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FrozenVent posted:Nobody in the shipbuilding industry has used "unsinkable" since, oh, 1912. And on that note, lets look at some unnerving ferry disasters! MS Express Samina The MS Express Samina was a roll-on/roll-off ferry operating in the Agean Sea when it made its last cruise on September 26, 2000. The crew got the ship underway, set the autopilot, deployed the fin stabilizers to make the ride smooth.... and then they all of them hosed off to go watch a soccer game on TV. Seriously. They didn't even leave the FNG in the wheelhouse to watch for passing traffic. And that was a real shame, because the port-side stabilizer, for whatever reason, didn't properly lock into place, and the boat drifted off course. By the time somebody did actually go up to check on things it was too late to save it from a collision course with the Portes islets, a pair of rocks in the Bay of Parikia. Not that they didn't try, somebody attempted a left turn away from the rocks, but it was too little, too late. The rocks tore a six-meter long and one-meter wide hole above the water line. And then to add insult to injury, the rocks bent the stabilizer fin backwards, and the fin cut through the hull through the side, below the waterline. Now even then if nothing else had gone wrong, this boat still could have limped back into port. The ferry had 11 watertight compartment doors in the cargo area to contain leaks in just such a situation. Guess which doors hadn't been closed before they set sail? And wouldn't you know it, the very first room that the water rushed into happened to be the engine room! So they couldn't close them after the fact to try to ameliorate the situation. And since there was effectively no power at all the whole boat went dark and caused people to panic. Several members of the crew abandoned ship while passengers were left in the dark with no idea of where to go to evacuate and no one to lead them. Three minutes after impact the boat was listing 5 degrees to port. Ten minutes later that had increased to 14 degrees and the larger 6-meter gash was now taking on water. Four minutes later, the tilt had increased to 23 degrees, making it impossible to launch any more lifeboats. Only 3 of the 8 on board had been launched, so the poor SOBs that actually managed to find their way out to the deck in the dark were now SOL, at least until they reached the water. Twenty minutes later the boat had completely rolled over on its side, and it sank about 10 minutes later. The whole thing took less than an hour to sink. Total death count: 82 out of 533 aboard, 1 port master who overexerted himself during the rescue effort, 1 manager of the ferry company who later committed suicide when he learned he would be charged with negligence MS Herald of Free Enterprise The Herald of Free Enterprise was working the route between Dover and the Belgian port of Zeebrugge on March 6 1987. This was not its normal route, and the linkspan at Zeebrugge had not been designed specifically for the Spirit class vessels: it used a single deck, preventing the simultaneous loading of both E and G car decks, and the ramp could not be raised high enough to reach E deck. To compensate, the captain filled the ballast tanks to bring the ship lower into the water to make the ramp reach. He should have restored the trim after loading was complete, but the ship was running late and he forgot. Strike one. Meanwhile, the assistant boatswain had returned to his cabin for a short break after cleaning the car deck upon arrival. It was his duty to close the watertight doors before dropping the moorings. Unfortunately that break would be a costly one, because he fell asleep and was still asleep when the harbor-stations call sounded. The first officer was required to check that the doors were closed before going to his harbor station. He later said that he thought he saw the boatswain coming, but it's believed that under pressure to get to his harbor station on the bridge on time, he had left G deck with the bow doors open in the expectation that the boatswain would arrive shortly. One other person was on that deck, another boatswain who was finishing up his jobs. When asked why he didn't do something about the open door, he answered that it wasn't his duty. He finished his jobs and left the deck with the door wide open. The first officer made it to his post and told the captain that loading was complete. And since the captain couldn't see the doors from the wheelhouse, and there were no indicator lights to confirm that the doors are closed, and no failsafe, he assumed all was well and set sail. Strike two. The ferry sets out 5 minutes late. Once they're out of the harbor the captain pushes the speed up to the full 18 knots to make up for lost time. The boat was already low in the water due to filling the ballast for loading. And because they were still in relatively shallow waters, the low pressure under the hull caused the bow to dip even lower then it normally would in deeper water. This left a 1.5m clearance between the waterline and the door. When pushed up to full speed, the bow wave was amplified by shallow water effect, and it caused water to go gushing into the wide open doors. Strike three, you're out. It only took 90 seconds to sink. Of the 539 people on board, 193 died including 38 crew members. Many died from hypothermia, rather than drowning, when they were suddenly dumped into the cold North Sea. MV Sewol This happened just this past April. A ferry sets off on a routine trip to Jeju City mostly carrying a bunch of high school students and their teachers on a school trip. Early on the morning of April 16, emergency services gets a call from a young passenger saying that the boat is capsizing. A few minutes later, around 9am, the captain gets in contact with the Vessel Traffic Service and informs the Coast Guard that they are rolling and in danger. A call goes out on the ship's intercom for all passengers to stay in their rooms and not move. (huh?) Fifteen minutes later the crew reports that the ship's angle of heel was so far that it made evacuation impossible. (wait, what?) Ten minutes later, VTS orders the crew to instruct passengers to put on life vests. When the crew whines that their intercom has broken, VTS told them to get their asses in gear and go to the passengers and inform them in person. (  just what are you assholes even doing?) Not long after, VTS asks if the captain wants to evacuate the ship, since I guess he can't be bothered to make the decision without prompting. The captain asks about the rescue, to which VTS replied that patrol boats were due to arrive in 10 minutes and a helicopter in one minute. The captain replies, of course that there were too many passengers for the helicopter.  Finally, around 9:30 the captain gives the order to evacuate, though with the broken intercom, who knows how many really got the go ahead to leave.So what caused this one to sink? Greed and stupidity of course. The ship's owners had been butting heads with their crews over maximizing profits by overloading cargo. The MV Sewol took on 3,608 tons of cargo that trip which is slightly more than the rated limit of the limit of 987 tons. With so much extra onboard, there wasn't enough room to properly secure it all. To offset and accommodate this extra weight, the boat was carrying only 580 tons of ballast water which is slightly less than the recommended 2,030 tons. This made it more prone to list and capsize. All it took was one sharp and sudden turn early that morning to cause the cargo to shift and throw her off balance and unable to recover. And while the order to stay in the cabins probably did prevent a mass stampede, and deaths from hypothermia in the cold waters, it didn't really do much to prevent the drownings that resulted. Of the 476 on board, 294 died, as well as 1 navy sailor, 2 civilian divers, and 5 emergency workers. Ten are still missing. Most of the people who died were teenagers - only 75 of the 325 members of the junior class were able to return to school. The vice-principal, who was rescued and survived the disaster, committed suicide a few days after the event. But probably the most unnerving thing about this is all the videos that were shot from cell phones by the passengers, and uploaded to the internet. Including one where some teenage girls are singing Titanic's "My Heart Will Go On" 
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Aug 6, 2014 05:50
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Hey, how about a nice longform article? This article is about the 1980 bombing of Harvey's Wagon Wheel Casino in Lake Tahoe. Basically, a man by the name of "Big John" Birges, an inventor and self-made millionaire, sold his lawnscaping business and retired in the early 70s. He then spent most of his time and money travelling to the Wagon Wheel, and pretty much gambled away everything he had built up over the years. Hurt and angry, he came up with a crazy idea to get back all the money he'd lost and more. With the help of his sons, he built this thing: It was a bomb that was impossible to stop. It had a timer which would detonate after a couple of days. It had a pendulum, so that if you moved it, it would detonate. It had a float switch, so that if you tried to flood it, it would detonate. It was lined with foil so that if you tried to drill or cut into it, it would complete a circuit and detonate. Every screw on the box was connected to a switch that would detonate if tampered with. It had numerous toggle switches on the outside, some of which were wired to blow, and some of which were distractions, and so on and so forth. Big John left a ransom note asking for $3 million in exchange for instructions on how to deactivate the pendulum so that it could be moved to a safe location to detonate. Anyway, the article details the whole thing all the way to the trial that took place when he was caught, and it includes videos of what happened when the FBI tried to defuse it. The crazy thing? He would have gotten away with it if they hadn't stopped for the night before going through with the plan. One of the idiots he hired to help him wheel the thing into the casino gave their actual license plate number for the hotel registration. It was the only lead they had. The FBI leaned on his sons, and eventually they 'fessed up in exchange for immunity. To this day, the plexiglass model of the bomb that was built for demonstration at the trial is still used at Quantico to train explosives technicians.
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Aug 24, 2015 20:34
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This gator story is awful, and I have nothing but sympathy for the parents, but I did not have to read that article to know that they were from out of state. Though not frequent, it's not uncommon to hear news reports about tourists that lose small pets while walking too close to lakes, or someone losing a foot because they dipped their toesies in a canal to cool off, or worse. The truth is you can plant a million signs around every lake, pond, spring, and river around here, but what tourists fail to realize is that alligators are NOT sharks. You don't have to be swimming for them to get you, they'll drag you down at ankle-deep waters. And you'll never see them coming either. They're living dinosaurs, and the reason they're still around is because they're very good at what they do. It's why most people have swimming pools in their backyards down here. All of nature's waterholes are full of hungry reptiles, venomous snakes, and other assorted protected wildlife. Disney's usually pretty good about signage and safety. Especially in Orlando where they own nightclubs, resorts, and campgrounds in addition to the parks, studios and offices. Disney's going to comp/reimburse their stay, make some other nice gestures while they're in the area, and give them a generous settlement to stay out of civil court. But as far as charges of criminal negligence? Not gonna happen. Disney's only responsible for the animals they own, not the wildlife that lives on its properties. They did their dilligence by having the signs up, but you can't educate every tourist that the animals here are as dangerous as Australia's.
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Jun 18, 2016 16:19
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