How big is big?

Paul Stott, of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, considers how best to measure ships

It is a difficult fact of life that, despite the huge leaps in safety that have been made in the past 100 years, seafaring will always remain to some degree a risky business. Accidents will happen and when they do the event is often of significant public interest and will be reported by the general media. One of the most recent high profile accidents has been the grounding of the cruise ship Costa Concordia on the Island of Giglio in January 2012. It is not only the accident itself has been of general interest, however. The heroic and very expensive activities of salvors have also been widely reported and have been of great public interest. The interest stems primarily from the sheer size of the task salvors are attempting, including the ‘manhandling’ of a cruise ship to render it upright and then remove it from the rocks.