Dear All, Good Day!
Two reasons for the long respite, and I don't think I may write much anymore. The first one is that, as I had said before, too much has been written so far, and has become a clutter of information. And at my present stage, I just can not differentiate between good and bad. And that is the truth too, as the God and Devil game is played by the Gods only. Human evolution has immense possibilities, which is the greatest drawback humans face. It is only possible to write with the ability to differentiate between good and bad. The only silver line is that we can feel there is something perceivable beyond our sensory and mental ability. The second one is that I am finding it difficult to get a job or stick to one as I always work on-board as a marine engineer to prevent a situation that occurred on the ship that caused the Baltimore Key bridge collapse. It was a nightmare for all engine crew and sensible ones always work to avoid it. Even on very old and in bad condition ships. Where the vessel manager and the owner are supposed to work as a team, but I find the owner always being targeted down here. From the United Nations to all, targeting the ship owner and Unclos, Solas and Marpol don't aim at preventing such accidents or they are not really effective. Or rather they make it worse. By the way, all I wanted to say was that such an insecure mental state and I find it very difficult to pen anything. Even though I came across the following very late, they were inculcated into the early days of my profession, without my knowledge, and it made my life miserable all along;
DUFFERIN PROMISE:
On my honour, I promise that
I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country;
To help other people at all times,
To place my ship before my Top,
And the top before myself.
DUFFERIN ANTHEM:
We’re on the road, we’re on the road to anywhere,
With never a heartache, with never a care.
Got no home, got no friends,
Thankful for everything the good Lord sends.
We’re on the road, we’re on the road to anywhere,
And every milestone seems to say,
That the road to anywhere, the road to anywhere,
Will lead to somewhere someday.
Extract from “Lest I Forget” an autobiography by Khwaja Sayeed Shahabuddin.
To continue...
Just remembered that this blog I write can also have the name "Lest I Forget". Thanks.
Few points to ponder
SOS was the original version of may day, which was used by sailors at sea when their life is in peril and to the best of my knowledge it was not to be used to raise alarm to the safety of the people ashore.
Why IMO or United Nations coming out with any explanation of the Baltimore Key bridge issue as they are the ones front Titanic to till endeavoring to stop such accidents. Frankly speaking, I feel that their efforts only led to such an accident and still worse may be on the way. My other blog page "When A Loose Canon Flogs A Dead Horse, There's Devil To Pay" is all about this. I don't know why they say that up to two years may be needed for the investigation to complete. That's okay with a crime, but this one is not. IMO always followed a blaming culture and no root cause analysis, because it itself is the root cause. People onboard know what had happened and if treated well the root cause analysis may take only a few minutes. International Safety Management and overtly concerned about the environment had brought in a lot of machinery and bookkeeping to ships and to me, it is not very easy to do all IMO proposes. Sailors today are loaded with unwanted information and paperwork which leads to insufficient efforts in the basic running and maintenance of Marine machinery, which is for navigational including cargo, engine and hotel departments. But IMO is always remained distracted from this. IMO should have taken responsibility for a case that happened near my coast to a Tanker Enrica Lexie.
To continue...
Another thing I noticed about the Baltimore disaster is that nowhere the relative speed of the vessel was mentioned, as the passive steering by the rudder of the ship, depends on largely the positive relative speed of the ship, particularly say above 7 knots. So if Dali was being pushed by the tide largely, then controlling her with the rudder might be very difficult and the tide can turn her the way the video footage was shown. Propeller thrust has only a minimal help, particularly, if she is being pushed forward by the tide. So when the engine fails, if the tide is against, it is easier to control her. Thanks.
On second thoughts!
Could the Baltimore disaster have been prevented, with the conditions remaining the same?...
Something which I always considered as the golden rule, which I heard (or taught?) during my training period was the safety priority matrix to be followed on a ship was Life- Cargo-Hull-Engine. Later, the Environment came between life and Cargo as so many oil pollution incidents/accidents occurred in the shipping sector. If you think properly you may understand this matrix is quite logical, even as the engine(everything in the engine room, including the power plant, steering etc) is of utmost importance as far as safety is concerned, it may be spoiled to save anything preceding it. You prevent a collision with another ship at midsea, spoil your engines, and call MRCC for help. But it is not an easy decision to make in many cases.
But as far as the Baltimore disaster is concerned(Where in life from the loss of it to affecting economy and convenience of many people and environment is clearly at stake), the calculation tells that @1000 meters before the bridge the power outage happened, which is 3 times the length of the ship. Dropping anchor at 8 knots is not very feasible as the brake may not hold, and loose the anchor from the bitter end. The best way was to as soon as the emergency generator kicked in, take her hard-over to any suitable side and the pilot may have a good understanding of the high-pressure gas line under the bridge. Let her crash onto the shores of the river and drop both anchors, one after another, not bothering about kinking of the chains. Only precaution was to announce to the people at the forecastle was to lie down on the floor and hold on to some strong point at the time of the crash.
Few things for IMO;
1. Transient battery-powered supply for both steering, as nearly a minute taken by the emergency generator may be disastrous, we know by now.
2. Once the emergency generator kicks in, it should not be off-loaded automatically, once main power is restored, it should be offloaded manually once your main power is confirmed reliable, or the emergency DG itself fails
3. All steering should be supplied with emergency power.
By the way, I found ship is something which is made to perform, literally nullifying the effects of Murphy's law regarding the failure of equipment. Thanks.
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