Last week the Celebrity Infinity, a 90,000 ton cruise ship, rammed the pier at Ketchikan, Alaska, causing several million dollars' worth of damage to itself and the dock. Here's what it looked like from the shore.
Apparently there was a strong wind blowing from seaward at the time, which made it more difficult to stop the ship. It'll take several months to replace the shore facilities. The ship's already docked in Vancouver, Canada to undergo repairs.
Peter
12 comments:
"Why are those people running?"
It is called a clue.
I don't know how it works at the cruise lines, but at an airline, any pilot who bends sheet metal will be looking for work. And unable to find it in any other major carrier.
My guess is that somewhere there is a maritime Captain who will be working on getting his real estate license, or perhaps getting a series or shirts with his first name embroidered on them.
Man that's a lot of metal to run into a dock.
FormerFlyer
looked like the crosswind got her. She could not compensate for it.
Man, I just painted that last week!!!
Heltau
Tugs are expensive, but that would not happen with tug assist.
It amuses me somewhat the question of "why are all those people running" and then later a realisation of 'oh shit this actually affects us too'... Finishing the first thought might have brought her to the second thought before any damage was done, no?
Hello clue bat!!!
I know that dock. Or "knew" might be better. Clues, indeed! Everybody ignored 'em. Still, it could have been much, much worse.
In port isn't the pilot the one in charge?
Most of those ships now use power pods both fore and aft for propulsion so lack of power isn't an excuse for not being able to counteract the wind unless it's gale force.
That video had entirely too little aimless waving about of the camera and not nearly enough fingers in front of the lens.
Clearly, more practice is needed on the part of the videographer - we actually got to eventually see the ship impacting the structure rather than her shoes (which, I suspect, were absolutely fetching....).
On a related note, a video series on the aftereffects of "why are those people running" moments might have some interest, at least posthumously, assuming the camera is recoverable.
A collision at sea can ruin your entire day. I suspect that also applies to collisions with the edge of the sea
It looked to me like bow and stern thrusters were kicking up foam on the surface, bow flag was snapping, I wonder if there's anything they could have done short of a tug.
It's hard to assign any blame based on that clip. It appears the ship has on too much way as she approaches the dock. If the wind is on the beam, that could be part of the problem, but it's hard to tell from the clip. The only thing I can tell is that ship does damage the docking facility.
I'm sure the Coasties will investigate and blame will be assigned. Just because the ship damages something, or is damaged, does not mean the end of a sea going career, regardless of what happens with an aircraft.
Negligence, however, is a different matter. But from the clip, I can't tell anything.
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