Oil tanker & cargo ship collide - North Sea

[TGCOTF-dewey]

dingg said:

Autonomous weather vessels are already sailing about the world on trials, according to my Son, master mariner on product tankers.

Its the future

A fibreglass boat weighing in the kg range doesn't do a lot of damage if it sts itself though.

AVs are the future...just not as soon as some are predicting.

For reasons like this...

https://youtube.com/shorts/cYm_Wp_WfM8?si=uCbCf8ch...

[Earthdweller]

Didn't see that one coming ... Russian captain crashes his ship into a US Dept of Defence tanker

Hopefully it's just a case of him not seeing in coming either

[Arnold Cunningham]

dingg said:

Autonomous weather vessels are already sailing about the world on trials, according to my Son, master mariner on product tankers.

Its the future

Absolutely, lots of trials, get as much data as possible, work out what does and doesn't work in the real world, create lots of positive operational precedents etc.

The really hard one is for undersea operations. On the surface you can still have high bandwidth comms to the shore, or a master on board in an active monitoring role. Underwater is much much harder - almost no comms with the outside world. Hard to even work out where you are (GPS doesn't work), little or no light, murky waters, and more.

[Digga]

Earthdweller said:

Didn't see that one coming ... Russian captain crashes his ship into a US Dept of Defence tanker

Hopefully it's just a case of him not seeing in coming either

Potentially very interesting.

I imagine he's going to have to sit through an awful lot of questions over the next few weeks.

[98elise]

shed driver said:

Are merchant sailors trained in damage control and fire fighting? My father was in the RN during the 50s and 60s and said he was a fire fighter first and a sailor second.

Or is it the case that the crew just ride the orange roller coaster in the event of a major incident that affects the immediate seaworthiness of the vessel.

SD.

Everyone in the RN is taught firefighting and damage control. When the st hits the fan you have a dedicated teams to deal with it, but everyone should be capable if needed.

[Earthdweller]

Digga said:

Earthdweller said:

Didn't see that one coming ... Russian captain crashes his ship into a US Dept of Defence tanker

Hopefully it's just a case of him not seeing in coming either

Potentially very interesting.

I imagine he's going to have to sit through an awful lot of questions over the next few weeks.

"Ramming speed Mr Christian Vladimir !"

[TGCOTF-dewey]

Digga said:

Earthdweller said:

Didn't see that one coming ... Russian captain crashes his ship into a US Dept of Defence tanker

Hopefully it's just a case of him not seeing in coming either

Potentially very interesting.

I imagine he's going to have to sit through an awful lot of questions over the next few weeks.

Thing is, with Russians, it's often helpful to start with the premise of, don't ascribe a fk up to a malicious act, when it's perfectly explained by a cavalier attitude to safety and/or a lack of sobriety on the job.

[spitfire-ian]

Video from the bridge of the Solong.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/T4taanQY04k

[BikeBikeBIke]

spitfire-ian said:

Video from the bridge of the Solong.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/T4taanQY04k

What a scene to wake up to!

(Credit: The comments.)

[epom]

Earthdweller said:

Didn't see that one coming ... Russian captain crashes his ship into a US Dept of Defence tanker

Hopefully it's just a case of him not seeing in coming either

Couldn't have made it up any better to be fair.

[sugerbear]

Vlad the impaler

[BrettMRC]

BikeBikeBIke said:

spitfire-ian said:

Video from the bridge of the Solong.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/T4taanQY04k

What a scene to wake up to!

(Credit: The comments.)

Also the classic "You can't park there mate!"

[Digga]

Elephant in the room here is that, at present, global shipping is far cheaper than it is safe or environmentally sound. Crews, competent or otherwise, paid peanuts, crappy, outdated nav and comms, dirty, polluting engines.

[Stick Legs]

Digga said:

Elephant in the room here is that, at present, global shipping is far cheaper than it is safe or environmentally sound. Crews, competent or otherwise, paid peanuts, crappy, outdated nav and comms, dirty, polluting engines.

Consider the very few accidents vs the billions of tonne / miles of freight shifted, the pollution is lower than any other form of transport if measured in weight carried per mile.

The recompense for the work done by the crews is another matter, but the industry is far better than is appreciated by those not involved.

It's just a shame everyone ignores it completely until it goes wrong.

[Arnold Cunningham]

Digga said:

Elephant in the room here is that....dirty, polluting engines.

Much less so than they were. Low sulphur fuel is pretty standard now. But how many ships are breaking the law? I'm not sure if anyone really knows.
There's a fleet of sniffer drones in Rotterdam apparently. UK company put a proposal forward to do that over here - but didn't win the business.

Certainly the ONE ships going up and down the channel look pretty dirty, still, leaving a big smog trail behind them.
I know Shell considered scrubbers to clean the exhausts, but decided to just switch to low sulphur fuels instead.

[hairykrishna]

TGCOTF-dewey said:

Digga said:

Earthdweller said:

Didn't see that one coming ... Russian captain crashes his ship into a US Dept of Defence tanker

Hopefully it's just a case of him not seeing in coming either

Potentially very interesting.

I imagine he's going to have to sit through an awful lot of questions over the next few weeks.

Thing is, with Russians, it's often helpful to start with the premise of, don't ascribe a fk up to a malicious act, when it's perfectly explained by a cavalier attitude to safety and/or a lack of sobriety on the job.

I suspect he's spending quite a lot of time in windowless rooms reassuring people that he's just incompetent.

[Digga]

hairykrishna said:

TGCOTF-dewey said:

Digga said:

Earthdweller said:

Didn't see that one coming ... Russian captain crashes his ship into a US Dept of Defence tanker

Hopefully it's just a case of him not seeing in coming either

Potentially very interesting.

I imagine he's going to have to sit through an awful lot of questions over the next few weeks.

Thing is, with Russians, it's often helpful to start with the premise of, don't ascribe a fk up to a malicious act, when it's perfectly explained by a cavalier attitude to safety and/or a lack of sobriety on the job.

I suspect he's spending quite a lot of time in windowless rooms reassuring people that he's just incompetent.

I am sure there will be people looking into his 'phone messages, emails and financial affairs and transactions at this very moment. There will be a trial.

[Arnold Cunningham]

There's no evidence I've seen to suggest anything other than incompetence. He followed the exact same route he had, many times before. If he had deviated to hit the immaculate, that would be a diferrent convo. Naturally that'll be investigated properly, but I feel incompetence will be the likely conclusion - albeit wrapped up in a number of other operational aspects regarding the ship, the crew and the company.

[BikeBikeBIke]

Arnold Cunningham said:

He followed the exact same route he had, many times before.

Agree. If that turns out to be correct, then I'd guess he's in the clear from the POV of this being a Russian "shadowfleet" action.

I don't doubt he's committed a long list of other offences.

Edited by BikeBikeBIke on Wednesday 12th March 13:41

[Arnold Cunningham]

One of the things I find interesting about "human factors" is that it looks at every angle - but consequentially never says someone screwed up, but usually says something caused that person to screw up. Which is both great - but also sometimes deflects responsibility.

Sometimes I do think the answer should also include "He's an idiot", because there does seem to be an absence of personal responsibility in society these days. It's always someone else's fault "they made me do it" - well, if you weren't happy about it, why didn't you speak up. You were in charge!

But I digress.