Ebook: Nautical and Maritime Culture, from the Past to the Future

About ICNM

The ICNM conference, organized by “Associazione Italiana di Tecnica Navale” (ATENA), is one of the major Italian scientific events on maritime and nautical culture. The conference covers all the conceptual and theoretical aspects connected to the research in engineering, history, architecture, economic, and social sciences fields.

Since the dawn of history, the sea connects and divides human societies. However, its boundaries have never been insuperable barriers for man. Nowadays as well as in the past, human beings cut through the sea to discover, inhabit and connect the entire known world. In order to face the sea, they develop increasingly ingenious and innovative technological solutions. On the seashore, they build up cities, ports, increasing the productive capacity and establishing new commercial and political relations. At sea, the essence of human evolution is still expressed and sublimated, despite the virtual interconnection of the modern world: the constant tension towards the unknown and the attempt to go beyond the knowledge limits. This is a path marked by discoveries, failures and transitions, that are the milestones of the secular man-sea relationship.

The ICNM conference has the aim of promoting the dialogue between scholars, professionals, and those who are involved, with their particular skills, in research, development, and enhancement of sea culture.

About ATENA

In 1947 ATENA (Associazione Italaiana di Tecnica Navale) was established in Genoa under the initiative of a group of Italian naval architects and marine engineers. The principal aim was to extend the initiatives of the Collegio degli Ingegneri Navali e Meccanici in such a way to incentive the discussion on ship design and maritime industry between the Italian specialist in this sector.

In February 1948 the first Technical National Conference was held, collecting contributions from the most representative personalities of the national maritime sector, including professional naval architects and marine engineers, professors, researchers, shipowners and insurers.

Since ATENA foundation, its members are providing high-level contributions to research, ship design & construction and shipping industry. Besides, a primary focus is given to other actual and relevant topics such as maritime safety and environmental issues.

Being the maritime industry acting in a global market, ATENA is also spreading his vision worldwide, opening his conferences and events also to international professionals.

In the last decades Marine Geographic Information Systems (MGISs) have had an increasing diffusion because of their ability to store, manage and analyze a great amount of heterogeneous data concerning sea and ocean environments. To build a MGIS, nautical charts are fundamental: they provide useful information such as shoreline configuration, seafloor morphology, water depths, anchorages, and other features that are suitable not only for navigation, but for marine science applications, i.e. aquatic biology and ecology. Satellite images contribute to bring more information in MGIS concerning many aspects of the sea and ocean environment, so remotely sensed data in high quality, large quantity and multitemporal acquisition can be introduced in the database. For their correct usage, satellite images require pre-elaboration to overlay them to nautical charts: usually they are supplied in different cartographic projection as well as in different geodetic datum that nautical charts, so re-projection and datum transformation are necessary and not banal. This paper aims to describe the approach adopted in MGIS of the Gulf of Naples to harmonize heterogeneous data concerning nautical charts and satellite images, so to able its use for Marine Spatial Planning (MSP). Both large and medium scale maps are considered as well as remotely sensed images with high and medium resolution. The experiments demonstrate that adequate positional accuracy can be achieved for all layers compatibly with the scale of the representation.

The design of an offshore vessel requires the combination of multiple aspects typical of naval architecture and marine engineering. Between them, the definition of environmental loads and excitation is relevant, since it is required to evaluate motion operability, dynamic positioning capability and structure dimensions. These three topics traditionally refer to independent analyses and are treated in separate design stages. Moreover, the techniques and the calculations performed to asses the performances of the vessel under design differ topic by topic, referring to different limiting environmental conditions. This paper presents a comparison between the different limiting environment determination for the assessment of ship motion, dynamic positioning and maximum design loads for structures. In particular, advanced analysis methods are applied on a reference vessel to highlight the differences between station keeping, sea keeping and structural loads limiting environment. A combined representation of station keeping and seakeeping data is then used to compare the vessel operability issues with recommended design loads.

Nowadays, the quasi-static techniques devoted to progressive flooding simulation are present in the literature. Most of them can be applied onboard to support crew decisions after a flooding casualty. However, in real scenarios, the input parameters, adopted to carry out time domain simulations, are often not accurately assessed or even unknown. The aim of this paper is to study the effect of these uncertainties affecting the damage geometry, the ship geometry and the loading condition at damage occurrence. A sensitivity study on the relevant input parameters has been carried out on a box-shape barge, showing that most of them have a strong influence on progressive flooding simulation. Regarding damage geometry which is directly connected to damage detection algorithms, the internal subdivision geometry has a stronger impact compared with damage location and area. Further study is required, especially when internal spaces are connected by small openings. Nevertheless, the paper highlights the importance of an accurate preparation of ship model and assessment of loading condition, providing some insights on these problems.

The increasing focus on navigation sustainability is forcing the utilisation of alternative power sources on board of inland vessels. The adoption of Liquefied Natural Gas is for sure a good option to reach the imposed targets on pollutant emission reductions. However, the issues related to the gas storage on board increase the hazards for people and environment in case of failures compared to a diesel fuelled vessel. In this sense, the analysis of risks is of primary importance. Traditionally, the failure and risks individuation is mainly based on qualitative consideration. In this study a procedure to quantify the risk is proposed and is tested on two inland waterway vessel having two different LNG propulsion systems installed on-board. The proposed method is aimed to give a quantitative comparison between two designs.

Passenger ships evacuation analysis is nowadays a required step in the ship design process. In this sense, a new set of international Regulations has been issued to improve the survival ability of passenger and ro-ro ships. The “Safe Return to Port” Regulation is referring to the need to grant adequate ship functionality when a casualty occurs (e.g. fire or flooding), requiring the ship evacuation when damage exceeds a given threshold. For such a reason, the evacuation analysis is mandatory for both new and existing passenger and ro-ro ships, since the early stages of design. The International Maritime Organisation Guidelines prescribe the examination of additional scenarios besides the standard ones. The present work presents a case study for the evacuation of a 4906-person cruise ship, considering the specific example of the open deck, which is one of the additional scenarios required by regulations. The advanced calculation method has been used to simulate the evacuation process, using software EVI.

The activity carried out in the frame of Alternanza Scuola Lavoro (ASL) training course, between the Institute of Marine Sciences of the National Research Council (ISMAR-CNR) in Naples, and Liceo Scientifico Galileo Galilei in Naples, was focused on issues related to the sea resource. After an accurate bibliographic research, aimed to the deepening of basic concepts on the components and dynamics of the Earth and Sea System Sciences, and practical activities (laboratory and field), carried out in collaboration with the researchers of ISMAR, the student was trained in a critical reading of the territory in terms of landscape forms, with particular attention to the geological definitions of Hazard, Risk and therefore Resilience. Technical sheets were elaborated, comparing the Neapolitan landscape of the marine-coastal environment, as portraited in the pictorial works of Vedutismo (’700 – ’800), with the current one, mostly modified by the anthropic pressure on the territory. The aim of the work was to raise awareness of the “consciences” on the protection and safeguarding of the marine territory. The experience conducted with the scholars has shown that the understanding and enhancement of the Neapolitan Landscape in scientific terms, represents a cultural heritage and can have broad and interesting implications in terms of sustainable economic development, as reported by the Convention European Landscape.

Houseboating is mainly known as a popular recreational activity, that takes place all around the world, involving groups of people of all ages, aboard houseboats of all varieties and sizes. Houseboating is a relatively recent, but this practice seems to have a very ancient history. In fact, it can find its roots in India as well as in China or in the European continent, but the history of this practise has often been told indistinguishably with the origins of pleasure boating. It is hard to define which could have been the very first houseboat or floating home in history, since they have in common almost all the features that will distinguish it from working and military boats. This fact plus a diffused imprecise definition of ‘houseboat’, in the past as nowadays, makes it difficult to reconstruct the true beginning of houseboating, without mixing it with the birth of pleasure yachting. Even if houseboats and pleasure boats are often used as synonymous, these kinds of crafts have in common only the purpose of being both dedicated to a spend some leisure time on board. However if yachts main aim is to sail, with navigation as the main activity to do on board, houseboats primarily feature is to be used as a home, not necessarily moving around but simply floating. Knowing this difference, houseboats may be even older than pleasure boats, with the Thalamegos and the Nemi ships as its most famous ancestors. The aim of this work is to define the difference between houseboats, floating houses and pleasure boats, while tracing their forerunners in the Ancient History of the Western World. The most famous Hellenistic floating palace, the Talamegos, the Roman lusoriae and cubiculatae and the Nemi Ships have been analysed in this work in order to point out similarity and differences between houseboating and pleasure boating, showing links and features with the crafts of today.

The motor yacht, in the course of its evolution in the modern period, ever since it has become an element of serial production and therefore of global diffusion, has profoundly retraced its typological identity: its external conformation has become over time an identifying element of the more different ways to conceive and decline yachting. By virtue of a principle closely related to social factors, its formal definition initially relates to styling and aerodynamics, for the only factor that presupposed a totalizing sporting experience, even in its aesthetic celebration: dynamism. The superstructure becomes precisely the field of choice through which this character find aesthetic definition. In its evolutionary path the recreational cabin cruiser will progressively move away from the boundaries of the mere stylistic research that had characterized nautical production for several decades, to retrace the typological boundaries in eminently functional terms. In recent times, it has become the interpreter of a complete evolution, not limited only to the formal-aesthetic field. It rediscovers its essence of habitable structure and, as such, its contiguity with the productive and research sectors related to the theme of the “habitable machine”. The superstructure of the modern boat represents an “interactive envelope”, almost completely losing the self-referential definition, limited to the aesthetic field, which it had in the past. It becomes a technological envelope, with a complete interface with the environmental context; it is a metaphor for a possible transformation of the pleasure boat, which rethinks its relationship with the sea: passing from a consumerist phase to a more thoughtful one that respects the environmental resource. In the deck system, the original split between the interior and the external context – in particular, between the perimeter casing and the parts of the layout – is now increasingly attenuated on the basis of a progressive connection between these components: in the organization of a system, or of an increasingly complete interaction among heterogeneous elements. The superstructure then is no longer an isolated shell, but an integrated complex, dynamically adaptive with respect to environmental variables, and interactive with respect to the various parts of the set-up complex. It is the organism that regulates the functions and interactions of the living cell (understood as a complex object) in which the aesthetic apparatus has been progressively relativized. From this point of view, the nautical object could be seen as an evolved industrial product, as a significant field of application of heterogeneous specialties: the superstructure and the main deck become instruments of connection between the housing activity and the environmental context, in the multitude of aspects that the modern conception of life on board underlies. In the typological complexity the role of the project assumes a decisive importance, since, besides a formal and functional ideational tool, it becomes the programmer of the confluence of specific aspects. The excursus also aims to analyse the evolutionary process of the “total” project, which could be seen in its composition as a continuum, increasingly oriented to environmental compatibility and – from the point of view of optimization of resources – to the adoption of innovative manufacturing processes, technologies and materials. The result is the synthesis of a confluence of multiple specialist areas, some traditionally connected to the nautical sector, some unprecedented ones, others shared with different design and production sectors.

The research in question intends to investigate the sector of RoPax, or rather the ships destined to the mixed transportation of passengers and vehicles equipped with wheels. Moreover, today considered among the most exciting carriers in the field of Transportation Design thanks to the positive effects their use has highlighted in the area of trade and territorial cohesion. The ferry has spread in Europe since the second half of the twentieth century, an era characterized by a relentless post-war economic recovery that favored the development of trade routes and shipbuilding. The ferry is the direct extension of road and rail networks over water in the absence of land infrastructure. It is no coincidence that it derives from the “landing ship tank,” the ships built for amphibious operations that allowed soldiers and vehicles to land on the beach, from which it inherited its versatility and practicality as values of identity that distinguish the spirit of the journey. The study aims to bring out the most significant transformations inherent to the architectural form of the ship, through the analysis and comparison of selected unit drawings based on collective criteria, such as the type of cargo, the geographical area of service, etc. What matters most is reconstructing the evolution of the layout to understand the motivations that have guided the design choices to date. Among the many variables of a technical and stylistic nature, ferry design is extremely influenced by the social transformations and lifestyles of passengers. Recently, the use of the ferry has recorded a surge that has prompted shipping companies to increase the quality of services and entertainment onboard. Therefore, navigating on a ferry whose meaning has changed from a “spartan” journey to a comfortable one, almost as a cruise ship. The comparison between engineering and architecture has become more relevant than ever for the construction of good ships. Thus, the next challenges will be dictated by sustainable innovation and the digital revolution, opening the door to new scenarios in the shipbuilding industry, which will again change the RoPax layout.

The attention on a global scale to the preservation of the ecosystems and to the reduction of emissions connected to anthropogenic activities falls mainly on industrial activities and on the transport sector. The role of the maritime sector is crucial in this theme since it has impacts both on the balance of both marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Reduction of vessel emissions into the marine environment, including energy like the sound radiated underwater, has in recent years received growing attention. Underwater noise from shipping is generally considered as a major contributor to overall sea noise levels. Surface vessels radiate underwater noise mainly due to propeller cavitation; machinery on board and water flow around the ship hull. High sound levels are a potential threat for marine fauna as they can mask acoustic signals used to communicate, navigate and hunt, or even induce temporary or permanent damage to sensory organs. In this paper, we want to present the last developments in this field in which a big job will be made to clarify all the aspects.

The strip-planking technique, which is based on the use of glued-laminated wood, is characterized by many interesting features for wood boatbuilding. The main advantages offered are an easier construction process along with a better exploitation of the mechanical properties of the materials. In order to investigate the response of a particular glued-laminated wooden panel (made by Douglas fir longitudinal strip planks combined with thinner Mahogany veneers at ± 45°), which is quite common for boat construction, a series of experimental tests has been carried out. In the analyzed laminated structure, the Douglas fir strips are the inner layer and give the shape of the hull, whereas the outer Mahogany veneers, in addition to contributing to the overall strength of the structure, give water-tightness to the hull. The results of the tests performed on different specimens are presented in the paper. Specifically, in accordance with the guidelines of the UNI EN standards, bending tests on glued-laminated wooden panels have been carried out. Moreover, tensile and compression tests on specimens made only by Douglas fir strips at 0° or by Mahogany veneers at ± 45° have also been performed. The aim of this study is to find a reliable approach for the structural boat design, using laminated-wood panels with different layers, and strip-planking technique.

In the eighteenth century, there were three major innovations that produced significant changes to shipbuilding and the ship. This is the advent of iron construction, the use of the alternative steam machine and the invention of propeller propulsion. The incipit of the development of steam propulsion originates in the mechanical transmission of boats with paddle wheels. Already in the Renaissance scholars and inventors of the most diverse fields of knowledge had imagined being able to apply the paddle wheel transmission to the motion of a boat. We find examples of this in manuscript and printed treatises on the most ingenious inventions and projects of the time. However, the real development of the steam engine-propelled ship came when the propeller replaced the paddle wheel, so it is an invention of recent times, perhaps even taken from the technology of windmills. The need to have a driving force able to rotate an endless screw, even if called a propeller-screw, caused numerous well-known or less known authors to experiment in the design of curious boats with wheels formed with blades moved by human or animal propulsion. In this brief note, we want to talk about the development of a naval propulsion system, which, in the pioneering period of the development of steam propulsion, played a not inconsiderable role in the evolution of the paddle wheels transmission.

Efficient Data & Information sharing is key to and backbone of the collaborative effort to successful completion of projects on time and on budget. Current software tools generate growing amounts of data, and some generate information in more-or-less structured ways, too. However, a heterogeneous, collaborative approach is not supported much by the software industry which remains rather insular in its strategy, thereby forcing format conversions, data repetition and time-line fractures during the life-time design-to-delivery process. This causes data & information to remain, at best, accessible. A new “availability” paradigm that looks at the current environment from a different perspective is proposed for adoption and application to commence remedying the situation. Accessibility is, by definition, a search-based, existence dependent, uncertain and error-prone condition, while availability is, by definition, a data and information supply strategy that follows specific requirements expressed by each stakeholder. Contrary to general perception, proactive exploitation of data and information in the ship and yacht industries is very rarely undertaken and, even then, much less efficiently than possible today, the causes spanning from incompatible formats to culture. Although the first out-of-the-box, fully enabled PLM environment for ship design and ship building is now available as a commercial software product, the requirement for upstream preparation work remains in itself a techno-cultural obstacle. On the other hand, it is nowadays possible to connect many common-place software tools into a managed, adaptive communication environment thereby effectively making data and information available to all stakeholders at the time and in the format required by each. The research presented in this paper discusses the structure and functioning of the collaborative, shared environment immediately achievable with software tools already in common use. The already-in-use-software element is a fundamental facilitator in adjusting current practices to a more PLM-cognizant strategy and also greatly mitigates the cultural obstacles that hamper the much-needed evolution towards an AGILE and LEAN based PLM approach in our industry. The strategic role of adaptive communications is discussed in the context of requirements, constraints and the changes thereof experienced during the design-to-delivery process, disruptions which is of even greater impact when caused by unforeseen events.

This paper aims to investigate societal sustainability according to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), that is the 17 global goals for Sustainable Development settled by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. The study focuses on the cruise industry that is a segment of the wider tourism industry that records a continuous positive trend by increasing its cruisers’ demand and size ships. Drawing from a review of the literature and practice on the topic by integrating the SDGs model and the sustainability disclosure framework, we investigate, through a manual content analysis of sustainability disclosure sources, the major cruise companies for explaining the way in which the cruise industry could follow and achieve the sustainable goals, mostly the SDG 11. Interesting and useful results for the academics and practitioners in the making-decision processes have been discussed.

Dredging operations require deep maritime culture and experience, nowadays joined to a real environmental integrity. Moreover technological development gives new tools in dredging devices and general equipments, so that dredger evolution is improving and new design solutions are also expected in the near future. Taking into account new upgrades, available in the technical literature, this paper has the aim to analyze some design and operational restraints, both for dredgers hull and for the adopted dredging devices. Finally, a short overview of class rules for dredger ships will be outlined.

This paper is focused on the history of a specific MAS (Motoscafo Armato Silurante) project among the many that were developed. The MAS was a class of fast torpedo armed vessel used by the Regia Marina during World War I up to World War II. During the two World Wars the general design of the MAS, however, was changed. From 1932 to 1937 the Baglietto shipyard developed, among the many projects, two different prototypes: the MAS-431 and the Motor Torpedo & Gun Boat “Stefano Turr”. The first project was a small and very fast ship that represents the evolution of the MAS of the first World War, summarizing the best of the experiences gathered up to that moment. The “Stefano Turr” project was a large boat of over 50 tons of displacement that, besides dimensions notably superior to those of the MAS-431, has a stepped hull similar to the MAS-431. Unfortunately, the “Stefano Turr” project not gave satisfactory results in terms of performance. This paper tries to investigate the reasons for the lack of success of the hull performance using modern tools as the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach.

Tethered escort of ships is performed by specially designed tugs linked by a tow-line to a strong point aft of the assisted ship. In fact, the tug is called to control the course and speed of the assisted ship in an emergency situation), so reducing the risk of grounding or collision. A substantial number of studies about ship casualties shows the grounding as the predominant accident when the ship is approaching the harbour or narrow fairways. In order to take part in escort operations, a tug must be provided with the additional service notation escort tug, which confirms its specific capabilities in accordance with particular stability criteria that will be harmonised by International Maritime Organisation from 2020. In case the tug should be propelled with Liquefied Natural Gas, then dedicated issues related to containment system should be solved. Through this paper, an overview will be given upon the possible escort operations that an escort tug could face during his operational life, together with the possible types/configurations of tugs that can be used for this kind of operations. Moreover an example will be given on the determination of escort performances by means of a self developed code on a sample tug.

Nowadays, a fast and challenging digitalisation process is underway within the maritime domain. Many disruptive technologies will cause a radical modification of the operations, of the logistics and of the labour market in the near future. With particular attention to the Adriatic region, this work provides an extensive review of the disruptive innovations that might be applied by port authorities, shipping companies and terminal operators. The analysed technologies, dealing with both freight and passenger transport, are divided into three digitalisation macro trends: informatisation, big data and automation. In the further stages of this research activity, the most promising technologies to be implemented in the Adriatic area will be selected by prime stakeholders and then subject to impact analysis. The planned methodology is here presented and discussed.

In Italy there is a large fleet of passenger ferries, this fleet always operates in a very special “scenario”: no matters if we talk about internal waters such as the lakes or the Venetian lagoon or the coasts of the islands in Gulf of Naples or the Sicilian ones, all those ferries must deal with port structures, often of historical interest, and environmental situations extremely particular and requiring attention. The ferries operating in those areas have the need to offer great manouvrability, silent running, low emissions or no emissions at all. For all those aspects the hybrid propulsion, combining the use of diesel electric generators and batteries, offers the possibility to adopt efficient systems for manouvrability and propulsion, such as azimuthal or azipodal propellers and battery packs to ensure silent approaching to the mooring facilities, the possibility to stay at night in a port without generators working during the nocturnal stop, using a ship that can operate with almost complete silence and no pollution near the areas of interest.

All those advantages have an impact on the general layout of the project, considering the necessity to respect the limitations in term of stability, with special attention to the damaged stability conditions.

The disposition and the subdivision must be conformed to the navigation requests, not only according to the range calculation performed, but also considering the results of tank tests and the evaluation of the size batteries.

Furthermore the hybrid propulsion, as well known, can be more “space demanding” in terms of installation, due to the need to install not only the diesel engine, but also several components for the management of the propulsion system, and this has an impact on subdivision.

In conclusion the subject of the work is the case study of two projects for ferries, different in size and typology, with hybrid propulsion, examining the fact that the request of maintaining the stability criteria and a emergency propulsion in some situations requires choices of project and obliges the naval architect to a careful disposition of the subdivision. This work aims at underlining those aspects.

The history of the great Genoese power has generally well known historical reputation, which continues over the decades, with its roots sunk in the Middle Ages and lasting until the Renaissance, period of greater magnificence, in which it was known as the Superba. From a historical point of view related to shipbuilding, it is therefore interesting to find out which boats had to compose and thus give life to this great traffic network, above all commercial and diplomatic, which made Genoa great; in particular we will concentrate in the 12th and 13th centuries, when the control of the city came to include the coasts from Ventimiglia to Portovenere and it was in the full development and economic expansion of this enormous maritime power. Entering between different issues such as the analysis of the most used boats, which were in particular the navis, the commercial boat for excellence, the galley, with the thinnest and fastest shape compared to the previous one and the bucius, a type similar to the navis for the shape of hull even if of reduced dimensions, we want to expose, albeit in an area limited to an academic article, the development in these centuries of these boats. We also want to take into consideration the economic value that these boats had been taking into account different factors that affected it, such as the age of the ship and its state of preservation; we will also give a look to the men who were part of this fermented world, as could be the shipwright during the construction, the owner or co-owners of the ships, and also the crewmen who made the boat alive each with different tasks, how could they be rowers, armed sailors and officers, guiding her along the different routes, during the trips across the Mediterranean. All this without neglecting some aspects of life that were part of the activities carried out all around the boats, dwelling for example on the relations between the shipyard and the client, or the loca, an investment vehicle widely used by the traders of the time. It will also be shown how the trade routes were modified, noting an expansion of the range of action in conjunction with the passage of time, an effect explained by the probable increase in length and size that the boats themselves underwent changing over decades. This operation is possible thanks to the analysis of the notary documents preserved in the State Archives of Genoa and of the contemporary genre literature such as the Annals of Caffaro di Rustico Da Caschifellone (1080 or 1081 – circa 1164), crusader as well as analyst and diplomat who gave us a vast compendium of information recording the chronicles of the city of Genoa relating to the Middle Ages.

A substantial amount of prehistoric and historic cultural landscapes is now submerged. Sea levels have fluctuated throughout geological time, periodically encroaching or retreating across coastal plains. These now-submerged zones were important for prehistoric and historic humans, allowing access to marine and terrestrial resources and to transportation and migration routes. The principal process contributing to sea-level changes is the exchange of water between the continental ice sheets and the oceans (glacio-eustatic sea-level changes). Eustatic sea-level changes occur on an oceanic to worldwide scale. They also result from a change in the size of the ocean basin following tectonic seafloor spreading (tectono-eustasy) or sedimentation (sedimento-eustasy). In addition, sea level changes can be driven by local changes of the land with respect to the sea surface due to tectonic deformations, sediment compaction, and human activity. Inundated terrestrial archaeological sites, however, can result from a number of other natural processes, as well as sea-level changes, including earthquakes (such as Port Royal in Jamaica), volcanic processes (such as the ports of Misenum and Baiae, and Portus Julius and Nisida in the Bay of Naples) and flooding event (such as Herakleion and Eastern Canopus in Egypt).