Look at Ships

(note: this section contains outlinks)

I love ships. I think you should, too. There are many kinds. Some carry thousands of tons worth of cargo containers or bulk product. Others, meanwhile, might ferry a couple hundred people across a wide river such as the Columbia. Very many are owned by fishermen and commercial fishing operations. Some are tankers that carry large volumes of liquids, like fuel oil, liquefied hydrogen, and even wine.

Some are private vessels owned by a class of extravagantly wealthy and incredibly paranoid individuals who constantly search the entire web for mentions of their name in association with their own vessel. Sometimes they even commission these vessels, too, and they're terrified of the possibility of being identified, so they obscure ownership through shell companies owned by shell companies and register their vessels under flags of convenience. Sometimes they intimidate their own crew into signing agreements that aren't legal, employ the use of expensive gadgets, and hire private investigators to find anyone who reveals what they consider to be sensitive information.

This site isn't for outing such individuals, to be clear. But it's an important example of the idea that not all ships are created equally, and getting too close to certain kinds will attract unwanted attention. It's also just interesting to know, I think, that there is a whole security industry built around these people.

My very favorite kind of vessels are tugboats. There are a few kinds with different roles, and just as varied are the barges, scows, and cranes used for construction, ship tows, waste removal, and other applications. I've loved perhaps every single tugboat I've ever seen and I think they're really interesting and beautiful.

All watercraft have some kind of purpose, even if the purpose is just for recreation – there aren't very many "general use" vessels because if you need to move something across water, you usually want to design something that's optimized for that task. I find a real beauty in that.

Upcoming:

• Ship spotting
• Ships that I think are really cool
• Art