What Are Accommodations like on a ship? How are they designed?

Professional Mariner Forum
1

I’ve been looking at how ships are designed lately, specifically how the living and working spaces are designed and laid out. I used to think a ship is just a giant floating steel box can where everything’s crammed in, but there’s so much more to it to make living conditions better for mariners,

Human Factors in Design

So, here’s the deal. Naval architects have to remember that ships are home for the crew for weeks, sometimes months, on end. It’s not just about slapping some beds and a mess hall together. They’ve got to consider everything from how much the crew mixes socially to making sure no one feels like they’re stuck in solitary confinement.

Social and Psychological Considerations

Living on a ship is, like, totally unnatural. It’s not like you can just step out for a breath of fresh air or hit up a coffee shop if you’re feeling lonely. So, architects have to design spaces that encourage people to actually bump into each other and chat. This isn’t just some feel-good thing; it helps keep everyone sane and more willing to come back for another trip.

Automation and Crew Size

Ships are getting larger but run with fewer crew members, which might sound great for the bottom line, but it can suck for the people onboard. Fewer people mean fewer chances to socialize, so they try to design spaces that make it easy to run into others, like common rooms or shared galleys. Guys are spending more time in their cabins and this will only happen more often now that starlink is getting installed on most shios.

Living Quarters

Let’s talk about the cabins. In the past, crew members were crammed into the bow, where it’s super noisy and dangerous. Not anymore. Now, everyone gets an “outside room” with a window, even if it’s just a small one. Officers get a bit more space, like a private bathroom and maybe a lounge chair. Ratings (the rest of the crew) might have to share a bathroom, but at least they get a bit of privacy.

Food Is Everything

This is huge: good food makes or breaks the crew’s experience. There are strict rules about how many separate mess areas there have to be, depending on the size of the ship and the flag it’s operating undert. Some small ships have just one for everyone, while larger ships might have different messes. It’s all about making sure the food is good and the environment is decent because, let’s be honest, if you’ve got good food, you can deal with a lot of other crap.

Public Spaces

For long voyages, ships sometimes have lounges, gyms, or even swimming pools. Sounds fancy, but it’s all about fighting boredom. If you’re stuck in the middle of the ocean with nothing to do, you’ll go nuts. So, they try to include spaces where people can hang out, watch TV, or get a workout in.

Accessibility

Getting around the ship is another big deal. “ladders” (stairs) should run fore and aft, not side-to-side, because rolling waves can make them dangerous. They also try to make sure there are at least two ways to get to the deck in case of emergencies. And those heavy-duty doors? They’re designed to handle big waves and heavy winds, but they still need to be wide enough to get furniture through.

So yeah, next time you see a ship, remember it’s all about keeping the crew happy, safe, and coming back for more… all while not costing the shipowner too much money.

TL;DR: Ship accommodations are designed with a lot of thought about human needs, social interactions, and safety. It’s not just about throwing in some bunks and calling it a day. But at the end of the day most ships accommodations - apart from cruise ships - are rather basic because ship owners hate spending more money than they have to.

1 Like
2

You need to look at the officer staterooms on ships (particularly tankers) built 50 years ago if you want to see examples of what made sailing far better than it is now.

9 Likes
3

OP
I think you are a tad out of date or are only looking at American ships.

Even the most basic handymax bulker has single room with en suite for even the lowliest crew member.

I hasten to add I hear only served on American OSV s and they were pretty basic compared to what I was used to on European rugs and OSV s

Officers accommodation on even the most basic large ship is fairly luxurious.

Even as a 3/0 in the 80’s I would expect a spacious cabin with en suite plus a nice writing area/ office, and of course a steward to make my bed and clean my cabin.

As I moved away from deep sea as a mate I still expected an ensuite even if the cabin was a little compact.
As master it didn’t matter what size of ship but as a minimum I had a cabin, separate sleeping area , ensuite plus an office.
But as I say I spent little time American flag.

It was fun

4

Yea you’re not getting that today. Unless you count the particle board desk as a nice writing area.

4 Likes
5

Working on a drillship in the Gulf Of Mexico or Internationally is far different. Staterooms are mediocre at best. It is all about maximizing personnel capacity.
Most rooms are double occupancy, with some being quadruple occupancy. They consist of a set a bunkbeds, a small desk with electrical outlet, a settee/sofa which is just wide enough to set a bad down but not comfortable to sit and relax. There is also a small washroom which gets the job done. As chief officer it is far from the nice accommodations that you may have on a bulker or tanker with seating areas and spacious cabins.

2 Likes
6

In the vlog linked below they do a tour of a modern drilling rig, they have a look in his cabin 17 minutes 17 seconds in.

It is a really small cabin with two beds side by side, but with a private toilet/shower. Only one person will be in the cabin at any time, with two people doing 12 hour shifts sharing it.

1 Like
7

They are designed by fuckwits who are paid by morons who get their stupid fucking wives and daughters to specify the furnishings.
I miss teak decks.

2 Likes
8

I recall reading an internal design guideline stating that you should always design the accommodation keeping in mind that you might end up staying onboard the ship at some point and someone will tell the crew that you designed it…

When I visited the first ship I had designed at the shipyard shortly before delivery, a burly crewman with either a polar bear or a T-72 tank (or both) in his family tree grabbed the electrical engineer walking behind me, pulled him into his cabin, and started loudly complaining about the size of the shower cubicle with a heavily accented English. I’ve started using one size bigger modular units since…

In general, I’m quite happy that I mainly work with high-spec ships where I can “waste” some space and money on bigger cabins and better common spaces. It’s much more fun to think what extra the crew could have instead of with what they could do without. Having a retired sailor upstream in the family tree also ensures that I see the ship as a place where people actually live rather than a vehicle that should have just the bare minimum of amenities.

9 Likes
9

Kudos to you. From reading your posts from the last several years you seem to be the type of architect who sees the big picture while trying to perfect the minute details.

From my experiences with different types & comfort levels of onboard accommodations. Mostly crews will gravitate to where they belong or form into the pegs to fit into the holes provided. On spartan, little tight rooms of drillships & rigs, the crew will turn in to the coverall wearing, 28 days tools the companies wants them to be. No joy, no loyalties, get in your drawer at the end of day, 28 days at a time & stay with it until you’re too worn out or no longer needed. If a vessel has a lot traditional maritime nostalgia built into it the crew will become old sailors fast. If its a clean, spacious, professional, modern OSV, the crew usually tries to act the part to keep her up & keep their jobs & comfort level the same. Old ratty tugs usually get pirate wannabes or rejects with the know-how to keep the ratty tugs going. Whatever the owners & architects build will probably be what they’ll get concerning crew.

1 Like
10

We once had an intern from Webb Institute ride for a 10-day voyage. He had this 24/7 the entire time…

3 Likes
11

I worked on OSVs with big cabins with private toilet/shower, then went to work on a drilling rig with a tiny cabin and shared shared a toilet/shoer in jack/jill style with the cabin next door.

Honestly found the tiny cabin absolutely fine, got used to it. I was working 12 hour shifts, after shift I would go to the gym, then go straight to bed, then wake up and get dressed and go for dinner. There was hardly enough space for a chair in the cabin, I never sat in a chair once when in the cabin.

When people are working a 4 hours on 8 hours off watch pattern they tend to spend a lot more time in their cabins. So a bigger cabin would be necessary there.

On drilling rigs head of department generally don’t spend a lot of time in their cabins during working hours. Working on cargo ships I came across some Captains and Chief Engineers who hardly left their cabins, that would never happen on a drilling rig. So cabins don’t need to be so good because people spend more time working and less time sitting in their cabin.

12

My experience has been on Scandinavian built ships from '78 to '90. Aside from single cabins for all officers and crew with very nice Scandinavian furniture, the Saloon as the Smoke room were also very well appointed. 1st/2nd eng cabin had big day room/office and separate bedroom. Chief/Capt had an office, separate day room and a bedroom. Doors were always open unless retired for the night - but door never locked.
Most of the free time was spent in the smoke room - good camaraderie.
Then my experience in the 90s on US ships - US built was like stepping back to the 1900s. On the more modern foreign built ships accommodations were good, but most of the officers usually ended up in their cabins. Common area like the ‘smoke’ room was usually empty. But the food … unbelievable. About 4x of a ‘rest of the world’ ship.

1 Like
13

On drilling rigs they go home after 28 days in the US. You’d be surprised how much work goes on in the Capt. or CE’s cabins/offices on seagoing ships. Drilling rigs or drill ships aren’t in the same class as ships that crew change after 60, 90 or 120 days which is not abnormal in the maritime industry.

14

That and their office is their cabin. Same with Chief Mate.

15

The designers left the building in 1980

1 Like
16

The tankers I was on (T-AO) the Capt & CE had an office with stateroom on one side and spacious day-room on the other…some Chiefs never stepped foot outside unless maneuvering/unrep. CM and 1E just had the office and stateroom. Other officers cabins were comfortable.

Drillships usually all double occupancy, save a couple singles nearly of the same size. Except the Samsung 10000 class which the Capt and I had rather large dayrooms and small staterooms off of it. Never spent minute in the dayroom except under quarantine when some schmuck brought actual flu out to the rig. But otherwise out on deck, in the office, and occasionally sleeping, (or sleeping in the office).

Now those nice Norwegian semi-subs…140 single cabins with barely enough space to turn around, and the toilet practically in the shower…

17

Sounds a lot like the Champion class (OSI’s tankers). Even the junior officer rooms were pretty spacious. Think my room on the Matthiessen as 3/M was bigger than my room now as Captain on a converted OSV. :face_with_diagonal_mouth:

1 Like
18

You mean like this one?

1 Like
19

Those cabins look perfect for a drilling rig.

Still have to share a toilet/shower but that arrangement looks ok with the little foyer between the cabins and the toilet/shower.

I don’t like it when you share a toilet/shower when there is a door directly into the toilet/shower from the cabin. If you end up with someone on the same shift in the other cabin it can be quite disruptive in terms of noise.

1 Like
20

Did you notice that in the Messroom there were chairs not benches and no condiment rack in the middle of the tables?