Another bridge hit by ship

[Art Wadsworth]

One of the videos I saw showed the tug made up on the starboard quarter as she backed out and started to turn. The tug then cast off and tried to move forward to push on the starboard bow to straighten her out. Looks as if she never connected. It is said that the engine or the propeller would not reverse so the ship continued backing. Flood tide caught and swept the ship back into the bridge.

BTW: Another thread in this issue mentions the bridge transcript from the Baltimore incident. Find a copy. Load it and play it. Very interesting.

Art from Baltimore

[John Arton]

https://gcaptain.com/ntsb-issues-pre...eid=3b737aa316
Initial report on this incident.
Rgds
J.A

[James Curry]

Still nothing to indicate what happened. Cannot understand why the Tug had appeared to have let go??

[Ivan Cloherty]

Still nothing to indicate what happened. Cannot understand why the Tug had appeared to have let go??

Read a preliminary report today from USCG which seems to highlight a degree of incompetency or complacency by all involved. The vessel had on board on the vessel's bridge River Pilot, Docking Pilot, Master. QM and others and was attended at all times by a McAllister tug, now here comes the strange part the airdraft of the Brooklyn Bridge at its highest point was a 127 feet at the time of the tide, the airdraft of the vessel was 157 feet, should not one of the three responsible people discussed the airdraft of vessel at sometime during the river passage.

I know that when we were due to pass under the River Forth Bridge, we always anchored and yours truly went over the bow, stern and midships to ascertain the draft and freeboard readings port and starboard to give us a true airdraft, sometimes we had to pump in ballast which put us in an overloaded condition but got us safely under the bridge and then pump it out again to get alongside

[Allen James Jones]

I read that the vessel was supposed to "go ahead" after clearing the wharf. The pilot issued the command to the captain who then passed this on to another officer who called it out to someone else. All, except the pilots command, in Spanish. Instead of going ahead the engines were put astern thus the connection with the bridge. If what was reported is correct then somewhere in the chain of command there was a mis-interpretation of the pilots command.

[Des Jenkins]

I sailed on two sailing ships the Bounty and the James Craig, the engines driving the props were not all that powerful, maybe too much sails against the screw going astern where the problem,
Des

[Gerald Farr]

Just a question, has anyone heard or read anything anywhere about the Baltimore bridge demolition or the starting of the replacement? I realise it all takes time but usually there is some mention of progress somewhere.