Bridge taken out by cargo ship in Baltimore

**Duck cutter** · 03-28-2024, 09:19 PM

This place is great

**Saltydog235** · 03-28-2024, 09:44 PM

Originally Posted by DG34YF

Very sad what happened.

I've been around.
Usually tugs will run alongside or behind a ship until there are no more turns to be made. No lines attached after leaving the berth. They would have gotten on the side, nosed into the hull & pushed it towards safe direction. Baltimore Harb. tide was still going out, it was around full moon so big tides, current lessened since low was @ 0200, ship would have had to be going several mph faster than tide to have steerage (able rudder to make ship turn appropriately) & at that speed tugs following would have had a tough time catching up in time to assist if they were following. These ships are as long as what John Force has to run each weekend. Doubt a tug would normally run beside a ship approaching that bridge. Old bridges' openings aren't too wide.
Most container ships have generators & a main propulsion engine. Main engine requires generators supplying power to run fuel pumps, other auxiliaries & the new damn computers telling it all what to do. Seeing the lights go out a few times indicates the poor bastards in the engine room had major issues keeping the power supply up. (lights going on/off)
Each time the power got restored, they would have had to restart the main engine which is directly connected to propeller shaft. To reverse, the engine has to be stopped, cams shifted and then restarted. Not an Indy Car fast sequence. Ya see a bunch of black smoke, that's a restart, not a good one for todays standards but more than likely a restart with a full astern bell (request from bridge) which dumps full fuel to cylinders and only minimal air due to turbochargers not spooled up giving enough air to make it burn cleanly. Too late in this case to slow, stop & reverse ship's progress.
Initially, poor boat driving, once engine issues began the boat drivers may not have immediately requested astern bell, tug assist &/or drop anchors (both if going more than a few mph but that would cause a major clusterfk). Harbor & docking pilots &/or Captain thought their $hit don't stink, which is usual, they are awesome, just ask one. Behind those attitudes (which is industry wide), the Charter Company has budget restrictions, the foreign operators are deathly afraid to question so some equipment may not be quite up to standards. Often management has folks in the mix that have zero associated experience dictating policy to the ship operators. But auxiliaries will have an awesome coat of paint on them so any Port State Control folks will not be alerted to its possible poor condition. Logs are kept but may not reflect everything. Engine room failures happen. Even on the ships run by stellar Union Engineers!
There is always a 'hurry up', 'time is $' push to load/unload, get off the dock, get by with minimal tug assist, get the pilot off going on that the ship's crew is the one to blame for any extra pennies spent. There are regs, but only follow the ones that do not incur more expenses or we will find someone else to run things who can.

Reading a few articles, if the ship had maneuvering issues inbound then that would have been a major red flag to have tug lines remain connected maneuvering out until several test bells could be performed. That would have required the Chief requesting it to the Captain… An inquiry will ensue, some info will be forthcoming, lots won’t. Big $ rolls on. Sad what happened.

Oh look, someone with actual experience on these type ships telling us what he knows. And what more than likely occurred. But the Bidens, Ukrainians, CIA and deep state did it.