Water and sediment in ships’ ballast tanks provide habitats for various organisms, and thus facilitate alien species introductions. Ballast tank water and sediment of 19 ships docked in the GRYFIA Szczecin Ship Repair Yard (Szczecin, Poland) located in an area connected with the River Odra estuary (Southern Baltic), were sampled in 2009–2011 to find out if the ships could be vectors of species introductions to the estuary, already known for the presence of non-indigenous taxa. This study showed the ballast water of the ships examined to house rotifers, copepods, cladocerans, and bivalve and cirriped larvae – common constituents of zooplankton assemblages in coastal waters. The ballast tank sediment supported meiobenthic foraminiferans, nematodes, harpacticoid copepods, turbellarians, bivalves, polychaetes, and chironomid and cirriped larvae. It is not possible at this stage to judge what meiofaunal taxa constitute an alien component in the estuary biota. Macrobenthos in the ships’ ballast tank sediment examined was represented mainly by nereid polychaetes. Although the unintended “biological cargo” examined proved quite diverse and abundant, it contained few identified alien taxa. It does not seem likely than any of them could pose a threat of a biological invasion in the River Odra estuary. However, numerous species remained unidentified, and therefore assessment of the risk of alien species introduction and invasion contains a large measure of uncertainty. On the other hand, the risk as such remains, since the density of ballast water-borne organisms in all ships exceeded the allowed limits

The authors analyze the methods of effective teaching of physics in the context of an increasingly weak preparation of students from the high school. They draw attention to the opportunities that in this field can offer new multimedia technologies, especially computers, applied to various forms of physical classes. The analysis is based on many years of experience in working with students of different specialties and in different countries

The analysis of students’ education at the Engineering Department of the Maritime University of Szczecin has been presented in this paper with reference to steam and gas turbine propulsion used in marine industry. Changes in syllabuses have been taken into consideration due to the changes of studies organization at the University and requirements for marine crew education. Laboratory base used for practical training has been presented too

The paper presents an algorithm of recommended waterway parameters determination based on relationships derived from actual empirical research (a combination of PIANC and Canadian methods). These relationships are mostly discontinuous functions (e.g.: of ship type variable, speed, method of determining the position, etc.), which can be approximated by continuous spline functions. Application built in the C# allows determining the recommended minimum width of the waterway, width increase due to the accuracy of the vessel positioning method, and the radius of waterway bends for the five input variables of the ship and from ten to sixteen input variables of the area

The paper presents an analysis of the tsunami arrival time as a result of the earthquake on 11.03.2011 on the Pacific Ocean. For 91 ports arranged along coasts of Pacific, one counted theoretical arrival times of the tsunami and compared it with data real noted on water level gauges of West Coast / Alaska Tsunami Warning Center. Change of the coefficient in the formula for the wave arrival time from 5.0 to 4.72 as the average factor for the ports lying directly on the open ocean waters was proposed. This is of practical importance for the possible procedures to improve forecasting and warning system for tsunami, which are important in maintaining the safety of navigation in the coastal zone of the ocean

Since 2009 the Polish Steamship Company has operating on its ships SPOS, which main function is receiving weather information, presentations of this information in the form of synoptic and wave maps with forecasts up to 216 hours. The second function of the system is ability to determine the Great Circle, rhumb line and navigation composite routes and the so-called optimal and recommended by the system route (Optimum High and Wide). Because for each of these routes it is possible to generate in advance ship’s position for one, two, three days and so on until the destination (usually the roadstead of the destination port), it is likely to compare the various routes. SPOS compares distances (NM), duration of voyages (days and hours), expected average speed, as well as date and time ship reaches the destination (ETA – Estimated Time of Arrival). The reliability of these data is dependent on the ship’s characteristics as a control object or ability to obtain the calm water speed (Vo) at full sea speed propeller revolutions, and reduction of vessel speed due to waves and wind. The third element affecting accuracy of a voyage plan in terms of initial estimations is the reliability of weather forecasts (waves, wind, currents, ice restrictions, fog, etc.)

Cyclones are an important limitation in the ships’ route programming. “Jawor” ship voyage from Italy do the U.S. (Baltimore) was an example where “Cyclone” program was used for effective avoidance of “Julia” and “Igor” cyclones in September 2010

The methodologies, planning procedures and integrated seas and ocean routes’ programming are presented. In programming of the most convenient route current and forecasted weather conditions, criteria and restrictions, speed and fuel characteristics of ships on waves and wind, computational methods and algo-rithms, navigation aids generating a route recommendation penetrate themselves. These elements when properly identified and adopted allow the master for effective ship’s course and speed decision making

The paper describes frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar constructed by Przemysłowy Instytut Telekomunikacji SA and installed in Gdynia Maritime University and results of its detection possibility tests conducted in real propagation conditions. Outcomes from the tests were compared with detection distances of pulse radar Raytheon NSC34 with antenna located a few meters from the investigated FMCW radar scanner position

Safety of various human activities depends to a significant extent on weather conditions which are the result of physical processes in the lower layer of the atmosphere. In numerous cases, the wind field information is required in the form of vector field. Complete description of the wind field is not feasible using only the results of standard direct wind measurements even if they are made in a fairly dense measurement network. The paper presents remote sensing measurement systems which provide data for determining the horizontal and vertical components of the wind vector at variety of levels in real time. The remote sensing methods of wind measurements use the Doppler phenomenon, i.e. the relation between the meteorological object movement velocity and the difference in frequency of the original signal and the backscattered one. Results obtained using data from meteorological Doppler radars, including the E700XD mobile radars in Polish Air Bases and radiotheodolite sounding systems are presented. The processed results of measurements are presented in the form of the wind vector fields at selected levels, profiles of the vertical component of the wind vector in a defined layer of the atmosphere and vertical profiles of the wind speed changes

The electromagnetic systems with the shaft-generator are being widely used in marine engineering, nowadays. Simulating investigations of transitory electromagnetic processes in such system require complex mathematical model studies to describe properly the dynamics of the containing objects. The following article is the first part of the final description of the mathematical model of marine electromagnetic system with the shaft-generator. It contains both the discussion about external factors affecting the electromagnetic processes in such system and initial assumptions that should be met by the proposed mathematical model

Research on damage stability and unsinkability is a valuable source of knowledge of behaving a ship while flooding its compartments. In the paper, a short description of accidents and damages of Polish warships is presented. The time when compartment is flooded (tf) and stability parameters are one of the key elements which have influence on a rescue action. The knowledge of the time mentioned is very important for a commanding officer making decisions while fighting for survival of the ship. To provide the information about the time tf a new method was designed. The method was tested experimentally and results of the tests are presented in the paper. In the experiments, the flooding process of compartments in a ship of the type 888 was simulated. The next part of research was carried out on the laboratory stand bed, where the flooding time of damaged compartment of warship model was measured. The results of the experiments can be a base to define general rules to make proper decisions during the process of damage control

The problem considered in this article refers to such representation of data from an electronic navigational chart that fast and effective identification of areas meeting certain criteria, e.g. depths, will be possible. This is of importance in such processes as situation analysis and assessment or the determination of a safe trajectory of ship movement. The recurrent algorithm for area discretization herein presented makes use of the trapezoid mesh. Its properties and requirements, as well as the methodology of area discretization are presented. The results of an experiment based on that algorithm are describe

The article presents a method to determine the gyro correction by utilizing parallel lines used in radar, taking into account the advantages of this method, which are the convenience and ease of use. The accuracy of the method according to the geographical and technical factors was analyzed. The mathematical calculation of the final results accuracy was presented. Situations in which it is recommended to use this method for determining gyrocompass corrections due to the high accuracy were describe

The article presents the results of compliance with the provisions relating to the operation of magnetic compasses and gyrocompasses. The proper conducts of ship’s documents, related to this issue have been analyzed. The paper also presents proposals for action aimed at facilitating and improving the existing situation