Container ship vs crane

Tug Tide

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A containership, Milano Bridge wipes out a crane at a South Korean container terminal.

Bad day for everyone involved. No reported injuries thank God.


 

TIDE-HSV

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A containership, Milano Bridge wipes out a crane at a South Korean container terminal.

Bad day for everyone involved. No reported injuries thank God.


He did all that damage without being loaded! Is that normal, for him to be jockeying it in there at that speed? The tug just seems to be watching. We have friends who have a beach house in Virginia Beach which we borrow from time to time. It's about 150 yards from the park there at Cape Henry. The bridge/tunnel lies just to the west, left as we look north. I have a lot of fun watching the naval traffic. I have an app on my phone for vessel profiles, but it's more fun when my GSIL, who's in the Coast Guard drives up from Norfolk to visit. He recognizes the traffic and exactly what they're doing when on maneuvers. What started me off on this tangent is that the great bulk of the traffic is container vessels, stacked up high, and the vast majority of those are Chinese...
 
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92tide

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that vessel name rang a bell and i checked our records from last year and we had a couple of containers of fresh eggs ship on the milano bridge from norfolk - hong kong last summer
 

Tidewater

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Is that normal, for him to be jockeying it in there at that speed? The tug just seems to be watching.
It seemed odd to me, too. Maybe the engines were stuck in an inappropriate power setting for the harbor. An object that massive does not stop on a dime, so speeds in a port have to be low. Maybe something went wrong in the ship.
 
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Tug Tide

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He did all that damage without being loaded! Is that normal, for him to be jockeying it in there at that speed? The tug just seems to be just watching.
@TIDE-HSV
Just got back into cell service after a gulf crossing.
In the site I linked is a very good forum for mariners (a little salty at times, so I didn’t link the discussion). Quite a few experienced people seem to disagree. The ship was definitely carrying WAY to much speed into the approach. I saw preliminary data that showed his speed at the previous turn around 6 knots, again way to fast at that point. It seems to me the simplest answer is technical failure in the propulsion system. Depending on if it’s a left or right hand prop it’s hard to make out if he’s got the engines ahead or astern. As you saw the tug was in effect just watching, but that’s because he was being dragged by the momentum of the ship.
At any rate there will be a full investigation and the facts will come out.

Just a little “hawespiper” wisdom that was passed down to me early in my career.
I asked the Capt how fast he generally makes his docking approach. He said:
“As fast as I can afford to hit it”
 

TIDE-HSV

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@TIDE-HSV
Just got back into cell service after a gulf crossing.
In the site I linked is a very good forum for mariners (a little salty at times, so I didn’t link the discussion). Quite a few experienced people seem to disagree. The ship was definitely carrying WAY to much speed into the approach. I saw preliminary data that showed his speed at the previous turn around 6 knots, again way to fast at that point. It seems to me the simplest answer is technical failure in the propulsion system. Depending on if it’s a left or right hand prop it’s hard to make out if he’s got the engines ahead or astern. As you saw the tug was in effect just watching, but that’s because he was being dragged by the momentum of the ship.
At any rate there will be a full investigation and the facts will come out.

Just a little “hawespiper” wisdom that was passed down to me early in my career.
I asked the Capt how fast he generally makes his docking approach. He said:
“As fast as I can afford to hit it”
LOL! As soon as you have insight, please let us know...
 

Tug Tide

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LOL! As soon as you have insight, please let us know...
I just read 130+ responses in the related thread, there are about 10-12 replies that have mild, non TF language. If you click on the link for the article, look for dropdown menu for forum and it should be at the top of the “Professional Mariner” forum. If you’re interested in a pretty good discussion, well speculation.
Quite a few of the guys posting seem to be large ship guys.
The dynamics are totally different between a single screw ship like that and the twin screw boats I drive.
Regardless, it was a bad day for everybody
 
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Tug Tide

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Controlled sail into terrain. The bridge really boned this one.
Probably so, but so far I still lean towards a mechanical failure. Apparently the ship had just been in the yard for repairs. I can promise you it will hit the fan more often right after the yard period than any other time. If all systems and controls weren’t sufficiently tested than that’s another story.
 
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TIDE-HSV

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I just read 130+ responses in the related thread, there are about 10-12 replies that have mild, non TF language. If you click on the link for the article, look for dropdown menu for forum and it should be at the top of the “Professional Mariner” forum. If you’re interested in a pretty good discussion, well speculation.
Quite a few of the guys posting seem to be large ship guys.
The dynamics are totally different between a single screw ship like that and the twin screw boats I drive.
Regardless, it was a bad day for everybody
So it was a single screw ship? You think the torque pulled him over further than he anticipated?
 

Tug Tide

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So it was a single screw ship? You think the torque pulled him over further than he anticipated?
Definitely single screw, the majority of large ships are. They usually have at least a bow thruster and the VLCCs like this have sterns thrusters to. The problem with the thrusters is that they’re ineffective over a certain speed ( obviously that’s different for different vessels sizes/designs.)
Honestly, I expect that the throttles got stuck and became non responsive for a period of a few minutes.
 
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TIDE-HSV

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Definitely single screw, the majority of large ships are. They usually have at least now thruster and the VLCCs like this have sterns thrusters to. The problem with the thrusters is that they’re ineffective over a certain speed ( obviously that’s different for different vessels sizes/designs.)
Honestly, I expect that the throttles got stuck and became non responsive for a period of a few minutes.
I assume you meant "bow" thrusters. I tend to agree on the throttles. Barring human failure - drunk, asleep, seizure, etc., plowing into the dock without cutting speed makes no sense. If he reversed his screw when he couldn't cut the throttle, that may have been what pulled his stern into the dock...
 

Tug Tide

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@TIDE-HSV
Yes, good catch bow thruster

So hard to say at this point. There would have been Master and Harbor Pilot at least on the bridge. Quite possibly a docking pilot also. Some there is a level of redundancy in the wheelhouse. However, here in the states, in many cases the pilot, not the master is in control of docking. While English is considered the universal maritime language, in many cases you have two people trying to cooperate when using a second language each is frankly lacking in. Just this week in the gulf I had to ask that the ship put another guy on the radio so I could understand the gibberish.
I just watched the video again. Several seconds before impact you’ll see black smoke coming from the stack. That would indicate throttle response at that time.

I mentioned above that the ship had been in shipyard previously. She is definitely still in what we call “shipyard light” condition. She’s empty of containers and that’s about the only time you will ever see a container ship empty. She’s likely also very light on fuel and ballast.
That’s a serious amount of cavitation at the prop. It’s not uncommon to see a boat handler get surprised by how she reacts in those circumstances.

It all comes down to an unfortunate set of circumstances that frankly could have been much worse. Did you see the car barely escape the falling crane?
 
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TIDE-HSV

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@TIDE-HSV
Yes, good catch bow thruster

So hard to say at this point. There would have been Master and Harbor Pilot at least on the bridge. Quite possibly a docking pilot also. Some there is a level of redundancy in the wheelhouse. However, here in the states, in many cases the pilot, not the master is in control of docking. While English is considered the universal maritime language, in many cases you have two people trying to cooperate when using a second language each is frankly lacking in. Just this week in the gulf I had to ask that the ship put another guy on the radio so I could understand the gibberish.
I just watched the video again. Several seconds before impact you’ll see black smoke coming from the stack. That would indicate throttle response at that time.

I mentioned above that the ship had been in shipyard previously. She is definitely still in what we call “shipyard light” condition. She’s empty of containers and that’s about the only time you will ever see a container ship empty. She’s likely also very light on fuel and ballast.
That’s a serious amount of cavitation at the prop. It’s not uncommon to see a boat handler get surprised by how she reacts in those circumstances.

It all comes down to an unfortunate set of circumstances that frankly could have been much worse. Did you see the car barely escape the falling crane?
That language barrier comes up in the air with pilots/air controllers also. I see the car and the exhaust now. He (somebody) goosed his engines. Either the reverse pulled the stern that way or, as you say, communication breakdown. I grew up on the Tennessee in boats, so I find this very interesting, although a boat that size would terrify me. One funny incident - some years ago, my wife and I were up in northern MN, ready to take off across Lake Saganaga to Canada. Our Kevlar canoes were loaded on the flat bottom skiffs. There was one problem - one of the boat pilots was late, first 30 minutes, then an hour and still no pilot. Our window was closing to get across the big lake, clear Canadian customs, run Silver Falls and make it to our first camping site. We stood there, about 20 of us, worrying. The outfitter, at the end of his wits, pointed at me and said "You there, you know how to run a boat, don't you?" How in the hell?!? I said, "yeah, I guess so," thinking that it was just an over-sized Jonboat, with canoes up on "T" supports. It was no big deal. However, on our return trip, we got caught in our canoes in a backdoor cold front and barely survived. On our way to our pickup island, we were beating our way back to the north, with me sweeping right in the stern and my wife drawing port in the bow up into the wind and I shouted "I guess you know that, if you tire, we die?" She shouted back "I'm well aware of that." She didn't and we survived...
 

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