It looks like the hard right shear occurred right around the same time as the second blackout.
I haven’t watched this video as I’m on a plane but I assume it explains it adequately.
For other videos/links, a good Google search criteria is ‘ME engine concept’ or ‘FLEX engine concept’
1 Like
I’m not familiar with all marine engines but the ones I’m familiar with have mechanical pumps as backups to the critical electrical pumps such that the ship can lose electrical power and not lose propulsion.
IMO - this has to be a steering event - if the ship has 7 kts of way on, and 2 experianced pilots - you can lose the plant still have plenty of steerage way to make it the 1000 yards or so to make it under the bridge. Not sure if the movement to starboard was the loss of steering control with right rudder on , or some bow cushion with the ship left of center - prob the former.
6 Likes
AIS Feed
I’ve never seen a slow speed main engine, especially one of this size, with this setup. However, if someone has and can post some drawings, I’m open to new things.
at least in our way of designing shaftlines: engine rotates always at constant speed and rotation (clockwise as to say). the trick is in the gearbox and propeller… controllable pitch propeller can be yes, controlled via the gearbox and while shaft and prop is rotating constantly, the propeller blades only rotate shifting thrust fwd to aft… that shift in some cases can lead to direction control loss due to the asymetric nature of the prop blades, but is nothing to worry about too much if you have rudder control onboard to overcome it…
Based on the video showing the lights going out, it would be a loss of steering and propulsion.
Agree with the possibility that steering was lost with rudder over/hard over
1 Like
It looks like a straight run before the bridge. Some minor rudder corrections, sure, but I can’t imagine why the rudder would have been hard over before they lost the plant the first time. And then if they got the rudder back before the second blackout I would imagine it would be hard to port, not starboard.
4 Likes
thinking more like it was 5 or 10 deg right when the lost control and by the time they got control back they were kind of toast.
Yea a more likely scenario.
I’d actually not be too hard on the media to this point. It’s not even twelve hours since the incident, and you can read this thread and see plenty of different opinions and understandings of events, engine control design and automation, etc. At this point I can point to very few facts that are definitely known. I expect that we’ll soon know a lot more.
1 Like
With Baltimore’s Fort Mc Henry Channel project depth at 50 ft [NOAA chart 12281] (“may be shoaler especially at the edges”), and DALI’s 40 ft of draught [according to veselfinder], is it plausible for the detrimental course change to be caused by prop walk / paddlewheel effect during emergency full astern maneuver?
2 Likes
I wasn’t there, and wouldn’t want to be the one who had to make a split second decision, but IMHO the full astern and resultant, subsequent sheer to starboard doomed the bridge. An ahead bell, with or without steering, might have missed the bridge pylon or at least resulted in a glancing blow.
Again, not being a Monday morning quarterback. Just thinking of the ship handling and response characteristics.
2 Likes
The pilots saved a lot of lives if the report that they called to have bridge traffic stopped is accurate.
2 Likes
I heard that dispatched on live audio from police, that the bridgekeepers had gotten the word and stopped traffic entering.
1 Like
Perhaps you should stick to commenting on topics in which you have actual knowledge? Stick to looking out the window.
Likewise, you have obviously never been on a big caro ship.
Ship pilots are gods and never make mistakes, as justified by their salary. How dare you imply a human made an error.
Maybe one day the uscg and shipping industry will listen to Ntsb and follow the culture of aviation…specifically: humans make mistake and equipment failures happen, we must plan for it.
2 Likes
It’s also hard to know if the steering system was operational or rudder frozen in a spot. If the rudder was stuck on right 20 then the full astern could be seen as the right course of action. If they even got full astern, I find it hard to believe they would get those rpm that quick after power restoration from a black out. Unfortunately, will have to wait to find out.
nope… never ever on large cargo ships… only psvs with those systems, meaning actual knowledge on the designs we have worked on, as stated there.
Then why the hell do you post useless irrelevant info here from your “experience”? Nothing you stated has anything to do with this super jumbo container ship.
Seriously, a 20hp inboard skiff that prop walks in reverse has more in common with this container ship than your CPP.
1 Like