721–730 of 1001 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How could one build a bumper to protect the piers from an impact like this? That ship is massive and it sounds like it was going pretty fast. I'm having trouble imagining any solution that involves absorbing the impact. But I'm not a civil engineer. If something like this exists I'd be interested in reading about it.
The boat changes direction after impact with the bumper
Youtube tracking analysis from a knowledgeable mariner. He says that at about 1:24 AM the ship loses power (from video feed) while traveling 8.5 knots. at 1:25.30 power is restored. at 12:25.59 the ship shows smoke. The ship has already drifted in the channel. It is believed that at this time the ship applied full reverse power as evidenced by the black smoke. (My analysis: the ship drifted but hasn't turned in the c…
Current personal suspicion after watching your linked video (excellent discussion by the wgowshipping author) is: Catastrophic engine failure (1:24) causing wide scale power loss. No rudder control, rudder drift, and ship alignment drift (1:24-1:25:30) Power restored and ship reengages prop with bad ship/ruddder alignment (1:25). However, ship is now pushing itself into a further bad turn. Pilot likely stomps the bra…
And I assume there will lawsuits to recover costs as this caused economic damage and risk to life (8 people unaccounted for at current time).
Somehow I find it surprising how completely the bridge collapsed after the damage. I understand that a container ship collision is serious, but you could imagine a scenarios where the bridge slumps or buckles but doesn’t just disintegrate like that. It’s surprising that ships capable of doing this damage were probably regularly driving past it, and its safety as a thoroughfare depended entirely on those collisions no…
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I agree. I lived in PG county for years and this is a big deal The 295 bridge collapse a decade ago was similarly shocking U.S. infrastructure is beyond crisis level.
I'm not sure if I would expect any bridge to survive being struck by an enormous container ship.
Not a container ship, but an abandoned bulk carrier ship: https://g1.globo.com/rj/rio-de-janeiro/noticia/2022/11/14/po...
That bridge survived with little damage, and was reopened the following day after small repairs (https://g1.globo.com/rj/rio-de-janeiro/noticia/2022/11/15/te...).
The Association of Maryland (boat) Pilots literally has a header image of a harbor pilot tug escorting a cargo ship to the Key Bridge... https://www.mdpilots.com/ Wonder where they were.
>The ship was towed into the river initially, but the tugboats did not accompany the ship all the way to the bridge, said John Konrad, a retired ship captain who runs the gCaptain maritime news website and co-authored a book on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
>“The safe thing to do is keep the tugs,” Konrad said. “Moving forward, I think that’s going to happen. The Coast Guard is going to say you’ve got to keep the tugs tied up until you pass the bridge.”
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Was there a harbor pilot on board, or the normal ship pilot? Were there tug boats helping with the exit? I have often felt that the harbor protocols were overkill, but this is one of the times they could have helped.
2x harbor pilots. No tugs. Harbor protocol was in effect.
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It appears the ship lost power twice before hitting the bridge. I doubt the captain could do anything with no control.
https://edition.cnn.com/us/live-news/baltimore-bridge-collap...
Too early to tell
Still, the captain should make sure the ship is operational to make a trip before starting any trip
But, still, yes, I admit I should have been at least a tiny bit more clear-headed when I made my initial comment
Youtube tracking analysis from a knowledgeable mariner. He says that at about 1:24 AM the ship loses power (from video feed) while traveling 8.5 knots. at 1:25.30 power is restored. at 12:25.59 the ship shows smoke. The ship has already drifted in the channel. It is believed that at this time the ship applied full reverse power as evidenced by the black smoke. (My analysis: the ship drifted but hasn't turned in the c…
Apparently (this is just via someone on Reddit who supposedly heard/read it somewhere) the ship mayday'd on losing power hoping the bridge could be cleared. But why not (or did it?) also just blast its horn repeatedly, drawing attention so people on or near the bridge would notice it and realise something was wrong and perhaps even where it was headed? I'm sure it's not allowed generally and not the protocol and what…
It's hard for people on the bridge to understand what that means. The more it blasts the horn, the more likely people to turn around, stop and maybe get their phones out to take a video what strange thing this ship is doing. By the time they realize the impact is imminent, it's too late, unless they take a helicopter ride.
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> my experience with a 40ft sailboat with a single propeller you have absolutely no rudder authority while reversing. I have to protest here. Reversing and using the rudder on a 40ft boat works perfectly fine. I've done it on multiple sailing boats. You need to hold tight so that the rudder wont slap you if using a stick.
If you have enough way on to combat the prop walk, yes. But in a situation like backing down trying to come to a stop (at least in my boat, a 1962 Block Island 40) there's a very long "dead time" while transitioning from slowly moving forward to slowly moving in reverse where the rudder just doesn't do anything. The way I maneuver in these situations is to do all my heading corrections in forward gear, where prop was…
It happens something that I really can't explain, but I guess it is weight related. Or maybe area. Dunno.