Why Ships Are Red Below the Waterline

When’s the last time you looked at a ship? Picture a cruise ship or container ship in the harbor. Did you happen to notice that the bottom of the hull is always painted red? It’s not like you can see that snazzy paint job under the waterline, so what gives?

In early times, ships were mostly made of wood. That's why sailors had to cover their hulls (the part that’s sitting in the water) with copper paint to protect the vessel from wood-eating worms, barnacles, and seaweed. It was the copper that added a red tint to the paint. But what about now?

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TIMESTAMPS:
The answer's here 0:21
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- How many containers fall off the ships and get lost in the sea 2:27
- The largest cargo ship 2:46
- No communication with the outside world 3:28
- The speed of a ship 3:48
- How tall are cruise ships? 4:08
- A super-long cruise (Hey, count me in!) 5:23
- How massive cruise ship anchors are 5:46
- Virtual balconies inside the rooms 7:02
- How large cruise ships are 8:02

#ships #cruiseship #brightside

SUMMARY:
- Nowadays, you can add special ship-protecting ingredients to any kind or color of paint. But the hulls are still painted red to honor and maintain the old nautical tradition!
- You also might’ve noticed numbers painted vertically on the side of the hull, usually toward the bow. The red background helps those stand out more.
- It doesn't matter how well you protect the hull of your ship with special paint – it’ll never help you completely avoid the harmful growth of barnacles and whatnot.
- You might not realize it, but almost 95% of all the world's cargo is transported by ship.
- Right at this moment, at least 20 million containers are moving across the world.
- Within one year, the average container ship travels the same distance as going three-quarters of the way to the moon and back.
- The largest cargo ship can carry 18,000 containers with a whopping 745 million bananas inside!
- Maersk has been the biggest container ship operator in the world since 1996. If you stack up just their containers alone, it would equal 7,530 Eiffel Towers.
- One-third of all ship crews in the world don't have any kind of communication with the outside world when they're out at open sea.
- Cruise ships often perform rescue operations. So, don't be surprised if the one you're traveling on stops to save a few fishers in desperate need of help.
- Cruise ship cabins are built separately from the ship because, otherwise, there wouldn't be enough space for their construction.
- Cruise ship cabin walls are made of metal, and the main reason is fire safety.
- During a one-week cruise, a large ship uses 1,800 pounds of coffee, 9,000 pounds of lettuce, 45,000 eggs, and 20,000 ice cream cones!
- Although there are doctors and nurses on cruise ships, if you have a dental emergency, no-one will be able to help you out.
- Cruise ships consume a lot of fuel. For example, a large vessel needs about 121,000 gallons of fuel for every day it spends at sea.
- The largest cruise ships have more than 2,000 crew members. On top of that, such vessels are incredibly expensive to build: they may cost more than $1 billion.

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[BRIGHTSIDEOFFICIAL]

Hey BrightSiders!
If you took a cruise, how long would it last? 😉

[Tackz]

About 15 years ago, my father had a medical emergency, while sailing from Ft. Lauderdale to St. Thomas (U.S.V.I.). Before the U.S. Coast Guard could mount an effort & send aid, a massive Korean cargo ship bound for Africa intercepted the distress call & changed course over 100 miles to help. They were able to get him on board until a U.S. Coast Guard chopper arrived & transported him back to Florida & a hospital, where his life was saved just in time. Hats off to the cargo guys! There are good people out there & it's amazing how much sailors(wind or fuel operated) have each other's back. Thank you!

[cam]

4:52 that's a very modern looking ship for 1915 🤔

[shadowjet]

The fact that thousands of containers are lost at sea each year at this day and age actually blew my mind. My parents’ business is importing medical equipment and we once received a news from our shipping company that our shipment was lost. Oh we lost quite a lot of money that time.

[travisvaughan]

I thought it was so the ship could be spotted if it flipped over.

[partypickle]

Red makes it go faster. Just like my Civic!

[Aspe_f]

We're we talking about red paint or cruise ships

[bowler]

0:54
Bright side: "Or they might use more fuel"
me: "Is that not a sailboat???"

[csharpewalls]

The red bottom is to let the sharks know dinner is on the way.

[BluBlu]

4:50 The Eastland didn't capsize when crossing the Great Lakes, it capsized in the Chicago River while still tied to the dock.. 844 people lost their lives.

[robertmccormack]

"at this moment there are at least 20 million containers moving around the world" not now

[chickensouvlaki]

4:58 No actually, she was docked in Chicago, and all the passengers shifted to the port side. She couldn't take the weight of so much stuff on board and capsized.

[Ryarios]

Most people don’t know that they also have a large sign painted on the bottom of the hull that says "If you can read this, please flip us over..."

[rickschwab]

It's to let fish know that the propeller is nearby and to stay clear

[LakeNipissing]

When's the last time I looked at a ship? Right now. I'm in a cabin on the RMS Queen Mary ocean liner hotel in Long Beach, CA.
I just opened the porthole and looked 80 feet down to the water... the hull is white, black and then red just above the water.
Each of the rivets on the hull are about the size of half a lime!!

[VegarotFusion]

Sleeping on a cruise ship was strange at first. Especially during large swells. But once my subconscious mind and body stopped thinking it was gonna be tipped off the bed. I had some of the best sleep of my life.

[LadyAriella]

Also another reason for them to be painted red is that if they capsized and overturned the red could be spotted from the air easier than another color like blue green black or any of those

[ShawnLH]

1:00 wind sails use more fuel? THE FUEL IS WIND! It’s FREE!

[isaacdillon]

Iv’e been on a cruise ship a few times, it was pretty fun. Although one time I di get pretty seasick, yikes

[TERRYBIGGENDEN]

I've never heard of copper paint being red. I always thought it was greenish? Also. easy wooden vessels were sheathed in thin copper plate. I think there may be some confusion here. The red paint is primarily red (iron) oxide, at least in earlier times.