You’ve probably heard of the little incident in the Channel that resulted in a car ferry with loads of new cars on, being sunk after being hit by another ship ?. So then on the news today, it gets hit again !!
I mean…come on…chuffing great hulk painted bright orange, couple of hundred metres long…not totally submerged…surrounded by warning / marker bouys, radio warnings, Royal Navy vessels and other ship’s, then along comes this other plonker and runs it over again !!!!
I always thought that the channel was tightly controlled… bit like air traffic control…and I know its got dedicated lanes for the ships to travel along leaving certain distances between each other (Wake vortices ??) so how does this sort of thing happen ?
And it looks like another of those Roll On Roll Over types.
I dont think any lives have been lost in these incidents but I reckon the watch crew should be keel hauled for not keeping a good lookout with the mark one eyeball.
Whadja fink ?
Cheers
Gary
Ps…anybody want a cheap car, low mileage, bit of damp on the inside, but otherwise well washed, buyer collects…
By: Rabie - 18th December 2002 at 12:47
RE: OOOOPs…sorry…didnt see you
http://www.adrenalintrip.net/forums/uploads/158234.jpg
http://www.adrenalintrip.net/forums/uploads/158235.jpg
😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
rabie :9
By: Snapper - 16th December 2002 at 23:18
RE: OOOOPs…sorry…didnt see you
Now what the hell was my point?
By: Snapper - 16th December 2002 at 23:17
RE: OOOOPs…sorry…didnt see you
I used to work on a ferry. Its not quite as simple as that. The radar isn’t perfect – and you need sailors on the bridge. It also takes a bit more to stop a bloody great ferry thats travelling at 26 knots. Besides, we had weeks where you had fog that gave you 100m visibility in the channel IN SUMMER.
I remember when the Estonia went down. I was working that night on our ferry. Funny feeling. A week or two later – the last night of my first season we were the only buggers to sail. In a force 12. The very last night I worked for the company (in fact, I had finished in Portsmouth that night when we docked, but was heading back to France to disembark with my French girlfriend) we had a refrigerated articulated lorry go up in flames on the car deck, filling half the ship with smoke, and causing the captain to alert the crew via the intercom in the cabins for the first time any of us had known. The cabin I was in contained 4 french ‘hostesses’ as they were called, and me. We were all pissed. At that time of night I imagine all off duty crew were to some degree. BUT. We used to do emergency training every week, and the waiters / barmen / etc put the fire out. 2 or 3 times as it flared up again and again. Ferries can be dangerous when things go wrong, but they aren’t deathtraps. Just look up the amount of ships lost annually – it surprised me.
By: kev35 - 16th December 2002 at 22:46
RE: OOOOPs…sorry…didnt see you
“Do you think the Volvos lights are still on!! :7 “
Can’t be, otherwise they wouldn’t have got hit again. Perhaps Volvo should consider selling their Side Impact Protection System to the operators of roll on roll off ferries.
Regards,
kev35
By: frankvw - 16th December 2002 at 22:45
RE: OOOOPs…sorry…didnt see you
Ask the fishes…
By: sparky - 16th December 2002 at 22:15
RE: OOOOPs…sorry…didnt see you
Do you think the Volvos lights are still on!! :7
By: frankvw - 16th December 2002 at 20:44
RE: OOOOPs…sorry…didnt see you
Maybe the ship’s radio was also broken, or the controllers were partying-sleeping-striking-watching TV (choose one) 😉
Yes, the channel is overcrowded, and there’s nothing to do to it.
By: kev35 - 16th December 2002 at 20:20
RE: OOOOPs…sorry…didnt see you
Frank.
“The answer it simple: the Radar of the other ship was apparently broken, and the fog prevented all sight contact >before the “real” one.”
OK, but how about the land based radar which they’ve been talking about on tv? Couldn’t they have warned the ship that it was about to ‘go bump in the night?’ At the moment the English Channel is beginning to look like a bad rush hour on the M6.
Regards,
kev35
By: frankvw - 16th December 2002 at 19:41
RE: OOOOPs…sorry…didnt see you
The answer it simple: the Radar of the other ship was apparently broken, and the fog prevented all sight contact before the “real” one.
It’s pretty annoying for Belgium, because the sea lane to Zeebrugge and Antwerp is very disturbed because of that incident.
And… a pity for all those nice BMW’s – Saabs – Volvos. I know some 3000 rich people in Britain who won’t recieve their X-Mas gist this year 😉
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December 16, 2002 at 5:48 pm
