Merchant vessels

Bunker-fuel specifications for merchant vessels are described by ASTM D 2069, Standard Specification for Marine Fuels. Deep draft vessels carry residual (e.g., No. 6 fuel oil) or distillate-residual blend for main propulsion, plus distillate for start-up, shutdown, maneuvering, deck engines, and diesel generators. Main-propulsion fuel is identified principally by its viscosity in centistokes at 373 K. Obsolete designations include those based on Redwood No. 1 seconds at 100°F (311 K) (e.g., "MD 1500 ) and the designations "Bunker A for No. 5 fuel oil and "Bunker B and "Bunker C for No. 6 fuel oil in the lower-and upper-viscosity ranges, respectively. 

Final Report of a Board of Investigation - The Design and Methods of Construction of Welded Steel Merchant Vessels, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, USA, 1947. 

First merchant vessel. King Edward, driven by steam turbines in Scotland. 

The following passages detail two very different perspectives of life aboard a ship in the age of sail. The first passage describes an English pleasure yacht in the early 1800s. The second passage recounts a young boy s impressions of the first time he set sail in a merchant vessel. 

My very first sea voyage was in a small merchant vessel out of New York called the Alba. I was only twelve years old at the time, and full of dreams of boundless adventure upon the high seas. I was to serve as the ship s boy. I was given the post by my Uncle Joseph, the weath-(V ered old captain of the Alba who uttered few words, choosing to speak... 

Bunker-juel specifications for merchant vessels were described by ASTM D 2069, Standard Specification for Marine Fuels, which was withdrawn in 2003. Specifications under ASTM D-396 or foreign specifications may be substituted as appropriate. 

On a merchant vessel of more than 100 GT, the licensed individual shall be divided into three watches and shall be kept on duty successively to perform ordinary work incident to the operation and management of the vessel. 

NFPA 301 Code for Safety to Life from Fire on Merchant Vessels... 

During World War II a similar decoy conversion exercise was implemented, though on a much smaller scale. In this instance a pair of old merchant vessels were done up as dummy King George V class battleships and stationed at Kosyth deliberately to fool the Luftwaffe. 

At the end of the war British sailors loaded twenty elderly merchant vessels with captured German gas shells, and sailed them into the Baltic. Off the coast of Norway they donned gas masks, placed explosive charges aboard, and then watched as, one by one, the ships exploded, taking tens of thousands of tons of gas to the seabed. From bases in Scotland, one hundred thousand tons of British gas weapons were taken out to sea and sunk. In the Far East American sailors sank captured Japanese weapons in the Pacific. Mustard gas stocks which had fallen to the advancing Russian armies were tossed into the Baltic in wooden crates while machine gunners opened fire and sent them to the bottom of the sea.1... 

Keywords Law of naval warfare Warships Submarines Unmanned maritime systems Submarine communications cables Hospital ships Merchant vessels Methods and means of naval warfare Naval mines Torpedoes Blockade Exclusion zones Naval bombardment Protected persons... 

In this context, it is important to emphasize that the permission of the conversion of merchant vessels into warships cannot be considered a revival of... 

However, two issues remained unresolved the location of the conversion and the legality of a re-conversion during an on-going war. While some States did not accept a conversion on the high seas, others took the position that the location of conversion was irrelevant as long as the requirements of Hague Convention VII were met. A similar divergence of opinions existed as to the question whether a merchant vessel converted into a warship could be re-converted into a merchant vessel in the course of the war. 

Q ships were heavily armed merchant vessels that were to trap enemy submarines. Today, the use of Q ships would be considered unlawful. See San Remo Manual, Explanations 1995, para 111.2. "Oppenheim 1952, p. 467 Colombos 1967, p. 521 et seq. 

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