[HO455]

Originally Posted by special-K

Another expert explained reversing the thrust only involves one prop, which causes a ship to need rudder correction. Also, the port anchor had been dropped. Then there are those saying look at where the ship is from, insinuating China was involved. Singapore is at the tip of Southeast Asia and part of Malaysia, so wrong on that theory

Personally I would dismiss the expert talking about reversing the thrust. These kind of ships only have one propeller. But every propeller no matter what direction it is spinning requires rudder correction. Having no idea where what angle the rudder was at when power was lost (And I doubt the reporter knows either) I wouldn't try to surmise how reversing the propeller affected the ships course at the time. I will say the bridge crew operating the ship had no easy choices on how best to slow the vessel down and not hit the bridge. The pilot likely was not completely in the loop due to the language differences and the high level of adrenaline causing people to speak fast and shout in the increasing chaos as the bridge loomed closer. These are questions that will be answered when the NTSB's report comes out in about 10 to 12 months.


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_D...%20ft%204%20in)

About the anchors some background. Ships generally have the anchor ready to drop when transiting restricted waters. Which means that the pelican hook(s) which prevent the anchor from dropping are removed from the chain and a crew is on station to operate the windlass. Depending on whether the crews were still on station to operate the would affect the response time to drop the winch. If the crews had secured the anchor windlass for sea or had gone off to other duties at the time of the power failure they could have been 900 feet away from the windlass controls when all the lights went out. Nothing like an 300 yard dash in pitch black with a flashlight. They were doing well to get the one anchor dropped in under 3 minutes which is what my understanding is of the time from the Mayday went out. Again where the crew was and whether or not the anchor was ready to drop will come out in the NTSB investigation.

More information on anchor windlass construction and operation in this link. For those who are interested.

https://www.marineinsight.com/naval-...and-operation/

The ship being listed as from Singapore has less to do with the vessel's overall condition and crew abilities than what flag the ship is operating under. It is often referred referred to as a "Flag of Convenience". Which basically gives the operator of the vessel the choice of deciding what safety rules and crew treatment conditions they want to operate under. Kind of like licensing your car in a different state to avoid safety inspections or emission regulations. Again see the link for more information.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_convenience

Enjoy the reading. Fortunately it's not often the mostly useless trivia sloshing around in my grey matter becomes interesting to folks outside the marine industry.