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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'We're a dead ship': Hundreds of cargo ships lost propulsion in U.S. waters in recent years
Less than two weeks after Baltimores Francis Scott Key Bridge was destroyed by an out-of-control cargo ship, another huge container ship passed beneath a busy bridge connecting New York and New Jersey and then suddenly decelerated in a narrow artery of one of the nations largest ports. Were a dead ship, said a voice over the maritime radio a short time later, invoking an industry term that often refers to a ship that is unable to move on it own.
Three tug boats helped shepherd the APL Qingdao a vessel more than 1,100 feet long and flying under the flag of Malta from where it lost propulsion near the Bayonne Bridge to a safe location, authorities said. The ship dropped anchor just upstream from the even busier Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, which carries about 200,000 vehicles per day. The April 5 incident is one of hundreds in which massive cargo ships lost propulsion, many near bridges and ports, according to a Washington Post analysis of Coast Guard records.
The findings indicate that the kind of failure that preceded the March 26 Baltimore bridge collapse the 984-foot Dali is believed to have lost the ability to propel itself forward as it suffered a more widespread power outage was far from a one-off among the increasingly large cargo ships that routinely sail close to critical infrastructure.
Around Baltimore alone, ships lost propulsion nearly two dozen times in the three years before the tragedy last month, the Post review found including a November 2021 incident in which a 981-foot container ship lost propulsion for 15 minutes soon after it passed under the Key Bridge. In 2020, a ship the same size as the Dali lost propulsion in the vicinity of the Bay Bridge near Annapolis, records show.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2024/04/16/dead-ships-propulsion-loss/
BComplex
(8,054 posts)or rebuild bridges, while their owners don't pay taxes to the USA? There is bound to be a substantial dock fee, or something of the kind, for us to take responsibility for getting these ships to port and to safety, right?
Chainfire
(17,559 posts)SarahD
(1,199 posts)We could require tugs to accompany ships, but the lobbyists would scream.