Page 16: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 2021)

Back to the Drawing Board

What We Have Here is a

Failure to Communicate… in Ship Construction

By Rik van Hemmen y brother, who is the executive only 11 inches and that made me won- tions can make the project succeed.

editor of my favorite boating der. Was it shorter than other 12 inch In every single ship construction di-

Mmagazine (Soundings), and I feet (made of shorter inches) or was it saster that we have been involved in, the occasionally send strange tidbits to each actually divided in 11 inches? I checked actual cause of the failure was a failure other by email. For some reason he sent and, I kid you not, that foot has only 11 to communicate.

me an email about the 17th Century ship Amsterdam inches! A cost overrun is a failure to com-

Vasa and focused on one of the causes Ever since coming to the United States municate. Cost overruns are a reality in of the vessel’s failure to ? oat properly. I have had to submit to living with frac- ship construction. Someday I would like

This is the Wikipedia paragraph he tions of 12 in feet and 32nds of inches, to see a ship built without a cost over- focused on: but working in units that are fractions of run, but building one-of-a-kind ships is a prime number? That must have started really really dif? cult, and therefore there “The use of different measuring as a joke, or somebody set that measure will be cost overruns whether paid for systems on either side of the vessel for very nefarious purposes and then it by the builder, paid for by the purchaser caused its mass to be distributed asym- did not disappear by common sense, just or shared. Not talking about a cost over- metrically, heavier to port. During like in the US, where we are still stuck run the moment it raises its ugly head construction both Swedish feet and with the English system of measurement. results in after the fact hyperventilating,

Amsterdam feet were in use by differ- But that is not what this column is paranoia, polarization, and all kinds of ent teams. Archaeologists have found about. It is about ship construction. Un- other mean and nasty things.

four rulers used by the workmen who tangling ship construction furballs has An argument over the color of the cur- built the ship. Two were calibrated in been a big part of my life, and while we tains in a cabin is a failure to communi-

Swedish feet, which had 12 inches, can argue whether to use English units, cate. In ship construction one can never while the other two measured Amster- or metric units, or warp fractions, the assume that the builder and the purchaser dam feet, which had 11 inches.” real cause of the Vasa failure is not mea- have the same esthetics and therefore the surement units; the real cause sits higher color of the curtains needs to be locked

My brother more or less suggested up. What it is really related to is a failure down before material is ordered.

that it might make a good column sub- to communicate. One may conclude that the onus to ject for me. There is only one glorious truth about communicate is on the builder, but this is

Since brothers mince no words when ship construction ... untrue. It is a complete and total two way they can slag each other I was going to street. A purchaser and a builder need to dismiss his idea along the line of: “Oh Ship Construction is a spend a signi? cant amount of time be-

Please, an article on the Vasa? And next Communication Exercise fore construction starts to become famil- you want me to write yet another article Nothing beats this glorious truth. iar with each other’s expectations. about the cause of the loss of the Titanic?” A good spec will help, a good design I am not talking about speci? cations;

But I didn’t, because on rereading the will help, committed builders will help, I am talking about emotional expecta- note I realized he was probably refer- knowledgeable purchasers will help, tions. What is fair to me, and what is fair ring to the Amsterdam foot, which had but, in the end, only good communica- to you? Not just in terms of money, but 16 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • August 2021

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