I watched Oasis of the Seas pull into town on tv with a feeling of dread. I am no naval architect, but modern concepts in cruise ship design are, in my opinion, unsafe. The trend today is to larger and larger cruisers, combined with extreme shallow drafts (so they can get into more harbors), boxy shapes (to increase internal volume), and very tall superstructures (to increase passenger capacity) with every outboard cabin provided with its own balcony and doors to access it. The result are vessels that, all else being equal, are unstable and unseaworthy, vulnerable to high winds and heavy seas.

The classic ocean liner hull design emphasized safety and speed in heavy weather, primarily because they serviced passenger routes, like the North Atlantic run, where the ship was forced to travel long distances far from port in some of the stormiest weather on Earth. The Caribbean cruise trade, with its satellite hurricane forecasting, always-nearby ports and (usually) placid seas has encouraged the construction of vessels designed mainly to carry as many passengers as possible in extravagant luxury. I fear that someday we will learn again how intolerant the sea is of purely economic considerations.

Traditionally, a ship's complex hull shape was the result of centuries of trial and error experience and clever engineering calculations that took advantage of the laws of buoyancy and leverage to keep her upright and safe in a seaway. This usually meant high construction costs, and severe limitations on usable internal volume relative to length. In other words, safety costs money. Modern cruise ships often rely on stabilizers to maintain their stability (and protect their passengers from seasickness). Stabilizers, large airfoils mounted below the waterline free to rotate around an axis perpendicular to the ship's centerline, keep her rigidly upright when her natural tendency is to roll with the seas. I've cruised on a liner retro-fitted with these stabilizers, and felt the residual motion that they imparted to the hull disturbing and unnatural. These fins work on feedback principles, are gyro and computer-controlled, and have already been the cause of at least one multiple-injury accident (in perfectly calm weather!) when they unexpectedly malfunctioned. And of course, stabilizers don't work at all when a ship is dead in the water.

I'm sure these ships are designed by conscientious and clever people and have employed the latest technology to keep them safe, but the first line of defense, common sense design that works with the sea, not against it, has been abandoned. I can't help but have a bad feeling about ships like this. Sailors are by their very nature, conservative.