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Shipping disasters

fat controllerfat controller Posts: 13,757
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in General Discussion #1
I've just been reading an article about MV Braer - amazing to think that this was 20 years ago, as I remember it being all over the news at the time it happened. However, I cannot seem to find any reference as to what finally became of the ship in the longer term?

I know that the wreck was declared dangerous initially due to the oils being released, but was it ever salvaged for scrap? Or was it simply left to rot/sink?

More recently, we've had the Costa Concordia - and again, things have gone very quiet indeed. There were mutterings initially that it may be recovered and repaired - - could this be the reason that its gone quiet, so that people forget about the disaster by the time the ship is repaired and brought back into use? I'd imagine that there would be quite a lot of people who would be reluctant to go on a ship knowing that it had been involved in a fatal incident, no matter how well it had been repaired.

Any other interesting histories in the same vein?

Comments

  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 32,379
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    #2
    The Braer is still where it sank.

    Concordia is being salvaged by a British team.

    http://news.discovery.com/earth/costa-concordia-salvage-121018.html
  • fat controllerfat controller Posts: 13,757
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    #3
    woodbush wrote: »
    The Braer is still where it sank.

    Concordia is being salvaged by a British team.

    http://news.discovery.com/earth/costa-concordia-salvage-121018.html

    Thanks woodbush :) Makes me wonder what environmental damage is still being done as it rots away quietly off the coast of Shetland - the same can be said of any wreck of course.

    I still wonder what will happen to the Concordia once its upright though - nearly everything on it will be knackered after being submerged in sea water, not to mention the fact that the hull is clearly compromised - it can surely be little more than scrap iron?
  • StrmChaserSteveStrmChaserSteve Posts: 2,728
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    #4
    The storm that broke up The Braer, was a beast. Hurricane force winds and Blizzards for Scotland

    Weather forecast by the legend Rob Mcelwee for that day - 10th Jan 1993

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11MgMm96GYQ
  • November_RainNovember_Rain Posts: 9,145
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    #5
    Funnily enough I was wondering what had become of the Costa Concordia a few days ago when I saw that C4 were showing a new documentary on the ship.

    It reminds me a bit of the SS America, which was beached and left to rot in the Canary Islands.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_America_(1940)
  • Uk LtdUk Ltd Posts: 1,228
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    #6
    fat controller wrote: »
    Thanks woodbush :) Makes me wonder what environmental damage is still being done as it rots away quietly off the coast of Shetland - the same can be said of any wreck of course.

    I still wonder what will happen to the Concordia once its upright though - nearly everything on it will be knackered after being submerged in sea water, not to mention the fact that the hull is clearly compromised - it can surely be little more than scrap iron?

    It will be 'recycled' elsewhere. It's being moved to avoid breaking it up in its current location.
  • rosalynnrosalynn Posts: 4,500
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    #7
    The Costa Concordia has gone a bit quiet while they make preparations for refloating the wreck. At the moment not much visible is happening, but they're going to remove the funnel, are starting on an underwater platform onto which they'll upright the ship onto, and have removed the 100 ton rocks that were wedged into the side. They're preparing to attach floatation tanks onto the side.

    It's being refloated so that it can be taken apart for scrap. I think they decided against doing that in situe because of environmental concerns, and also because it's perched on a ledge.

    There's an official website by Costa about the Costa Concordia removal here: http://www.theparbucklingproject.com/

    I think we'll start seeing the Concordia back in the news once they start uprighting it :)
  • fat controllerfat controller Posts: 13,757
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    #8
    November_Rain wrote: »
    Funnily enough I was wondering what had become of the Costa Concordia a few days ago when I saw that C4 were showing a new documentary on the ship.

    It reminds me a bit of the SS America, which was beached and left to rot in the Canary Islands.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_America_(1940)

    What a sin - if there wasn't as much buggering about with it, it would still probably be running.
  • fat controllerfat controller Posts: 13,757
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    #9
    rosalynn wrote: »
    The Costa Concordia has gone a bit quiet while they make preparations for refloating the wreck. At the moment not much visible is happening, but they're going to remove the funnel, are starting on an underwater platform onto which they'll upright the ship onto, and have removed the 100 ton rocks that were wedged into the side. They're preparing to attach floatation tanks onto the side.

    It's being refloated so that it can be taken apart for scrap. I think they decided against doing that in situe because of environmental concerns, and also because it's perched on a ledge.

    There's an official website by Costa about the Costa Concordia removal here: http://www.theparbucklingproject.com/

    I think we'll start seeing the Concordia back in the news once they start uprighting it :)

    Thanks for the link :) I notice that they expect the wreck to be removed by the end of summer 2013, so it looks like we might be seeing more about it before too long :)
  • dip_transferdip_transfer Posts: 2,327
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    #10
    The Oil Tanker disasters i remember from a while back are the Exxon Valdez in Alaska In 89, The Amoco Kadiz off the coast of Brittany in 78.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 3,064
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    #11
    As many will know I was in the RN (it was some years ago during the 1970's) What I find hard to understand is why when they have Radar, Satelite navigation, and watchmen (lookouts) and Charts that are better than anything we had. How/why do ships still run aground, collide with other shipping and large structures like oil and gas rigs and wind farms. the last three havent happenedbut we often hear of the possibility from ferry companies when offshore plans for wind-farms are suggested. I was a Lookout for three ships while in the navy. did many hundreds of hours and never missed seeing another ship, day, night, in fog, or heavy weather. (I went round the bay of Biscay three times in convoy we knew where the other ships were all the time even though we couldn't see them, the waves were too high) even if we were doing lookout from behind glass which we did in very bad conditions. RN ships in my day were fitted with radar, this gives really good early warning. modern ships have satnav and accurate undersea mapping/charts. Baffled! doesn't cover it!:rolleyes:
  • kulmarkulmar Posts: 1,965
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    #12
    VOICEINTHENIGHT wrote: »
    As many will know I was in the RN (it was some years ago during the 1970's) What I find hard to understand is why when they have Radar, Satelite navigation, and watchmen (lookouts) and Charts that are better than anything we had. How/why do ships still run aground, collide with other shipping and large structures like oil and gas rigs and wind farms. the last three havent happenedbut we often hear of the possibility from ferry companies when offshore plans for wind-farms are suggested. I was a Lookout for three ships while in the navy. did many hundreds of hours and never missed seeing another ship, day, night, in fog, or heavy weather. (I went round the bay of Biscay three times in convoy we knew where the other ships were all the time even though we couldn't see them, the waves were too high) even if we were doing lookout from behind glass which we did in very bad conditions. RN ships in my day were fitted with radar, this gives really good early warning. modern ships have satnav and accurate undersea mapping/charts. Baffled! doesn't cover it!:rolleyes:

    Insurance scam?
  • rosalynnrosalynn Posts: 4,500
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    #13
    fat controller wrote: »
    Thanks for the link :) I notice that they expect the wreck to be removed by the end of summer 2013, so it looks like we might be seeing more about it before too long :)
    I hope so! I think it would be a really fascinating documentary, particularly as the disaster itself was so well documented. Not sure if anything of this scale has ever been done before!
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 32,379
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    #14
    Herald of Free Enterprise, hard to believe it's over 25 years ago.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/6/newsid_2515000/2515923.stm
  • irishguyirishguy Posts: 22,172
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    #15
    The General Slocum disaster is one of the worst maritime incidents to occur in US waters. About 1000 people lost their lives.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS_General_Slocum
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,119
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    #16
    Zeebrugge always seemed to be the point of reference when I worked on a ferry

    "And why do we do this ( random safety element )?"
    "Because of Zeebrugee ..?"
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 32,379
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    #17
    dip_transfer wrote: »
    The Oil Tanker disasters i remember from a while back are the Exxon Valdez in Alaska In 89, The Amoco Kadiz off the coast of Brittany in 78.

    The worst British one the Torrey Canyon in 1967.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/18/newsid_4242000/4242709.stm
  • fat controllerfat controller Posts: 13,757
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    #18
    irishguy wrote: »
    The General Slocum disaster is one of the worst maritime incidents to occur in US waters. About 1000 people lost their lives.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS_General_Slocum

    Wow - horrific story. Its amazing how the things that we would instantly recognise as being dangerous (the lamp oil and oily rags lying about etc), were apparently seen as being normal.

    I remember Zebrugge also - another terrible accident, however thankfully lots was learned from it.
  • HogzillaHogzilla Posts: 24,116
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    #19
    Posted on the Creepiest thread so wont go into detail here, but on the night of the Penlee lifeboat disaster in 1981, I woke Mr H screaming my head off, searching for the light switch, as I had just had a vivid dream about a shipwreck, and dreamed I was one of the people in the water, someone was trying to rescue. I didnt know I was "only" dreaming, but I did have this strange sense that I wasn't really there and this calm, middle aged man told me to hold on to something, Id be fine. To that point, Id been panicking and wouldnt have even had the presence of mind to hold onto wreckage. I woke up, absolutely in a blind panic, and told Mr H of my dream even down to seeing xmas lights on the shore, and having this sense I wasnt far from the shore.

    I had a lot of maritime disaster dreams as my grandad had a boat so I spent a lot of time on a boat as a child, and put it down to that. We went about our normal stuff all day and it was only at the next day's six o clock news, I saw the disaster on the news. I had had the dream about 2 am.

    I was glad I woke him up and gave him a lot of detail.

    Years later, doing family history, discovered I had an ancestor here on the river who was one of only three survivors of an accident, when a boat capsized. I read about the inquest in the 19thC newspapers and what was striking was he survived because a person on the bank... shouted him to hold on to something. He was a calm, rather charismatic middle aged man. just like the one in my dream.

    I had another bad maritime dream that came on the news, this time a week afterwards. So I decided never to have them again. And havent.

    I still dont think it was anything all that strange, just pure statistical coincidence that as things happen, people are coincidentally dreaming about similar things. But I still feel ill when I think of the xmas lights.
  • Steady40Steady40 Posts: 2,095
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    #20
    does anybody remember the titanic?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic
  • HogzillaHogzilla Posts: 24,116
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    #21
    Steady40 wrote: »
    does anybody remember the titanic?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic

    Never heard of it. Would make a good film, that.:D
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