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A chain cuts through a capsized cargo ship filled with cars

jalopnik.com

121–130 of 136 posts

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

#121
post #30

All those cars are headed for Craigslist. "great condition, 2020 pickup, only 30 miles on the odo. salvage title."

Destruction as part of the salvage process to avoid just this situation has been done, though I'm not certain this is standard practice.

Mazda in 2008:

It all started about two years ago, when a ship carrying 4,703 shiny new Mazdas nearly sank in the Pacific.... The mishap created a dilemma: What to do with the cars? They had remained safely strapped down throughout the ordeal -- but no one knew for sure what damage, if any, might be caused by dangling cars at such a steep angle for so long.... The Japanese car maker, controlled by Ford Motor Corp. , easily could have found takers for the vehicles ... [but] Mazda turned everyone away. It worried about getting sued someday if, say, an air-bag failed to fire properly due to overexposure to salty sea air.... So it decided to destroy approximately $100 million worth of factory-new automobiles.

https://archive.fo/5Peq8 (WSJ)

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

#122
A salvage operation with some similarities was that of the MV Tricolor, a car carrier ship with a bumpy history sunk in December 2002 and salvaged 2003--2004.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Tricolor

Video documentary:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=0ENOJBLVgjw

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

#123

Is it possible to have Adblock on mobile? That site is literally unreadable do you the unbelievable amount of ads.

Mobile Firefox supports uBlock origin and others.

Even with adblock on my mobile I closed it before finishing because the big white space gaps were annoying as heck

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

#125
post #42
post #18

Interesting to see whether this will work for the "last" part. I can understand why it works while cutting off smaller parts of a longer ship, but at some point I would expect the ship not to be heavy enough. At that point I would expect it to be lifted and turned by the chain instead. But they probably already thought about that and I just missed it in my rapid skimming of the article.

Yes. The article mentions sections 3 to 6 aren't strong enough, so a drydock will be used instead of the chainsaw cutting.

Thanks for the clarification.

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

#126
post #18

Interesting to see whether this will work for the "last" part. I can understand why it works while cutting off smaller parts of a longer ship, but at some point I would expect the ship not to be heavy enough. At that point I would expect it to be lifted and turned by the chain instead. But they probably already thought about that and I just missed it in my rapid skimming of the article.

They are leaving the power plant for last (cutting nose to stern) so the remaining part will always be the heaviest.

Thanks!

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

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Well put. I wish the article had more information about the chain itself. I've seen this done with diamond cutters on wire rope (like used for the Kursk) but not with chain. From the look of it, the chain has the outside of the links coated with abrasive?

From the photos it doesn't look like the chain is abrading the steel of the ship, more tearing it in the way you can tear aluminium foil with your hands.

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

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Hah. "They both break things by applying force. Amazing coincidence"

Both breaking ships though.

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

#130
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other people here are shitting on your comment, but I appreciate your random torpedo facts!

Unfortunately, that is wrong as well. Ships generally can support their own weight if only supported at the ends. Because waves exist a ship can find itself with the stern on one crest and the bow on the next with little or nothing supporting the middle. The under keel explosion works better because: (1) The weight of the ship acts against the explosion increasing the initial stress (2) The gas bubble created can ven…

I was thinking the support it at the ends and it will break explanation is lacking.

Thinking about it is you detonate an explosive under a boat it's going to create a shock wave that will hit the boat like a hammer and probably do a fair bit of damage to the hull before maybe the support at the ends thing happens.

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