Spirit-class cruise ship
The Spirit class is a class of cruise ships built at the Helsinki New Shipyard in Helsinki, Finland. The ships are operated by Carnival Cruise Lines and Costa Cruises; the six ships were built to the original Panamax form factor, allowing them to pass through the Panama Canal. This class has the smallest of the signature smoke. Carnival's Spirit-class ships feature a unique funnel design that integrates the skylight dome of the atrium. In 2007 and 2009, Queen Victoria and Costa Luminosa were introduced; the design of these ships are a hybrid between the Vista class. Creating the Vista/Spirit hybrid class. MV Arcadia – a similar Panamax ship operated by P&O Cruises. Coral Princess and Island Princess – A similar set of Panamax ships operated by Princess Cruises Radiance-class cruise ships – a similar class of Panamax ships operated by Royal Caribbean International Signature-class cruise ship – a similar class of Panamax ships operated by Holland America Line Carnival Cruise Lines
Panamax
Panamax and New Panamax are terms for the size limits for ships travelling through the Panama Canal. The limits and requirements are published by the Panama Canal Authority in a publication titled "Vessel Requirements"; these requirements describe topics like exceptional dry seasonal limits, propulsion and detailed ship design. The allowable size is limited by the width and length of the available lock chambers, by the depth of water in the canal, by the height of the Bridge of the Americas since that bridge's construction; these dimensions give clear parameters for ships destined to traverse the Panama Canal and have influenced the design of cargo ships, naval vessels, passenger ships. Panamax specifications have been in effect since the opening of the canal in 1914. In 2009 the ACP published the New Panamax specification which came into effect when the canal's third set of locks, larger than the original two, opened on 26 June 2016. Ships that do not fall within the Panamax-sizes are called super-Panamax.
The increasing prevalence of vessels of the maximum size is a problem for the canal, as a Panamax ship is a tight fit that requires precise control of the vessel in the locks resulting in longer lock time, requiring that these ships transit in daylight. Because the largest ships traveling in opposite directions cannot pass safely within the Culebra Cut, the canal operates an alternating one-way system for these ships. Panamax is determined principally by the dimensions of the canal's original lock chambers, each of, 110 ft wide, 1,050 ft long, 41.2 ft deep. The usable length of each lock chamber is 1,000 ft; the available water depth in the lock chambers varies, but the shallowest depth is at the south sill of the Pedro Miguel Locks and is 41.2 ft at a Miraflores Lake level of 54 ft 6 in. The clearance under the Bridge of the Americas at Balboa is the limiting factor on a vessel's overall height for both Panamax and Neopanamax ships; the maximum dimensions allowed for a ship transiting the canal using the original locks and the new locks are: Overall: 950 ft. Exceptions: Container ship and passenger ship: 965 ft Tug-barge combination, rigidly connected: 900 ft overall Other non-self-propelled vessels-tug combination: 850 ft overall.
Width over outer surface of the shell plating: 106 ft. General exception: 107 ft, when draft is less than 37 ft in tropical fresh water. New Panamax increases allowable width to 49 m; the maximum allowable draft is 39.5 ft in Tropical Fresh Water. The name and definition of TFW is created by ACP using the freshwater Lake Gatún as a reference, since this is the determination of the maximum draft; the salinity and temperature of water affect its density, hence how deep a ship will float in the water. Tropical Fresh Water is fresh water of Lake Gatún, with density 0.9954 g/cm3, at 29.1 °C. The physical limit is set by the lower entrance of the Pedro Miguel locks; when the water level in Lake Gatún is low during an exceptionally dry season the maximum permitted draft may be reduced. Such a restriction is published three weeks in advance, so ship loading plans can take appropriate measures. New Panamax increases allowable draft to 15.2 m, however due to low rainfall, the canal authority limited draft to 43 feet when the new locks opened in June 2016, increasing it to 44 feet, in August "based on the current level of Gatun Lake and the weather forecast for the following weeks."
Vessel height is limited to 190 ft measured from the waterline to the vessel's highest point. Exception: 205 ft when passage at low water at Balboa is possible. All exceptions are allowed only after specific request and an investigation, on a once- or twice-only basis. A Panamax cargo ship would have a DWT of 65,000–80,000 tonnes, but its maximum cargo would be about 52,500 tonnes during a transit due to draft limitations in the canal. New Panamax ships can carry 120,000 DWT. Panamax container ships can carry 5,000 twenty-foot equivalent units; the longest ship to transit the original locks was San Juan Prospector, now Marcona Prospector, an ore-bulk-oil carrier, 973 ft long, with a beam of 106 ft. The widest ships to transit are the four Iowa-class battleships, which have a maximum beam of 108 ft, leaving less than 6 in margin of error between the ships and the walls of the locks; as early as the 1930s, new locks were proposed for the Panama Canal to ease congestion and to allow larger ships to pass.
The project was abandoned in 1942. On October 22, 2006, the Panama Canal Authority held a referendum for Panamanian citizens to vote on the Panama Canal expansion project; the expansion was approved with support from about 78 % of the electorate. Construction began in 2007, after several delays, the new locks opened for commercial traffic on 26 June 2016; the plans to build another set of larger locks led to the creation of the Neopanamax or New Panamax ship classification, based on the new locks' dimensions of 427 m in length, 55 m in beam, 18.3 m in depth. Naval architects and civil engineers began taking into account these dimensions for container
Radiance-class cruise ship
The Radiance class is a class of four cruise ships operated by Royal Caribbean built between 2001 and 2004 at Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany. The class was succeeded by the Freedom class. Radiance-class ships have a gross tonnage of 90,090. Built for cruising in cooler climates, this class differs in design from the Voyager and Freedom classes, some aspects influenced the Quantum-class; the Radiance-class is built to Panamax form factor. The power plant on all ships consists of environmentally friendlier but less fuel efficient gas turbines; the Radiance-class ships have over 3 acres of glass, glass exterior viewing elevators, over 700 balcony staterooms, two-level glass windowed dining rooms, alternative restaurants, a retractable glass roof over a pool, an outdoor pool, as well as the first self-leveling billiard tables at sea. During their refurbishment, the ships of this class have been refitted to incorporate the "Centrum Wow" events, which transformed the multi-level atrium into vertical theater for aerialists.
Spirit class - a similar class of Panamax ships operated by Carnival Cruise Lines and Costa Cruises. MV Arcadia - a similar Panamax ship operated by P&O Cruises. MS Queen Victoria - a similar Panamax sized ship operated by Cunard Line. Vista class - a similar class of Panamax ships operated by Holland America Line Signature class cruise ship - a similar class of Panamax ships operated by Holland America Line Coral Princess and Island Princess - A similar set of Panamax ships operated by Princess Cruises Costa Luminosa and Costa Deliziosa - A set of Panamax ships operated by Costa Cruises derived from the Spirit Class and Vista Class designs
Ancona
Ancona is a city and a seaport in the Marche region in central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 as of 2015. Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region; the city is located 280 km northeast of Rome, on the Adriatic Sea, between the slopes of the two extremities of the promontory of Monte Conero, Monte Astagno and Monte Guasco. Ancona is one of the main ports on the Adriatic Sea for passenger traffic, is the main economic and demographic centre of the region. Ancona was founded by Greek settlers from Syracuse in about 387 BC, who gave it its name: Ancona stems from the Greek word Ἀγκών, meaning "elbow". Greek merchants established a Tyrian purple dye factory here. In Roman times it kept its own coinage with the punning device of the bent arm holding a palm branch, the head of Aphrodite on the reverse, continued the use of the Greek language; when it became a Roman town is uncertain. It was occupied as a naval station in the Illyrian War of 178 BC. Julius Caesar took possession of it after crossing the Rubicon.
Its harbour was of considerable importance in imperial times, as the nearest to Dalmatia, was enlarged by Trajan, who constructed the north quay with his Syrian architect Apollodorus of Damascus. At the beginning of it stands the marble triumphal arch with a single archway, without bas-reliefs, erected in his honour in 115 by the Senate and Roman people. Ancona was successively attacked by the Goths and Saracens between the 3rd and 5th centuries, but recovered its strength and importance, it was one of the cities of the Pentapolis of the Exarchate of Ravenna, a lordship of the Byzantine Empire, in the 7th and 8th centuries. In 840, Saracen raiders burned the city. After Charlemagne's conquest of northern Italy, it became the capital of the Marca di Ancona, whence the name of the modern region. After 1000, Ancona became independent turning into an important maritime republic clashing against the nearby power of Venice. An oligarchic republic, Ancona was ruled by six Elders, elected by the three terzieri into which the city was divided: S. Pietro and Capodimonte.
It had a coin of its own, the agontano, a series of laws known as Statuti del mare e del Terzenale and Statuti della Dogana. Ancona was allied with the Republic of Ragusa and the Byzantine Empire. In 1137, 1167 and 1174 it was strong enough to push back the forces of the Holy Roman Empire. Anconitan ships took part in the Crusades, their navigators included Cyriac of Ancona. In the struggle between the Popes and the Holy Roman Emperors that troubled Italy from the 12th century onwards, Ancona sided with the Guelphs. Differently from other cities of northern Italy, Ancona never became a seignory; the sole exception was the rule of the Malatesta, who took the city in 1348 taking advantage of the black death and of a fire that had destroyed many of its important buildings. The Malatesta were ousted in 1383. In 1532 it definitively lost its freedom and became part of the Papal States, under Pope Clement VII. Symbol of the papal authority was the massive Citadel. Together with Rome, Avignon in southern France, Ancona was the sole city in the Papal States in which the Jews were allowed to stay after 1569, living in the ghetto built after 1555.
In 1733 Pope Clement XII extended the quay, an inferior imitation of Trajan's arch was set up. The southern quay was built in 1880, the harbour was protected by forts on the heights. From 1797 onwards, when the French took it, it appears in history as an important fortress. Ancona, as well as Venice, became a important destination for merchants from the Ottoman Empire during the 16th century; the Greeks formed the largest of the communities of foreign merchants. They were refugees from former Byzantine or Venetian territories that were occupied by the Ottomans in the late 15th and 16th centuries; the first Greek community was established in Ancona early in the 16th century. Natalucci, the 17th-century historian of the city, notes the existence of 200 Greek families in Ancona at the opening of the 16th century. Most of them came from northwestern Greece, i.e. the Ionian Epirus. In 1514, Dimitri Caloiri of Ioannina obtained reduced custom duties for Greek merchants coming from the towns of Ioannina and Avlona in Epirus.
In 1518 a Jewish merchant of Avlona succeeded in lowering the duties paid in Ancona for all “the Levantine merchants, subjects to the Turk”. In 1531 the Confraternity of the Greeks was established which included Orthodox Catholic and Roman Catholic Greeks, they secured the use of the Church of St. Anna dei Greci and were granted permission to hold services according to the Greek and the Latin rite; the church of St. Anna had existed since the 13th century as "Santa Maria in Porta Cipriana," on ruins of the ancient Greek walls of Ancona. In 1534 a decision by Pope Paul III favoured the activity of merchants of all nationalities and religions from the Levant and allowed them to settle in Ancona with their families. A Venetian travelling through Ancona in 1535 recorded that the city was "full of merchants from every nation and Greeks and Turks." In the second half of the 16th century, the presence of Greek and other merchants from the Ottoman Empire declined after a series of restrictive measures taken by the Italian authorities and the pope.
Dis
P&O Cruises
P&O Cruises is a British cruise line based at Carnival House in Southampton, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. A constituent of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, P&O Cruises can claim to be the oldest cruise line in the world, its predecessor company having operated pleasure trips since 1844 and the world's first dedicated cruise ship in 1881, it is the sister company of, retains strong links with, P&O Cruises Australia. P&O Cruises was de-merged from the P&O group in 2000, becoming a subsidiary of P&O Princess Cruises plc, which subsequently merged with Carnival Corporation in 2003, to form Carnival Corporation & plc. P&O Cruises operates seven cruise ships and has a 2.4% market share of all cruise lines worldwide. Its most recent vessel, flagship Britannia, joined the fleet in March 2015; the original company originates from 1822, with the formation of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company, which began life as a partnership between Brodie McGhie Willcox, a London ship broker, Arthur Anderson, a sailor from the Shetland Isles.
The company first operated a shipping line with routes between England and the Iberian Peninsula, adopting the name Peninsular Steam Navigation Company. In 1837, the company won a contract to deliver mail to the Peninsula, with its first mail ship, RMS Don Juan, departing from London on 1 September 1837; the ship collected mail from Falmouth four days however it hit rocks on the homeward bound leg of the trip. The company's reputation survived. In 1840, the company acquired a second contract to deliver mail to Alexandria, via Gibraltar and Malta; the company was incorporated by Royal Charter the same year, becoming the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. At the time, the company had no ships available to use on the route, so agreed to merge with the Liverpool based Transatlantic Steamship Company, acquiring two ships, the 1,300-ton Great Liverpool and the newly built 1,600-ton Oriental. P&O first introduced passenger services in 1844, advertising sea tours to destinations such as Gibraltar and Athens, sailing from Southampton.
The forerunner of modern cruise holidays, these voyages were the first of their kind, have led to P&O Cruises being recognised as the world's oldest cruise line. The company introduced round trips to destinations such as Alexandria and Constantinople and underwent rapid expansion in the half of the 19th century, with its ships becoming larger and more luxurious. Notable ships of the era include the SS Ravenna built in 1880, which became the first ship to be built with a total steel superstructure, the SS Valetta built in 1889, the first ship to use electric lights. In 1904 the company advertised its first cruise on the 6,000-ton Vectis, a ship specially fitted out for the purpose of carrying 150 first-class passengers. Ten years the company merged with the British India Steam Navigation Company, leaving the fleet with a total of 197 ships. In the same year the company had around two-thirds of its fleet requisitioned for war service. However, the company was fortunate and only lost 17 ships in the First World War, with a further 68 lost by subsidiary companies.
A major event in the company’s history took place in December 1918, when P&O purchased 51% of the Orient Steam Navigation Company, operating jointly with P&O on the Australian mail contract. During the 1920s, P&O and Orient Line took delivery of over 20 passenger liners, allowing them to expand their operations once again. Cruises began operating once again in 1925. During 1929, P&O offered 15 cruises, some aboard Viceroy of India, the company’s first turbo-electric ship; the P&O Group left the Second World War with a loss of 156 ships including popular liners such as Viceroy of India, Cathay and Orcades. By the late 1940s commercial aviation was beginning to take hold of the industry so newer ships became larger and faster, allowing the sailing time to Australia to be cut from five to four weeks. In 1955 P&O and Orient Lines ordered what were to be their last passenger liners — the Canberra and Oriana; these fast ships bought the Australian run down another week to just three, with Oriana recording a top speed of just over 30 knots during trials.
During 1961, P&O bought out the remaining stake in Orient Lines and renamed its passenger operations as P&O-Orient Lines. The decreasing popularity of line voyages during the 1960s and 1970s meant that cruising became an important deployment for these ships in-between line voyages. In 1971 the company reorganised its 100 subsidiaries and 239 ships into several operating divisions, one of, The Passenger Division which began with 13 ships; the 1962 comedy film, Carry On Cruising, based on the original story by Eric Barker, listed P&O-Orient in its credits. The first Carry On film in colour, it used footage of P&O's cruise ship S. S. Oronsay as well as mock-up scenes shot at Pinewood studios; the 1970s was a grim time for the passenger liner as many new ships were sold for scrap. Princess Cruises was acquired in 1974 which allowed the new Spirit of London to be transferred to the Princess fleet; this left Canberra and Oriana to serve the UK market on their own, with Arcadia deployed in Australia and Uganda offering educational cruises.
In 1977, P&O re-branded its passenger division. In February 1979 Kungsholm, a former Swedish American Line vessel, was acquired from Flagship Cruises and after a major refit was renamed Sea Princess. Operating out of Australia, she replaced Arcadia, sold to Taiwanese ship breakers. In spring 1982 Oriana replaced Sea Princess
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Indian Ocean through the Strait of Hormuz and lies between Iran to the northeast and the Arabian Peninsula to the southwest; the Shatt al-Arab river delta forms the northwest shoreline. The body of water is and internationally known as the "Persian Gulf"; some Arab governments refer to it as the "Arabian Gulf" or "The Gulf", but neither term is recognized internationally. The name "Gulf of Iran" is used by the International Hydrographic Organization; the Persian Gulf was a battlefield of the 1980–1988 Iran–Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers. It is the namesake of the 1991 Gulf War, the air- and land-based conflict that followed Iraq's invasion of Kuwait; the gulf has many fishing grounds, extensive reefs, abundant pearl oysters, but its ecology has been damaged by industrialization and oil spills. The Persian Gulf resides in the Persian Gulf Basin, of Cenozoic origin and related to the subduction of the Arabian Plate under the Zagros Mountains.
The current flooding of the basin started 15,000 years ago due to rising sea levels of the Holocene glacial retreat. This inland sea of some 251,000 square kilometres is connected to the Gulf of Oman in the east by the Strait of Hormuz. In Iran this is called "Arvand Rood", where "Rood" means "river", its length is 989 kilometres, with Iran covering most of the northern coast and Saudi Arabia most of the southern coast. The Persian Gulf is about 56 km wide in the Strait of Hormuz; the waters are overall shallow, with a maximum depth of 90 metres and an average depth of 50 metres. Countries with a coastline on the Persian Gulf are: Iran. Various small islands lie within the Persian Gulf, some of which are the subject of territorial disputes between the states of the region; the International Hydrographic Organization defines the Persian Gulf's southern limit as "The Northwestern limit of Gulf of Oman". This limit is defined as "A line joining Ràs Limah on the coast of Arabia and Ràs al Kuh on the coast of Iran".
The gulf is connected to Indian Ocean through Strait of Hormuz. Writing the water balance budget for the Persian Gulf, the inputs are river discharges from Iran and Iraq, as well as precipitation over the sea, around 180mm/year in Qeshm Island; the evaporation of the sea is high, so that after considering river discharge and rain contributions, there is still a deficit of 416 cubic kilometers per year. This difference is supplied by currents at the Strait of Hormuz; the water from the Gulf has a higher salinity, therefore exits from the bottom of the Strait, while ocean water with less salinity flows in through the top. Another study revealed the following numbers for water exchanges for the Gulf: evaporation = -1.84m/year, precipitation = 0.08m/year, inflow from the Strait = 33.66m/year, outflow from the Strait = -32.11m/year, the balance is 0m/year. Data from different 3D computational fluid mechanics models with spatial resolution of 3 kilometers and depth each element equal to 1–10 meters are predominantly used in computer models.
The Persian Gulf and its coastal areas are the world's largest single source of crude oil, related industries dominate the region. Safaniya Oil Field, the world's largest offshore oilfield, is located in the Persian Gulf. Large gas finds have been made, with Qatar and Iran sharing a giant field across the territorial median line. Using this gas, Qatar has built up a substantial liquefied natural petrochemical industry. In 2002, the Persian Gulf nations of Bahrain, Iraq, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE produced about 25% of the world's oil, held nearly two-thirds of the world's crude oil reserves, about 35% of the world's natural gas reserves; the oil-rich countries that have a coastline on the Persian Gulf are referred to as the Persian Gulf States. Iraq's egress to the gulf is narrow and blockaded consisting of the marshy river delta of the Shatt al-Arab, which carries the waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers, where the east bank is held by Iran. In 550 BC, the Achaemenid Empire established the first ancient empire in Persis, in the southwestern region of the Iranian plateau.
In the Greek sources, the body of water that bordered this province came to be known as the "Persian Gulf". During the years 550 to 330 BC, coinciding with the sovereignty of the Achaemenid Persian Empire over the Middle East area the whole part of the Persian Gulf and some parts of the Arabian Peninsula, the name of "Pars Sea" is found in the compiled written texts. In the travel account of Pythagoras, several chapters are related to description of his travels accompanied by the Achaemenid king Darius the Great, to Susa and Persepolis, the area is described. From among the writings of others in the same period, there is the inscription and engraving of Darius the Great, installed at junction of waters of Red Sea and the Nile river and the Rome river which belongs to t
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and most populous city of Denmark. As of July 2018, the city has a population of 777,218, it forms the core of the wider urban area of the Copenhagen metropolitan area. Copenhagen is situated on the eastern coast of the island of Zealand; the Øresund Bridge connects the two cities by road. A Viking fishing village established in the 10th century in the vicinity of what is now Gammel Strand, Copenhagen became the capital of Denmark in the early 15th century. Beginning in the 17th century it consolidated its position as a regional centre of power with its institutions and armed forces. After suffering from the effects of plague and fire in the 18th century, the city underwent a period of redevelopment; this included construction of the prestigious district of Frederiksstaden and founding of such cultural institutions as the Royal Theatre and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. After further disasters in the early 19th century when Horatio Nelson attacked the Dano-Norwegian fleet and bombarded the city, rebuilding during the Danish Golden Age brought a Neoclassical look to Copenhagen's architecture.
Following the Second World War, the Finger Plan fostered the development of housing and businesses along the five urban railway routes stretching out from the city centre. Since the turn of the 21st century, Copenhagen has seen strong urban and cultural development, facilitated by investment in its institutions and infrastructure; the city is the cultural and governmental centre of Denmark. Copenhagen's economy has seen rapid developments in the service sector through initiatives in information technology and clean technology. Since the completion of the Øresund Bridge, Copenhagen has become integrated with the Swedish province of Scania and its largest city, Malmö, forming the Øresund Region. With a number of bridges connecting the various districts, the cityscape is characterised by parks and waterfronts. Copenhagen's landmarks such as Tivoli Gardens, The Little Mermaid statue, the Amalienborg and Christiansborg palaces, Rosenborg Castle Gardens, Frederik's Church, many museums and nightclubs are significant tourist attractions.
The largest lake of Denmark, Arresø, lies around 27 miles northwest of the City Hall Square. Copenhagen is home to the University of Copenhagen, the Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen Business School and the IT University of Copenhagen; the University of Copenhagen, founded in 1479, is the oldest university in Denmark. Copenhagen is home to the FC Brøndby football clubs; the annual Copenhagen Marathon was established in 1980. Copenhagen is one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world; the Copenhagen Metro launched in 2002 serves central Copenhagen while the Copenhagen S-train, the Lokaltog and the Coast Line network serves and connects central Copenhagen to outlying boroughs. To relieve traffic congestion, the Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link road and rail construction is planned, because the narrow 9-9.5 mile isthmus between Roskilde Fjord and Køge Bugt forms a traffic bottleneck. The Copenhagen-Ringsted Line will relieve traffic congestion in the corridor between Roskilde and Copenhagen.
Serving two million passengers a month, Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup, is the busiest airport in the Nordic countries. Copenhagen's name reflects its origin as a place of commerce; the original designation in Old Norse, from which Danish descends, was Kaupmannahǫfn, meaning "merchants' harbour". By the time Old Danish was spoken, the capital was called Køpmannæhafn, with the current name deriving from centuries of subsequent regular sound change. An exact English equivalent would be "chapman's haven". However, the English term for the city was adapted from Kopenhagen. Although the earliest historical records of Copenhagen are from the end of the 12th century, recent archaeological finds in connection with work on the city's metropolitan rail system revealed the remains of a large merchant's mansion near today's Kongens Nytorv from c. 1020. Excavations in Pilestræde have led to the discovery of a well from the late 12th century; the remains of an ancient church, with graves dating to the 11th century, have been unearthed near where Strøget meets Rådhuspladsen.
These finds indicate. Substantial discoveries of flint tools in the area provide evidence of human settlements dating to the Stone Age. Many historians believe the town dates to the late Viking Age, was founded by Sweyn I Forkbeard; the natural harbour and good herring stocks seem to have attracted fishermen and merchants to the area on a seasonal basis from the 11th century and more permanently in the 13th century. The first habitations were centred on Gammel Strand in the 11thcentury or earlier; the earliest written mention of the town was in the 12th century when Saxo Grammaticus in Gesta Danorum referred to it as Portus
Italy, Genoa
Media related to Costa Deliziosa at Wikimedia Commons
