Maritime Navigation, Geology, Containerisation & Cell Biology – Comprehensive Study Notes

Historical Maritime Power & Navigation

• Britannia ruled the waves

  • Britain was the technological powerhouse of its era; naval dominance enabled the movement of people, goods, and military forces.

• Great Western Railway vs. Great Western Land-mass?

  • Speaker references “Great Western” as a very old portion of continental crust that has experienced volcanism.

• Early speed measurement at sea

  • Sailors used a long rope with evenly spaced knots; by letting it trail astern for a known number of seconds they could measure speed in “knots.”

  • Example procedure: count the knots that pass overboard during a fixed time-interval to calculate speed.

• Longitude problem

  • Latitude had been solvable for centuries, but longitude required accurate timekeeping.

  • Solution: keep a clock set to the time at a known reference point (Greenwich, England) and compare it to local solar noon.

  • Establishment of 0^\circ longitude at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich ➜ “Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).”

  • Reference to pre-digital era: people rang the BBC phone line for the exact time signal.

  • Modern satellites now give instantaneous position fixes, reducing shipwrecks and navigational errors.

Geology – Volcano Types & Earth-Forming Processes

• Shield volcanoes

  • Broad, gently sloping, formed by low-viscosity basaltic lava that oozes rather than explodes.

  • Hawaii presented as the archetype.

  • Classroom metaphor: “like a blood-pluk” (thick, slow-moving fluid).

• Stratovolcanoes (explosive type)

  • High viscosity magmas ➜ gas pressure builds ➜ violent eruptions (“does it squirt like a volcano?”).

• Importance

  • Volcanic outgassing contributed to early atmosphere & climate regulation.

  • Ancient landmass (“Great Western”) is extremely old and shows evidence of long-extinct volcanoes.

Containerisation & Global Trade

• Pre-1950s brake-bulk shipping

  • Cargo handled piece-by-piece (“grate bulk”): \approx 8 days loading + \approx 8 days unloading per voyage.

  • Labour-intensive, high damage/loss risk; relied on stevedores (dock workers who load/unload ships).

• Malcolm McLean’s 1937 idea

  • As a frustrated truck driver, envisioned lifting his entire trailer onto the ship intact ➜ standardised shipping container.

• Ideal X – first container ship

  • Sailed with 58 containers; demonstration that cargo could remain sealed from origin to destination.

• Impact of containerisation

  • Dramatically cut port time ➜ lower costs ➜ explosion of global trade & consumer choice.

  • Modern ports (e.g.
    Fremantle) now dominated by container cranes; bulk wheat terminals exist but most general cargo is containerised.

Miscellaneous Classroom Notes & Terminology

• Stevedore = dock worker loading/unloading ships.

• GMT / UTC still maintained by atomic clocks at Greenwich.

• Satellite navigation solved “Where are we?” quickly & accurately; still doesn’t eliminate every maritime accident but greatly reduces them.