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A chain cuts through a capsized cargo ship filled with cars

jalopnik.com

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Re: A chain cuts through a capsized cargo ship filled with cars

#31

Post by WJW »

londons_explore wrote: post #26

Why not just refloat the ship? Floats and weights in the right places, together with the tide going up and down ought to be able to turn it over. It wouldn't be too expensive either because all work could be done above the waterline at low tide. When it's the right way up, industrial diesel powered pumps could pump it out enough to float and reuse. Perhaps there were political reasons? (ie. if the ship is refloated,…

I don't think the original owner would own it outright, at the very least there is the Law of Salvage (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_salvage) where the port authority (or whoever else refloated it) would be entitled to "a reward commensurate with the value of the property salved."

Also, from the first image in the picture you can see that the cargo has shifted and is now all on the side of the ship . Modern cargo vessels don't have that much excess stability, so chances are that it would not stay upright even if it were completely pumped full of air.

Re: A chain cuts through a capsized cargo ship filled with cars

#32

Post by dd82 »

londons_explore wrote: post #26

Why not just refloat the ship? Floats and weights in the right places, together with the tide going up and down ought to be able to turn it over. It wouldn't be too expensive either because all work could be done above the waterline at low tide. When it's the right way up, industrial diesel powered pumps could pump it out enough to float and reuse. Perhaps there were political reasons? (ie. if the ship is refloated,…

https://www.rivieramm.com/news-content-hub/news-content-hub/...

Refloating was already tried a few times and failed

>PCTC Golden Ray was partially capsized in St. Simons Sound, Georgia, when the pilot deliberately grounded the 20,000-dwt ship in response to a fire on board on 8 September. It was sailing out with 4,200 vehicles on board and was grounded on a soft seabed.

>Attempts to refloat the vessel have so far failed and the US Unified Command handling the salvage has decided to disassemble the ship in situ. It believes attempting to right and refloat this ship would not be technically feasible.

Re: A chain cuts through a capsized cargo ship filled with cars

#34

Post by nradov »

gnu8 wrote: post #21
tmhrtly wrote: post #16

Does anyone know who pays for this process? I would imagine the owner of the ship, but I imagine there's a non-zero likelihood that something like this could bankrupt them. In that case... is there mandatory insurance or similar?

The insurers of the ship and/or cargo would be paying to salvage whatever value they can extract from the wreck, to reduce their losses. You’re right about the non-zero chance of insurmountable loss, which is why the owner of the ship and the owner of the cargo would both have a shitload of insurance. Read about Lloyd’s and the shipping insurance business. People have been doing this for hundreds of years.

This salvage operation is far more expensive than the scrap value of the ship and cargo.

Re: A chain cuts through a capsized cargo ship filled with cars

#35

Post by rags2riches »

zilebune wrote: post #8
Sharlin wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At these scales, and being able to use the hull's weight against itself, that chain is plenty "sharp" just by itself, I guess (sharpness being the ability to concentrate force on a comparatively small surface area). Adding teeth to the chain would probably not be worth it and/or they would just dull or break soon anyway.

Also using an alternative line an abrasive cable would not make sense either. If friction causes it to tear it would need complete replacing, which would be plenty $$$. Instead, with a chain they just replace a couple of broken links and back on track. Which is apparently what they've done: > Unfortunately, the chain actually broke during the cutting operation. “Approximately 25 hours into the cut, the cutting chain…

A chain is never harder to repair than its weakest link, I guess.

Re: A chain cuts through a capsized cargo ship filled with cars

#36

Post by patja »

dmd wrote: post #19
foobarian wrote: post #17

I can't help but cringe at all the motor oil and other fluids leeching out of the ruined cars that were on board.

There were about 4000 cars on board. If each car has 10 quarts of oil, that's 10000 gallons or about 32 tonnes. Oil tanker spills are typically in the range of tens to hundreds of thousands of tonnes of oil. So, don't waste cycles worrying about it; it's a rounding error in the general scheme of things.

10 quarts? I don't think the v8 in my first car even took that much. Aren't most vehicles more like 5 or 6 quarts?

Re: A chain cuts through a capsized cargo ship filled with cars

#37

Post by 112012123 »

tmhrtly wrote: post #16

Does anyone know who pays for this process? I would imagine the owner of the ship, but I imagine there's a non-zero likelihood that something like this could bankrupt them. In that case... is there mandatory insurance or similar?

Depends on the jurisdiction. In many countries, yes there are insurance requirements. Even in ones where there aren't, most vessels owned by larger companies carry insurance for the same reason anyone else does.

On the other hand, since oceangoing ships are (mostly) regulated by the countries they're registered in, which is frequently a regulation-light jurisdiction like Panama, Liberia, or the Marshall Islands - there are a surprising number of situations where the owner of the ship just completely disappears and the ship is left to rot.

One of the most famous recent examples of this was the ship involved in the Beirut port explosion this year. After being impounded for being unseaworthy, it rotted at its moorings and eventually capsized in the Beirut harbor.

A quick trip through developing-country ports on Google Earth will have quite a few ships like this.

Re: A chain cuts through a capsized cargo ship filled with cars

#38

Post by jacquesm »

SamBam wrote: post #27
throwaway0a5e wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The chain is made of harder (by a substantial enough margin to not wear through too quickly) metal than the ship. Also, the cross section of any given link is much thicker than any one piece of steel in the ship so it doesn't really need to cut efficiently, it just kind of crunches and tears the ship out of the way using the ship's own weight.

True, although > “Approximately 25 hours into the cut, the cutting chain broke,” St. Simons Incident Response writes on its website.

It's a wear part. Yes, it will wear, but that's logical, just like a knife will get dull when cutting cheese. The impressive bit to me is that it lasted 25 hours. They then fixed that one link and went on cutting. Keep in mind that it still is a chain and that all it took was for one link to break under a load that was not exactly typical for a chain and after some abrasion of the link itself.

Re: A chain cuts through a capsized cargo ship filled with cars

#39

Post by jandrese »

londons_explore wrote: post #22
tmhrtly wrote: post #16

Does anyone know who pays for this process? I would imagine the owner of the ship, but I imagine there's a non-zero likelihood that something like this could bankrupt them. In that case... is there mandatory insurance or similar?

Scrap steel is worth $0.20 per kg. There is 28 million kg there, so the whole ship is worth $5.6 million in scrap value alone. That probably pays for the operation.

That gantry alone costs more than that. All of the salaries and fuel costs and everything are way more expensive. However, the ship is a navigation and ecological hazard so it has to go. I have no doubt my tax dollars are helping.
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