Nothing on the Baltimore Bridge?

[james03]

The big question, why did the ship turn towards starboard?

ONE explanation:

Hacker inserts a "FORCE" in the PLC (control computer): 30° starboard on the rudder.

Then trips the electrical bus killing power to the bow thruster.

Since this was a Singapore owned ship, and Singapore is heavily Chinese, I would suspect the Chinese of stealing the login credentials to the ship.  They might have given it to Russia to use as payback for the Israel/US ISIS terror attack in Moscow.

Whatever the explanation, there needs to be an explanation of why the ship turned towards the bridge pier.  It wasn't wind.  It was a calm night, and besides the rudder would have been set to compensate for the wind even if there was wind.

[LausTibiChriste]

There's no conspiracy here.

Ships break. Rudders are heavy. Wind was from port.


If I had a quarter for every time I heard steering gear break down while at sea, I'd be able to afford McDonald's in Denmark.

[james03]

Forgot you were in the Navy. 

So why did the rudder change position?  I'm assuming it is hydraulically actuated.  Shut off power to hydraulics, and they hold position.

If it is your position that this is likely just mechanical failure, I'll take your word for it.

[LausTibiChriste]

No idea why the rudder changed position...could be a whole host of reasons from mechanical to human.

The real question is why the bridge piers didn't have any collision protection

[Frank]

No idea why the rudder changed position...could be a whole host of reasons from mechanical to human.

The real question is why the bridge piers didn't have any collision protection

Coming from the Structures Division of Brits Building Research Station I couldn't agree more. Why indeed.
Also, the way the bridge progressively collapsed suggested a piss-poor design to me. A bit like that Italian job.

[Greg]

They could have avoided that bridge collapsing by simply building reinforced concrete footings to the main bridge supports.  So any ship that hit the bridge hit the concrete footing first.  But that's an extra expense.

The problem with America is that apart from military stuff they do everything on the cheap when it comes to infrastructure.  Strip mall towns, shitty architecture, concrete roads which give a lousy ride and destroy your car tyres, external high voltage wiring strung up on utility poles in most towns.  There is always money for wars but none for infrastructure projects.

They still don't have a fast way to reach the airport in most of their major cities.

Compare the French motorways to American highways and you would much prefer to drive in France.  Loads of places to pull over with toilets, food, fuel, picnic tables in good condition, play areas for children.

[LausTibiChriste]

They could have avoided that bridge collapsing by simply building reinforced concrete footings to the main bridge supports.  So any ship they hit the bridge hit the concrete donut first.  But that's an extra expense.

The problem with America is that apart from military stuff they do everything on the cheap when it comes to infrastructure.  Strip mall towns, shitty architecture, concrete roads which give a lousy ride and destroy your car tyres, external high voltage wiring strung up on utility poles in most towns.  There is always money for wars but none for infrastructure projects.

They still don't have a fast way to reach the airport in most of their major cities.

Compare the French motorways to American highways and you would much prefer to drive in France.  Loads of places to pull over with toilets, food, fuel, picnic tables in good condition, play areas for children.

Canada is very similar in this regard. Never understood why all the electrical wires are hanging around on poles like that.

The Skytrain in Vancouver - they're in the middle of the Broadway corridor extension. It's not even going out to the University (Where it's sorely needed), first of all.

Second of all, they've been talking about this extension for years, if not decades. Construction was approved 6(!) years ago and they're only in the middle of it now, with completion set for 2026(!!).

It's only 5.7km long and costs $2.83 billion

Meanwhile, in the 2.5 years since I was last in Moscow, they managed to build almost 70km of metro line. All underground



I read some estimates that the replacement for the Baltimore Bridge, including clean-up, could take up to 10 years!

China, from 2013-2023, built 34,000km of high speed rail. Russia finished the Crimea Bridge in like 2 years.


I hold that Western-style Capitalism handicaps progress.

[james03]

Here's a scenario that would explain the crash:

1.  North wind is present.  Not much, but those stacked sea-cans give you a huge wind load.

2.  Rudder is set to compensate for the wind load.  Ship sails in a straight line.

3.  Engine shuts off.  The rudder is going to lose most of its "torque" on the boat, as the propeller "exhaust" striking the rudder is what makes it work.

4.  Ship then drifts with the wind.

This is very reasonable, and I've seen reports that the ship "lost propulsion".  The odd thing is that the Ship Tracker doesn't show the ship losing forward speed.  However we do see the black smoke, which shows problems with the engines, or a rushed restart.  Perhaps the Ship Tracker data is not particularly accurate.

Also, when ships leave port, their main engines are on Marine Diesel Oil, which also always powers the generator engines.  Once at sea the main engines are switched to Marine Fuel Oil, which is cheaper and lower quality.

So the likely culprit is the MDO system.  The black smoke could be the crew switching the engines to MFO, which would produce that smoke on start up.

[james03]

One more thing to add, MFO is as thick as molasses at room temperature.  It has to be heated to thin it out.  In the fuel bunker tank, it is kept hot by heaters, however the fuel lines are not particularly hot.

I also imagine when a ship is at sea, they slowly bleed in the MFO, making adjustments to the engine during the switch, until they are 100% on MFO.

So if your MDO system goes out, switching to MFO is a reasonable response.  Except the fuel lines will be a little cool, and the engine will be set for MDO.  So when the MFO hits, you aren't going to get great atomization and the air won't be right.  Which means black smoke.