Big ships

The big ships of today have a lot of electronic equipment on board. These officers are standing on the bridge of a big ship. The bridge is where the boat is steered from, and where all the decisions are made. The big windows can see out all around the ship.

Here the officer is working out where the ship is, and looking on the chart to see exactly where to go. There are radios, and computers, phones, and all sorts of instruments to give them the information they need.

 

The ship will have radar antennae like this. These antennae go round and round, and send out little sound waves.

When the waves hit something, like land, or another ship, they send a message back again.

This message is picked up by the ship's radar. It tells the sailors that something is out there.

The officer looking at the radar screen will see little green dots showing up where the other ship is, or where the land is.

Having radar means ships can see dangers even when it is dark or foggy.

This is what a modern engine room looks like. In the olden days, stokers had to shovel coal into big boilers that burned the coal to make heat to make the engines run. It was a hot and dangerous job. Now everything is run by electricity.

Here the sailors that work in the engine room need to be able to use lots of instruments to make the engines do what they need to, but they don't have to shovel coal!

The officers need to use computers, like this laptop here, as well as many other instruments. This is the radio room, which is where communication is made with other ships, as well as people on land.

Big passenger ships have lots of decks, like this ship here. These people are waiters, and they don't work at running the ship.

Their job is to serve the passengers when they are eating their meals in the many big dining rooms on board the ship.

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