| U.L.C.C. |
The initial letters of Ultra Large Crude Carrier, a code of letters to describe the huge oil tankers, larger than the V.L.C.C, currently being built. A tanker of 484,000 tons recently launched in Japan is the largest U.L.C.C. so far built, though tankers of over 500,000 tons are in the course of construction and still larger ones of up to 800,000 tons are being designed. |
| UNDER WAY |
The description of a ship which has movement through the water. The term is frequently written as under weigh. Theoretically, a ship is considered to be under weigh only when her anchor has been broken out of the bottom and she herself is still stationary in the water; she is under way as soon as she begins to move under her own power. However, the two terms have become virtually synonymous today, under weigh being a modern spelling distortion of an older term. As the rudder of a ship is effective only when she is moving through the water, the importance of being under way is that the ship will then answer her helm and thus becomes subject to the rule of the road and at night must burn the correct navigation lights. |
| UNDER-RUN |
The operation of hauling a hawser or warp over a skiff or boat in order to clear it from an underwater obstruction. To under-run a tackle is to separate all the moving parts so that none are crossing and the tackle is clear for use. |
| UNDERWRITER |
An insurer of ships and cargoes from loss and damage, the name coming from the insurer writing his name under the policy of insurance. The request for insurance is termed the offering of a ‘risk’, and in marine insurance the word risk is equivalent to the liability of the underwriter. Each underwriter of a marine insurance puts opposite his name the percentage of the total risk for which he accepts liability. |
| UP AND DOWN |
The situation of the cable when it has been hove in sufficiently to bring the bows of the ship directly over her anchor. |
| UP FUNNEL, DOWN SCREW |
The order given in British naval ships during the early days of steam propulsion when it was decided to furl the sails of a ship and proceed on the engine. In those early days, when no ship could carry on board enough fuel to work her engine for the whole of a passage, the engine was used only as an auxiliary means of propulsion when the wind failed. At the order, the boiler funnel was rigged on deck and the propeller or screw lowered in its well until it was clear of the hull and could be coupled to the engine shaft. |
| UPPER DECK |
The highest of the continuous decks which run the full length of a ship without a fall or interruption. It is the deck next above the main deck in those ships which have more than a single deck. In some very large passenger liners, the decks are numbered, or designated by letters, instead of having names. |