Container ship breaks in half and sinks

[Jim Brady]

I've no idea about this but in view of the tugs now being greater in size is it possible that they could carry a helicopter to transfer the men aboard the ship??
Regards.
Jim.B.

[John Pruden]

most ships are made in sections and floated together from different shipyards maybe a good idea{if they don't snap in half} that is? can a ship/boat ever be to big that is the question?jp

[Tony Wilding]

hi John, for a long time i have said they are allready too big, it cannot continue forever, but still bigger ones are in the pipeline, the Sea has no respect for size, it seems the bigger they build them the more problems arise. bigger stresses and strains, regards, Tony W.

[Jim Brady]

Just thinking the lowest point of access here will be the tunnel which runs for to aft,I think that this is about two decks down so should be far easier to reach.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Tony Wilding]

the crew have disembarked from there rescue ship in colombo, big sighs of relief all round i expect, sad they lost there possessions. Dont think i would be keen to join another box boat.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Perhaps Rick R. or Ivan can answer this one for me..........During my time at sea (1957 -1966) I formed the impression that when it came to deep-sea salvage/towage the Dutch were the
people to see and, by all accounts, were very good at it. Just wonder, if they are still held in such high regard or has modern communications, technology and the almighty dollar leveled the playing-field ?

...........Roger

Roger, have had a close co-operation with the Dutch for previous 27 years, salvage and dredging equipment, of which they are the past and current masters and operators. (but have closed my company this year) Titan/Crawley of the USA (used to be UK) have over the last 15 years been coming in on the home stretch and now get a lot of the difficult jobs, (used to supply them with equipment along with techn'l advice). The Chinese are also entering both fields mainly because short sighted European companies had, and are having, sophisticated vessels built in China under licence, naturally the Chinese have taken advantage of this short sightedness and are building such vessels for their own account as well. A few major alterations to the original plans means that they are not infringing the licencing agreements, although from my experience the latter has never been a concern to them. I had a few dealings with the Chinese but ceased negotiations when they were not satisfied with general arrangement plans and instruction/maintenance manuals but wanted workshop drawings. The Europeans will find that they are reaping short term advantages (for their shareholders) by cheap labour and materials but will rue the day when they are competing against their own equipment for salvage and dredging jobs, just a personal opinion after a quarter of a century in the trade, as well as other land/port projects.

There are a couple of American companies also coming up a couple of furlongs behind but with the almighty dollar they can import the expertise to guide them and a lot of Dutch and Belgians (also master dredgers) will be tempted to join the growing American market. Brazil is also testing the waters in a big way with shipbuilding and dredger construction, as like most they are reluctant to export their foreign exchange when they can keep the money in-house and export to Latin America who will support them.

[alf corbyn]

hi jim. I guess that tunnel is what we on the liners called the Burma road, the working alleyway

[j.sabourn]

I have been on two Smitt Lloyd vessels the 105 and the 107, although under a different flag and getting on in years, compared with similar British types of vessel were in my opinion superior. I put this down to a different attitude the Dutch and also the Scandanavian countries had as against the British owner, although in later years the British owner was adapting to the same attitude. On the building of such vessels believe the Dutch and others involved their own seafarers and those who were going to sail their vessels into the design of bridge and engine room layouts and also other working areas. The British just built a ship and that was it. I have also been on Norwegian vessels and found the same thing. Forget about your conventional ships when talking about modern tugs. The bridge consuls are like the consul of a Jumbo Jet. This is also replicated forward and aft on bridge, also wing portable what we called magic boxes where you could control the thrusters and propellors. I have seen ships twin screw, Becker rudders, Bow thrusters and 2 after thrusters. Your towing wire was on a tension winch, there were various pop up pins and stoppers on the tow deck which could be raised by pushing a button. My advent to towing was on a 5000 H.P. ship with none of the fancy towing equipment they have now, stoppering off the tow wire was done with a pelican hook which nowadays would be considered dangerous in the extreme. Any tow jobs in the offshore uk when I left they wouldn't look at anything under 12000 H.P. and since then I believe it is 16000 H.P. The Dutch and others were good at it because seamen were involved in a lot of cases in the design of their ships. Cheers John Sabourn

[Tony Wilding]

1. the Dutch have learned from many years experience just what is needed in a Modern Deep Sea Salvage Tug, they dont cut corners, a highly skilled and difficult Occupation, having the right tools is a big help, i allways thought the Dutch to be World Leaders in Ship Salvage,

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Tony
Gees I'm glad that didn't happen when my furniture was on one of it's many moves across the Tasman.
I've only just stopped my desk from being sea sick.
Cheers Des