Glad I'm not a passenger

atferrari

Joined Jan 6, 2004
4,770
Tell you a little story.

After signing off for the last time in my life in Singapore (while my vessel was bunkering to take around 3.000 MT of IFO / DO), I went back home jointly with my crew. Two months later, while waiting to collect my cheque at the Owner's office, I learnt the last news about her.

After S'pore they loaded iron ore in Cape Lambert IIRC (Australia) destined to Poland. The vessel, a typical 7-holds Panamax bulk carrier, took all cargo in holds 1-3-5-7.

Starfish.jpg

While crossing the Indian, not too far from Mauritius, one day, early in the morning, they noticed a frightening freeboard aft of just 30 cm. It took little to see that hold #6 was full of water.

After dropping anchor in the vicinity of the island, water was pumped out and an inspection revealed an irreversible structural damage that precluded any attempt to navigate her again. The cause of the flooding was a a crack on her side in way of a gutter where, most probably, one of the tugs, when departing, had been pushing on, to move her away from the pier.

Given the zero options and the pressure of the port authorities, crew was left ashore, Master, staff and bosun sailed her and when in good depth, forced to keel over and sink.

While returning ashore on board of a tug, the Master was invited to board a small plane to watch her sinking. He refused.
 

atferrari

Joined Jan 6, 2004
4,770
I was impressed with that picture in our news over the weekend. 203,000 metric tons dead displacement. That is big. The George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier is only 100,000 tons.
@jpanhalt

Hola John

Actually, the comparison of the aircraft carrier's displacement should be done against the Wakashio's displacement computed as deadweight + lightship.

Deadweight is just the maximum weight carrying ability and lightship (or lightweight) is the bare steel as when built in the shipyard. Not sure of the New Panamax class but her lightship could be around 15.000 MT or more (guessing here). This then, adds a lot to your comparison.

The displacement is what could sink the vessel - the deadweight, according to the ability of all involved is what makes the money.

There are two other terms for freighters that, albeit related to the cargo carrying capability, do not enter in that equation and, in spite of being mentioned as "tonnage" are an expression of volume of cargo spaces!! Registered tonnage - gross (GRT) and net (NRT). The unit is the Moorson ton = 100 cu ft. Go figure!!
 

jpanhalt

Joined Jan 18, 2008
11,087
Sorry about that. I am not a mariner. I associated "dead weight" with something equivalent to tare or empty weight. Your explanation makes much more sense. Now, if you could figure some way to load the GHW Bush on it, it could carry that and be only half loaded. Impressively big to me.
 

atferrari

Joined Jan 6, 2004
4,770
Sorry about that. I am not a mariner. I associated "dead weight" with something equivalent to tare or empty weight. Your explanation makes much more sense. Now, if you could figure some way to load the GHW Bush on it, it could carry that and be only half loaded. Impressively big to me.
I had no intention other than to complement your comment, John. :)

If you think of it, the weight of such massive animal like the aircraft carrier is always there while the bulk carrier, is, so to speak, a humongous barge with lot of space expecting to receive cargo. Handling such a big monster in ballast with bad weather demands care.

To give you an idea: cargo holds may have between 12 to 18 m of depth (from the hatch coaming down to the tank top - bottom) what BTW, requires you to go down sometimes, using a nice vertical ladder. Imagine inspecting the nine holds in a row, going up and down continuously until finish. The secret, do not take any food prior to starting and go at a steady pace. Did that job quite frequently during a long time. While you are down there, it is surprising how you can hear the noise created by vessels moving in the vicinity. After all, you are many meters below the surface level obviously surrounded by water.

Anyway, nowadays I sleep at home every night. ;)
 

Thread Starter

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,253
Just found this by accident on LinkedIn... I'm sure there's an interesting story behind it but I couldn't find more info:


1599574340108.png
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,272
NSA, you've probably heard of this event already, haven't you?:

Yea, we did some of the first AV-8A Harrier (VSTOL) at sea deployments in the early 80's on my old ship LPH-3.
av8.png
Our ship flew a few AV-8A's during Exercise Kangaroo 4 in 81 with the RAAF's old F111s while the grunts got stuck in the mud. :) Really glad I wasn't a passenger.


an-m-60a1-tank-attached-to-the-31st-marine-amphibious-unit-31st-mau-gets-mired-40bffa.jpg
An M-60A1 tank attached to the 31st Marine Amphibious Unit (31st MAU) gets mired in a swamp during Exercise Kangaroo 4
an-m-151-light-utility-vehicle-equipped-with-a-tow-anti-tank-weapon-travels-7ac204.jpg
An M-151 light utility vehicle equipped with a TOW anti-tank weapon
 
Last edited:
Top