Page 12: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2024)

Back to the Drawing Board

The Rolling Stones were wrong ... Time is not on my side.

Engineering Myth Busted

By Rik van Hemmen oo often a myth is created and if not killed off right they could not rotate it so they redesigned all eight vessels to away, it will take on a life of its own and time will not have backwards houses. That made no sense, but as a young debunk it. Many myths are created for evil or political engineer you can ask only so many questions before more se-

Tpurposes, but some myths just occur because the truth nior engineers tell you to get back to work.

is just too complicated. So, I was left to ponder this issue during dark stormy nights

Some of those myths don’t even make sense, but there is no when my wife told me it was my turn to change the baby’s available data to establish the truth. diaper for once. Or later in life, when I woke up wondering

As a very young engineer I was told that the aft accommo- whether to get out of bed to get a handful of Tums, or just ride dations of the SL-7 container ships were installed backwards. the indigestion out. Time was not on my side, because with the

They sure look backwards, and having accommodation doors passing years who would be left that knew the truth?

face a 40 mph headwind made no sense. But why would they That all turned upside down while working on the SL7ex- be installed backwards? Over the last 40 years I raised this po project, when Raj Sengupta told me the designer of the subject with at least a dozen Sea-Landers and all con? rmed it. SL-7’s is still alive. John Boylston, who was the primary

When I asked why, most said they did not know, or defaulted designer of the SL-7’s when he was still in his twenties, pro- to the classic “because engineers designed it.” vided us with some incredibly valuable information on the

At best, I received vague answers such as the ? rst house design of these vessels. was preassembled and when they wanted to ? t it on the hull, But nothing on backwards aft houses.

Courtesy Rik van Hemmen 12 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • November 2024

MR #11 (1-17).indd 12 10/23/2024 11:02:53 AM