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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

#81
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not going to lose sleep over it. It's just a trained response to how sensitive we are about it in the local area. Motor oil spills are a big deal because they are more than just a fraction of the crude oil - they contain various toxic additives including heavy metals and can affect the local watershed. I realize it's still likely a drop in the proverbial bucket. :(

Consider the amount of oil that just leaks every day from cars is orders of magnitude more.

How much seeps into and gets trapped in the road surface vs run-off?

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

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you buy cars manufactured overseas, then in a sense you contributed to this too

Those were cars made in the USA (Georgia) and shipped to USA (Maryland). It's just a more economical way that by land.

Wikipedia claims that they were on their way to the Middle East.

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

#83
post #5

What astounds me is that the "cutting chain" appears to be just a normal chain, albeit a very large one. I would have thought they would have made something that cuts it more like a giant chainsaw.

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.

>>> Adding teeth to the chain would probably not be worth it

When the Kursk was raised they first cut it in half using an abrasive chain/cable. In that instance it was pressed down from above the structure.

"A cutting chain made of abrasive covered bushes on a thick steel wire was pulled back and forth across the hull by the cylinders. Vertical forces were supplied by the controllable vertical position of the suction piles."

https://www.maritimejournal.com/news101/tugs,-towing-and-sal...

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

#84

What astounds me is that the "cutting chain" appears to be just a normal chain, albeit a very large one. I would have thought they would have made something that cuts it more like a giant chainsaw.

>> albeit a very large one.

By maritime standards that chain is tiny, akin to a thin wire cutting through cheese.

https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/6wvvkj/a...

https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2017/d...

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

#85
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ship in the article left Georgia to Baltimore, you cannot move goods from and to the USA with a boat that is not registered in the USA. That's is why only few cruise ship start and end their trips in the USA.

Curiously, this vessel appears to have been registered in the Marshal Islands, which is an independent nation with a rather unusual relationship [0] to the US that I hadn't heard of before. Presumably the law that requires US registration has a special provision allowing this? I wonder if the crew requirements are more relaxed with a Marshal Islands registration? [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_of_Free_Ass…

The difference is that the law only applies to ships that carry goods or passengers from one US port to another. Ships are allowed to (and often do) call at multiple US ports on a voyage, they just can't unload goods in one US port that were loaded in another.

For instance, the ship could have carried cars made at the Kia and Hyundai plants in Mexico to the US, and also loaded cars made at the plants in Georgia and Alabama for delivery to the Middle East.

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

#86

This related to, but not the same as, the mechanism by which modern torpedoes kill warships. Historically torpedoes used to hit the sides of ships, punching big holes. The response by ship builders was to build empty “torpedo bulges” on the sides of ships to trigger the torpedo early, preventing structural damage. Modern torpedoes instead detonate under the ship. The explosion creates a massive bubble (most explosive…

This is a great example of a generalization gone well beyond the end of its usefulness.

This has no relation to a torpedo at all except that the localized mechanical force exceeds what the material can handle. But that's how every, cutting bending shearing, swaging, grinding, etc, etc operation works.

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

#88
post #15

Shit like this makes me feel a lot less guilty about my own environmental impact of getting a new phone every 1-2 years and a new laptop every 3.

if you buy cars manufactured overseas, then in a sense you contributed to this too

As someone not able to see well enough to get a drivers license, I do not. But I take your point.

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

#89
post #59
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to Wikipedia the owner/operator is the $6B Hyundai Glovis, and the ship was insured. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Golden_Ray

"Insurance losses on the ship are estimated at $70 - 80 million, and $80 million in its contents."

That's substantially less than I would have expected. It means each car was valued at ~$20,000. I would have expected the ship itself to cost ~$250,000,000, but the HMM Algeciras, the biggest container ship in the world, only cost $140,000,000 to build. https://www.shippingandfreightresource.com/hmm-algeciras-lar...
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