Accidents and mishaps at sea

[Thomas Hypher]

I follow this guys vlog. Apart from the Evergiven he has some very interesting short videos on all sorts of shipboard life.

Sorry, just noticed that someone has posted one of the videos. As for not being an expert..........he certainley knows a lot.

He is the maritime expert I referred to above! He's a chief engineer. The other YouTuber I linked to above him in my previous post is a former military and now commercial airline pilot who used the chief engineer as one of his sources given this incident was out of his usual remit. I have followed the excellent vlogs and reports of both for a while now.

[Thomas Hypher]

What amazes me is the number of ships that were blocked due to this event. 369 of them, to be precise -- and that is without counting the Maersk and other ships that were quickly diverted via the Cape of Good Hope instead.

We seem to be so focused on cruise ships at this time of Covid limitations, that we risk overlooking the fact that much of the world's freight shipping (as well as ferries, short or long distance) continues in the meantime.

We also mustn't forget all the repurposed passenger airliners and pre-existing cargo airliners that have been transporting PPE internationally as well as carrying on with other normal cargo services. A look at the flight trackers still shows quite a bit of this traffic. For example: a few former passenger, ex-Virgin Atlantic A340-600s have made my local airport (Hurn/Bournemouth airport) home during this whole pandemic, going all over the world collecting and delivering PPE and I presume also helping to distribute vaccines now. I live on the flight path and they are an impressive and wonderful sight and sound.

[Rod]

OK, they found the person responsible!

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/14495350/suez-chaos-train-crash-blamed-move-body-king/

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/suez-canal-crisis-ended-time-063423949.html

[Thomas Hypher]

Another video on the Ever Given incident from the aviation pilot, with direct input from maritime experts probably including the chief engineer who made the other videos in previous posts on this forum thread. I think at least some of the issues with the size of these sorts of container ships also apply to the largest cruise ships (particularly regarding windage!).

He also briefly mentions why she was going at 13 knots through the canal (as do other large ships) - to maintain steerage among other reasons as a lot of conversations online seem to have overlooked. I suspect this is also the same reason (among the others he mentions) for ships with traditional rudder and propeller arrangements speeding up when negotiating the sandbanks in the Solent via the famous "reverse S" manoeuvre. Ships speed up noticeably, around Fawley/Calshot Spit, upon leaving Southampton Water where I believe the speed limit is 8 knots for large ships. Having said this though, would this apply at all to ships with and steered by pods, such as most contemporary cruise ships and QM2?

[Thomas Hypher]

A good explanation of "that" controversial AIS track, by the chief engineer:

All in all it seems the crew of Ever Given have been unlucky on all counts, and one has to feel sorry for them.

[Thomas Hypher]

Another update on Ever Given's situation, from the chief engineer:

[Rod]

I was trying to find out how many containers Ever given carried............wow! what a can of worms that opened up on Google!
"Ship is owned by Walmart and the Clinton Foundation"
"Weapons of mass destruction found and offloaded by Navy Seals!"
"Trafficked children, some dead found in containers"
Good Lord!

[Trevor Harris]

I was trying to find out how many containers Ever given carried............wow! what a can of worms that opened up on Google!
"Ship is owned by Walmart and the Clinton Foundation"
"Weapons of mass destruction found and offloaded by Navy Seals!"
"Trafficked children, some dead found in containers"
Good Lord!

Ah yes, gotta love those conspiracy theorists. 

The internet can be such a blessing AND a curse.

[Thomas Hypher]

I wonder what the state of her perishable cargo is now? Probably doesn't bear thinking about! This is yet another case, sadly, of the crew being the pawns and scapegoats until proven innocent or guilty in an unbiased (if such a thing exists) official investigation.

[Peter Mugridge]

There is another container ship in trouble at the moment... the crew have been safely evacuated.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-asia-57244173

[Thomas Hypher]

Iran's largest military ship, I hesitate to say warship as she was primarily an auxiliary, caught fire and sank the other day. IRIS Kharg. Apparently the fire started in her engine room. She was the longest lived Ol-class fleet tanker, her three sisters serving in the RFA, including going south in 82, and having long and successful lives of their own - being fondly remembered by their crews from what I've read over the years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ol-class_tanker_(1965)

As an aside, I was interested to see the Iranian Navy still operates several frigates of a Vospers commercial export design related to the Type 21 Frigate. They lost one in Operation Praying Mantis in 1988 and another was severely damaged at the same time but was repaired and is still around today. They have imitated the same design in their first class of domestically produced frigates. Pakistan has started phasing out the surviving Type 21 frigates they bought from us, with at least one having already been expended as a target in exercises. The number of warships of late 60s/70s/and Falklands War vintage is starting to dwindle even more, with none of the remaining set to be preserved to mark that eventful time period. It is a travesty HMS Plymouth didn't survive as a museum ship to mark that eventful time period.

[Andy Holloway]

Sadly Thomas it's a fact of life that everything, ships included however 'famous' they are, have a 'shelf life' beyond which they become too expensive to upgrade/modernise.

Of my ships RN/MN; HMS Nubian was blasted out of the water as a target in 1987, HMS Phoebe was sold for scrap  in 1992, HMS Bulwark was scrapped in 1984, RFA Tarbetness was bought by USN and then used for target practice in 2009, SS Oceanic was sold to China for scrap in 2012, Vistafjord went for scrap, Pacific Sun [rightly] went for scrap in China and QE2 - well we all know about her! 
The only ships in have worked on that are still operating around the globe are; QM2, QV, Coral Princess, Sun Princess, Seabourn Odyssey & Sojourn, RVS/Seabourn Sun,Prinsendam lives on but in Europe as Amera, Seabourn Spirit is now Star Breeze with Windstar.
Overall not a good record for 'choice' of ships with longevity!

[Andy Holloway]

I almost forgot to put Ocean Village into the negative column. She only went for scrap on 12th April 2021 at that big 'dry dock in the sky' that is Alang!

[Thomas Hypher]

Sadly Thomas it's a fact of life that everything, ships included however 'famous' they are, have a 'shelf life' beyond which they become too expensive to upgrade/modernise.

Indeed...it's the harsh reality for those of us who get sentimental about ships. Everything and everyone has their time, even museum ships with their own set of issues such as when investment and politics no longer go in their favour - think Queen Mary, HMS Plymouth, FNS Colbert, and no doubt plenty of others...

[Chris Thompson]

Meanwhile in Georgia the MV Golden Ray car carrier is being chopped into 6000 ton slices and being barged away to the scrappers. You can see some of her cargo in the photo, anybody wanna very low mileage slightly soggy Hundai?