Comments on: A radar-assisted collision

By: bowser

bowser — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:24:15 +0000

Double wow. Great site, thanks.

By: TB

TB — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 02:46:01 +0000

I thought it turned around to try to get to the port.

I think your last GeoGarage link has a lot more stuff added since the first time I looked.

By: podrock

podrock — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 02:38:40 +0000

Now I wonder why the ship is pointed 180 degrees from the direction it was sailing.

By: TB

TB — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 23:19:15 +0000

Wow.

I am no sailor, but when I’m at the beach, and I see a line of ever-smaller rocks going out into the ocean, it shouldn’t take Admiral Hornblower to deduce that some submerged rocks just might be further down that line.

By: podrock

podrock — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:21:42 +0000

More: A blog with a good discussion can be found at http://blog.geogarage.com/.

By: podrock

podrock — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:15:09 +0000

The map is from the BBC, using data from Lloyds List. A more annotated map and more information can be found at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16563562 In the linked map, the damage occured south of the port, then the ship moved north to where it was stranded. Possible culprit rocks can be seen on google earth at lat 42.355459°, long 10.929798°.

By: ER

ER — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:52:12 +0000

Either the captain was deliberately buzzing the island for kicks (bad idea), or he deliberately tried to run a quickly flooding ship aground to make rescue easier (good idea).

According to your chart, the ship ran aground about 10 PM local time, so it should have been totally dark out at that latitude. If the track on the chart is correct, and if we assume a typical speed of 20 kts, it looks like he deviated from his planned course, (the one I would have steered through those waters)about an hour before the grounding.

Where did this map come from? Can it be trusted? This information could only be obtained from the ship’s logs, and I don’t think they’ve been recovered.

By: TB

TB — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:30:56 +0000

Didn’t know that (and thanks for the map!) Still, the “shallow water/deep water” theory still holds for the direction of tilt.

By: podrock

podrock — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:22:21 +0000

According to some sources (BBC), the rock the ship is sitting on is not the rock it hit, saying the captain steared the ship closer to shore.

And talk about being off course (also from the BBC):

By: TB

TB — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:07:44 +0000

I’m guessing it rolled the other way because the ripped side was in shallow water and the other side wasn’t.

Basically, it tilted on the fulcrum of the rocky bottom it hit.