Why Don't Ships Have Headlights?

headlights they help us drive our cars and our bikes at night lighting up The Path ahead for safe navigation Illuminating the darkness can help us avoid all kinds of Hazards in fact miners have used head torches for decades for the same reason but what about ships many have encountered disaster and danger at Sea most famously the RMS Titanic which struck an iceberg on an unusually dark and still night in April 1912 even then at the subsequent inquiry the question was asked would a large torch have helped the situation why don't ships have headlights like cars ladies and gentlemen I'm your friend Mike Brady from ocean liner designs and today we'll try and answer the kind of question that might only occur to you in the shower why don't ships have [Music] headlights it was a freezing cold night when RMS Titanic's Lookouts high up on the m and The Crows Nest platform spotted the iceberg ahead in fact they didn't even really see it rather they described it as a lack of stars against the sky it was so dark that the Berg just Blended right in to the sky and sea ahead with just over 30 seconds to react the crew tried to get the ship out of Harm's Way but it was too late shortly after the ship had sunk in New York City the first inquiry was chaired by a US senator William Alden Smith and he asked many the crew and passengers what they thought had happened two of the ship's officers testified that if they' had a spotlight that night of some kind it would have helped them site the Berg sooner the thing is it was an unusually dark night moonless as they say when the moon is hidden by the Earth's Shadow and blacked out coupled with the rare Cal where the water was as flat as a garden pond the crew stood very little chance of spotting the iceberg in the first place ice can be seen from far away when there's a moon the light will reflect off its White surface but if there's no moon then the waves lapping at the Berg's base can be spotted too so would a spotlight have helped the chances are that the officers are right and that yes in those unusual specific conditions the spotlight might have helped them but the truth is that powerful lights like that mounted on the front of the ship can be more dangerous than they are useful ship's crew rely on their eyesight for safe operating of their ships at Sea and they've done that for centuries Lookouts were prized the days of sale for their excellent Vision a skilled Lookout could spot a ship on the horizon and then determine its type and home nation when to you or I it might have looked like a small white Speck at night Lookouts were employed to keep an eye out for tiny signs of friend foe or danger the slight flicker of a lantern off in the distance for example or if the navigation was completely off The Telltale Roar and white foam of breaking waves on the shore ahead for this Lookouts needed excellent night vision the ability to pierce through the darkness and discern what it was that they were looking at by Titanic's day and even today things have not changed much sharp vision is still very much prised but so is night vision being able to figure out what you're seeing ahead or to the side of you at night is absolutely Paramount for a few reasons first for navigation beacons and boys floating on the surface Mark crucial channels and water Lanes like highways where ships of different types and sizes should sail seeing them through the dark will ensure safe passage but if you miss their Telltale location the ship may be headed for disaster the running lights of other ships at night are critical as well ships have lights positioned in specific locations to help identify which direction they're heading in the port or left side of a ship by the bridge has a red light and the starboard or right hand side of the ship has a green one and then another light is positioned way up high in the ship's mast or antenna from a distance then other ships can see what direction you're heading in for example if you can see just red then the ship is heading right to left but if you can see all three of those lights at the same time then the ship's heading directly at you but if the ship had big spotlights fitted like the headlights of a car suddenly the night's Darkness ahead would be made murky by the powerful spotlights you couldn't make anything out the crew's night vision would be ruined and nothing could be seen at all Channel markers or other ship's lights might go unnoticed leading to disaster it's the same situation when it comes to obstacles or dangerous conditions ahead a search light on the bow of a ship might only be useful for a few rare times in a ship's life if it was on all the time it would be a massive headache for the crew who are trying to see way ahead of their ship night vision is so prized that on liners of Titanic's day anything forward of the bridge was blacked out lights either were shielded or turned off to preserve night vision ahead Titanic was actually fitted with deck lamps all over the upper decks to provide 360° of ambient light but the ones closest to the bridge were fitted with a shroud so that the light couldn't shine forward and ruin the crew's Night Vision Night Vision was so prised in fact the Titanic's Helmsman who was the man actually at the steering wheel or Helm of the ship was kept in a special room called The Wheelhouse which was then fitted with shutters so that the light of the room wouldn't spill into the main navigating bridge and ruined the crew night Vision on Modern passenger ships the conditions are actually the same one of the most quiet Dark Places at Sea on a big cruise ship is right at the front towards the bow where things are kept in the dark but of course on the bridge of a ship you still need to see what you're doing so red light can be used to light areas up without ruining night vision so it's often used especially on warships and submarines to preserve crucial night vision for the crew but spotlights and search lights on ships have come in very handy in indeed in fact contemporary ships to Titanic were built with a kind of headlight it's likely that on the night of Titanic sinking even a low powerered Spotlight mounted near the bow might have helped illuminate the iceberg earlier but in deciding to use it in the first place the crew would have surely been extremely nervous at having their night vision ruined by the Light if Titanic was actually fitted with a surch light I doubt they have even used it at all because that night's conditions would probably have been one of the absolute few and rare times it might have never come in handy another time might have been in the fog if a ship is surrounded by dense fog lighting the way forward with a spotlight might at the very least warn other ships in the immediate vicinity of your presence this and the Titanic's recent loss must have been front of mine to Albert bin and the designers of the German ocean liner imperator in 1912 the ship was designed and built in Germany and featured a very prominent carbon Arc Spotlight on the forward m a huge thing almost level with the bridge carbon Arc lamps are extremely powerful things they're actually the types of light that are used in the spotlights that you see from the world wars imperator probably received her Spotlight to reassure passengers more than anything else it's unknown if the thing was ever used because of course Sailors trusted and preferred their night vision imperator and her sister fand are two of the only liners I can think of that sported this kind of light but recently I came across this beautiful painting by Maritime artist Kenneth shith who is an absolute Legend of his craft it shows the British liner aerus transiting the sez canal in the 1920s and Shining out of the actual bow or front end of the ship is something you could almost certainly describe as a headlight this is an example of a Suez light lights fitted to ship specifically for transiting through the Suez Canal now it's such a narrow body of water that one wrong move could result in stuck ships so seeing ahead in the days before radar technology was crucial for safe navigation here and in fact ships to this day are still fitted with search lights specifically for this one purpose if they are expected to navigate their way through the sez spotlights are extremely useful on ships but not just for lighting the way ahead you'll see them mounted on warships to this day extraordinarily powerful things they can do two things first they can Flash signals to Friendly ships when using the radio might be inadvisable and secondly they can shine into the darkness and around the ship and light up any potential hostile threats in case they're sneaking in close to engage in the second world war the naval battle of guadal canal was fought at nighttime and it was a complete shambles with examples of Friendly Fire and the confusion but crucially search lights were used to illuminate enemy Targets in the dark and guide the heavy gunfire the Japanese Destroyer Akatsuki and the battleship he used their massive carbon Arc lights to illuminate the American Cruiser Atlanta at almost Point Blank Range but it had an unintended effect the light revealed the Japanese ship's positions and akitsuki found herself marked out as an easy target she was engaged by six American ships who could see her in the dark and she was smashed with gunfire and she blew up shortly after so clearly using spotlights at Sea can have unintended consequences both in peace and wartime so how do ships see in the dark today safely well it turns out that we actually have a piece of technology that is more effective at piercing through the darkness than the human eyeball radar relies on electromagnetic waves sending pulses which are reflected by objects ahead sent back and mapped out in Clear Vision be it day or night with this a modern ship could spot anything well ahead and in fact modern day vessels carry different types of radar for different uses and distances if Titanic was carrying a radar her crew would have cited the iceberg from miles away in fact modern radar can sight targets from 24 nautical miles or over 40 kmet distance it's estimated that Titanic's crew only spotted the iceberg from about, 1500 ft or just shy of 500 M an interesting exception to the headlight situation at Sea are ice breakers amazing ships that we actually covered in an earlier video but these beasts are fitted with powerful search lights all over them because unlike normal ship they're actually expected to be in contact with the ice and obstacles while they slowly steam ahead so the crew really need to see what they're doing so why don't ships have headlights well some do but it turns out for the vast majority the human eyeball is just as good we know that from history Lookouts prioritize their night vision over any kind of artificial light that might be able to help them see a little bit further ahead in war they were useful for signaling to Friendly ships but using them in battle could be EXT extremely dangerous and as for ships today we don't really need to light the way ahead radar does it for us seeing many miles into the distance for us and keeping our modern shipping safe ladies and gentlemen it's your friend Mike Brady from Ocean Lin designs thank you so much for watching this video If you enjoyed it please leave a comment below don't forget to subscribe to the channel because we get new videos out weekly if you want to support my work and get really cool perks like behind the scenes and Early Access please visit my patreon in the link in the description below or sign up as a YouTube member come and join the crew as always stay safe stay happy I'll see you again next time

Channel: Oceanliner Designs

Views: 1,439,487

Keywords: great ocean liners, maritime history, ocean liners, famous oceanliners, ships documentary, history of ships, engineering, history, ships, documentary, origins explained, world history project, animated history, open educational resources, titanic, shipwreck, sinking, boats, ocean, disaster, tragedy

Id: 7X-cwX6Ew78

Length: 11min 36sec (696 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 14 2024