverable ship with a great re-sistance against inclement weather. The caravel served their Portuguese designers not only to sail down the eastern Af-rican coast, but also to sail up the western part, an impossible challenge for other types of ships which explains the unsuccessful end of many expeditions. Christopher Columbus also made use of caravels in his 1492 expedition which ended with the discovery of a new world.


Sport boats Pleasure sailing as a hobby led to the organization of the first regatta (boat races). On a first instance, each participant competed with his or her own boat, whether it was a fishing, leisure or transport boat. The first classifications of sport boat types were made in the USA during the 1940’s; since then, it is compulsory to sail in a de-termined kind of sport boat to participate in a regatta. Leisure rowing and sailing became gradually popular and in the middle 1950’s many Catalan coastal villages started to have their own yacht clubs with the intention to promote sailing sports amongst their population. Nevertheless, some of them, like the Real Club Nàutic de Barcelona, were funded several years before.


Bottom-trawling fishing tecnhique

Fishing ships Traditional Catalan fishing boats had some particular characteristics: bulgy hull, a length of between 3 and 12 meters and one or two masts with lateen (triangular) sails, typical of the Mediterranean Sea. They were versatile boats prepared to work with different fishing gears, given that the kind of fish to catch was different depending on the time of the year. There are basically three types of fishing gears: • Bottom-trawling fishing consists in towing a fishing net along the sea floor.

When it was carried out by two trawlers (that’s the name of the fishing boats dedicated to this gear) fishing cooperatively, it was called pair trawling.

• Purse seining technique involves laying a long open ended net in the water in circular fashion an then carefully closing the bottom end of the net trapping the fish in the net.

• Gillnetting: gill nets are vertical panels of netting normally set in a straight line, where fishes are caught by. The gear can be set anchored to the bottom or left drifting, free or connected with the vessel.


COMMERCIAL ROUTES In spite of ocean’s vastness, ships always take the same routes in an effort to make the journey the shortest as possible. Depending on the geographical origin of goods, routes have changed over the years. During the 17th and 18th Centuries, for example, almost all maritime trade routes crossed the Atlantic Ocean in or-der to communicate Europe with its overseas possessions. Maybe one of the most frequent routes was that of the tri-angular trade: ships travelled from Eu-rope to Africa packed with manufactured goods; in Africa ships were loaded with slaves who were then taken to America, where traders bought raw materials that were loaded back to Europe. Then pro-cess started again. Nowadays, the origin of goods has changed: America and Africa are no longer the produc-ers, but Asia. Ships depart from the two main worldwide producers, China and Korea, and distribute all kinds of goods to Europe and North America. They cross the Pacific Ocean, but also the Indian Ocean, cross-ing the Indonesian Malacca strait, a place with incredible high levels of naval traffic. From that point, they can cross the Egyptian Suez Canal in order to reach the southern part of Europe, but they can also sail round the African continent and go up the Atlantic Ocean to reach the North of Europe. Eastern countries are producers and Western countries are consumers. At this point it’s important to note that most of these routes over the equator are

possible thanks to two big manmade structures: the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal. Before their construction, all ships had to go round South America and Africa.

Spices were the driving force of mariti-me trade for centuries

A container ship sailing through the Panama Canal


Nevertheless, there’s a shortest route between Europe and Asia: the Arctic Ocean. Taking global warming into account, it is thought that in 2020 Russian northern wa-ters will be navigable for a few months every year and ships will take profit of a route thousands of miles shorter. Using the current route, there are 13,000 miles from Rotterdam to Shanghai, 20,000 Km. which could be reduced to 8,450 miles through this new route. The list of advantages is quite impressive: shorter sailing distance, fewer transport costs, shorter travel times, fewer fuel expenses, greater amount of orders per year… More profits, in one word. The sea highways are also a new concept consisting in stablished routes between ports which distribute goods in a quick and easy way. It’s the best way to take prof-it of maritime transport speed with an agile inland distribution of goods. But in order to achieve that ports have to be provided with a series of indispensable infrastruc-tures: accessible warehouses, railway and highway connections…

A ferry boat sailing through one of the Mediterranean sea highways


DIDACTIC PROPOSALS

At

full

sail!

Muse

u M

arítim

de B

arc

elo

na 2

2

SAILING BOATS

Write down the part of the boat where it matches

BOWSPRIT JIB JIGGER SAIL (TRAPEZOIDAL) TOPSAIL (TRIANGULAR)

BOW STERN MAINMAST FOREMAST MIZENMAST


SHIPS’ PROPULSION

♦ Match each boat with its propulsion system

When a boat sails by means of a mechanical force, it

WORKS WITH AN ENGINE

When a boat sails by means of the wind force,

IT WORKS WITH SAILS

When a boat sails by means of human force,

IT WORKS WITH OARS


BOAT TYPES

♦ Match each profession with the type of boat and the corre-sponding picture

PROFESSIONS 1. You wouldn’t eat sardines, hake or sole if it weren’t for me. 2. I carry in my ship what your car needs to run. 3. My load directly goes to the lorry by means of a crane. 4. When there’s a conflict at sea our captain orders us to prepare some cannons. 5. I love serving sodas to the kids who are enjoying their time at the deck pool. 6. If I win this regatta the gold medal is mine!

TYPE Warship

Leisure boat

Passengers

ship

Fishing boat

Oil tanker

Container ship


PORTS

There are different types of ports: fishing ports, naval bases, passenger harbours, commercial ports… Commercial ports have got several terminals, each one adapted to the kind of load ships are transporting. There are car terminals, grain terminals, fuel terminals, container terminals…

Try to take each one of these boats to its particular port or terminal:

Leisure yacht

Fishing boat

Aircraft carrier

Car ferry

Container ship

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