ENABLING TECHNOLOGY AND THE NAVAL ARCHITECT 1860-2010

Abstract

Enabling technology permits the naval architect to do more with fewer resources, increasing output, decreasing cost and improving productivity, with the resulting benefits being widely distributed in a worldwide economy. For example a bulk carrier’s energy consumption per ton-mile today is less than 3% of what it was a century and half ago – due to more efficient machinery, larger hulls with lower resistance per ton and improved propulsive efficiency, yet with higher speed and shorter port times.