A cargo ship crashed into the Scott Key Bridge after 1 AM causing it to collapse

[CamWhoaaCam]

57 minutes ago, d-dave said:

I will say Jaws did it for me.  Thankfully years of Shark Week fixed that by the time I was 15 or so.   But I do get the fear of water.

I do have another fear of open water.  It's more the threat of drowning, being lost, etc.  When I was young, my parents used to send me to Camp Thunderbird where we learned to sail little sail boats, among other things.  It was fine along the shore, but when we got a bit into open water, it was not good.  My partner, an older kid who had spent time sailing in previous summers wanted to really mess with me.  So he sailed us out into the middle of the lake and capsized the boat on purpose.  So here I was, in the middle of Lake Wylie in a life raft with the other kid laughing and chilling.  Yeah, in retrospect this was the early 1990s so safety was just kind of a don't die thing.  I freaked out, swam to the nearest shore and walked back to the camp.  When I showed up after dinner, I got yelled at for walking along the highways around the lake.  Nothing happened to the kid who tipped us over.  Ahh, the 90s...

I'm better about it as an adult, but I am still uncomfortable over large areas of water.

For the actual bridge, it's a tragedy.  Once the investigation comes back to the boat, I wonder how much corporate "profts over safety" we'll see.

I hear the boat loss power. I wonder if they had enough time to warn people to close the bridge. Maybe it happened last minute who knows.

[Anybodyhome]

Having spent 17 of my 20 years in the Navy at sea, let me tell you that losing power is one of those things that will send your blood cold. You lose power, you've lost everything and you're at the mercy of the water around you at that point.

While watching the webcam feed replay on YouTube, the ship lost power once, got it back and attempted to maneuver, but that ship has a single engine and starting a ship's engine is not like starting a car- it takes time. It loses power a second time- you can see the lights go out again- just before impact with the concrete piling.

And don't underestimate the size of that ship, it is enormous at nearly 980' and over 90,000 tons loaded.

[Anybodyhome]

6 hours ago, CamWhoaaCam said:

I hear the boat loss power. I wonder if they had enough time to warn people to close the bridge. Maybe it happened last minute who knows.

No power, no electricity, no hydraulics, no steam, no propulsion, nothing. They couldn't have warned anyone if they wanted. Their marine band radio should have battery backup and they may have called MAYDAY, but I haven't heard anything of that nature yet. Also, the pilot carries a handheld marine band radio.

[Davidson Deac II]

3 hours ago, Anybodyhome said:

Having spent 17 of my 20 years in the Navy at sea, let me tell you that losing power is one of those things that will send your blood cold. You lose power, you've lost everything and you're at the mercy of the water around you at that point.

While watching the webcam feed replay on YouTube, the ship lost power once, got it back and attempted to maneuver, but that ship has a single engine and starting a ship's engine is not like starting a car- it takes time. It loses power a second time- you can see the lights go out again- just before impact with the concrete piling.

And don't underestimate the size of that ship, it is enormous at nearly 980' and over 90,000 tons loaded.

From what I read, it was closer to 150,000 tons.  I also read that the generator kicked in when power went out, but the generator either doesn't or wouldn't power the steering.  That is the one thing about this that doesn't make sense.  Should the generator power the steering, and if not, why not?  

I remember reading about ships in WWII that lost power during a battle.  USS South Dakota was one that did.  Can't imagine anything scarier than losing power when engaging the enemy.  Fwiw, when I was on the Iowa, we lost power once.  Fortunately, we were sailing in the middle of the Ocean, nothing to hit.  

[Davidson Deac II]

3 hours ago, Anybodyhome said:

No power, no electricity, no hydraulics, no steam, no propulsion, nothing. They couldn't have warned anyone if they wanted. Their marine band radio should have battery backup and they may have called MAYDAY, but I haven't heard anything of that nature yet. Also, the pilot carries a handheld marine band radio.

The did send a mayday immediately when they lost power.  My guess is the generator would cover that.  

[Anybodyhome]

11 hours ago, Davidson Deac II said:

From what I read, it was closer to 150,000 tons.  I also read that the generator kicked in when power went out, but the generator either doesn't or wouldn't power the steering.  That is the one thing about this that doesn't make sense.  Should the generator power the steering, and if not, why not?  

I remember reading about ships in WWII that lost power during a battle.  USS South Dakota was one that did.  Can't imagine anything scarier than losing power when engaging the enemy.  Fwiw, when I was on the Iowa, we lost power once.  Fortunately, we were sailing in the middle of the Ocean, nothing to hit.  

Most marine steering and rudder systems are hydraulic. The helm (steering wheel) on newer ships is wired, but hydraulics actually move the rudder, which are typically powered by the propulsion plant.

I believe the engine is an electric diesel, so I'm fairly certain the propulsion plant powered the steering rather than the generator.

And there is a thing called "steerage way," the minimum speed through the water necessary to put enough pressure on the rudder to turn the ship.

The Iowa, eh? I spent some time at the War College with the CMC and I was involved in the JAG investigation of the turret explosion for a short period of time.

Wiki says her gross and net tonnage are 91k and 52k, with a deadweight of about 120k tons.

Edited March 28 by Anybodyhome

[cookinwithgas]

A good friend of mine was the reactor operator on a submarine doing a ballistic missile patrol when a combination of ill advised contiguous drills with a freak accident caused a scram with a complete loss of propulsion and electrical, and the submarine began to slide backwards into the ocean as they attempted to restart the reactor from battery. You surface guys are so cute.

[Davidson Deac II]

10 hours ago, Anybodyhome said:

Most marine steering and rudder systems are hydraulic. The helm (steering wheel) on newer ships is wired, but hydraulics actually move the rudder, which are typically powered by the propulsion plant.

I believe the engine is an electric diesel, so I'm fairly certain the propulsion plant powered the steering rather than the generator.

And there is a thing called "steerage way," the minimum speed through the water necessary to put enough pressure on the rudder to turn the ship.

The Iowa, eh? I spent some time at the War College with the CMC and I was involved in the JAG investigation of the turret explosion for a short period of time.

Wiki says her gross and net tonnage are 91k and 52k, with a deadweight of about 120k tons.

Didn't know that, thanks.  

I was reading the displacement, got it wrong.  

[Paa Langfart]

On 3/27/2024 at 4:42 PM, Anybodyhome said:

let me tell you that losing power is one of those things that will send your blood cold.

I was the engineering officer of the watch one time while we were steaming through the Bermuda triangle area when we went cold and dark.  One of the younger firemen in the forward fire room had mistakenly left the drain to the deareating feed tank open, before the boiler tech of the watch was able to find and correct it we rapidly began losing water level in the only boiler we had on line and I had them pull fires to avoid catastrophic damage. By that time we had our emergency diesels up and running and it took less than half an hour to reestablish boiler water level check things out and get steam back up.  But still some scary times indeed.

As far as what the generator was able to power- don't know about merchants but the destroyer I was on had two GM 671 diesels as EDG's and from what I remember they were only able to handle about 60 kw's apiece - barely enough to keep a firepump or two going and get the main plant back up and running.  And as someone mentioned what good is steering if you have lost steerageway ? With the size of most containerships the wind is going to be in total control of where it winds up without main propulsion.

[Anybodyhome]

On 3/28/2024 at 12:52 PM, cookinwithgas said:

You surface guys are so cute.

No, we're just smart enough to know that spending weeks/months at a time underwater in a pressurized trash can probably isn't a wise choice.

My father was a diesel boat radarman from 1950-1954. My brother was a nuke electrician on a fast attack.

Me? I'm 6'6" and know way better than even think about it. I did get a real nice guided tour of the USS Ohio back in the day, though.

[Davidson Deac II]

4 hours ago, Anybodyhome said:

No, we're just smart enough to know that spending weeks/months at a time underwater in a pressurized trash can probably isn't a wise choice.

My father was a diesel boat radarman from 1950-1954. My brother was a nuke electrician on a fast attack.

Me? I'm 6'6" and know way better than even think about it. I did get a real nice guided tour of the USS Ohio back in the day, though.

I am 6-3, I think I still have a few dings in my forehead from trying to run thru the passageways on the Iowa when General Quarters sounded.