Car Carrier overturns in Brunswick River, Ga.

[RaymondR]

Not just a lifting device but also a "chain saw" to cut it into sections.

[AA3JY]

Open public hearing begins..

https://thebrunswicknews.com/breakin...medium=social8

[PirateFoxy]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

Not just a lifting device but also a "chain saw" to cut it into sections.

The things we come up with to handle big jobs are so interesting.

[hscrugby]

Originally Posted by PirateFoxy

The things we come up with to handle big jobs are so interesting.

The funny thing we docked right behind this then moored off to the side in Fernandina Beach, and I spent the whole time trying to figure out what the hell that crane/saw thing was for. It was docked near some type of a wood plant, so I just couldn't figure it out. Then we sailed past the upside down ship and I didn't put 2+2 together until the wife pointed out that was just waiting on permits etc. And everyone wants to argue and blame others... I do wish I'd sailed quite a bit closer and thrown the drone up, but I was really hungry and we wanted to eat at St Simons... (good food, but REAL pricey. Not sure it's worth the price. But it was good)

[RaymondR]

Yep, the ingenuity of man when an insurance company is picking up the tab knows no boundaries.

[dannc]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

Not just a lifting device but also a "chain saw" to cut it into sections.

I prefer to think of it as a Ship Slicer Upper. Like a cheese slicer, just bigger.


Later,
Dan

[RaymondR]

The term "slice" implies some sort of precision however it's a brute strength and ignorance operation and the chain tears it's way through. If you want a clean cut you use an endless wire to saw through. The chain will get the job done and it will probably be fairly fast.

It will be a very interesting operation to watch.

One of the things I did when I still worked was insurance investigation for problems in oil and gas fields. It was fascinating to watch how the well killers cut up and removed heavy steel fixtures.

[El Pinguino]

Nothing new under the sun...
https://themaritimepost.com/2020/07/...-the-tricolor/

[RaymondR]

The tungstan carbide chips embedded in bronze and coated into steel as a cutting device would give a much cleaner cut than just using a chain but probably not so robust.

Cutting devices formed by embedding hard substances like tungstan carbide in bronze is an ancient technology with a modern twist.

Ancient peoples made saws for cutting and smoothing rock by pouring molten bronze into holes in containers of quartz, When the bronze cooled and solidified a layer of quartz chips was embedded in the circumference of the bronze rod. The rod could be then used in a bow saw to cut rock.

[AA3JY]

As earlier suspected..improper ballast configuration..

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/e...164640261.html

[boatboy59]

I expect we will find that it wasn’t just a ballast issue. I’m not at all sure that any of the car carriers coming and going here in Brunswick use ballast in the channel, but maybe they do. And I am fairly certain that loads and CG on RoRos are always an issue. They are inherently unstable vessels.

1,500 gallons of ballast is equivalent to 40 cars in a ship that can carry over 7,400 cars. Yes, the ballast weight is lower in the ship, but we are talking about 120,000 pounds in a 71,000 ton vessel. I am not a naval engineer, but that just doesn’t add up to a primary cause for a ship to capsize. The rudder and prop (now removed) weigh 260,000 pounds.

The ship had refueled in Texas, its last stop before Brunswick. We know she had around 350,000 gallons of bunker fuel on board when she went over. That’s about 3 million pounds. But 120,000 pounds of ballast was really a problem? I don’t think so. Additionally, bunker fuel does not shift as it’s basically a solid mass until heated for use.

Many have said over the past year that the ship was listing as it left the port. We now know that this is not accurate. Everyone, pilot, captain, etc, says everything was perfectly fine until the sharp starboard turn in the range.

I was out there the morning of the incident and immediately looked at all the data in Marine Traffic. Let’s just say there were some unusual data points related to both vessels.

I wager that the final incident report does not point to ballast and CG as the primary causes, but that they became part of the cause due to other things.

The Coast Guard and the NTSB have had the voyage recorders from both the Golden Ray and the Emerald Ace for over a year now. Note that not one syllable about their content has been discussed during the hearings the past week or so. They will tell the story.

I know that us locals are really looking forward to reading the report. Oh, and watching the monster cutting/lifting machine’s arrival. 270’ tall. Wow.

[boatboy59]

Correction: A local paper stated the ballast goal as 1,500 gallons, which makes no sense at all. It appears that the testimony was actually about 1,500 metric tons of ballast, which is a whole other deal.

However, the new information also states that the ship contained 4,600 tons of fuel, which by my math is over 1 million gallons. We know that’s not right, so there is a LOT of bad information being reported here.

The original salvage team, Donjon/SMIT, removed 320,000 gallons of bunker but could not gain access two tanks which were estimated to contain an additional 30,000 gallons. This remains on board.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by boatboy59

1,500 gallons of ballast is equivalent to 40 cars in a ship that can carry over 7,400 cars. Yes, the ballast weight is lower in the ship, but we are talking about 120,000 pounds in a 71,000 ton vessel. I am not a naval engineer, but that just doesn’t add up to a primary cause for a ship to capsize. The rudder and prop (now removed) weigh 260,000 pounds.

71178 is her Gross Tonnage..... a measurement of volume - 100 cu.ft to the ton -- not weight.

Her Summer Deadweight tonnage is 20,995 tons.... that is the weight she can carry when on her Summer marks... a combination of cargo, bunker fuel, ballast and fresh or potable water, together with crew and their effects.

Her Light Displacement Tonnage... the actual weight of the empty ship is probably in the order of 4 or 5000 tons.

[RaymondR]

Lot's of things can contribute to dynamic instability, windage, cargo shift, free surface effect on tanks not pressed up, down flooding etc. and they can all act together to place the vessel in an unstable condition. It's not necessary to have a single cause.

[AA3JY]

“Out of Compliance”...

https://thebrunswicknews.com/news/lo...78b3b7880.html