5 year old container ship breaks in half

Ship did not sink both halves currently afloat.

http://gcaptain.com/mol-box-ship-suffers-broken-back-sinks-off-yeme/

 

uh-oh...

 

wooaaahhh!!!

Either poor loading procedure of the containers and/or poor localised fabrication/detailing, or repair, that lead to a fatigue crack which went, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzip!

 

Hey, now you have two container ships, maybe this is due to different destinations of the containers





Cheers,
Angel

 

Salvage should be very interesting.

Dino

 

Some credit to the NA that designed the ship is due. Most boats would have capsized and sunk after a failure like that.

They certainly got the watertight compartment design spot on.

 

thanks for the chuckle RW,
I certainly do see your point, it is truly amazing.
however it did break in half.

 

Now that the bow fell off, all they have to do is tow it out of the environment.

 

My understanding of these ships is that they are constructed in segments if the ship was recovered would it be possible or worth repairing? I recall reading about one ship where engine wear had rendered it unable to meet average speed requirements to be economically viable. They shortened the ship and managed through the reduction in weight to make it meet the required parameters to reenter transport duties.

 

we learn everyday

 

Well yes, the definitely are built that way - but the suckers are supposed to be welded.

I would love to see the 'raw ends' to see if someone forgot to inspect the welds at station 48, and see if it was only bolts holding the middle together.

 

Photos show she split at the aft end of cargo hold 3 or 4(?) which would be about the loacation of maximum moment when hogging. I wouldn't be suprized if there wasn't some damage to the longitudinals/keel (container hit or grounding) because the photo in post #2 shows a compression failure of tanktop. Also looks like she lost a the whole stow out the end of the breach also.

Anyway, to answer Corley's question, it all depends on where the damage was. If it was in the PMB, then you could just cut out the damaged cargo hold, but most likely she is a CTL unless they totally rebuild the bow because she would be to small to make a profit (which is measured in pennies per container). Rebuilding would depend on the cost split between new construction/prime move economic life compared to the insurance payout.

Edit, she is IMO 9358761, ex APL Russia built by MHI Nagasaki

 

LOL

 

For that obscure reference....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T587NHM-f9o

 

More containers to dodge...
MOL Comfort’s Stern Sinks in 4,000 Meters of Water