Proteus Catamaran

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The Proteus is a new type of craft based on what is known as a Wave Adaptive Modular Vessel (WAV-V) design. Unlike conventional models the hull of a WAM-V conforms to the surface of the water. The Proteus prototype is a 100-foot long catamaran with a water displacement of 12 tons (24,000 pound) at full load. It is equipped with two 355 hp Cummins diesel engines and has a range of over 8000 kilometres (5000 miles) and a top speed of 112 km/h (70 mph). The Proteus is built from several light and strong materials including Titanium, Aluminium and reinforced favrics. The Proteus prototype can carry two tons of cargo and be operated by a crew of two. A cabin, which can be made to accomadate six can be lowered into the water "like a helicopter landing". The vessel made its premiere on San Francisco bay,it looks like a giant spider and travels over waves extremely fast. The vessel's inventor and engineer Ugo Conti has created a "new class of watercraft". The boat's potential uses include recreational (cruise ship,exploration, water sport etc)., to research(monitor marine resources) and special operations, search and rescue and a base for unmanned crafts. The legs ride on titanium springs, like shock absorbers that allow the WAM-V to adjust to the surface of the water. Conti says " it can go many thousands of miles to deliver something , help scientists, and enter faraway shallow lagoons. Conti will not say how much the prototype has cost. His wife Isabella declared "we are still adding that up". Public opinion , "it's different","it wiggles like a porpoise or whale","it's not fighting the waves," "it looks like something out of James Bond." For more information on the WAM- V technology catamaran, see here on Marine Advanced Research website.http://www.wam-v.com/ Conti says "I liked flexible boats. It is very much experimental. You have to be crazy and old to do this, you have nothing to lose."

Cotton Pickin'

A city built on cotton

Liverpool is a cosmopolitan city and the global nature of the cotton trade contributed to this. there were brokers from all over the world based herein the 19th century,includin Germany,Prussia,Russia,Greece,the USA and India.
many of Liverpool's famous names were made from cotton,including the Rathbones and the Holts. Wealthy cotton merchants and brokers lived in fine houses. Many lived around Sefton Park in the late 19th centur.
The cotton trade in Liverpool could not have functioned without the many others who enabled it to run smoothly. The dockers,warehousemen,carters,clerks and message boys were all vital. there is a popular myth that cotton bales were used in the foundations of the Liver building. this is probably no more than a story, but it show how important cottonis to Liverpool's history.
Liverpool's Growth:
Cotton was the largest and most important trade in the city,accounting for almost half of the exports that went through the port.
In the 17th century, cotton came into Britain through London from the Middle East. In the 18th century the new plantations in the West Indies,Brazil and America started to grow cotton. Liverpool had existing trade links with these areas, and so cotton began to arrive in the Mersey.
The first American cotton was unloaded in Liverpool in 1784. There were only eight bags. Less than forty years later,half a million bales were arriving each year form America. Other countries also supplied cotton, including Brazil,Egypt and India. By 1850,cotton accounted for almost half city's trade. Over 1.5 million blaes were imported.
The finished goods from Lancashire mills were also exported from Liverpool,accounting for half of the total exports in 1901.
Exchange flags:
'The pavement was white with the fluff of cotton samples'
The cotton merchants and brokers met on Exchange Flags to do their buying and selling.
In 1808,an Exchange Building opened, but while cotton brokers took offices there, they preferred to conduct their business in the open square.
The cotton market continued to meet out of doors until the 1880s. The Flags were a place to swap information about the cotton market. New technology like the telegraph and telephone had a major part in moving the cotton men indoors.
A purpose-built Cotton Exchange was commissioned and completed in 1906. This was a state of the art building, with telephones and direct cables to the New York, Bremen and Bombay cotton exchanges.

To the Docks

Shipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. these can be yachts,military vessels,cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial construction. The terms are routinely used interchangeably,in part because the evolution of dockyards and shipyards has often casued them to change or merge roles.
Countries with largeship builiding industries include South Korea, Japan,China,Germany and Russia. The ship building industry tends to be more fragmented in Europe than in Asia. In European countries there are more smaller companies,compared to the fewer,larger companies in the ship building countires of Asia.
Most ship builders in the United States are privately owned, the largest being Northrop Grumman, a mulit-billion dollar defense contractor. The publicly owned shipyards in the US are Naval facilities providing basing,support and repair.
Shipyards are constructed by the sea or by tidal rivers to allow easy access for their ships. In the United Kingdom, for example,shipyards were established on the River Thames(King Henry V111 founded yards at Woolwich and Deptford in 1512 and 1513 respectively),River Mersey, River Tyne,River Wear and River Clyde-the latter growing to be the World's pre-eminent shipbuilding centre. Sir Alfred Yarrow establishedhis yard by the Thames in London's Docklands in the late 19th century before moving it northwards to the banks of the Clyde at Soctstoun(1906-08). Other famous Uk shipyards include the Harland and Wolff yard in Belfast,Northern Ireland, where the Titanic was built, and the naval dockyard at Chatham, England on the Medway in north Kent.
The site of a large shipyard will contain many specialised cranes,dry docks,slipways,dust-free warehouses,painting facilities and extremely larg areas for fabrication fo the ships.
After a ship's useful life is over, it makes its final voyage to a shipbreaking yard, often on a beach in South Asia. Historically shipbreaking was carried on in drydock in developed countries, but high wages and environmental regulations have resulted in movement of the industry to developing regions.
The world's earlies dockyards were built in the Harappan port city of Lothal circa 2400 BC in Gujarat,India. Lothal's dockyards connected to an ancient course of the Sabarmati river on the trade route between Harappan cities in Sindh and the peninsula of Saurashtra when the surrounding Kutch desert was a part of the Arabian Sea. Lothal engineers accorded high priority to the creation of a dockyard and a warehouse to serve the pruposes of naval trade. The dock was built on the eastern flank of the town, and is regarded by archeaologists as an engineering feat of the highest order. It was located away from the main current of the river to avoid silting, but provided access to ships in high tide as well.
Ships were the first items to be manufactured in a factory,several hundred years before the Industrial Revolution, in the Venice Arsenal, Venice,Italy. The Arsenal apparently mass produced nearly one ship every day using pre-manufactured parts, and assembly lines and ,at its height, employed 16,000 people.