Is it true that a cruise ship uses a gallon of fuel per every 17 inches travelled??? How big can the fuel?

Question

tanks possibly be? Wouldn't that mean like a million gallons to get from the UK to the US?

Answer 1

Depends on the ship.  If you go here:

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/...

You will find statistics for a military ship that burns 9500 gallons per hour at 25 knots.  This is about 380 gallons per mile, or about 1 gallon every 10 feet.

A cruise ship would be more efficient.  The ship in question is a very large navy supply ship.

So certainly not 1 gallon for 17 inches.

HOWEVER... if the ship sits in port a lot, the ship still burns fuel to power electricity, the kitchens, heat, etc.  If a ship rarely left port, I could see it not traveling very far but burning a lot of fuel just to generate electricity.

Answer 2

I would care less, as long as I was on the ship.

Answer 3

jp and lowflyer have it right..........ships measure fuel in TONS, not gallons; a million gallons at 6.5 pounds per gallon is only 78 tons, which is negligible on a ship that carries 3,000 TONS of fuel...I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I believe Queen Mary 2 has 4 10,000hp diesels and 4 15,000 hp gas turbines, so that's a lot of fuel going up in smoke.....and ships, especially cruise ships, not only burn a lot of fuel to push the hull through the water, but to provide "hotel services" .....A/C, lights, fresh water, food preparation etc etc etc for 2,000 crew and 3,000 passengers, and burn that energy  24/7 whether underway or not.....so I can easily believe that it averages out to a yard a gallon

Answer 4

The newer turbine powered ships get a little better mileage, but not alot. Boats are horridly fuel inefficient, due to the high drag coefficient of water. Even a smaller boat will only get three or four miles to the gallon.

I haven't heard numbers for cruise ships, but they certainly can't be any better than that. I kind of doubt the 17 inches to the gallon, though.

Answer 5

no