The Damen shipyard in Galati, Romania recently launched a new sail training ship for the Royal Navy of Oman. The three masted steel square masted ship will replace the current Omani sail training ship, Shabab Oman, a wooden three masted barkentine. The ship will be rigged and outfitted at Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding in Flushing (the Netherlands). The new ship was designed by Dykstra Naval Architects, who also designed the Stad Amsterdam, Cisne Branco and the Maltese Falcon.
The side launching of the ship set some hearts a flutter on the internet. Several websites, including those which should know better, featured headlines of “Ship Almost Tips Over During Launch” or ” Schooner Nearly Capsizes During Launch.” No one should panic, however. That is just what a side launch looks like. The ship was in no danger. The engineers got their numbers right. Everything is fine. The video below shows the dramatic launch from three different angles.
When the Thresher sank, some superstitious folks said it was due to her being launched bow first, cursing the vessel and offending the gods of the sea. Rubbish, of course.
To Avril Lavigne and the rest,
If you have to use Auto-tune or Vocal-Tune to sing, do us all a favor and don’t sing!
Praise the Lord for ballast!