For the past few years thousands of trucks have been showing up at Google’s campus, discharging piles of books and picking up yesterday’s delivery. In what is now called Google’s Moonshot, the reason behind this strange occurrence was recently revealed…. Google Books.

The NY Times gives us the background of the project:

Google Book Search is the ambitious plan to digitize every book — famous or not, in any language, published anywhere on earth — found in the world’s libraries, as part of the company’s core mission “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Beginning in 2002 as a “secret books project,” according to an official history at the Google site, Google Book Search has become a planned multibillion-dollar effort that has had to overcome many obstacles, both the sheer effort of scanning so many pages of text as well as conforming to copyright laws.

So what does this mean to the average mariner? Quite simply, instant access to millions of pages of text filled with nautical know-how.

To show you the power of this technology let’s take a look at a simple topic, Celestial Navigation. Go ahead and click the link. With one simple search term you have instant access to 3,120 books on the topic. Now try advanced search! Let’s go a step further. To find books you can search in real time  select “Limited preview and full view” or, to find books you can download, select “Full View only”.

Now try American Practical Navigator in the title and include the author (Bowditch)… LINK. 560 editions of this famous text. What the latest edition? Use the date search again and presto… here it is!

Now google understands that most people don’t want to learn celestial navigation by reading an ebook, we want the real thing! So on the left hand column google gives links to retailers and  find a library. Since this was developed by google it is, of course, smart. The “find a library” link, for example, not only lists all libraries that carry the title but also looks up you location and finds the nearest library to you!

And if the text itself is the problem (Bowditch isn’t exactly easy reading) then look at the “related books” and “common terms and phrases” section of each book’s “Overview” (example). Within a few clicks I had access to a few great books like Duttons and Hobbs.

Advance Book Search Samples

Advanced Search - Publication Date

If your are looking for information on Dynamic Positioning systems, you will see the first entry is from 1990 which is likely to do you more harm than good but do an advance search and enter 2005-BLANK as the date and the results will all be of great value.

Conversely, if you were looking for knowledge of Damage Control you might be disappointed by the cursory treatment of the subject found in modern text. Instead try Navy Damage control 1941-1951 and you have access to true experience in the subject.

Advanced Operators

Google has a list of advanced operators that are a huge help during traditional web searches for example “site:gcaptain.com google search” should return this page along with all other google search related articles we have written.

Google books has a similar feature. As an example let us use the inauthor tag to search for gCaptain contributor inauthor:”Leonard Lambert”.

Instant Mobile Information
Away from your desk and looking for information in a book? Now problem, google books can be found on your iPhone/iPod or on any mobile device by visiting: books.google.com/m.

Sometimes Google web is still better.

As much as we love Google Books it does have some faults. Some books I have needed were difficult to find while new maritime books like gCaptain contributor Bob Couttie’s “Chew The Bones” was simply not listed. No worries though, just write down the ISBN number from your friend’s copy and do a traditional google search like this: ““ISBN 1442142596″ and it will show up.

Bonus Tip - Google Images

If you are looking for pictures then your better of visiting Google Images. Many of you already use this daily but did you know about their new advanced search functionality? Try Lifeboat Photos then change the advance search to “extra large” for high resolution photos, “clip art” for images to use in your powerpoint presentation or, my favorite, “line drawings” for detailed specs.

Lastly are you trying to find a person? If you wanted to find out the key players in a recent ship hijacking you could type “Maersk Alabama” into Google photo but narrow down the search to “face” and you will get people rather than images of the ship.

Contest

Here at gCaptain we are really excited by the possibilities. Not only to help us study for the next license exam but to do research of all sorts. So here’s a challenge… Use Google search to find a book published before 1900 to look for a seamanship technique that has been lost in time. The catch? It must be still relevant today.

The person who submits the best tip (with book/page reference) to THIS FORUM THREAD will win a gCaptain t-shirt.

Question?

How else will this new service unlock the knowledge you need to advance your maritime career? Post your thoughts in the comments section below.

Note: This article was sponsored by gCaptain Job’s. To find the job that will advance your maritime career visit gCaptain’s Maritime Jobs Board today!

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For this week’s pick of Bizarre Marine Technology we wanted to go with Glacier Blankets but, although they would likely be transported to the Artic on ships, the relationship to marine transport is thin. But don’t worry, we have an equally interesting technology for you today… ocean tubes. We’ll let Atomocean, the company developing this technology, explain:

Atmocean is developing its patents-pending wave-driven ocean upwelling system to cool the upper ocean and enhance natural biological processes to absorb CO2. When widely deployed across critical ocean regions, the Atmocean technology may help fight global warming by sequestering significant amounts of CO2 in the deep ocean, reduce hurricane intensity, help revive ocean fisheries, and mitigate coral reef bleaching.

Upwelling is the naturally-occurring mixing of deep, cold, nutrient-rich ocean into the upper sunlit ocean that is critical to growth of most marine species. As the upper oceans absorb more heat from the atmosphere due to the greenhouse effects of CO2 and other heat-trapping gases, they become more stratified, further risking the natural delivery of nutrients to the sunlit zone.

Atmocean believes our wave-driven upwelling technology can play a critical role in mitigating these deleterious effects of CO2-induced warming, in the years and decades ahead.

If your still with us the following video helps explain the technology further.

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Also be sure to view the Discovery Channel Video and Popular Science Article featuring atomocean.

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Original Photo Found HERE.

While this is a rather old story, it just came to our attention through one of our many vast searches on the internet.  This photo of a cruise ship shaped hotel in the southern port city of Busan, South Korea.  The cruise ship capsized against the dock in Typhoon Maemi in September of 2003.  USAToday.com has the full story of the typhoon HERE, but the interesting thing is that capsized ship can still be seen on Google Maps.

Clike Map to Interact

While the incident, has since been cleaned up, it is an interesting find none-the-less.

A current picture of the map can be found at maps.live.com (shown below).  For those of you that have never used maps.live.com, it has great arial photos that are updated regularly for most major cities.  Probably its most notable and unique feature is the Birds Eye view that it provides that is, again, updated regularly for most major cities.  It is really an interesting tool to play around with (WARNING: ADDICTING).

Here is an example of an image of maps.live.com’s Birds Eye view.  Pictured is gCaptain headquarters.

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The new not-for-profit professional body provides a representative voice to the maritime industry, while working to enhance and improve the professional interests of DPO’s and related companies worldwide, offering news, industry debate, training, recruitment and careers guidance.

Membership of IDPOA is available across different grades, from the most experienced DP Masters, Senior and Junior DPO’s, to those on the technical side, and those with a desire to work with DP. Bringing together a truly global DP community, members benefit from professional recognition, a support network of experts and mentors, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) tools and access to the very latest DP jobs.

Steven Jones, executive director of IDPOA, introduced the Association during his presentation at the conference and commented, “A point has been reached where DPO’s want and need their very own professional network.”
In assessing the role of the organization and the benefits it brings he added, “The industry is at a juncture in the recruitment, training and management of DP personnel, and as we struggle to safeguard the supply and capabilities of qualified and skilled DPOs into the future, IDPOA offers a solution for industry and for individuals to drive positive change and continual improvement.”
Further information about the International Dynamic Positioning Operators Association (IDPOA), individual and corporate membership packages are available at dpoperators.org.

The most recent gCaptain Salary Survey suggests that nearly 25% of gCaptain forum members are DPO’s working offshore and this site’s own Dynamic Positioning Forum has picked up steam since launching a few short months ago. gCaptain even have a LinkedIn group for DPO’s. While we continue to be encouraged by the social media initiatives gCaptain provides to the online community of DPO’s, the launching of a professional society dedicated to this industry niche has exciting potential.

We encourage all interested in Dynamic Positioning to visit the IDPOA’s website, look around and, if interested, consider joining this new organization.

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Completed in late 2008, the M/V Auriga Leader is the world’s first cargo ship to be partially propelled by solar power.   The 656-foot, 60,000-ton car carrier will initially transport vehicles being sent for sale overseas by Japan’s top automaker, Toyota Motor Corp, and harness the energy of the sun in order to reduce fuel costs and cut carbon emissions.

Currenlty docked at the Port of Long Beach, officials from the port, Toyota and NYK Line are allowing visitors to come aboard and view the 328 solar panels on the M/V Auriga Leader as part of a demonstration project to help raise awareness about reducing diesel emissions from large ships.

The vessel, developed by Nippon Yusen K.K. and Nippon Oil Corp., is capable of generating 10% of the energy used while the ship is docked with its 328 solar panels on the top deck.  Nippon Yusen has set a goal of halving its fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions by 2010.

The panels themselves are not attached to the ship directly, but are rather installed on the ship’s car-carrier, which is capable of carrying 6,400 automobiles, and then connected to the onboard 440 volt electrical network.

The companies hope having the panels on the carrier will protect them from the stresses of the ship’s environment, including salt-water damage, wind pressure, and vibrations.

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Investigators will probably concentrate on three elements: the fouling of the cable, the radio communications problem, and the over-riding of the hydrostatic release. Inadequate training and drills is likely to surface as a root cause.

Cosco Busan, every San Franciscan’s favourite hate-object, is very much in the news. Setting aside the issue of the pilot’s medication, there are lots of lessons worth learning or re-learning. The latest Maritime Accident Casebook podcast, The Case of the Foggy Pilot, looks at bridge team management, how to get information out of a cranky pilot and how to ask and answer questions. After all, if you don’t ask a question right, you’re not asking the right question.

It’s when we think we’re safe that bad things often happen. A master and crewmember drowned when a boat ferrying them ashore capsized in Vietnam around 700 metres from their ship. Did anyone mention lifejackets?

Typhoon season is setting in around the western Pacific so we expect the usual heavy-weather casualties, as the discovery of more than 400 bodies in the Princess of the Stars in the Philippines reminds us. Two vessels were lost recently in the Arabian sea, fortunately without loss of life.

Time to look at anchoring, when to stay put and when to go, and keep an eye on speed, reminders of Pacific Commerce, Pasha Bulker and MSC Napoli respectively.

Take an overloaded ship with negligible freeboard, heavy weather and a steering failure and you end up with the Cap Blanc, which capsized off Canada’s Burin Peninsula last year. A photograph of the vessel taken the previous February tells the story, and the overloading was habitual, but also raises the question: Where was Port State Control?

Also there has been the explosion aboard the tanker Nhat Thuan,with three seafarers missing, the sinking of a trawler off of Thailand following a collision with an unnamed cargo vessel with one dead and five missing, a thankfully lossless collision between Marti Princess and Renate Schulte off the Turkish island of Bozcaada and the fire aboard Royal Princess of Princess Cruise Lines.

It’s been a bad time for piers, with the 653-foot Otello thumping a pier at the Port of Hueneme, the Staten Island Ferry doing ditto with 15 hurt, and bad news for lovers of paddle-steamers as the last of the ocean-going variety hit a landing pier on the Clyde.

Finally, a different sort of casualty from long ago. Today, July 1, sees the inauguration of a plaque to the Australian victims of the Japanese hellship Montevideo Maru at the only memorial to hellship victims, located at Subic Bay Freeport. Many hellship victims were merchant mariners, including in this case 31 Norwegian seafarers. Remember them.

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I stumbled upon this while searching on, well, Stumble Upon, the tool that discovers web sites based on your set interests. In my search it referred me to Schöpfer Yachts, a new US based company that is “dedicated to the pursuit of advanced yacht aesthetics and technology.”

Now we have seen some interesting yachts in our day, including the 170 meter yacht that was just launched in Germany for the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, but this one (in concept) surely is in a class of its own in terms of forward thinking design and extraordinary style.

It is called the Oculus and it is a 250-foot vessel that was designed by E. Kevin Schöpfer, founder and owner of his namesake company.  The design is the first “design launch” of Schöpfer Yachts LLC.  Here are just a few of artist renditions for this bold new design.  More images, including details about the vessel, can  be found at SchöpferYachts.com

Now if you think that is impressive, check out the second design launch of Schöpfer Yachts called the Infinitas. Details HERE

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According to Reuters:

Jun 29 - Turkey’s Coast Guard rescue the 11 crew members of a Malta-flagged ship after their vessel collided with a container ship in the Aegean Sea.

No one was killed and both ships remained afloat after the accident, which occurred late on Saturday (June 27) in a shipping channel about 10 miles off the Turkish island of Bozcaada, the Anatolian news agency said.

The “Marti Princess,” a bulk-freight cargo vessel, took on water after colliding with the German-flagged “Renata Schulte” container ship, which was travelling from Casablanca to the Turkish port of Tuzla, the state-run agency said.

Turkish coast guard vessels remained at the scene to prevent environmental contamination, Anatolian also said.

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LG, the global manufacturer of electronic products and home appliances, has converted a 70-meter long push barge into a large, floating advertisement for the launch of their new eco-friendly refrigerator.  The football field sized vessel/refrigerator sailed up the Seine from Le Havre to Paris between June 22 and June 25.

The new refrigerator uses LG’s “Linear Compressor” technology requiring 20 percent less energy than conventional refrigerators.  While I have no idea exaclty what the new model is that LG is promoting with this unique marketing gimmick, here is a link to the LG’s refrigerator page just for their efforts and creativity. LINK

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This week’s incident photo comes from a friend who just rounded the Cape Of Good Hope. The photos show the barge Grand Ocean No. 1 on the beach at Jacob’s Bay, South Africa.

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