Ship ballast

“ At twelve the sand ballast having choked our pumps, and there being seven feet water in the hold, all the casks afloat, and the ballast shifted to leeward, cut away the rigging of the main and mizen masts, both of which went instantly close by the deck, and immediately after the foremast was carried away about twenty feet above. Hove overboard all our guns, upon which the ship righted a little. We were then under a necessity of letting all our slaves out of irons, to assist in pumping and baling. ”

“ To ballast a ship, therefore, is the art of disposing those materials so that she may be duly poised, and maintain a proper equilibrium on the water, so as neither to be too stiff, nor too crank, qualities equally pernicious; as in the first, although the ship may be fitted to carry a great sail, yet her velocity will not be proportionably increased; whilst her masts are more endangered by her sudden jerks and excessive labouring: and in the last, she will be incapable of carrying sail, without the risk of oversetting. ”

“ It is open to any man to say that his ship will sail without ballast; and he will say it, too, with every mark of profound conviction, especially if he is not going to sail in her himself. The risk of advertising her as able to sail without ballast is not great, since the statement does not imply a warranty of her arriving anywhere. Moreover, it is strictly true that most ships will sail without ballast for some little time before they turn turtle upon the crew.
A shipowner loves a profitable ship; the seaman is proud of her; a doubt of her good looks seldom exists in his mind ”

“ He had no sooner delivered the news but the fleet was in sight: many of our ships' companies were on shore in the island; some providing ballast for their ships, others filling of water and refreshing themselves from the land with such things as they could either for money or by force recover. By reason whereof our ships being all pestered and romaging, everything out of order, very light for want of ballast, and that which was most to our disadvantage, the one half part of the men of every ship sick and utterly unserviceable. ”

“ Besides these general vows made in common, each sailor made a special vow; for no one expected to escape, holding themselves for lost, owing to the fearful weather from which they were suffering. The want of ballast increased the danger of the ship, which had become light, owing to the consumption of the provisions and water. On account of the favorable [240] weather enjoyed among the islands, the Admiral had omitted to make provision for this need, thinking that ballast might be taken on board at the island inhabited by women, which he had intended to visit. ”

“ He cannot go without ballast, and he can get none after he is outside, except he gets fish, which is by no means certain. On the other hand, if he gets a large quantity of fish, he can throw some of his ballast overboard, and he doesn’t want to row half a ton of ballast eight or ten miles. But if his boat is stiff, and will carry reefed sails, or a whole foresail, with a moderate quantity of ballast that he can keep in all the time, not sufficient to overload her when fish are plenty, and yet sufficient to make her safe, he is suited. ”

“ In botany “ballast plants” are so-called because they have been introduced into countries in which they are not indigenous through their seeds being carried in such ballast. A ship “in ballast” is one which carries no paying cargo. In modern vessels the place of ballast is taken by water-tanks which are filled more or less as required to trim the ship. ”

“ First, there are the horizontal rudders or hydroplanes, fitted outside the vessel both fore and aft, by which she can be forced down, provided she has sufficient way on, in much the same fashion as an ordinary vertical rudder forces a ship to one side or the other. But this is only the diving apparatus; to keep her down, there is her water ballast—the water which was taken into her main ballast tanks, when the order to submerge was given.39 These tanks contain a sufficient weight of water to counteract the normal buoyancy of the boat, by which she would naturally float upon the surface. ”

“ They are like the ballast with which every ship is always loaded, at once to keep it upright and enable it to sail properly. If there were no ballast, the ship would not be low enough in the water, and would shift its position at the slightest change in its conditions. ”

“ Crankness, on the other hand, is occasioned by having too little ballast, or by disposing the ship’s lading so as to raise the center of gravity too high, which also endangers the mast in carrying sail when it blows hard: for when the masts lose their perpendicular height, they strain on the shrouds in the nature of a lever, which encreases as the sine of their obliquity; and a ship that loses her masts is in great danger of being lost. ”

“ In this operation, which is often effected (as in this case) by the shovel of “ballast-heavers” out of loaded “lighters” laid alongside the ship, there is a liability to scatter a good deal of the shingle or other material, so as to fall overboard to the encumbrance of the harbour. To prevent this damage to the navigation, it is in many places a harbour regulation that a canvas screen or sail, called a “port-sail,” should be placed below the small port-hole cut in the side of the ship for the reception of ballast, so as to catch the ballast-heavers’ scatterings. ”

“ To preserve navigation, ships are not to throw any ballast, filth, rubbish, gravel, earth, stone, or filth into rivers or ports where the tide or water flows or runs or else forfeit 50s.- 5 pounds. Ships on the Thames River could take as ballast to stabilize a ship without cargo: dung, compost, earth, or soil from laystalls in London. ”

“ The danger of a collision at sea is, thereby, greatly lessened, for if the outer skin is pierced, the inner one, remaining intact, as it would, except under very extraordinary circumstances, the safety of the vessel would not be endangered. Looking, also, at this arrangement in a commercial point of view, should the ship require ballast, the space between the outer and inner skin can be filled with water, so that whatever may be necessary in this respect can be obtained in a very economical and expeditious mode, to the extent in weight of 2500 tons. ”

“ At length, however, he consented to their disposing of the fore castle and aftermost quarter-deck guns, together with some of the shot, and other articles of very great weight. The ensuing night was employed in baling and endeavouring to make the pumps useful, for the ballast, by getting into the well, had choked and rendered them useless, and the chains had broken as often as they were repaired. The water had risen to seven feet in the hold. The wind from the eastward drove a vast sea before it, and the ship, being old, strained most violently. ”

“ It is a general maxim amongst mariners, that a ship will not carry sufficient sail till she is laden so deep that the surface of the water may glance on her extreme breadth amidships. She must therefore have a great deal of weight, as ballast, &c. to bring her to this situation, which is called a good sailing trim.
Several circumstances are also to be particularly considered with regard to the quality, weight, and stowage of the ballast. The center of gravity being placed too high, will render the ship incapable of carrying a sufficient quantity of sail ”

“ On these assumptions the argument is that cargo has also a function as ballast; that if, for instance, the loss is caused by the improper shifting of pigs of lead, it does not matter whether they are called ballast or cargo, but in either case, so far as the change affects the fitness of the ship as a carrier, it is management of the vessel, within the act. ”

“ Even if several compartments should burst, the loss of the lift is compensated by the aeroplane action of the hull whenever driven at full speed. When thus driven it burns its own fuel so rapidly that this, acting the same as the casting of ballast, is continuously lightening the ship. This is what is called balancing the ship. The air balloonets maintain the rigidity of the bag whenever it loses gas through the action of the sun or change in elevation. ”

“ Convinced of this by long observation, 34that experienced seaman Captain Langford recommends the following precautions: “To keep the ship sailable with store of ballast—ports well barred and caulked—top-masts down—yards a-part laced—doors and windows well secured. Let all ships at anchor quit the road, or they will be driven a-shore. As the storm always begins at North and North-West, till it comes to South-East, when its fury subsides; let them run to the South for ample sea-room, and for drift of the South West, and there wait the event.” ”

“ The balloon is [224] held by the weight of the guide rope down to a fixed level over the waves without danger of being drawn into contact with them. For the moment that the air-ship descends the slightest distance nearer to them that very moment it becomes relieved of just so much weight, and must naturally rise again by that amount of momentary unballasting. In this way an incessant little tugging toward and away from the waves is produced, infinitely gentle, an automatic ballasting and unballasting of the air-ship without loss of ballast. ”

“ If the weather is rough, a ship has often to remain three or four days without receiving the ballast she wants. The application for ballast is seldom made directly from the captain or shipowner himself. There are parties living in the neighbourhood of Wapping and Ratcliffe who undertake, for a certain sum per score of tons, to have the requisite quantity of ballast put aboard the ship. These parties are generally either publicans, grocers, butchers, lodging-house keepers or watermen, and they have a number of labourers dealing with them whom they employ to heave the ballast on board. ”

“ Commencing at the bottom and going upwards we have the first storey, a hold, 16 feet high in the clear, with ample room for the machinery, boilers, and coals, and for a large quantity of freight besides. All this great weight of engines, boilers, coals, and dead weight freight, which is to be stowed in the very bottom of the ship, will act as ballast placed in the right position to insure stability and to relieve the ship from that dangerous topheaviness usually observed in many sea-going steamers. ”

“ From the Model in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
When a vessel is carrying her full cargo her stern is sufficiently immersed to prevent her propeller from racing badly in a heavy sea. But when she is making a voyage “light” there is great danger of damage to the ship through the fracturing of the propeller shaft as the ship dips her bows and raises her tail in the air. Everyone who has had experience of handling249 small craft of any kind is aware that the lower the ballast is placed the more the ship will roll. ”

“ From long habit, they sit there very contentedly, for a length of time, almost entirely naked, and appear to think that no other kind of ballast is needed. If the wind were suddenly to change, they would probably get a ducking, by their own weight bearing down the boat, with such a lever. ”

“ The mast is stepped much more forward than in a balance-lug boat, and carries one large sail laced to a boom and gaff. The cat boat, in our opinion, will turn to windward in smooth water even more smartly than a balance lug, and as a rule will row more easily, for the displacement is very small, and in consequence of the stability given by the great beam, little, often no, ballast is used. ”

“ It is only by careful study that one can ascertain just the amount of ballast that is needed; but, once found, do not change it for light or heavy weather, but keep it intact, and you and your boat will soon understand each other much better than will be the case if it be continually changed. A happy medium is what must be sought for in the question of ballast ”

“ Two years subsequently Messrs A. M‘Millan & Son, Dumbarton, introduced water ballast into one of the largest class of sailing vessels then being built. Unlike previous sailing ships with provision for water ballast, however, the vessel was constructed on the structural cellular bottom principle, having bracket floors and continuous girders, as so generally approved in steamships. Capacity for water ballast, to the extent of over 300 tons was thus provided, the filling and discharge being effected by a special donkey engine, supplied with steam from a large donkey boiler. ”

“ But the little vessel faced the tempest nobly, and rose like a sea-mew on the white crest of each wave, while the steersmen—for there were two lashed to the wheel—kept her to the wind. Suddenly the sheet of the fore trysail parted, the ship came up to the wind, and a billow at that moment broke over her, pouring tons of water on her deck, and carrying away the foremast, main-top-masts, and the jib-boom.
“Clear the wreck—down the helm, and let her scud,” shouted the captain, who stood by the mizzen-mast, holding on to a belaying-pin. ”

“ In balancing the sails, it must be remembered that the further out a sail is on an extremity of a boat, the greater its effect in driving that end of the boat off the wind.
Sometimes a vessel’s sails are not properly balanced because the ballast has not been stowed in the right place. It is obvious, for instance, that if ballast be shifted aft the weather helm will be diminished, for the stern of the boat will draw more water and so offer more lateral resistance, whereas the stem of the boat will draw less water, and will therefore be more easily blown round. ”