stock here, saw some comments that shed light on large boats.
@bridgetfhelm
6 hours ago Baltimore Port worker tells ITV News that the Dali ship that crashed into the Francis Scott Key bridge experienced total power failures in the two days that it was docked before the crash: “It was having power problems with draining electrical popping circuit breakers and everything with the mechanics that were working on it,” Julie Mitchell, Co-Administrator from Container Royal said. Container Royal monitors the tonnage on all containers that come in and out of Baltimore Port———————————-
Here is the sauce: AT 3:57 Julie Mitchell, Co-Administrator, Container Royal. Its the top video on this article.
Hi Sam, Great channel. I’m a marine engineer; here’s my guess at what has happened. When a ship leaves port there is a requirement to start stand-by generators for the duration of the voyage out. But sometimes there are other issues, a switch board failure, or auto-control issue and you can lose the lot. it has happened to me a few times over the years. Everything goes off-line and the main engines shut down automatically because they have no feed pumps for fuel, lube oil and air. The emergency generator will usually start – a small diesel housed on the upper deck usually behind the bridge. It gives enough power for the nav gear and some ventilation, and enough power to enable the engineers to get the rest of the gear back on-line. That is probably driving the lights we see come back on but not as many as before. The engineers then go round the engine room and control room and manually switch all the gear back on. That can take some time. But because of the emergency the engineers in this case would have to make a terrible decision to start the main engines immediately to go emergency full astern possibly without supporting pumps and almost certainly with some engine damage. Black smoke is always a sign of incomplete combustion. the massive pumps that supply air to the engine room would be off-line and so the engines would be gasping for air. The fuel would burn but without enough air hence the black smoke. in full-astern mode the rudder would be useless. I really hope the anchor team got off the foredeck before the bridge came down on top of them. Cheers
———I was in the navy as a Surface Warfare Officer and brought US Navy Warships into port as officer of the deck many times. Losing propulsion/steering in a channel is a WORST CASE scenario and there are often times literally only seconds to recover. The US Navy in fact puts extra redundant engineering equipment online with a ‘run it until it breaks’ mindset during restricted maneuvering in channels like this to avoid a collision or grounding – it is THAT important. A big ship like this loses control of propulsion/steering and doesn’t have tugs to immediately assist they have NO chance to control their movement for some distance/time. Very tragic but thank God it didn’t happen during rush hour.