There are plenty of websites that summarise key facts about ships and boats across our planet – a wonderful source of mathematical discovery. For example, http://www.wildearth-travel.com/ships/.
Bev Dunbar was recently on a river cruise down the Irrawaddy (Ayeyarwady) River in Myanmar when she spotted this magnificent river boat – MV Road to Mandalay. It’s a luxury boat that was originally brought from Germany in the 1990s but it was completely refitted after the devastating Cyclone Nagis in 2008. It is 101.6 metres long, with an 11.7 beam (width), a 1.45 m draft (underwater depth) and 900 tonnes gross tonnage. There are 4 decks which include 43 cabins that can take 82 passengers down the river in style from Mandalay to Bagan and back again. There are 108 crew members. And there are plenty of maths discussions just regarding the size of the cabins on this vessel.