cruise ship hits bridge

[Tony Wilding]

ITV VIDEO TODAY, a new cruise ship hits bridge in China, loses chimney in the process, there words not mine, said Captain did not allow for having no passengers or cargo on board, cargo ? ? how much difference would passengers make to her draft ?

[Tony Morcom]

Interesting point Tony. As a quick calculation 6000 passengers at an average of 15 stone would weigh around 570 tonnes plus their luggage you are certainly looking at an excess of 1000 tonnes. I am sure one of our retired Captains would be able to give some kind of indication of how much it might affect the draft. That in combination with maybe a miscalculation of tide height could well cause the problem. These vessels always seem to be built to the maximum with little thought to good old human error. I always remember the story of the QE2 and her first transit of Panama Canal. It is said that she damaged all the lamp posts in the locks as no one had allowed for their overhang of the lock sides. I wonder if anyone on here can actually confirm that story.
whoops.jpg

[Tony Wilding]

looking at the photo, she is not far off her designed draft, think even fully laden she would still have hit the bridge, cant see any davits or lifeboats, ? looks as if built for Yangtse cruises

[Ivan Cloherty]

ITV VIDEO TODAY, a new cruise ship hits bridge in China, loses chimney in the process, there words not mine, said Captain did not allow for having no passengers or cargo on board, cargo ? ? how much difference would passengers make to her draft ?

Well Tony guess she would have a TPI of about 140/150 tonnes so even with 1000 tonne payload passengers/luggage and another 1000 tonnes for bunkers guess your looking at maximum increase in draft of 14 inches, funnel looks taller than 14 inches to me. Just a case of "Real" human error guess someone is going to end up in the equivalent of a Gulag

[Rodney Mills]

Tony,

Average weight 15 stone? That's 210lbs or 95kl each? My wife and I, with our luggage in our hands wouldn,t weigh that much...And too think Captain Brian calls yanks fat.

Cheers, Rodney

[happy daze john in oz]

I can see the problem here, they built the bridge too low.

[Keith Tindell]

Call that thing a ship!!!!!!!!! KT

[j.sabourn]

What is it with all these casualities re. cruise ships. Maybe they should all have L plates up. There seems to be more shipping casulaties now than there ever was, or maybe it is because they are now being reported on by the Media. Does anyone have any data on such. There must be less ships floating around now than there was 50 years ago. Maybe more tonnage but less in number. Piracy was going on all the time I was at sea, but only seemed to get reported on when passenger vessels became involved. It is only a matter of time to my way of thought before there is a maritime eco disaster re the Great Barrier Reef. Cheers John Sabourn.

[Tony Wilding]

someone miscalculated, ! ITN Female Newsreader stated the Ship lost its chimney ! just shows the level of education you need to become a newsreader.

[Capt Bill Davies]

John,

Whilst I would maintain my stance on never commenting on a specific incidents I would offer the following.

When people of our generation went to see it was quite simply a vocation. We wanted to be seafarers and we all went through the system and learnt our trade.
Take a look at what is in our colleges these days. We would not recognise them as people we consider seamen.
Our Colleges, with the connivance of the MCA, will do anything to get 'bums on seats' and resort to all sorts of marketing ploys to wheel the cadets in.

Cadets are being induced by all sorts of 'bling' such as positions on cruise ship after all who can blame them , they are a product of what we have made them.
Unfortunately, being offered a job on a coastal tanker on completion of their time (if they gat a job al all) does not quite cut it. And they leave.
Why someone did not keep a conventional cargo ship (BF for Ivan!) on the Mersey and train our youngsters might of helped. A british training ship. Japanese still have sail and conventional.

Bill