Do ships turn off their engines when they reach their destination?

Question

I was told there is an oar in every port.....or is someone pulling my smallish leg?

Answer 1

It depends on a lot of things such as the destination and the length of stay, power needed for loading/unloading, sea conditions, availability of support vessels ( tug boats), etc.

Answer 2

No.

At least the coal burning Ferry's that go from Ludington Michigan to Wisconsin. The smoke all night. Those old Ships cost too much to fire up.

Answer 3

Some of the engines are shut down  (most ships have at least 4) but the engines also run the generators that keep everything working on the ship so one or two always have to be on!

Answer 4

Steve,  what you are seeing on the carferries is the boilers.  They are always fired up, but the staem engines themselves are shut down and warmed up prior to departure.

Answer 5

They may shut down the main engines and switch to an auxiliary generator. A lot depends on the engine configurations, size of the vessel and length of port stay.

Answer 6

I believe it depends on the duration of their stay, whether they turn off their engines, or not (ship movement engines). Also, it would depend on how secure their mooring is and how protected the vessel is from tide and weather elements.

I suppose if there is a vessel in port, then there is some sort of oar, or paddle, in a life boat, or tender.

Other than that, I have never heard of the like and I have been a deep sea and coastal master for many years.

Answer 7

Yes the engines are shut down electrical power is provided either by diesel generators or steam powered generators. The other option is to hook the ship up to shore power. this takes only a few minutes if the pier is rigged for it. Most are that I have dealt with in my time in the navy. 1987-1993. This is done so that maintenance can be done on the engines and to save fuel cost as you know the cost of idling a car is high thanks to Exxon and the gang imagine buying several tons of fuel for every hour a ships engine is run pretty pricey right?

Answer 8

Some do, others don't.   Most ships don't have a "destination" anymore, they just have an endless route they follow.   In that case they might shut down the main engine for repairs or cleaning if its a diesel.    For steam there are usually two boilers and they can shut one down while working on the other.   I've been on a few ships that were in standby status and didn't have their engines running for months at a time.   Generally though ships just leave their engines running since most aren't in port for more than a day at most.

Was that an oar or a h**r in every port?