I work in Jaxport and have friends up in Savanah. The ship was listing at the dock and left anyway. There are literally hundreds of valves that direct water ballast throughout the ship. Best guess right now is there was a fire in the valve control room otherwise they would have trimmed the ship out. The carhauler ships are not stable and must be constantly trimmed with ballast.
‘TO LEARN WHO RULES OVER YOU, SIMPLY FIND OUT WHO YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO CRITICIZE’
Conspiracy theorists are the ones who see it all coming…
"I would love to get the complete story on this cluster f*ck.[/quote]
I would love to hear a recording of the bridge verbal communication at the time between the pilot, captain, helm and engine room. On most ships the pilot takes over in and around the port but the captain is one at all times who is legally responsible (as far as I know this is true in all countries). I remember in 83 when the USS Enterprise ran aground in the SF Bay coming in to Alamenda Naval base. Pilot error missed the channel. The captain claimed all responsibility and was demoted as ultimately the Captain has the Con. If this RoRo ship grounded first my guess is it was pilot error. Maybe wrong helm commands or engine room but we will most likely never get to hear the full story behind this f*q up as you so eloquently noted.
I’ve been noticing these vehicle carriers since we moved here to Charleston this summer. To someone who grew up around the Great Lakes style dry bulkers and later was in the Navy, they seem the ugliest, most ungainly vessels I’ve ever seen. I’ve been wondering if they weren’t somewhat susceptible to this sort of thing on the open sea.
If (one of the hugest words in the language) it's mostly a flooded compartment issue, they should be able to pump them out one at a time until the ship rights itself. After that, it would seem to be a simpler matter. Not easy, but simpler.
I don't see any recent updates on the four missing persons or rescue ops. Anybody have one?
I think that will take a LOT more horsepower than just adjusting bilges... especially if it ran aground to start the whole big mess. As was mentioned, parbuckles are probably going to be needed and sponsons once they get it started..
Mark Begich, Joaquin Jackson, and Heller resistance... Three huge reasons to worry about the NRA.
Fourth and final crewman pulled alive from capsized ship Posted 11:38 am, September 9, 2019, by Associated Press, Updated at 06:22PM, September 9, 2019
JEKYLL ISLAND, Ga. (AP) — Coast Guard rescuers pulled four trapped men alive from a capsized cargo ship Monday, drilling into the hull’s steel plates to extract the crew members more than a day after their vessel overturned while leaving a Georgia port.
All four were described as alert and in relatively good condition and were taken to a hospital for further evaluation.
“Best day of my 16-year career,” Lt. Lloyd Heflin, who was coordinating the effort, wrote in a text message to The Associated Press.
A video posted online by the Coast Guard showed responders clapping and cheering as the final man, wearing only shorts, climbed out of a hole in the hull and stood up.
Three of the South Korean crew members came out in the midafternoon. The fourth man, who was trapped in a separate compartment, emerged three hours later.
The rescues followed nearly 36 hours of work after the Golden Ray, a giant ship that carries automobiles, rolled onto its side early Sunday as it was leaving Brunswick, bound for Baltimore.
“All crew members are accounted for,” Coast Guard Southeast wrote on Twitter. “Operations will now shift fully to environmental protection, removing the vessel and resuming commerce.”
In the hours immediately after the accident, the Coast Guard lifted 20 crew members into helicopters before determining that smoke and flames and unstable cargo made it too risky to venture further inside the vessel. Officials were also concerned about the stability of the ship, which was carrying 4,000 vehicles, some of which may have broken loose.
That left responders looking for the remaining four crew members. At first, rescuers thought the noises they were hearing inside could be some of the vehicles crashing around. But by dawn Monday, they had grown confident that the taps were responses to their own taps, indicating someone was alive inside.
“It was outstanding when I heard the news this morning that we had taps back throughout the night,” Capt. John Reed said. Those sounds helped lead rescuers to the right place on the 656-foot (200 meter) vessel and provided motivation.
“They were charged up knowing the people were alive,” Reed said.
On Monday morning, rescuers landed on the side of the Golden Ray and rappelled down the hull. Heflin, who was coordinating the search, said they found three men in a room close to the propeller shaft, near the bottom of the stern. Responders began drilling, starting with a 3-inch (7.5-centimeter) hole. Coast Guard officials brought the ship’s chief engineer, who was rescued Sunday, out to the ship to translate, and found the three men were “on board and OK,” as Heflin put it.
Reed said rescuers passed food and water through the hole to the men. It also provided fresh air to the propeller room, which Reed said was even hotter than outside, where the high was 93 degrees (34 Celsius).
Responders set up a tent on the hull and began drilling additional holes, eventually making an opening large enough to insert a ladder and help the men climb out.
“It was like connect the dots,” Reed said of the hole, which grew to 2 feet by 3 feet (0.6 meters by 1 meter).
The fourth rescue was a greater challenge. Reed said that crewman was behind glass in a separate engineering compartment on another deck.
The Golden Ray is now stuck in the shipping channel, closing one of the busiest U.S. seaports for shipping automobiles. One ship is unable to leave port and four more are lined up outside waiting to come in, according to ship-tracking website Marine Traffic.
A statement issued Monday by the South Korea foreign ministry said the crew members were isolated in an engine room. It said 10 South Koreans and 13 Filipinos had been on board, along with a U.S. harbor pilot, when the ship began tilting.
Position records for the Golden Ray show the ship arrived in port in Brunswick Saturday evening after making the short sail from a prior stop in Jacksonville, Florida. The ship then departed the dock in Brunswick shortly after midnight and was underway only 23 minutes before its movement stopped in the mouth of the harbor where it capsized, according to satellite data recorded by Marine Traffic.
Port officials were “working closely with the Coast Guard to reopen the channel,” Georgia Ports Authority Executive Director Griff Lynch said in a statement after the final man was rescued.
The cause of the capsizing remains under investigation. Marine Traffic shows the Golden Ray overturned as it was passed by another car carrier entering St. Simons Sound.
At the time, the skies were clear and the weather calm, with a southerly breeze of only 5 miles per hour, according to National Weather Service records.
Many of those rescued were taken to the International Seafarers’ Center in Brunswick. Sailors arrived with only what they were wearing when rescued. A restaurant donated a meal, and the volunteer-run center provided the seamen with clothes, toiletries and Bibles.
The vessel is owned by Hyundai Glovis, which carries cars for automakers Hyundai and Kia as well as others.
Nearly 614,000 vehicles and heavy machinery units moved across Brunswick’s docks in the 2019 fiscal year that ended June 30, according to the Georgia Ports Authority.
