Questions tagged [ships]
For questions relating to water-based vessels. Ships in space should use the spaceship tag.
184 questions
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Boats On A Lower Gravity Planet with Faster Rotation Speed
Disclaimer: I am new to World building and if you find an issue in my question, feel free to comment and / or edit it.
I am writing a world with 80% gravity, an average temperature of 9 degrees ...
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Is it possible to design an auto-oar? [closed]
So, I was interested in methods of ship propulsion. In the course of research, I found that before steam engines were a thing sails were best. However, the alternatives are oars and paddle-wheels. I ...
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How plausible is this airship design?
The airship consists of a wooden frame and several balloons. The balloons are filled with a lighter-than-air Unobtanium gas. In order to control the airship's height, Unobtanium is pumped between a ...
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What would vehicles look like for aquatic species?
My setting is preindustrial, and the majority of the species are aquatic (nereids, naiads, merfolk, cephali, dryads, and most recently the Sunken People).
While humans are the main shipwrights of the ...
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Would kite rigs be competitive with traditional sails and wingsails?
This was originally a part of this question, but I decided they were big enough and different enough to be split up.
Kite rigs are, like wingsails, an alternative to conventional sails. They take ...
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Why would an ocean world prevent the creation of ocean bases but allow ships?
In my setting, modern day Earth is littered with portals leading to alternate Earths. This leads to extra-dimensional occupation from every country, leading to much competition. Most alternative ...
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Is an entirely sailing-ship based civilization feasible?
I'm picturing a city-state was destroyed by rising sea levels. Rather than scatter or build dams to protect the city, they took to the seas, a 'city-fleet' of sailing ships that travels the oceans ...
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How could ocean liners survive in a major capacity after large jet airliners become common? [closed]
Ocean liners, distinct from cruise ships, largely died out in the 1960s and 1970s due to competition from the introduction of airliners such as the Boeing 707, 727 and 747 and the Airbus A300.
For the ...
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What kind of navy could island nations with populations in the few 100k range build to fight each other in a 1890s-1920s naval technology?
There are several small island nations with populations between about 100 thousand and one million people. They each have one or two central islands with a significant amount of small outlying islands....
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Advantages and disadvantages of outrigger ships
I'm designing boats and ships for a medieval seafaring civilization. I thought about basing their ships on Filipino outrigger boats. But then I wondered what the advantages and disadvantages of ...
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Way to make a sailing frigate dangerous in a semi-modern world
I need to find a way to make an age of sail type naval frigate comparable to those of rougly the 1770's (admittedly with some ''ahead of it's time'' design changes) a threat to a naval ship comparable ...
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How could iron-age ships be modified to withstand extreme storms?
Iron-age humans wish to cross an extremely stormy sea -- one that no pre-industrial vessel humans actually built could reasonably survive.
Here is a graphical guide to some hazards
These people don't ...
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Could Mermaids Tear a Warship's Planking?
I had an idea for a story, where mermaids sabotage a ship during the age of sail. I wanted to ask for advice on it, and if it makes sense. Perspective would be especially helpful, since someone told ...
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What is the danger zone of a waterfall to aircraft?
In my world, which is similar to that described in this answer, with suspended platforms between 5 and 40 km above the global sea, with 1 ATM at 25km altitude, with a similar gravity and scale height ...
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How many trading voyages a year would this ship make? [closed]
How many voyages a year would a single trading ship make, usually?
Firstly, please let me know if I'm using the wrong terms for any part of this question. I suspect my answer is already out there ...
