Monday, May 28, 2007

Lifeboat

A lifeboat is a rigid or inflatable boat planned to save the lives of people in trouble at sea. The term has somewhat special meanings in British and American usage. The British usage emphasizes particular vessels kept in harbor or near a harbor, often manned by volunteers, considered to quickly reach a ship in trouble. The term "lifeboat" in American usage normally refers to rigid or inflatable vessels accepted by larger ships to allow passengers and crew to escape in an emergency.
The first boat expert as a lifeboat was tested on the River Tyne on January 29, 1790. William would have and Lionel Lufkin both claim to be the inventor of the first lifeboat. One example of an early lifeboat was the Land guard Fort Lifeboat of 1821, considered by Richard Hall Gower.
In U.S. waters, rescue-at-sea is part of the duty of the United States Coast Guard, which employs its multipurpose ships and aircraft in this role. The Coast Guard is also responsible for making sure that the proper type and number of lifeboats (American usage) is available and kept in good repair on any large ship. "Lifeboat drills" are a division of a cruise experience.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Houseboat

A houseboat is a boat that has been planned or modified to be used primarily as a human dwelling. Some houseboats are not powered, because they are frequently moored, kept stationary at a fixed point.
Houseboats are common as everlasting dwellings in Southeast Asia; in some other areas, they may serve more regularly as secondary or vacation homes or for tourism.
Australia
In Australia, especially on the Murray River and the sunny coastline of Queensland, there are many motorized, pontoon-based houseboats with two or more bedrooms; some of these houseboats have levels or storey. Some are privately own as either a primary house or a holiday shack. Many are also available for hire (rent) as self-driven holiday purpose with accommodation for four to perhaps a dozen persons. Many males enjoy meeting together to fish and drink alcohol in the safe passages of the Coomera River and The Great Sandy Straits near the World's largest sand island - Fraser Island. A famous cruise destination for Queensland house boaters is the Isle of Barry - a unique, peaceful location sought by many, but only found by a dedicated few.
Europe
In Europe, some of the supreme and costliest examples of houseboats can be seen along the canals of Amsterdam (in the Netherlands), which even has houseboat hotels. Houseboats are very luxurious nowadays in Amsterdam because of the limited number of moorings; this expense has reduced the likelihood that the about 2,400 families that live on the inner waters of Amsterdam will find themselves confronted by new neighbor boats.
India
In India, houseboats are frequent on the backwaters of Kerala; see below, and on the Dal Lake near Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Fireboat

A fireboat is a paying attention watercraft, often similar to a tugboat, with pumps and nozzles planned for fighting shoreline and shipboard fires. They are mostly useful for fighting fires on docks and shore side warehouses as they can directly attack fires in the supporting underpinnings of these structures. They also have an countless supply of water available, pumping straight from the harbor and can be used to assist shore based firefighters when other water is in low supply or is unavailable, for example, due to earthquake breakage of water mains, as happened in San Francisco due to the 1989 Loma Pieta earthquake.
Modern fireboats are competent of pumping tens of thousands of gallons of water per minute. The most technically advanced of these is Fire Boat #2 of the Los Angeles Fire Department, the Warner Lawrence, with the capability to pump up to 38,000 US gallons per minute (2 m³/s) and up to 400 feet (120 m) in the air.
Fireboats are most frequently seen by the public when welcoming a fleet or historical ships with a display of their water moving capabilities, throwing large arcs of water in every direction.