Accidents and mishaps at sea

[Imonlygoingforone]

Norwegian Star has recently bumped the Interpid Pier in New York where Concorde G-BOAD is kept:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=w3rSXyEOJrM

Although this was a mishap on their part, this was a fairly regular 'manouevre' done by the Queens, hence the reason the corners always had a large wooden wheel you can 'lean' against. With the very strong currents in the Hudson, it's inevitable this would happen, and isn't the first, and certainly won't be the last time this has/will happen.

[Rod]

These ships appear totally uncontrollable in any sort of wind!

Can tugs push a very tall cruise ship with the wind against it!

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk.

YES!! If you have enough tugs!  Hudson was tough with the current running. Sometimes on a late departure, QE2 would move off the pier..all ahead back hard left rudder and the ship would be 1/4 mile down the river before it was straight. Cunard of course didn't want to pay for too many tugs, or they weren't available.

[Peter Mugridge]

In the words of Alfred, Lord Tennyson: "Someone hath blunder'd!"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-18225878

( Also... surely there is a zero missing from the quoted price of the ship? )

[bobso]

To make it easy for you all i have now deleated my post---

[Twynkle]

Reports that P&O's Ventura has sustained a deep crack in one of her decks whilst experiencing a storm in the Bay of Biscay


http://www.cruisecompare.co.uk/cruise-news/2012/10/3309/P-and-O-Cruises-Ventura-Suffers-Serious-Damage-in-Bay-of-Biscay/

[Lynda Bradford]

It will be interesting to hear the extent of the damage.  The passengers onboard must be a worried. 

[ship pro]

Sounds like the ship has made a new expansion joint, most probably stress fatigue over the years at that point.

QE2 had a similar crack from April to October 86, it went right across the penthouses and down to the Boat deck, in line with the penthouse stair tower. At sea it would spread from a crack to a gap of 3 inches, when it rained the Britannia restaurant had a torrent of rain in the Port aft section. To stop the crack spreading further down you cut a large hole at the end of the crack.

[Peter Mugridge]

The article says the crack runs the length of the deck, not the width, and that all the balconies on deck 14 are closed off.  That suggests to me a fore to aft crack along the inside edge of the balconies on one side of that deck?

[Twynkle]

More on the crack in the Aluminium here:
http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/Articles/2012/10/19/41981/p.html

Sounds like the ship has made a new expansion joint, most probably stress fatigue over the years at that point.

QE2 had a similar crack from April to October 86, it went right across the penthouses and down to the Boat deck, in line with the penthouse stair tower. At sea it would spread from a crack to a gap of 3 inches, when it rained the Britannia restaurant had a torrent of rain in the Port aft section. To stop the crack spreading further down you cut a large hole at the end of the crack.

Thank you - This is interesting!
Hope that you won't mind my questions?!
Thoughts of cutting huge holes in her hull whilst she was steaming swiftly ahead are a bit difficult to imagine! Did you have to do lots of welding as she was moving, too?
If there'd been a crack lower down, there must have been a height beyond which you couldn't go because of the waterline...passengers, boat deck etc.
Do you know if this was the only time she developed a large crack that grew and shrunk so much while she was at sea - and could any large crack have been avoided if more expansion joints had been inserted into her hull at the beginning of her being constructed?
 
(Mods - there's more about this elsewhere - sorry as not enough hours in the day at the moment to find it LOL!!)

[Rod]

Holes in the hull at sea are not a good idea. But in the superstructure are not so bad.
Re: the Ventura, the article does say the length, but this would be unusual. Author may be confused? It is possible though.
The closer you get to the waterline, the less the liklihood of cracks as the ships movement is less the further down you go.
As to welding..on QE2 we did not have the staff that could weld aluminium plus it would be almost impossible to do it at sea. There was one recurring crack on sports deck they must have repaired 6-10 times. When it came back we would put "Denso" tape on it, paint the tape white, and we would be good to go until the next dry dock.
Possibly more expansion joints would have helped but, they produced their own headaches. Waterproofing, deck movement etc.
Another thing to remember is QE2 was aluminium from q deck up, most of the new ships are steel I believe.

[Peter Mugridge]

the article does say the length, but this would be unusual. Author may be confused? It is possible though.

We need to establish this one way or another don't we?  I would agree a sideways crack would be more what one would expect, particularly if the ship had been hogging and sagging in a big way, but I can also see that a lengthwise crack could develop along the balconies if there was a sudden heavy loading on the balconies of one particular deck for whatever reason.

Is deck 14 the highest one or is it lower down?  I am not familiar with the ship and the online deck plans use letters rather than numbers!

[ship pro]

cracks repaired --photos


http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/captain-greybeard/2012/10/ventura-back-at-sea-with-clean.html

[Rod]

It appears that the crack is indeed vertical and therefore will eventually go across the ship and not along it's length. It also appears to me that this crack has been previously welded. I may be wrong!

[ship pro]

So P&O say it wasnt caused by the weather, so that means it was something else!!!!

[Twynkle]

So P&O say it wasnt caused by the weather, so that means it was something else!!!!

It looks downright drafty!
More seriously - is it possible to get a 'bad batch' of aluminium?
And...just wondering if it's possible for a whole 'plate' could drop off....is it moulded, or flat plates?
Sorry to be so curious - it strikes me as being under so much tension, that it would need weeks to fix it, so that the same crack wouldn't keep reoccurring...
Thanks very much
Rosie.