Witty Nity: Transport on Water

From Logs of Wood to Cruise ships and Oil Carriers

Long ago, people used anything that would float to help them travel and move things across water. These things varied from bundles of reeds, large jars, and covered baskets to sheets of wood.

Boat made with logs of woods tied together being rowed with the help of a pole.

Then perhaps one day someone tied three of four logs together and made a raft. Maybe someone else hollowed out a log as a type of canoe. These log boats could be moved by people paddling with their hands. Later they might have used a stick or a pole to make their boat move faster.

Whoever put the first sail on a boat made a wonderful discovery. Sailing was faster and easier than paddling because it caught the wind and used it to move the boat.

Huge Ship with a large number of sails.

Eventually, someone built a ship that used a sail and long paddles, called 'oars'. When there was little or no wind, the sailors rowed with the oars. In time, sailors learned to turn, or 'set', a sail to make the boat go in almost any direction they wanted.

Famous Cruise Ship Oasis of the Seas

Later, paddles were used in giant wheels that moved large boats through the water. A steam engine powered these paddle wheels, which were too heavy to turn by hand. Steamboats cruised rivers, lakes, and oceans all over the world.

Three huge warships traveling on the surface of the ocean.

Today, ships and boats use many different types of engine. Most ships use oil to generate power. Some submarines run on nuclear power. But on warm days, many people still enjoy travelling on water by paddling, sailing, and even rafting.

Two nuclear Submarines standing near the coast.

In 1947 the norwegian scientist Thor Heyerdahl and a small crew sailed across more than 8,000 kilometres of ocean on a balsawood raft called the Kon-Tiki. It was an experiment to see whether ancient Americans could have settled some Pacific islands.
Some other kinds of transport on water are as follows:

A huge Oil Tanker or Oil Carrier ship.

A Semi-submersible High Lift ship: This is among those very few vessels in the world which provide the capability to load, transport and offload extremely heavy cargo, such as oil drilling rigs, gas refineries or even warships from one place to another.

A Large fleet of American Warships.

Fleet of Warships

Huge ans Gigantic freight carrier carrying large number of containers.

An American Air Craft Carrier along with two warships.

In November 2005, semi-submersible heavy-lift ship Blue Marlin left Corpus Christi, Texas, to move the massive Sea-based X-band Radar to Adak, Alaska, having traveled 15,000 miles.A semi-submersible heavy-lift ship is also known as a "flo/flo" (for float-on/float-off)