van Hemmen, Rik
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01 Nov 2024
SL-7 Container Ships & An Engineering Myth Busted
The Rolling Stones were wrong: Time is not on my side.Too often a myth is created and if not killed off right away, it will take on a life of its own and time will not debunk it. Many myths are created for evil or political purposes, but some myths just occur because the truth is just too complicated.Some of those myths don’t even make sense, but there is no available data to establish the truth.As…
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18 Oct 2024
Highway Construction and Engineering Ethics
Recently I came across an article that commented on the fact that many state highway departments are still promoting increased road construction. Their motivation is reduced congestion and reduced CO2 emissions due to reduced idling during congestion periods. Even tree-hugging, CO2-hating states like California are promoting increased capacity at major arteries that suffer from congestion.The article…
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16 Aug 2024
50 Years of Air, Water and Wild Life Quality Improvements
I moved to the United States in 1976. It was an interesting time because the United States had recently enacted laws that were intended to improve the country’s air, water, and wild life.Instead of specific archaic environmental laws that, for example, outlawed dumping dead horses into the Hudson River, these were nationwide laws that set a minimum national standard that was to be enforced by the newly…
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20 Jun 2024
Using an SL-7 to Preserve our Container Ship History?
I have raised the subject of SL-7’s as museum ships before in a cursory fashion, but lunch with John Riddle, a retired Sea-Lander, convinced us that it deserves a bit more consideration.Based on prior columns it should be clear I am extremely cagey about museum ships. Ships are significant historic object, but due to their size they are often impossible to maintain as historical objects. Moreover,…
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10 May 2024
Eye on Design: Hybrid Blood, Sweat, and Tears
In earlier columns, I have discussed various approaches and issues with Hybrid Propulsion.I have now had the pleasure of a number of years of experience with the design, operation, upgrade, modification, and maintenance of ship (and car) hybrid propulsion systems and may be able to make a claim of gradually becoming a little less confused.It is still not easy, but at the same time, I am starting to…
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19 Apr 2024
When Efficiency Does Not Help Sustainability
My brother and I had a discussion about methanol where we concluded that methanol is a promising sustainable liquid fuel for transportation devices when batteries cannot do the job. While Methanol is initially not carbon zero, as long as we focus on developing zero carbon electrical energy, eventually we can produce zero carbon green methanol. Once there is plentiful green methanol, existing methanol…
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15 Feb 2024
Let’s Set Some Standards for Micro Cargo
As zero carbon cargo efforts are progressing, it is becoming more apparent that the lowest hanging fruit is in the last few miles. This is where a large amount of carbon is expended in delivering small parcels to stores and consumers’ doors.This is particularly apparent in dense pack cities like New York City, where delivery vans clog streets and water crossings. The NYC Economic Development Commission recently issued a Request For Expression of Interest in waterborne micro cargo delivery.
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23 Jan 2024
Predictability, or “Call your Designated Responder Early and Often”
Predictability is the aim of every human, company, or society.Humanity simply strives to increase its level of predictability whether as a person, or as a group of people. When humans attain a certain level of predictability, their hope for the future goes up and their level of anxiety goes down.Oddly, conservatives and progressives both strive for predictability, they just do it in different ways. A conservative will say: If nothing changes, then my predictability for the future will go up.
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27 Dec 2023
Back to the Drawing Board: The Worst Ship in History – Exxon Valdez
While Greg Trauthwein never assigns me column subjects, each time the Great Ships issue comes around I go with the theme. However, I try to take a view askew on that subject and have found that these are the rare columns where I am criticized for my views. Greg must enjoy that, and this year he asked me to write a column on the worst ship designs. That was the entire assignment, and it was unclear if he asked me to discuss the worst ship designs for 2023, or in the history of ship design.
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30 Nov 2023
Back to the Drawing Board: Max Planck’s Maxim
The physicist Max Planck (actually born as Marx Planck) is best known for the development of his universal constant that defines physics at the most basic level. It is an important number, and today it even defines the kilogram and therefore most engineering units. Regardless, in my daily life I have little use for it.Max Planks is less known for his Principle, which, to me, is much more useful and I encounter it almost on a daily basis.
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19 Oct 2023
Lies, Damn Lies, and Inextinguishable Lore – EV Fires
A few weeks ago I was talking to some professional fire fighters and was regaled with EV fire fighting disasters. They told me that EV caught fire all the time, that EV fires were much more dangerous than gasoline fires, and that fire trucks could not carry enough water to put out an EV fire. When I asked if they had fought any EV fires, they told me their information came from reliable sources and then asked me if I would park my Chevy Bolt in my garage.
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13 Oct 2023
Tanker Spills and Preserving OPA 90 Experience
The maritime industry has seen a very long sequence of environmental regulations since the first implementation of MARPOL in the early 1970’s. All of these regulations have very much benefitted the ocean environment and also our industry to some degree. One of those regulations, OPA90, has had an outsized effect to an extent that it may no longer be as effective as it was in recent years due to its…
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15 Aug 2023
The Internet is Not As Useful As We May Think
I was discussing torsional stiffness in ship’s hulls with one of our intern engineers and pointed out a torsional stiffness problem with a certain hull design section since it could not inscribe a decent sized circle.I expected it to be a comment that would be confusing to a young engineer and proceeded to explain that torsional stiffness is related to gyradius which is powerfully related to radius and radius is related to circles.
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25 Jul 2023
Titan: The Right to Kill Oneself Redux
In November 2020 I wrote a column in MREN that discussed the right of people to engage in crazy marine ventures. The example I used in that column was an attempt to row from South America to Antarctica. In it I also made note of the inherent unseaworthiness of single-handed ocean racing and noted that such foolishness often resulted in the public spending lots of money providing rescue services.The…
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16 Jun 2023
Dealing with the Whale in the Bight
This is going to be about whales, but it will actually be an engineering discussion rather than a nature discussion. Let’s start with an easy truth. Whale deaths due to offshore wind activities is utter nonsense. It has no basis in fact, and is a total fabrication by truly malicious characters.There, now let’s get into more interesting stuff. Whale deaths caused by humans is a complex issue that will never be solved completely, but, with careful adjustments, can be reduced.
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17 May 2023
HyBlend - Chickens and Eggs in Technology Adoption
I will readily confess that 20 years ago I was not convinced that EV’s were the answer to sustainable energy. Instead, I had long been a fan of hydrogen. I was well aware that there were technical issues associated with hydrogen, but was equally aware that, for total sustainable energy, a transportable fuel is needed and hydrogen seemed to be the way to go.I envisioned hydrogen generation from sustainable sources (wind…
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11 Apr 2023
Eye on Design: Prying Gas Stoves from Dead Fingers
When Greg Trauthwein offered me a column in Maritime Reporter & Engineering News, I received little direction with regard to subjects. I have not yet tested his boundaries of my subjects, and maybe, some day, I will try to slip in a column on the role of nautical fiction in the development of modern literature.So far, I have tried to stick with engineering subjects, although recently I may have pushed the boundaries with discussions on decision making…
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10 Apr 2023
A Proposal for a Small Change in Lloyds Open Form
In February Gard published the results of its review of Lloyds Open Form (LOF). Their review indicated a disturbing reduction in the number of LOF contracts, and noted some other concerns with regard to loss of use of LOF in salvage situations.Lloyds Open Form is a classic and, in my mind, cherished, example of the core beauty of maritime. It combines a large number of maritime concepts into a simple…
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27 Feb 2023
"Only One Stupid Thing at a Time"
This story spans a long period of time, but begins with a note I received recently on an earlier column from a reader named Allan Berger. He commented on the OODA loop concept in my “Pondering Truths in Design” column in the September MREN issue.He provided his approach that closely follows the OODA loop concept, which follows the principle of always gathering all the facts before speaking. That led to a discussion on decision making.
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16 Dec 2022
Great Ships '22: With Ships, Great or Not, Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder
My father was on the new construction team of the 1958 SS Rotterdam V, a visually iconic passenger liner that is presently a static hotel and event space in Rotterdam Harbor. When she entered service, her looks were much discussed and generally compared to her very graceful older running partner, the 1936 SS Nieuw Amsterdam II.I have pictures of both vessels in my office and I think the older vessel is the prettier vessel.
