Naval Architecture is a modern, cutting edge science based on hundreds of years of accumulated knowledge. Along with this knowledge there is a lot of jargon which is a precise way of saying something but it often leaves the beginner confounded.

Hey teacher isn't Freeboard a song by that band Lynyrd Skynyrd?

Our maritime glossary seeks to cut through these foggy terms and give everyone the common knowledge it will take to move the industry forward. Future generations of ship designers will laugh at our simple machines that measure processer cycles in gigaflops as they model a new generation of ships with laser holography.

So let's give them a good start with the basics of ship architecture, a simple definition of buoyancy, and introduce the minimum bounding box so they know there are practical uses for geometry despite their suspicions.

Whether you are starting your journey into naval architecture or ship brokerage it is important to know the classifications for cargo and other ships.

Learn the basics of ship classification and why shipping bottlenecks have such a big impact on freight logistics. The history and reasons behind design decisions are quite interesting and shed light onto the past and future of cargo movements around the globe.

Photo Canalmuseum.com

If you are interested in a maritime sector job but have no experience you may want to check out our newest installment of the "Ports of Entry" series that discusses various entry level opportunities in the industry.

"Ports of Entry - Small Vessels" looks at employment opportunities in coastal and inland waterway situations. If you don't live near the coast or major rivers don't be disappointed since we also look at some jobs on landlocked bodies of water that can help build skills that transfer to many other jobs.

Canada and the United States have the same standards to meet under the STCW convention but the two nations take much different approaches to training their mariners.

This week Maritime Executive Magazine is hosting a forum May 7 - 9 in Washington D.C. as part of Maritime Week. The topic is "Revitalizing the Maritime Industry" which is a perennial topic within the industry but has little interest among the general public. This out of sight, out of mind attitude plagues the whole sector and is a significant reason that almost no funding is provided to grow or at least sustain something that is so integral to the nation's economy and independence.

For example consider the process of obtaining your first professional license. It was a process that took some time whether you did the work with a quill and iron-gall ink or with your smartphone. The biggest difference is not the curriculum, since that is set by treaty, but the upfront investment a potential mariner must make to complete a program.

The fact that a Canadian might pay $20 out of pocket to obtain a license that costs an American worker thousands of dollars contributes to the lack of vibrancy in the industry. There are few solutions to this particular problem and the whole issue in general. It will be necessary to take some action soon or we might be faced with the extinction of the American ship owner and eventually, the American mariner.