Costa Concordia Shipwreck Photos

[Nikonfan]

Originally Posted by Tom

A ship like that isn't like the Titanic with just three screws on the back with a rudder. These cruise ships can move completely sideways and can turn very tight because of (props or jets, not sure which) on either side of the boat.

Yah, I have no idea what the stats for this ship are. I know oil tankers have jets on the sides as well. Found this online for comparison but I have no idea how accurate any of these stats are. This ship is twice the size of the cruise ship we are talking about and takes 2 miles to turn around:

The worlds largest Oil tanker is the Knock Nevis. (580,000 tonnes) It takes 5.5 miles to stop with a turning circle of over 2 miles. It takes nearly 15 mins to turn 180 degrees.


Read more: How long does it take for an oil tanker to stop

[Stargazer77517]

Modern cruse ships mostly use these

azimuth thrusters - Bing

[Howard Barlow]

With their fore and aft thrusters, modern cruise ships can move 90° sideways and turn 180° on their center. That's why the can 'parallel park' between ships at the dock, without tugs. Of course, forward motion has to be considered in this instance.

....

Whoops! I see Tom said the same thing above.