Helge Ingstad - Why did it sink?

As I recall it was laying on its side on a rock shelf and they attempted to run wire ropes to the shore to secure it. Eventually it slid into the fjord. This seems like the most likely reason it sank.

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You are correct.

Bilge pumps are only designed to pump out the bilges; they won’t cope with a large inrush of water.
Once the weight of water overcomes the buoyancy, down it goes.
I’m sat on my wooden boat which has developed a 10mm hole in the hull, right on the bottom planking. It is quite amazing how much water comes rushing in through such a small hole.
The main bilge pump is keeping well ahead of it now that I have stuffed the hole with rags plus I have 2 other bilge pumps standing by should it get worse.
Now all I need is a diver.

Hm, the ship was floating long after the collision. The photo, taken when the ship was still floating, shows damages above waterline. Ships do not sink due to damages above waterline. Question remains what happened inside the ship.

8 posts were split to a new topic: The Admiral wood boat with 10 mm hole

The sequence of events seems to be thus:

  • Initial flooding of the aft generator room, possibly due to deployed stabilizers.

  • Progressive flooding due to failed seals where the prop shafts penetrated water tight bulkheads.

  • The ship relatively quickly sank onto a shelf, and slipped deeper during the next few days. One report from the assisting tugs stated that the ship had already settled on the bottom when they arrived.

A bit of detail:

This has already been pretty extensively covered on here, so I can’t be bothered to dig up multiple english language sources.

Here is the video from the other thread.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46136564

I must say I like the HI blue watertight doors. Easy to open and swing open, etc
HI%20blue%20door
When I was in the navy gray was the preferred color!

Some water tight door, only one handle in the middle instead of four, two on each side of the door! I suppose that these are crew quarters. It looks likes a normal cabin door with door handle to me, complete with the good old emergency kick out panel below. You know, doors can get jammed with a collision and what a collision it was…

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Blue watertight door with kick out panel! Yes, it is Norwegian standard.

Are those kick-out panels common? I know the Russian rules require them, but I don’t recall seeing them on most ships.

A watertight door with a kick out panel, that will be the day! This is getting better and better…

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On Dutch ships they were standard, but that is probably a local ruling, not international.

For a Suede, it is easy to attack the Norwegians, when the resident Norwegian specialist is momentary jailed and his more ancient second does not even think about a reply to a Suede…

Kick out panels in ship doors are useful when the ship has capsized and the door becomes the floor. You jump on the panel and drop down into the corridor below where you probably die trapped. If after capsize the door/panel is in the roof, you have a problem.

I had never seen those until I was onboard a Romanian buoy tender last year, where they took the form of little doors like dog hatches. I asked if they were for the cat, and they explained that they would allow the door to be opened if it was blocked by water pressure. Made sense at the time…

I have only seen them used as interior cabin doors and they are not required to be watertight but they should be fire resistant to a certain extent.

It seems kick-out or escape panels in doors on ships is a United Kingdom Marine and Coastguard Agency (MCA) requirement, e.g.:

MCA Guidance

G1 Escape panels in doors

G1.1 It is generally considered that escape panels in ‘B’ Class doors are unnecessary. However they may be fitted if an owner requires them. In such cases the panels should be constructed in accordance with any details shown on the approved drawings, provided they do not exceed 410mm x 410mm in size. A ventilation opening, when fitted, should be incorporated in the escape panel. Where no details of an escape panel are given the door manufacturer should be requested to submit details of the construction to MCA Headquarters for consideration before use.

G1.2 Escape panels should only be capable of being operated from that side of the door from which a person needs to escape and should be of such a design as to preserve the integrity and insulation standard of the door and prevent any unlawful entry into a space.

G1.3 Escape panels should be marked with the words ‘ESCAPE PANEL - KICK OUT’ in white letters on a green background;

Etc.

Only idiots like the Norwegian Royal Navy and similar fit one way escape panel – kick out at owner’s option in ships anyway. It is a pity that safety at sea – my business – is in the hands of incompetent landlubbers. I describe another example at http://heiwaco.com/news811.htm

Turns out it wasn’t the Russian national rules that I first suspected to require kick-out panels, but the RMRS class rules:

Doors of accommodation spaces … shall have in their lower portions detachable panels 0.4 x 0.5 m in size, the panels of the passenger cabin doors shall be provided with the following inscription: “Means of escape - knock out in case of emergency”.