Leith Dock Edinburgh Major Incident

[cuprabob]

Research Vessel Petrel tipped over in Dry Dock, over 30 casualties.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-65038617

[pequod]

Ships of this size don't get blown off their blocks and props in a dry dock, normally. Must be some other reason for this to happen?

Dreadful for those onboard....

[normalbloke]

Yep, must have been a wild ride for those inside.

[dudleybloke]

Nasty, you don't expect to capsize in a dry dock.

[DrDeAtH]

When I read the headline, I did wonder if it was the new Scottish ferry falling over... how much more embarrassing would that have been?

[ScotHill]

pequod said:

Ships of this size don't get blown off their blocks and props in a dry dock, normally. Must be some other reason for this to happen?

Dreadful for those onboard....

I obviously don’t know the circumstances, but the strongest wind I’ve ever encountered in the UK was in Leith, the flat stretch outside Ocean Terminal, had to push my bike and even then was struggling to stop getting it or myself blown around, had to lean right into it. Winds were up in Glasgow today so could have been the same in Edinburgh. A structural failure probably more likely though.

Anyone know how long it had been dry docked for?

[Teddy Lop]

pequod said:

Ships of this size don't get blown off their blocks and props in a dry dock, normally. Must be some other reason for this to happen?

Dreadful for those onboard....

Yeah I felt "the wind blew it down" could use a little elaboration. Unless said wind was generated by an adjacent discharge of a megaton range weapon - which Im sure we'd know about - it seems a bit dog ate the homework.

Did the front fall off too?

[vaud]

Teddy Lop said:

Yeah I felt "the wind blew it down" could use a little elaboration. Unless said wind was generated by an adjacent discharge of a megaton range weapon - which Im sure we'd know about - it seems a bit dog ate the homework.

Did the front fall off too?

Its okay, they have taken it outside of the environment.

[tim0409]

I was walking my dog in Edinburgh centre around the time this happened, and whilst it was certainly windy, it wasn’t “that” windy.

I hope those injured make a speedy recovery.

[ScotHill]

tim0409 said:

I was walking my dog in Edinburgh centre around the time this happened, and whilst it was certainly windy, it wasn’t “that” windy.

Leith is very exposed down at the docks though, you notice the difference as soon as you get onto Ocean Drive. Shipping forecast this morning had gusts of up to 70mph off the coast, 40mph was recorded near the M8 south of the airport.

[darreni]

BBC mentioned the ship weighs some 3000 tons. I hope no one was working underneath at the time.

[hidetheelephants]

Oddly the BBC news described the tipping as gradual, which is even more baffling than the thing tipping in the first place.

[Biker 1]

darreni said:

BBC mentioned the ship weighs some 3000 tons. I hope no one was working underneath at the time.

Isn't the whole point of a dry dock that you can get to the normally submerged bits?
I've antifouled yachts & caulked up timber fishing boats in dry docks, but nothing of this size - the thought of being crushed.....

[PushedDover]

As it happens I was with an ex-master of the vessel purely by coincidence yesterday. elsewhere

[Mr Pointy]

PushedDover said:

As it happens I was with an ex-master of the vessel purely by coincidence yesterday. elsewhere

Username checks out!

[Condi]

Biker 1 said:

Isn't the whole point of a dry dock that you can get to the normally submerged bits?

It was in long term drydock for economic reasons, so maybe there wasn't that much work being done.

That said, 14 people in hospital and surgeries cancelled to free up doctors doesn't sound very encouraging!

(Is there a thread in Boats Trains and Planes or whatever the other forum is called?)

[Scrump]

I was present at a very similar incident many years ago when flooding up a dry dock on the South coast. The ship was a bit bigger than this recent one, it was 130m long and 13,000 tonnes displacement.
The vessel had work carried out on the bilge and ballast system and it turns out the bridge indicators were incorrectly wired. As the dock is flooded so water ballast is added to the ship. The incorrectly configured ballast system meant Port/Starboard cross connections were open when they shouldn’t have been.
Ended up with the ship in a partially flooded dock at such an angle it was touching the dock wall on one side.
Took some careful actions to recover the situation, luckily no one was hurt.

[J4CKO]

PushedDover said:

As it happens I was with an ex-master of the vessel purely by coincidence yesterday. elsewhere

Cool, thats PH for you !

Getting your alibi in early, good stuff

[Biker 1]

PushedDover said:

As it happens I was with an ex-master of the vessel purely by coincidence yesterday. elsewhere

Pretty tricky to see what happened from that photo, but there doesn't appear to be much in the way of propping.
If the boat has been there for a while, I guess it would have been battered by winds from all directions, perhaps dislodging some of the props over time(??) Or maybe someone took out a prop as it was in the way of whatever they were working on the hull?

[Drumroll]

Biker 1 said:

Pretty tricky to see what happened from that photo, but there doesn't appear to be much in the way of propping.
If the boat has been there for a while, I guess it would have been battered by winds from all directions, perhaps dislodging some of the props over time(??) Or maybe someone took out a prop as it was in the way of whatever they were working on the hull?

Maybe they were getting ready to refloat her? may explain why several Americans were on board.

Edited by Drumroll on Thursday 23 March 09:57