With regards to safety, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) regularly issue regulations and technical standards for the design and construction of ships in order to safeguard the crew and people on board. In light of these regulations, three issues concerning the properties of a bulk carrier are investigated. Initially the floodability of a bulk carrier is researched to investigate the largest possible volumes of compartments which can be flooded without causing a bulk carrier to capsize. The results are determined by means of a marine design software, Maxsurf Enterprise.

The paper presents the outcome of the research that has been completed recently at the Faculty of Navigation (FoN); Maritime University of Szczecin, Poland. The aim of the research is to show the maritime society what female students – future maritime women – think about studying the navigation and future work at sea. The research has been done by a group of female students – prospective seafarers. It is based on a questionnaire directed to fellow female students which contains 29 questions concerning the motivation for commencing the study in the field of maritime navigation, aspirations, fears and obstacles faced by female seafarers related to present study,internship onboard seagoing ships and future work. 128 female students responded to the questionnaire. The answers have been gathered into groups of interest. The findings are presented in terms of diagrams and comments. The paper contains valuable information that may be used by maritime universities, ship owners and other potential employers of maritime female students – in particular maritime policy makers. One of the interesting findings is that 84% of the female students declare they would choose the same field of study having experience (including seagoing intership) gained so far. The paper presents also the change of the number of female students at FoN in the last 10 years. It is the sign of relatively high interest of young women in maritime navigation in Poland – the country that is one of the biggest suppliers of officers for seagoing ships.

The aim of the present work is the influence of stray currents on transport systems, especially rail and city systems. Therefore, a study was conducted that simulated flow of stray currents on elements of the transportation system. Steel DOMEX, which has enhanced resistance to corrosion, was used as research material. It is rarely understood that transport systems can have reciprocal negative effects on each other. For example, the urban and long-distance rail transport systems influence the transmission systems (gas pipelines, information systems). A side effect of the functioning of railways is the formation of stray currents, which cause electrochemical corrosion in all undergrounded metal components. It has been demonstrated that the impact of stray currents on the metal parts is of corrosive nature, and their effects can be presented graphically and numerically. It has also been proven that the anodic potential causes a greater loss than the cathodic potential. Furthermore, the exposure to the elements, both in the process of corrosion and erosion, accelerates the destruction of the material.

Due to the accelerating demand for transporting raw materials around the world over the last century, bulk carriers are being constantly developed in order to maximise their capacity and efficiency whilst maintaining safety and durability of the vessels. With regards to safety, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) recurrently issue regulations and technical standards for the design and construction of ships, in order to safeguard the crew and other people on board. In light of these regulations, three issues concerning the properties of a bulk carrier are investigated. Firstly, the floodability of a bulk carrier is researched, to determine the largest possible volumes of compartments which can be flooded without causing the bulk carrier to capsize. Results were determined both manually and by means of marine design software, Maxsurf Enterprise; results generated by the two methods are compared. Additionally, a series of loadcases, each consisting of a different cargo and ballast configuration, are sought to reveal their effect on both the still water bending moment and the intact stability of the vessel. The results are analysed in relation to the IMO’s criteria.