Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2019 January 22

= January 22 =

What's the biggest ship that's physically possible to circumnavigate with 1 or 2 people?
Knock Nevis? You might be avoiding collisions and pirates only by luck though.

What's the biggest that's not much riskier than cargo ships? (which have someone at the bridge, engine and probably lookout 24/7)

Couldn't you put so many computer terminals on a megayacht that nowhere's more then seconds from controls, radar, radio, cameras of EVERYTHING, weather/wave/navigation charts, autopilot etc.? With yellow/red alert lights/120 dB wake up alarms happening when you might need to check a screen cause "there's a radar echo only X miles away", "collision course", "someone might be hailing you", "check engine light", "low oil pressure oi, might want to stop the I'm flying Jack imitation/poop/chess/making out and check for leaks?".. That doesn't seem too dangerous, provided you don't become incapacitated or have to repel pirates. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 04:05, 22 January 2019 (UTC)


 * Whether anyone has actually littered a big ship with "crew in one" tech I don't know. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 18:59, 22 January 2019 (UTC)


 * Just search among the real big Tugboats. The ones that tug Oil platforms on open sea for example. They all use "Voith–Schneider cycloidal propellers" aka Cyclorotor. which allows them to literally turn on the point with ease. These are mostly "manned" with 1 captain and sometimes 1 additional engineer. --Kharon (talk) 04:31, 22 January 2019 (UTC)


 * When you say "circumnavigate", do you mean circumnavigating the earth? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 09:37, 22 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 13:11, 22 January 2019 (UTC)
 * The problem isn't so much "what's the absolute minimum number" but "what's the minimum number given a desired likelihood of success". If there's a 50% chance of a failure over the course of the voyage which requires two people to resolve and you want a 90% chance of completion, one person is clearly not enough, even if one person could in principle control the entire vessel.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A01:E34:EF5E:4640:4CAA:2B05:2EFA:61A8 (talk) 17:40, 22 January 2019 (UTC)
 * You're right. In the past it was much more difficult, ships of hundreds of meters had many coal shovelers and sails were moved by hand. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 18:50, 22 January 2019 (UTC)


 * Most container ships have a crew of 20 to 30 people, but most of those aren't strictly necessary. You could run the ship on far less.  I don't know if it is less than 2, but much of the crew is involved in maintenance and security, not actually running the ship.  They basically navigate on autopilot using GPS.  -- Jayron 32 19:06, 22 January 2019 (UTC)