On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 06:34:58 GMT, otnmbrd
wrote:




Actually, bending stresses would be more of a concern, than the minor
variation in draft from Tropical to Winter.
If you've flown in turbulent weather you've watched a wing flex .....
imagine watching a whole hull doing that.

My father, who turns 80 tomorrow, was in the British Merchant Marine
during WWII. He said that while the losses from U-Boats were
devastating, he found a lot of sailors feared the kind of storm that
could "bridge" a single-hulled, laden freighter between two wave
crests, causing it to fail and essentially snap in half.

He said the ships rushed out in the latter half of the war were worse
for this sort of thing, akin to the "Liberty ships" in the States.

R.