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Collision in the Welland Canal

Remius

Army.ca Fixture
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https://globalnews.ca/news/7167012/welland-canal-boat-crash-video/
 
Bruce Monkhouse said:
So boat people,....what went wrong?

That is exactly what I’d like to hear from some of our experts here.  ;D
 
Remius said:
That is exactly what I’d like to hear from some of our experts here.  ;D

Simple.  Two ships attempted to occupy the same point in time and space.  Both were unsuccessful.
 
Took the bulbous bow right in the kisser though.  Bet the black ship is knackered below the water line.

Be interested to see this investigation.  Ship in black wason a very weird course and it looks like he was driving towards the opposite side of the channel.  Wonder if his steering gear malfunctioned?
 
Black vessel is definitely altering course to the wrong side of the channel and cutting across the path of the red vessel, which is left with no place to run and no time to stop.

The sole question is why did it happen.

Many possibilities exist, such as power failure with no time for helmsman to switch to secondary steering system; steering gear malfunction - mechanical to the ship; steering gear malfunction -external (that is they accidentally dredged something that was in the canal, a car, a steel wire cable, etc); human error, such has helmsman going the wrong way on an ordered course correction; human factor, non-error related, such as helmsman having a hearth attack; etc.

The investigation will figure it out.
 
My guess is that something went wrong on the black ship, limiting the amount of control they had. When his stern got to close to the side of the canal, bank suction started taking effect and pulled the stern closer to the bank, forcing the bow towards the other ship. The other ship had not a lot of options, either take it on the bow or amidships and the bow means less damage. Judging by the damage i would say the red ship had already reduced speed as much as possible and still retain steerage.
 
all welland traffic has to carry a pilot I believe and they do maintain constant communication with each other and with traffic control.  I suspect the tapes will tell the story or at the very least, provide some very interesting reading. Any bets that Heddle has suddenly received some summer business?  A full inspection of both hulls will certainly be demanded at the very least.
 
dapaterson said:
Excuse me.

They're the Royal Canadian Boaty McBoat people.

With the Executive Curl.

I stand corrected.  Would not want to offend.

 
The importance of lashing down and fitting cargo correctly: https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/latest-incident-ship-arrives-in-middle-east-with-toppled-containers
 
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