Pudsey Bear
Full Member
- Messages
- 10,095
Left hand down a bit No.1I bet the captain needed a change of pants, it seems a lot of container ships are having steering problems.
I saw an analysis that noted the ship lost power but managed to slip the port anchor (which it was dragging) and power was restored too late to avoid the collision. The analysis suggested that the single screw was put astern, which would have slewed the bow to starboard and into the bridge pylon -- especially if she still hadn't regained control over the rudder or bow thrusters...News tonight said ship had lost all power, so no way of dropping the anchor or using any thrusters to move away.
Except they wouldn't have been "manual". Even back in the 1970s all the machinery was controlled by a mix of electronics and compressed air (trust me, I got my marine watchkeeper's certification back then) and, although it was possible to control stuff manually, we never did -- and in any case it would have taken longer to get from the machinery control room to the local machinery controls than the time available to the Dali.Goes to prove what i have been saying for years, to muck electrical control crap which did not work, better the old way, 2 big diesels and 2 shafts all manuel.