In 1972, computers were expensive and shared by many users. A computer capable of running GHS might have cost millions of dollars; but you could share one, buying time by the second. It was possible to develop software without spending a fortune: it required working things out on paper and spending very little real time on the computer.
In this manner, a computer program called SCEND was being written by Bill Plice, an engineer-turned-programmer, who was trying to start a business by combining his two major interests.
After receiving a degree in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 1966, Plice had worked at Boeing Computer Services in Seattle while studying yacht design and construction on weekends and evenings. His original purpose had been to build a boat. Now he was pursuing an entrepreneurial side track which he named Creative Systems. Little did he know how far that track would go.
SCEND was a product of Plice's combined knowledge of computing and boat design. Its purpose was to automate the tedious hydrostatic calculations which were often done by hand in those days. It modeled hulls and tanks for the purpose of deriving stability and strength information. As a software product, it was a fresh start. It had no connection with SHCP or any of its other predecessors. Although it ran on a mainframe computer, it looked forward to interactive operation. It pioneered features like language-oriented input, macros, multiple-component parts and C.G. shifts in tanks.
Creative Systems began as a computing service where customers provided drawings and got back printouts of hydrostatic properties, cross curves, tank characteristics, etc. To help with input preparation, Garth Bedford (also a former Boeing employee) began doing most of the model building -- carefully scaling offsets from drawings and recording them on punched cards.
By the end of 1973, several naval architects around Seattle were using Plice's and Bedford's services on a regular basis. Still undergoing development, SCEND was benefiting greatly from the experience with those early customers -- especially Ed Monk, Jr., Larry Glosten and company, Gil Nilson with Ben Jensen, and Jacob Fisker-Andersen.
In 1974, the promise of the microcomputer revolution appeared on the horizon, though few took it seriously. To Bill Plice, the prospect of having a computer was so attractive that he bought an ALTAIR 8800 microcomputer kit which he constructed, debugged and began programming experimentally. Although the early programming had to be done in machine and assembly language, there soon appeared a BASIC interpreter produced by a fledgling company called Microsoft (which, like Creative Systems, consisted of two people). The original Microsoft BASIC came on paper tape and could run in as little as 4K of memory (that's right, 4,096 bytes).
Going beyond the teletype with paper tape for "mass" storage required writing software interfaces and often designing and building special hardware. By 1976, the Creative Systems micro was equipped with a keyboard, CRT, modem, dual 8" floppy disk drives (holding 128K per disk), programmable read-only memory, 16K of dynamic RAM and a daisy-wheel printer. It could even be operated remotely through the modem. By today's standards it was bulky -- taking up an entire desk top -- and far from portable. But a CRT terminal could be taken to another place and connected by phone to the Creative Systems micro, achieving a kind of portability.
The first useful program developed by Creative Systems for the micro was a Tank Soundings calculator -- ancestor of the present TS program. It was demonstrated at a B. F. Jensen open house where a terminal was set up so that guests could marvel at tank volumes and centers being calculated in real time and appearing on the screen before their eyes. However, it was ultimately the Star Trek game which drew the most attention.
After further tinkering, Plice succeeded in interfacing a 2000-baud synchronous modem and writing software which emulated a Control Data batch terminal. This made it possible to dial up to the mainframe computer on which SCEND was installed and to use the microcomputer to enter, store and edit data -- free of punched cards!
Though SCEND was still being used on mainframe computers, the effort was now underway which would eventually lead to BHS (Basic HydroStatics) and GHS (General HydroStatics). With slow and limited hardware, it was not immediately practical to replace SCEND entirely. Though faster and cheaper computers were becoming available, it was also important to know, before investing in major software development, whether one of the competing hardware platforms would dominate the market. The answer to that question was, "none of the present platforms"; for it was answered by the announcement of the first IBM PC.
Soon thereafter, Ted Drake, a Seattle naval architect, came with a hopper dredge design for which he needed a stability analysis with both mud and water in the hopper -- and he wanted to include the effects of spilling. Since SCEND was unable to model spilling, the decision was made to develop a program to do this on the new IBM PC. The result was the first version of BHS. The year was 1982.
During 1983 and 1984, BHS matured to the point where it could duplicate most of the calculations produced by SCEND. But it still had no ability to help create the geometrical models. It relied on the hull and tank models developed with SCEND which had been converted to the BHS Geometry File format. In 1985, work was then begun on Part Maker and Section editor. Part Maker came on line in 1986, and Section Editor arrived soon thereafter, completing the essential modules of the GHS system.
This was just in time to meet the demands of customers who were acquiring their own PCs and starting to experiment with the first version of AutoCAD. It was clear that they wanted to run their own stability calculations. That meant that the service work which had sustained Creative Systems would soon come to an end.
Several copies of GHS were sold. Among the buyers were many of the old Seattle customers and some new ones from out of state. Some of these early GHS users were Jack Hargrave, Robert Vlies of Peterson Builders, and Bob Hill of John W. Gilbert Assoc. Bob Hill in particular contributed a great deal to the development of GHS through his ideas and encouragement.
As Creative Systems' service customers became independent GHS users, it became necessary to look further for additional business. This need for an expanded market brought about an alliance with Grahame Shannon of Coast Design (later to become AutoShip Systems). Grahame was having good success selling the lines-development programs AutoYacht and AutoShip which were based on programs written by John Letcher (of AeroHydro, Inc.). A dealership contract was signed in late 1986 and Coast Design began selling GHS along with AutoShip, and also a reduced BHS version called BHS/Yacht which was packaged with AutoYacht. This boosted the international sales of both AutoShip and GHS greatly; and, in order to secure this relationship, Coast Design began to seek a tighter identification with GHS. They began to call GHS "AutoGHS".
Through the urging of Mr. Shannon and his subsidiary dealer in Norway, Gunnar Solheim, a decision was made in 1987 to apply to the Norwegian Maritime Directorate for formal GHS approval. This entailed adding the graphing features to GHS which resulted in the Report Generator. After submitting extensive calculations of three test vessels, approval was granted for "AutoGHS".
By 1990, the sales of GHS had become quite strong, thanks, in part, to the marketing efforts of Coast Design. However, Creative Systems was being given little credit for GHS and its users were not getting the best possible support. With encouragement and consultation from Tom Bringloe of The Glosten Associates, plans were gradually developed for building Creative Systems into a larger organization. This eventually led to the decision to increase control over marketing which eventually resulted in the termination of Coast Design's dealership contract. By that time, Coast Design had already embarked on developing AutoHydro as their replacement for GHS.
The rapid development of AutoHydro was made possible by an agreement with Creative Systems which gave Coast Design the right to use certain portions of the GHS source code -- but not to duplicate the look of GHS nor to use its documentation. Nevertheless, AutoHydro, including its documentation, turned out to look remarkably like GHS. Since 1992, many enhancements and improvements to GHS, as well as independent development of AutoHydro, have widened the gap between the two products.
In 1989, Donald Liu, senior vice president of the Technical Services Group at ABS (American Bureau of Shipping) decided to take a close look at the commercial software available for ship stability on the PC. After a meeting at Creative Systems' office in Seattle, he ordered a complete set of the GHS software. This began a relationship with ABS which continues to the present. ABS is now the largest single user of GHS, having 148 copies installed in its offices worldwide.
In order to help supply the growing market for shipboard stability and strength software, Creative Systems developed a menu system for GHS which adapted it to the needs of ship operators. The resulting product, called GLM (originally General Load Monitor, now GHS Load Monitor) was first installed on the F/V Island Enterprise in 1990. While the Island Enterprise was on her first trip with GLM aboard, a fax was received from Jeff Boddington, the skipper, describing how he was able to make an extra haul before the closure deadline since he was able to quickly check stability before commencing the operation. That one bag of fish paid for the GLM many times over.
In 1994, Jack Kalro of the Military Sealift Command realized that it would reduce costs and improve performance to equip Sealift vessels with GLM. And so he began a program to bring it about. At about the same time, Elias Garcia of RINAVE in Portugal set out to develop extensions of GLM using the GHS Programming Interface. Mr. Garcia also contributed the petroleum temperature expansion algorithms which are now an integral part of GHS. At present, GLM has been installed on over 100 vessels.
Acting on the plans to expand its organization, Creative Systems was incorporated in 1990 in Washington State and became Creative Systems, Inc. In 1991, the office was moved from Seattle to Port Townsend, Washington and additional employees were hired. The board of directors was increased to three: Bill Plice, Dave Udell and Tim Nolan. Emanuel Duarte and Jack Beaton were successively employed in sales (both having previously worked for Coast Design). John Gorrell was hired as office manager and Don Schmitt was employed to help with programming. Phil Reed came on board to handle customer support and training. Unfortunately, sales did not increase quickly enough and a deficit forced a cutback in the sales staff while Don Schmitt was lured away by Microsoft. Phil Reed continued until 1994 when he joined Pfitzco in Tampa, Florida. But Phil did not quit training GHS users, and he continued to conduct occasional training classes on the East Coast. (Subsequently Phil went on to work for Titan where he uses GHS in their salvage business.)
Since 1994, Glenn Bauer, a naval architect and professional engineer working in the same office with Creative Systems, has been doing service work and assisting with customer support (though his involvement since moving to a farm the Columbia River Gorge is considerably reduced). In 1997 Eric Rhodes joined the company as Office Manager and soon became proficient enough with GHS to handle most of the technical support as well. Eric moved to Ireland in 2003, leaving a vacancy which Mike Roth now fills as Business Manager. Mike handles much of the tech support, and virtually all of the sales. Stephen Schumacher, hired in 1997, is now chief programmer, half owner and vice president of the Corporation. Along with Bill Plice, Steve handles the remaining tech support and management of the company. The board has grown to five members: added are Steve Schumacher and his father, Bob Schumacher. Vic Patton replaces Dave Udell who went on to be with his Lord.
Because of its realistic approach to hydrostatics simulation, GHS has always been a useful tool for salvage calculations. Phil Reed was always interested in the salvage applications, even before joining Titan. As far back as 1993 he presented a SNAME paper demonstrating the application of the ground reaction method, pioneered by GHS, in the refloating of the M.V. Frota Humaita at Dunkirk, France. Ken Edgar of Marine Response Consultants is particularly partial to GHS for salvage work and continues to be a major proponent, sometimes lecturing on the advantages of the GHS approach and doing training for GHS users. GHS is often used in major salvage efforts.
In 1991, Design Systems and Services (now Proteus Engineering a division of Anteon Corporation), together with HydroComp and Creative Systems, laid the groundwork for the IMSA organization (International Marine Software Associates) as well as the IDF file format which was designed as a universal communication channel for the types of data involved in various marine software programs. Design Systems also became a dealer for GHS, enlisting Nick Danese to be its European representative under the name Design Systems Europe (now Design Systems and Technologies). DST has become the worldwide leader in international sales of GHS.
In 1992, ABS became a worldwide GHS dealer, and Calvin Chai, under the leadership of Faith Lee, worked out a companion interface for GHS which they distribute with GHS, calling the package ABSGHS. Proteus Engineering is also using GHS in their FlagShip product which integrates several marine software programs.
During the years 1993 through 1995, additional GHS representatives were established, including RINAVE for Portugal, Delteq Systems for Singapore, Marcon Engineering for The Netherlands and Northern Europe, Barry Kingwill for South Africa, Alejandro Pita & Guillermo Fisch for Latin America and Spain, Jim Leake for UAE and surrounding area, and Ravi Panth for India. Subsequently Sea Quest Technology replaced Delteq in Singapore and Benny Alex of Oasis Ship Management took over when Jim Leake moved on. In Japan, Ichiro Ueno of Seals, Ltd became a dealer.
With the popularity of the Windows Graphical User Interface (GUI), the increasing interest in a special version of GHS for the Windows environment led to a series of developments where GHS was eventually "ported" to a new Windows-based development system. This would have been a monumental task full of inherent risks to product integrity if it had not been for the extraordinary work of Steve Schumacher in developing an automatic translator for the GHS code. Meanwhile, in 1995, Bob Horsefield, a naval architect and computer programmer, brought out a product called "Windows Manager for GHS" under the company name Visual Systems Workshop. WMGHS worked alongside GHS and added some Windows-oriented functions during the years when GHS was not being compiled as a Windows application. Should a DOS-based version of GHS be needed, an automatic filter can produce one from the current GHS code.
Copies have now been purchased by over 65 governmental, military and bureau organizations including the US Coast Guard and US Navy. The Canadian Coast Guard and Department of Defense have adopted GHS as their standard.
GHS continues to be a popular and well-respected program. With a total of over 1000 copies sold, it is without doubt the world leader in ship stability software. Bill Plice is still directly involved in continuing to improve GHS while helping users get the most out of it. But he gives most of the credit for the success of GHS to his customers: "Without the advice and gracious enthusiasm of our users, the work we do here would not be possible. Unlike most of the competition, Creative Systems has never received financial assistance for R & D or marketing. We are a 100% user-supported operation."