Shocking crane barge accident

It does seem a bit extraordinary when BSB's area of specialisation seems to be marine (non ship) structures like bridges, sluices and cranes...

Mammoet are impressively capable. This video is great - loading a 14000 tonne oil platform onto a barge. The control of the water ballasting gets a fair amount of coverage:

 

IMO, this casualty was imminently preventable, even without employing the services of a company like Mammoet. A reasonably qualified naval architect, working with an experienced marine surveyor, could have provided valuable advice on this project.

I don't know what the legal/liability ramifications of this accident are under Dutch law, but in the States, the construction company would potentially be looking at millions of dollars in civil damages, even assuming the company escaped any criminal sanctions from the local municipal, state, or federal authorities.

 

Maybe inexperience? From the BSB website..

50 people in a team with 50 years experience? That everybody has one year experience or a lot of them have zero.

 

Maybe they make up what they lack in experience with copious amounts of "Dutch courage".

 

Most if not all of these structures are land based or on a stable platform at sea, that's where their expertise lies and that's why they're hired. They should hire other experts when they leave their own field of expertise and navigate these structures to their place. They will do so in the future the director says, but since he doesn't believe the services of naval architects and marine surveyors can prevent an accident like this he still will believe it's due to his own knowledge and experience when it goes well.

BTW, excellent Mammoet video, thanks for posting

 

Yes, that's what it says.

1. I think it's wrong formulated there and they actually mean the company has 50 years of experience in their field, and they didn't mean the accumulated experience of the individual employees.
   -
2. It looks they mixed up the words expertise ^{Skills and/or knowledge in a particular area.*} and experience ^{Active participation in events or activities, leading to the accumulation of knowledge and/or skills.*}
   
   * I think that's the correct meaning of these words in the given context.

It's no big deal, I think most will understand what they actually mean, but perhaps it would be an idea for them to hire someone with the expertise to formulate it right and also use the correct words for their website and other official communications.

 

Fantastic video thanks for posting

 

BTW, as an aside, some might be interested in the high strength steel "Weldox 700" (PDF link) aka "S690QL" BSB uses for some applications ^{(kinda translation)}

( beware of the automatic translator, it makes mistakes, especially when it comes to jargon )​

 

That's a big crane!

 

Found this thread on 'Captains Voyage' Forum, with nearly 300 posts of marine cranes and heavy lifting devices.

Fill yer boots!

http://www.captainsvoyage-forum.com.../1090-floating-cranes-and-other-lifting-ships

 

Sadly, cranes can fall over on land too. This one happened today in Mecca.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6iuhKXzK4w

 

Fell over, or was pushed over?

 

Pushed over, by God.

Mecca crane collapse 'act of God', says engineer

If the Netherlands weren't such a godless country maybe they then could invoke God as the cause of their crane malfunctions.

 

He's gotta say that; in the Kingdom, they chop off heads for far less worse things than a crane collapse which kills scores of people.

 

Allahu Akbar. Although I thought Jackie Gleason did a much better job in that role.