Famous sinkings

The sinking of the Bugaled Breizh in 2004 is an intersting one. Even though it is not official and probably will never be, the boat would of been hit or dragged to the bottom by a submarine. There is a lot of mysteries around this sinking since lots of information is covered up by military authotities.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4378899.stm

http://images.google.ca/images?hs=caL&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial_s&q=%20Bugaled%20Breizh&btnG=Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

http://www.meretmarine.com/article.cfm?id=1076

 

Wow! What a mess!

 

Captain vs Monarch

An interesting story from Scheltema de Heere's book "Buoyancy and Stability of Ships", with a casual elation with my home land, Galicia:

"...This, in the British Navy, led to a controversy between a brilliant, but professionally (that is in the profession of naval architecture) incapable officer, Captain Cowper Coles, backed by public opinion, and the Director of Naval Construction, (later Sir) Edward Reed; the latter clearly seeing the dangers of low freeboard, especially when combined with a large spread of sail. But this was exactly what Coles wanted.

The Admiralty, under the pressure of the press and public, then asked Coles and Reed each to design and build a seagoing battleship on the turret principle. The low freeboard ship came to grief (it must be noted, however, that the building yard, when left to itself, built, in the same period, some excellent turret-ships, one of these being the first seagoing battleship of the Royal Netherlands Navy).

In 1870 both experimental ships, Coles' "Captain" and Reed's "Monarch" were sailing in the same squadron, when, in the Bay of Biscay a sudden worsening of the weather threw the "captain" over, the ship sinking with the loss of nearly all on board, Coles included. The "Monarch" had no trouble at all.

As a consequence a Committee of Investigation was appointed; the reading of its highly interesting report is recommended. During the investigation it was, amongst many other things, brought to light, that there had been made a stability calculation for the hapless ship, but in reality the ship had more weight on board that estimated, and thus had an appreciably smaller freeboard than the designed one; also the MG was very imperfectly known; finallythe area of the sails and the height of the rigging were unacceptable large....
Of course the catastrophe led to a great intensifying, the world over, of the study of stability in all its aspects...."

More info here:
http://www.hmscaptain.co.uk/The Story/storyofhmscaptain.htm

The words in the memorial stone at the Galician "Costa de la Muerte" reads:
"In memoriam of all shipwrecked persons of the Death's Coast. Camariñas 1990.

 

I am highly doubtful that she was pulled under by a sub. Mostly because a sub does everything it can to avoid a trawler because the trawler is more of a danger to the sub than the other way around.

Of interest is the implosion damage in way of the fish hold forward to both sides. This means that she sank fast, but the engine room had time to equalize...or may have been flooded first? Also I would like to see any info on her gear and bottom type, all I have heard is that the trawl was out.

See this site: http://gmapalumni.org/chapomatic/?p=1376 ; for a well thought out response to the BBC articles you cited.

This article: http://www.newlyn.info/westernmorningnews/2004/040120a.htm ; reports a radio transmission "

I note he did not say "rammed", but knew that the hull was taking on water. Maybe, like the Edmund Fitzgerald, they were working with a problem and lost control of it.

And apparently the capsize was witnessed: http://www.newlyn.info/cornishman/2004/040219a.htm ; and the submarine that was claimed to have rammed her was on the surface: http://www.premar-atlantique.gouv.fr/actualite/evenements/naufrage-du-bugaled-breizh.html ; and should have been seen if the sinking was witnessed.

 

I remember being a boy back in Campbell River in 1984 when the Sundancer came charging into Duncan Bay and rammed the dock at Elk Falls Pulp Mill in an emergency effort to save the passenegers, crew and the ship. My dad was a Fireman on duty and aided in the evacuation of passengers (the crew had already abandonned ship by this point). My dad saved every news report and piece of video footage available, and even had a home movie camera running during the last part of the rescue.

http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/Svea_Corona_1975.html#anchor247024
This has got to be on of the unluckiest ships out there.

Incidentally, the guy who had to go repair the LIGHTHOUSE ON THE ISLAND THAT SHE HIT would disagree with the assertion that she "struck a submerged object"

 

I doubt that she will sink. But they lost a Naval Architect on her today.

The sea is always filled with risk....

 

Quite curious as to what would cause that ship to list like that. Yes, she's taking on water... but how?

 

She is not really listing, she is lolling. And as I understand it, she is only slowly taking on water as the shell is still intact.

Lolling occurs when GM (at zero heel) is negative. As I understand it, she was pumping down ballast for exchange when it happened. My guess is that when they de-ballasted her, they lowered the KB and increased the IFS until GM went negative. A quick roll until GMlolled = 0 ( most likely by increasing IWP because her depth of hold was wider than her beam and decreasing IFS as the bottom tanks became vertical) and she is quite content to stay that way, though moving water about in the tanks will become problamatic . This is exactly what happened to the M/V ROCKNES, except she didn't have a loll point or was rolling too fast to stabilize at a loll point.

 

Yes, I share your opinion. It doesn't look like a water intake but rather a lost of stability due to an improper ballasting manoeuvre.

 

yea but how to right her w out sending her straight to the bottom i think they need a tidal sand flat in shallow water and a couple of tugs ready to push.pull her upright as the tide goes out
and being a bulk carrier like the ROCKNES if you put her in that position my experience with loose construction materials<13 years> says they shift on over and she points her nose at the bottom only reason that one is still on surface is because of that hi sided shell

 

Sinking of the Reuben James

I know how to play this one with guitar & banjo. And even dare to sing it....
http://web.infinito.it/utenti/v/vallarsa/woody/thesinkingofrubenjames.htm

 

I think also that the cargo may have shifted here....I've seen them load and unload these boats, and they are simply RO RO ferries......RO RO row your boat..la la la la. Sorry, I'm sure that the cargo is a bit more secure than that, but still, theres a limit ...

 

OOOh, ya gota feel for the guys who's Mercs - bema's - Jags & the like are aboard .I don't know if they're all Mazda's in there, but she visits NZ and brings top line cars out of Singapore to here.
I get my stock x Japan on same type ships and there is no insurance to speak of !! , well not from the shipping line anyway and most dealers I know chance it, given the stats .
Good thing there apears to be no sea running eh !!

Hey Thunderhead ,you missed one " LA " to finish the verse !!, that's so annoying -- the fact that I had to count them LOL !!

 

If you ever want to wreck a ship it looks like Western Australia is the place to do it. Just about the whole length of Western Australia is dotted with reefs. Probably because the sea can be quite calm a lot of reefs are not easily visible. In the days of sailing ships, they used to take advantage of the westerly winds from Africa and then bear north. At times they would leave the north bit too late, ending up on a reef.

Others exploring the coast have ran foul of the reefs.

I would like to share with you some of the Western Australian wrecks, I'll post them later.

 

The "Alkimos" 7176 tons.

Built in Baltimore in 1943 named the "George M. Shriver." Her name was later changed to the "Viggo Hansteen." In 1953 she was bought by a Greek shipping line and re-named "Alkimos."

In 1963 she ran aground just north of the Perth metropolitan area. She was freed but drifted aground again. Once more she was freed but once again ran aground but freed again.

In 1965 although operational was sold for scrap to a company in Indonesia. However on her way to Indonesia it ran aground just south of Geraldton.

After a week she was freed and sailed to Fremantle under the escort of a tug.

While waiting for repairs she was badly damaged by fire and a decision was made to refit her in Hong Kong.

This time under tow by a tug she set off for Hong Kong however during the morning of the second day they encountered a fierce gale causing the tow line to snap.

She ran aground.

Caretakers were sent on board but left after they reported seeing ghosts. Since then anyone who has stayed on board have also reported seeing ghosts and experiencing a spooky feeling.

She has now virtually disintergrated.