Oil tanker v Cargo ship.

[motorbiking]

Claims a deliberate collision seem far fetched to me, to guarantee a hit I would’ve though there would’ve needed to be a number of small adjustments made to the course to force a direct hit on a moored ship, which is a pretty small target in the context of hundreds of miles of sea.

I'm not following your thinking. Its position is fixed and its path entirely predictable based on tide data.

 

[Notch7]

I'm not following your thinking. Its position is fixed and its path entirely predictable based on tide data.

So it would possible to set a course and guarantee to hit a moored ship several hundred miles away?

 

[motorbiking]

So it would possible to set a course and guarantee to hit a moored ship several hundred miles away?

why would you need to do it so far away?

But yes. How else do you get from Port A to B?

 

[motorbiking]

From what I can see, there really isn't any need to incite conspiracy theories (at least not yet!).
Albeit based on some older reports, about 45% of marine casualties involved collision and of those...

View attachment 375954

Reading through MAIB reports can be fascinating if you're interested in human factors engineering. Poor bridge management, use of technology and watch keeping is common in these incidents.

Besides, antagonising the US would probably be the last thing that Putin would want at this point.

Radar assisted collision would need southerly or westerly tide to create the illusion of a burdened moving vessel.

For those following:
You have stand on vessels and burdened vessels to avoid collision. In other words Stand on = right of way, Burdened = must give way.
Radar assisted collisions occur when an operator incorrectly forgets to calibrate his own speed over ground and believes a vessel heading away or stationary is actually moving towards him or across him.

I wouldn't be surprised if someone on the Immaculate is also prosecuted. There aren't any reports of any DSC alerting or radio chatter. The watch on the immaculate, should have called the Solong, ship to ship/Digitally and then on Ch 16. There would have been time.

 

[Notch7]

why would you need to do it so far away?

But yes. How else do you get from Port A to B?

What I am saying is if it was a deliberate collision, somebody would’ve needed to tweak the course as they got nearer.

 

[motorbiking]

I can't speak for the tech onboard a cargo ship. But I would expect them to have similar capability to the chart plotter on my boats.

I can set a Course and ask my auto pilot to navigate to it. I can also set an AIS target and the auto pilot will take me to it.

But given a start time & date, known speed etc and position of the vessel, I could manually set a course to steer and use even the most basic of autopilots (magnetic heading) to get me there. Given the light wind I would expect to be spot on. Course to Steer allowing for tide is a required skill for the most basic qualification (day skipper)

btw those attempting a coastal skipper course are required to do this blind, using nothing more than speed, time, tide and depth. For yacht master you'd be expected to do it in a navigation channel.

But - if someone wanted to sink/damage a US military supply, the penalty for failure to maintain a watch or failure to maintain a safe speed would be a lot less than a deliberate attack. Who knows what pressure might be applied to the Russian skipper?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

No, that was the track after collision - compare it to @motorbikings post #34...

What I'm seeing, is a sharp deviation from it's southerly course, to north/north/east, it then turns even sharper, to south/south/west. onto a direct heading to hit the Stena tanker, with a couple of slight corrections, halfway along that final stretch. Had it remained on it's original course, it would likely have missed the Stena tanker, unless the tanker swung round 180 degrees on it's mooring. Question is - why the unnecessary sharp turn to north/north/east? A better plan would have been to turn west, to pass behind the tanker.

The track to me, seems to be a deliberate act, to cause the collision.

 

[motorbiking]

You are misunderstand the data.

The deviation is the impact. The Immaculate is then dragged, by the Solong 500m as the vessels come to a new halt and the Immaculate's new anchorage.

 

[denso13]

What I'm seeing, is a sharp deviation from it's southerly course

Because of the collision, this has been pointed out a few times now. The ships ended up further South than the collision point.

 

[motorbiking]

300m further SSW
.

 

[RandomGrinch]

300m further SSW
.View attachment 375968

And still at 16Kt at that moment?

 

[motorbiking]

at 09:50:00 Solong was doing 16kts
at 09:50:55 Solong was doing 0.2kts
when it slipped NE it was going 1.2kts 09:54:20 - 10:03. it looks like it bounced as the anchor chain went tight and relaxed.
they both then "headed" SSW at around 1kt. Inline with the tide, until the anchor reseated.

 

[JohnD]

"Captain of container ship in North Sea collision is Russian, owner says

Police have arrested the 59-year-old on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter"

FT.com

Fancy that.

 

[transam]

Russian captain

Yes exactly

Boozed up ?

 

[JohnD]

By chance, the American ship was carrying fuel for US armed forces.

Fancy that.