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How does a ship lose power this way?
This is going to end up being declared a preventable accident. My prediction is that money was saved on maintenance and had a catastrophic failure at the wrong time and people died.
Whomever owns this company should be extradited when it all comes out.
Published in General
Main generator had to go down. Looked like they got it restarted, I’m not sure the emergency generator would have brought the external deck lights back on as happened. For a super container, that generator is 80 megawatts. There is black smoke at the same time the lights come back on, which is not good, but at least the power is online. It was too little, too late. The investigation will commence after search and rescue is called off.
Who has the son at the Merchant Marine Academy? It would be mostly academic, but maybe his son would have a little insight on this.
Some in one of the Twitter threads was worried that the DEI blamers would be showing up in the thread in due time. It might not have anything to do with this accident, but one shouldn’t be surprised that a policy of focusing on other qualities besides merit will be seen as a likely cause.
My son texted me from the Academy this morning, “Ladies and gentlemen this is what we in the industry would call a horrible day.”
Unfortunately, it’s not an unusual one. From 1960-2015 there were 35 bridge collapses worldwide due to ship/barge collisions, and more than half of them occurred in the US.
I would suggest you follow the coverage on GCaptain.com, a website run by John Konrad, a man who’s licensed to sail the biggest ships in the world and has done so. Konrad writes this morning:
He further writes:
There was a belch of black smoke right before the collision. I’ve seen speculation that was caused by the pilot throwing the engines into full reverse as a last gasp attempt to slow the ship. I have no idea if that’s true or not.
Among other sources, I watched the What’s Going on in Shipping? early take. Looks like the Dali dropped its port anchor to try and effect/assist a turn. The engine powering back up could be what doomed the bridge, as it may be why the ship turned a bit more square at the pylon.
Hadn’t thought about it, but one of the comments points it out: the rudder was almost certainly trying to turn to port, then the propulsion comes back online, but is reversed, so that port turn becomes a turn to starboard.
Hmmm. As tragic as this incident is, with horrible agonizing deaths, I am relieved that it was an accident, and not an act of terrorism.
The legal profession is in line for a boost. The direct losses and liabilities must be staggering. The indirect losses are too: The other ships likely trapped for months will have contract disputes, insurance claims. Who bears the loss for undelivered products, idled ships, unpaid crew…?
Trucks can’t use the tunnel so the long way (3.5 times longer than using the bridge) around Baltimore adds time, distance and traffic volume.
In any event, I am sure that women, minorities and LGBTQ+ will be hardest hit.
Boeing aircraft are dropping parts from the sky after several of them decided to fly themselves into the ground.
Like Boeing issues, I believe we will find the root culprit is cost cutting measures.
The ticket prices are too low for airlines.
I don’t see how that is possible.
Maersk owns this ship, I think. There would have been a Baltimore pilot onboard, I would expect.
Update: Maersk only rented the ship to haul containers.
Because they’re trying to run it from reused cooking oil?
A large ship needs at least a mile and a half to stop to avoid a collision and about five miles to complete a large turn. A mechanical failure whether it’s steering or engine in a harbor, or even navigating in a shipping channel before reaching a bridge or dock will be a disaster.
An engine or steering failure puts a ship at the mercy of the current that can move the smallest boat and the largest ships.
Some things a small boat sailor has to avoid is operating in a shipping channel at night close to shore and if they plan on crossing a bar, they must make sure that their engine has been maintained. Shipping channels are marked on charts.
Engine and steering maintenance are critical for large vessels. We will have to wait and see what an investigation will reveal about the maintenance record of the Dali.
Ricochet Lawyers,
In your professional opinion, might Bryan’s recommendation of extradition be at all premature at this point in the criminal trial?
There was.
But they did not own the ship. It was chartered.
Who wants to bet Maersk does not end up paying a dime?
Yes, I updated info in comment #16.
Somehow I’m reminded of the Futurama episode “The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz.”
This comes directly on the heels of the terrorist attack in Moscow.
There is an ongoing series of events at strategic soft targets over the last several years: warehouse and refinery fires, power outages, train derailments, etc.
At what point do we stop calling them random?
Might depend on whether McConnell has already left the Senate by then.
Yes.
There are probably a few corporate layers to wade through, issues of who was in charge (e.g., MAERSK or nominal shipowner?) and complicated nationality. All that also makes it unlikely and also very hard to prove that the guy at the top knew that the ship was not in proper condition.
Civil jurisdiction will be much easier to establish and big cash judgments are more painful to a corporation than a failed criminal prosecution of a couple of executives or managers. Every box on that ship is a potential claim. The ripple effective of losses will spread widely and there will be some seriously creative tort lawyering as a result.
Container ships usually have one, very large diesel engine, which turns over at a slow speed. These have proved to be very reliable, but obviously not absolutely 100% reliable.
Maybe we’ll find out the janitor unplugged the engine (or a fuel pump or something) to plug in his floor-polisher.
Maersk was leasing it. The ownership group is in Singapore. No word on who crewed her.
I’m hearing there were two pilots on the bridge. One was a USMMA grad, the other from SUNY-Maritime. No confirmation on that.
Yeah, because only evil companies seek to cut costs.
Honestly, isn’t it a bit premature to rush into this? They’re still looking for survivors (increasingly less likely in these cold temps), and you’re already pronouncing the company guilty.
Those evil corporations that are in business for profit not just the benefit of the proletariat! Seriously did you intend to publish this on Mother Jones or Ricochet?
Workers unite!! And there should be free copies of Marx’s “The Communist Manifesto” put in all break rooms.
My money is on underwater mosquitos that were trained in CIA biolabs and boarded the ship and then got into the engine room.
Thankfully, we have qualified, expert personnel in the Department of Transportation.
That would make an interesting book plot.
Top men. We have top men on it.