Equipment guides

How a centrifugal cargo oil pump works — impeller, volute, max head, cavitation and stripping.

How crude oil washing works — the 25% rule, arc (angle) programming of the washing machines, and an interactive COW simulator.

How the inert gas system works — flue gas, scrubber, blowers, two-valve pressure control and the deck water seal, with an interactive deck-pressure simulator.

How a cargo tank breathes — the mast riser and per-tank P/V valve, the pressure/vacuum settings versus the tank structural limits, flame screens, and an interactive blocked-screen burst/implode simulator.

Where the ship meets the shore — the cargo manifold and reducers, why a reducer changes the flange not the capacity, Q = A×v with a 12 m/s working ceiling, surge, and an interactive rate-acceptance simulator.

How a cargo tank goes from an inert blanket to breathable air — the flammable-envelope path, the ~2% purge gate, the gas-free entry criteria, and an interactive atmosphere-path simulator.

How a tanker knows how full a sealed tank is — radar ullage gauging, the independent 95% and 98% high-level alarms, the topping-off discipline, and an interactive topping-off simulator.

Why a mooring winch brake is set to slip — the band brake rendering at about 60% of line MBL, self-tension, snap-back danger, and an interactive brake-render simulator.

What actually holds a ship at anchor — the holding power comes from the chain (the catenary), not the anchor; the 5–7× scope rule, brake versus gear, dragging, and an interactive anchoring simulator.

How a tanker heats its cargo — the boiler-pressure → saturation-temperature → coil-ΔT chain, why you can't heat every tank at once, water hammer, the pour point, and an interactive cargo-heating simulator.

How a tanker's Oil Discharge Monitoring Equipment works — ppm, flow and speed into litres per nautical mile, the 30 L/nm limit and the 1/30,000 allowance, with an interactive decant simulator.

Water washing with fixed programmable tank cleaning machines — wash arcs and run time, static electricity, the 5-hour rule and slops, with an interactive wash-programming simulator.

Deepwell hydraulic cargo pumps (Framo type) — a submerged pump in every cargo tank driven by high-pressure oil, the cofferdam and purge check, with an interactive discharge, stripping and purge simulator.

How a ship's steering gear works — helm order, telemotor signal, twin power units, rams, tiller and the hunting-gear feedback loop, with an interactive rudder-response simulator.

How a marine gyrocompass finds true north — rigidity in space, gravity precession, damping, the speed error and the once-a-watch azimuth check, with an interactive gyro-error simulator.

How marine radar and ARPA work — timed echoes into range and bearing, sea and rain clutter tuning, and track-smoothed vectors into CPA and TCPA, with an interactive collision-geometry simulator.

How ECDIS works — an official vector chart and your live position on one screen, and the settings that decide what alarms: safety depth, safety contour and look-ahead, with an interactive safety-contour simulator.

How a ship's echo sounder and Doppler log work — timing the echo for depth, reading the Doppler shift for speed, bottom track versus water track, with an interactive berthing-speed simulator.

How the ship's magnetic compass works — variation from the Earth, deviation from the ship's steel, the binnacle correctors and the CDMVT ladder from compass course to true, with an interactive channel-steering simulator.

How a marine ballast water treatment system works — backflush filter, UV reactor, dose vs flow and the IMO D-2 discharge standard, with an interactive UV-dose simulator.

How a ship's FleetBroadband satcom works — one geostationary satellite, elevation and azimuth look-angles, relative bearing and the ship's own shadow sectors, with an interactive antenna-tracking simulator.

How lifeboat davits and on-load release gear work — gravity lowering, the two winch brakes, on-load hooks, fall preventer strops and the hydrostatic interlock, with an interactive launch-sequence simulator.