Top-heavy
A ship is called top-heavy or slim if it has insufficient stability due to a center of gravity that is too high . The term is derived from the term Topp for the top of the mast. A top-heavy ship tends to heel too much due to unevenly distributed weight or strong cross winds. If it is only dimensionally stable and not weight stable, it threatens to overturn .
The most prominent example of a ship that is too top-heavy is the Vasa , which sank in 1628 on her maiden voyage in front of the eyes of the Stockholm population when she was pushed to the side by a gust and too much water entered the through the open (and too low-mounted) cannon hatches Ship streamed. The new battleship was too heavy because it had two cannon decks. According to a legend, the ship received this additional cannon deck at the special request of King Gustav II Adolf , but historical sources do not provide any evidence for this thesis. The numerous archaeological investigations on the wreck of the Vasa did not reveal any evidence of modifications after construction began.
The opposite of top-heavy or rank in the sense of an undesirably high initial stability is called stiff .
literature
- Shipbuilding, shipping and port construction. Journal for the entire industry in shipbuilding and related fields, Volume 30, Verlag Carl Marfels Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin 1929.
- Fred Dietrich: Ships - Seas - Ports. Volume 5 of The World Today, P. Müller Verlag, 1956.
- Chamber of Technology (Ed.): Shipbuilding Technology . Volume 14, VEB Verlag Technik, 1964.
- Hafenbautechnische Gesellschaft (Germany), society of friends and sponsors of the Hamburg Shipbuilding Research Institute, merchant ship standards committee, archive for shipbuilding and shipping: shipyard, shipping company, port. Volume 5, Julius Springer Publishing House, Berlin 1924.
Individual evidence
- ^ KJ Rose: The Naval Architecture of the Vasa, a 17th Century Swedish War Ship . Dissertation, Texas A&M University, 2014, pp. 9-10.