Can’t tell for sure, is that container ship just starting a turn to port at the end of the video?
Angle on the bow seems to be starting to open at around 0:20.
Also - isn’t the Elbe 5 making a slow turn to stbd during the entire video?
'Pears so. Unless there’s a helluvan ebb.
These German rivers don’t mess about. Here’s Excelsior on the Rhine in '07 – the river was closed to shipping for five days, trapping ~500 vessels.
It’s very common for people on small vessels to underestimate the distance away and speed of larger vessels. The view closer to the water is much different.
I find that a megaphone is a great tool to reach out and touch those that cut under your bow. Reinforce that they make poor life decisions.
I wonder how much relief the blue man got from pumping that tin horn instead of giving the command to fall off. Did he really think it could be heard from inside the ship’s bridge and the ship would stop on a dime?
Meanwhile the crew is milling around like a bunch of disoriented farmers on holiday. It’s hard to imagine a more perfectly executed fiasco.
Fortunate no one was seriously injured or killed.
Here is the press release from this incident.
At a hearing 30/05/2011 at Southampton Magistrates the Officer of the Watch of a fishing vessel pleaded guilty to one safety charge brought under Section 58 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995. He was fined £1,700 plus costs of £6,435.
On the 20th August 2010 the Andrea had finished fishing and was returning to port in the Netherlands. The skipper and rest of the crew were below leaving Jan Baarssen alone on the bridge in sole charge of the vessel. The Andrea is a 36.5 metre beam trawler registered in the UK but is based in the Netherlands
The Alexander von Humboldt was returning to Germany after a training voyage with a crew of fifty nine (59) consisting of thirty three (33) trainees and twenty six (26) full time crew. She is a large three masted sail training vessel registered in Germany.
The visibility on the day was good (10 Km +), wind was southerly force 5-6 with weather being grey and overcast.
During the afternoon of the 20th August 2011 the Alexander von Humboldt detected the Andrea on a steady bearing on its port side. The Andrea was not fishing and was the give way vessel. The Alexander von Humboldt started sounding its whistle. The Andrea failed to give way. The Alexander von Humboldt also tried to contact the Andrea by VHF radio but had no response. The Andrea claims to have gone hard to starboard and when within 15-20 metres of the Alex von Humboldt, the Andrea was seen to go full astern. The Andrea struck the port quarter of the Alexander von Humboldt. It was a fairly low speed collision.
Apart from some scratched paintwork, the Andrea was undamaged.
The Alexander von Humboldt was lucky to suffer only some dented shell plating with associated damage to internal wooden bulkheads and deck planking together with bent or buckled handrails. It was very fortunate that no harm came to the crew of the Alexander von Humboldt and that its rigging and watertight integrity remained intact.
Mr Jan Baarssen, 51, of Urk, Netherlands pleaded guilty for conduct endangering ships or persons. He was finerd£1,700 plus costs of £6,435
In passing sentence the Magistrates stated that it was fortunate that they were no injuries especially among the sail training crew.
Mr David Fuller O.B.E., Principal Fishing Vessel Surveyor for the Eastern Region of the MCA stated:“This is yet another incident occurring on the return of a fishing vessel to harbour. Fishermen are reminded of the requirement to keep a good lookout at all times. Also that that the trip is not over until the vessel is safely tied up in port.
We would like to thank the German and Netherlands Police for their assistance in this matter”
Fishermen are a special breed. In certain areas like the English Channel, then still without traffic lane regulation, we always were very alert, especially at night, for the escapades of often French fishing vessels.
Constant radar observation was necessary. Rules meant nothing to them. We didnot quite understand that sometimes suicidal attitude because they always are, when it comes to a clash, with those small ships the victimized party.
It seems they were tacking upriver, without the main sail and with the engine’s help.
On the Elbe River, they must have instructions for these big old sailboats, how to crisscross the shipping channels. From far away, I would say only with the engine on standby, someone on the engine controls and people on the freed tiller (they needed some time to liberate it).
Blocking the tiller in a river, with always changing currents and winds, lets the boat do what is best for her and not for the set course. I see a slight starboard turn from the beginning of the video.
The boat’s captain being a retired Elbe pilot, he used to give orders to a professional crew and had feedback from professionals. If he had to drive the whole boat quasi single-handed, having an enthusiastic but not knowledgeable crew, he could rapidly become overwhelmed on this complicated boat.
In that case, his first mistake was leaving the dock.
Like the Mississippi River in USA, there’s a helluva lot of water moving around
There sure is some muddy water moving in that river. On a tanker sailing up that river the Mississippi pilot hugged the starboard shore rather close, probably to catch the downstream. I still hear him saying: “You hear them boyds singing in the woods?”. I must have looked with some bewilderment at the captain because he said: “Birds, he means birds.”
Just after he said that the ship heeled rather sharply to port and we could feel that we lost speed. Some minutes later the ship righted itself, picked up speed again and the captain, a cool Frisian, said: “Let’s not mention those birds again!”.
As this thread has a revival, then:
The German Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation (BSU) did not yet publish the final report.
On July 27, they published safety recommendations about watertight integrity on traditional passenger vessels.
(After the collision, ‘Elbe 5’ proceeded on her own to protected waters… and foundered there; luckily all people onboard could be saved without further injuries)
This ties in to the amateur vs professional thread. What were they thinking? They weren’t thinking. They were amateurs who left their thinking faculties on the dock.
Not very long ago, people that did not think (or were incapable of thinking) suffered pain, misery, and/or starvation.
Language problems maybe? (Not everybody has English as 1st language):
But indeed. CEVNI applies on all inland waterways in Germany. There is a paragraph on narrow fairways, but it doesn’t apply, as it is only for when it’s too narrow to meet. The guiding principle here would be Article 6.04 paragraph 2:
When meeting, vessels proceeding upstream shall, with due regard for local circumstances and the movements of other vessels, give way to vessels proceeding downstream.
Was this a waterway with a steady stream?
The Elbe River is a major (for Europeans) stream, running from the mountains of the Czech Republic to the German Bight in the North Sea.
The Lower Elbe (65 NM), from the ports of Hamburg to its mouth at Cuxhaven, is a tidal river; still freshwater, but the normal flow reverses with the incoming tide.
Which part was this incident on?
