November....

Fairplay 21 loses power and is swept up against the bow
of the Lars Maersk freighter.

The tug managed to free herself,... after the
incident the tug proceeded to Antwerp for repairs.

Umi, Was the tug able to get away while this was happening or did the ship have to stop.

Wouldn't proper response on loss of power to one tug for the other to go into station keeping mode or divert away from the derelict and to cut the tow line on the tug that lost power? It looks like the line is still attached to the Fairplay 21 and the forward momentum pulled it into the tow.

That doesn't seem overly bright to me.

Send that AB out on deck with his knife....yeh right.

It appears to be a winched line so at least play it out. The point is, the collision may not have been avoidable but it looks could have been lessened with some quick thinking.

I wonder if the container ship now has half a tug silhoutte on the side of the bridge...

Tom Boere sent me the pictures, the story showed up
in a Maritime News letter that picks up the information off the web.

If they were making way up river to port, then the ship, even if they cut
the power would still carry itself a good ships length or two forward before
beginning to slow down...

Sort of a double edged sword...
Do you slam into the bow, and hold the position, or
play out the winch line, and bounce down the side of the ship?

Playing out line -
Without power, they could only let the winch drum spool....and with the ship approaching, it would not be pulling line off the drum, only gravity+weight of the line would be available. Towing at 2 knots, and with a 100' towline, they had only 30 seconds before being run down. They may have tried to spool out line, but were unable.

It appears that the towline was leading from the bow. In that circumstance, allowing yourself to be pulled alongside the ship would have been a better choice - they just did not have time nor power to take that choice, I think. Old fashioned freighters, with less flare to the bow, were safer than today's ships, at least for tugs.

btw, based on the background, I believe 2nd and 3rd photo are out of sequence.

Well, I see a boat in the background... this could certainly end up as an "oops"...

Gee Pat,
What are they cutting with that 1/16 th balsa?

That would have had a Very High Pucker factor for the crew of the Tug!!
I'd be straight off for nice shot of Bourbon (make that a whole bottle) after that little incident!

It's a cordless - shouldn't be as bad as it looks.

Originally Posted by patmat2350

Well, I see a boat in the background... this could certainly end up as an "oops"...

Given the distance between the tug and the freightrer in the first picture, I seriously doubt that they had any time at all to react when the power failed. The tug is sinply to close the the freighter. Even if it is several hundred yards away it would only take seconds not minutes to hit. Cutting the tow line would not have prevented this collision from happening. It would have only made it of shorter duration. If the tug was free it could very well have bounced down the side of the ship and rolled over. It also very furtunate that it hit the side of the bow and not the forstem,that too would have rolled and sunk the tug.

Losing power with something that big behind you can't be a good thing under any circumstances. That tug is lucky to be still floating.

I would like to have seen a dashcam and heard a "cockpit voice recorder" from that episode...

Yor're seeing the power of inevitable.

--Bill

Originally Posted by Bill Harris

I would like to have seen a dashcam and heard a "cockpit voice recorder" from that episode...

Yor're seeing the power of inevitable.

--Bill

what ever said wont be repeatable before 9pm