Tvov
11-07-2005, 11:08
This book was an out of the blue find. My wife walked by a library, and they had a $1 table out in front to get rid of used books. She picked it up for me because she thought it was about battleships (the black and white cover picture, at a quick glance, to some, could look military).
"Supership" by Noel Mostert, published by Knopf. The author spent part of a year on a VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier), or supertanker, traveling around a good part of the world. Very interesting about long, slow sea voyaging on a remarkably luxurious ship. Because the ship is so big and roomy, the crew quarters are large and the common areas are outfitted very nicely to keep the crew happy as much as possible during months at sea. The book leans heavily towards the environmental damage potential of these ships, and the not quite the best building standards of these ships. This is on the S.S. Ardshiel, of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O Line). The ship has a deadweight of 214,085 tons, a length of 1,063 feet, a 157ft 9in beam, and a capacity of 206,000 tons of crude oil.
A very interesting, and more than minor fact about this book, is that it was written in 1974. Yep, thirty years ago.
Now it has made me make an effort to look more into what is going on today, 30 years later, on the oceans. Of course, a lot of the almost doomsday possibilities he talks about maybe happening in the 1990's haven't occured, but it still is a lot of stuff to think about.
"Supership" by Noel Mostert, published by Knopf. The author spent part of a year on a VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier), or supertanker, traveling around a good part of the world. Very interesting about long, slow sea voyaging on a remarkably luxurious ship. Because the ship is so big and roomy, the crew quarters are large and the common areas are outfitted very nicely to keep the crew happy as much as possible during months at sea. The book leans heavily towards the environmental damage potential of these ships, and the not quite the best building standards of these ships. This is on the S.S. Ardshiel, of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O Line). The ship has a deadweight of 214,085 tons, a length of 1,063 feet, a 157ft 9in beam, and a capacity of 206,000 tons of crude oil.
A very interesting, and more than minor fact about this book, is that it was written in 1974. Yep, thirty years ago.
Now it has made me make an effort to look more into what is going on today, 30 years later, on the oceans. Of course, a lot of the almost doomsday possibilities he talks about maybe happening in the 1990's haven't occured, but it still is a lot of stuff to think about.