Stern - Cruiser Stern

Cruiser Stern

As ships of wooden construction gave way to iron and steel, the cruiser stern—another design without transoms and known variously as the canoe stern, parabolic stern, and the double-ended stern—became the next prominent development in ship stern design, particularly in warships of the latter half of the 20th century. The intent of this re-design was to protect the steering gear by bringing it below the armor deck. The stern now came to a point rather than a flat panel or a gentle curve, and the counter reached from the sternpost all the way to the taffrail in a continuous arch. It was soon discovered that vessels with cruiser sterns experienced less water resistance when under way than those with elliptical sterns, and between World War I and World War II most merchant ship designs soon followed suit.

None of these three main types of stern has vanished from the modern naval architectural repertoire, and all three continue to be utilized in one form or another by different sets of designers and for a broad spectrum of uses. Variations on these basic designs have resulted in an outflow of "new" stern types and names, only some of which are itemized here.