Blog

Confusingly, Future Maritime Engineers’ first port of call, Warsash Maritime Academy, isn’t actually in Warsash, on the Solent, where it has been for many years. With accommodation and space in mind, the Academy found a new home near Southampton’s Solent University. Warsash retains offshore and firefighting facilities on site, but new bridge simulators – funded by the late Sir Donald Gosling – were created at Solent itself, to accompany a testing tank and classrooms. But those simulators! The one the students used – with panoramic computer graphics recreating Portsmouth harbour, and a modern ship’s bridge responding to helm and engine orders, was a wild experience. As each student “drove” the “ship”, across wakes and rough(ish) water, the “ship” “heeled” in response. So did you, before you realized you were actually standing on a solid concrete floor, and your brain was being bamboozled!