Ship Hydrostatics and Stability 1 Definitions, principal dimensions 1.1 Introduction

Ship Hydrostatics and Stability

1 Definitions, principal dimensions

1.1 Introduction

Marine science 

BZ.Marine science,

The subjects treated in this book are the basis of the profession called Naval Architecture. The term Naval Architecture comes from the titles of books pub lished in the seventeenth century. For a long time, the oldest such book we were aware of was Joseph Furttenbach's Architectura Navalis published in Frankfurt in 1629. The bibliographical data of a beautiful reproduction are included in the references listed at the end of this book. Close to 1965 an older Portuguese manuscript was rediscovered in Madrid, in the Library of the Royal Academy of History. The work is due to João Baptista Lavanha and is known as Livro Primeiro da Architectura Naval, that is 'First book on Naval Architecture'. The traditional dating of the manuscript is 1614. The following is a quotation from a translation due to Richard Barker:

Architecture consists in building, which is the permanent construc tion of any thing. This is done either for defence or for religion, and utility, or for navigation. And from this partition is born the division of Architecture into three parts, which are Military, Civil and Naval

Architecture. And Naval Architecture is that which with certain rules teaches the building of ships, in which one can navigate well and conveniently.

The term may be still older. Thomas Digges (English, 1546-1595) published in 1579 an Arithmeticall Militarie Treatise, named Stratioticos in which he promised to write a book on 'Architecture Nautical'. He did not do so. Both the British Royal Institution of Naval Architects - RINA - and the American Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers - SNAME - opened their websites for public debates on a modern definition of Naval Architecture. Out of the many proposals appearing there, that provided by A. Blyth, FRINA. looked to us both concise and comprehensive:

Naval Architecture is that branch of engineering which embraces all aspects of design, research, developments, construction, trial sand effectiveness of all forms of man-made vehicles which operate either in or below the surface of any body of water.

If Naval Architecture is a branch of Engineering, what is Engineering? In the New Encyclopedia Britannica (1989) we find:

Engineering is the professional art of applying science to the optimum conversion of the resources of nature to the uses of mankind. Engineering has been defined by the Engineers Council for Professional Development, in the United States, as the creative application of "scientific principles to design or develop structures, machines..."

This book deals with the scientific principles of Hydrostatics and Stability. These subjects are treated in other languages in books bearing titles such as Ship theory (for example Doyère, 1927) or Ship statics (for example Hervieu, 1985). Further scientific principles to be learned by the Naval Architect include Hydrodynamics. Strength, Motions on Waves and more. The 'art of applying' these principles belongs to courses in Ship Design.