Ship

We reported aboard ship Saturday evening, and checked into our closet-sized staterooms. The ship is the Dawn Pr incess, launched just about a year ago. It's about 260 meters (850ft) long, 14 decks, 2000 passengers and 900 crew.The crew spends most of their life washing and painting the boat. Pictured is the window washing crew, spraying the ssea salt off the windows. Several of the rails in the rear of the ship were re-varnished while we were on board. If the side of the ship was scuffed by bumpers during docking, the scuff marks were painted out by the time we hit the next port. The one time we had to anchor off an island, the anchor came up all rusted. The next time I saw it, the anchor had been re-painted, along with the rust marks where the chain had dripped on the side of the ship.

Technically, the ship is a nerd's heaven: all electr ic, computers firmly in charge. Four 11Mw generators drive 2 electric motors connected to the props, plus bow and stern thrusters for maneuvering in port. Even docked, the power load of the ship is 7Mw to run the lights, the kitchens, the slot machines.... the generating capacity on board exceeds that of the entire power grid on most of the islands we visited.

The bridge is completely computerized. There's no giant wheel for the captain to stand behind, pipe in hand. The only recognizable steering wheel is something better suited for a go-cart than an ocean-going vessel. You can barely see it in the center of this picture.

In practice, it's never used. In open ocean, the ship steers its own course using GPS, tracking a centerline to well within 100 meter accuracy.The console immediately in front of the officer is where that course is monitored. The only time the watch crew need wake up is when there's a course change. The navigation program declines to change the ship's course without authorization, so it emits a polite beep, at which time the navigator wakes up, pushes the "OK" button, and nods off again. The third officer suggested that if we go on a bridge tour on the next generation of cruise ships, we should be sure to look for the "OK" button in front of the navigator's station. If it's missing, he's probably working at a McDonalds somewhere.

In port, the ship is handled like a giant video game. Literally. There's a little joystick which the captain can use to pick a direction to push the ship, and the power to apply.The computer figures out what combination of propeller, rudder, and thruster operations will cause the ship to go in the commanded direction.

Unlike video games, docking a 77,000 ton ship happens in exceptionally slow motion. It might take 30 seconds between the time the captain moves the joystick and the time one can be sure the ship is doing what was commanded. This is probably the justification for the look of intense calm and deliberation exuded by the captain as he brings the ship into dock. (Here's the captain and staff captain preparing to drop lines and pull away from the dock at Aruba.)

Apparently, the main task of the crew on board the Dawn Princess is to make sure that you're: 1) massively sleep deprived by the end of the week; 2) thoroughly entertained; 3) walking around in an alcohol-induced haze at all times; 4) overstuffed with food. The kitchen staff has the interesting challenge of feeding 2000 people in two sittings each in two dining rooms in a time period of under four hours.This seems about as likely as getting software out on time, but they manage it night after night, with time to entertain the guests as well. Here's the Maitre d'Hotel and two minions demonstrating, with the assistance of the tour director, how to cook cherries jubilee. Every time someone pointed a camera at them, they all stopped whatever they were doing, posed and waved for the photographer.

Wandering around on deck exploring, I met someone else doing the same thing. She was trying to scope out what was where on the ship, in preparation for a 6-month tour of duty working on board. After some conversation, it turned out that she lived in Denver too, at one time within a couple of blocks of my house, and one of her best friends works at Quark. Small world.

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