http://uk.download.yahoo.com/pr/fu/oa/bridge.wmv

11 seafarers were killed in that incident........................ and the bridge operator committed suicide.


A Captain with HUGE balls
On a lighter note, the largest passenger ship afloat was recently launched in Finland and had to pass under the new bridge across the Great Belt between Denmark and Sweden. Even fully ballasted the ship still had a 2.4m negative airdraft (top of the mast was 2.4m higher than the space under the bridge) so this $200million passenger ship was stuck in the Baltic. After a lot of calculations the Captain worked out that he could get the ship under the bridge with 20cm of clearance if he utilsed the shallow water squat effect - as a large ship moves faster and faster through shallow water it sinks further in the water, if the water is shallow enough she will go aground - a phenomenon called squat. The captain calculated that he needed to be doing 28knots to increase his draft by 2.6m, which also gave him an underkeel clearance of less than 3m.................................... remember this is a brand new $200million cruise ship. So to make sure that should the calculations be a tiny bit out the bridge was closed to train and vehicular traffic and all pedestrians banned, the ship worked up to 30knots sea speed and then only the very brave captain and a helmsman were left in the wheelhouse and all others evacuated to lower decks. Unfortunately for the captain it transpired that the height if his funnel was slightly out and his ship was 10cm higher than he thought - the ship just got under the bridge and he got a huge bonus. The next day the company insurers presented him with a video of the ship going under the bridge and the readout from a laser measurer they had fitted under the bridge span and also the protective box the laser had been in hanging below the bridge- it had paint scrappings on it where the funnel top had scratched it as the ship went under the bridge. The captain was then promptly sacked by the shipping company as the insurers considered him to be an insurance risk! 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
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oh dear - sorry to hear that Tim

holy sh**  
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What amazes me about disasters like this is that is somebody nearby with a video camera to capture it all happening!
There have been lots of accidents with bridges and ships unfortunately. You may also remember a coastal ship that was trying to turn around in a narrow river in the east of Engeland about 3 years ago. It grounded with with bow on one river bank and the stern on the other on a falling tide................... result the tide went out and the coaster snapped in half blocking the port approaches for about 4 months.
We get insurance/P&I Club/ MCA reports about all of these accidents on the ship, regardless of where they occur

We had an incident in one company I worked for when a Ro-Ro shop we operated was going into Tacoma in Oregon. The ship's bridge was in a dense layer of fog but the main deck level was not so there was a lookout forward in clear visiblity.
As the ship approached the Tacoma Narrows Bridge the ship suffered a power blackout and hit the open span of the bridge and the control house for the lifting mechanism. Once power had been restored and the bow and stern thrusters were back online the captain and pilot tryed to keep the ship on station - unfortunately what they could not see was that the wash from the thrusters was causing havoc in a marina next to the channel and many many boats were sunk and the marina pontoons damaged. The company had to cough up also for commuters driving to work who would nromally use the bridge to save an drive in excess of 100 miles round the bay as the mechanism took nearly a year to rebuild.
Believe it or not 10 years to the day later the same ship was going through the same bridge span........................................................... and although they could see the lifting span was open they were horrified to see that as they sailed through the lift mechanism failed and one span fell down on the ship........................ it was also the same captain on both occassions! 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Tim,

Are you sure about the casualities from this incident - it appeared on another forum so I added your comments - another member posted back this link

http://www.boatnerd.com/windoc/

indicating that non of the crew members were injured

How to ruin your shipping career  

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