Through a lot of expensive and dangerous trial-and-error over multiple centuries — sometimes resulting in shipwrecks you still can explore today — humans have ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---University of Michigan researchers are investigating a radical new design for cargo ships that would eliminate ballast tanks, the water-filled compartments that enable non-native ...

Ships have always required ballast to operate successfully and safely. For millennia, ships carried solid ballast in the form of rocks, sand, roof tiles, and many other heavy materials. From the 1880s ...

Ship owners and operators want to carry as little ballast as possible on a voyage. Increased ballast causes a reduction in ship speed and an increase in fuel consumption, or both, with associated ...