gCaptain brings us a video of a collision between a dredger and a tanker in the Malacca Straits earlier this month.
The incident reportedly happened October 2 at the TG Beruas Anchorage near Malacca. The dredge in the video is believed to be the Oceanline 5001. It’s unclear what caused the dredge to slam into the tanker at about full steam.
The tanker has been identified as the MT Strovolos, registered in the Bahamas. It obviously suffered a fair amount of damage in the incident. Both vessels were separated a few hours afterwards.
I suspect there was no officer of the watch on duty aboard the dredger – or, if there was, he wasn’t doing his job – and the helmsman was either asleep or completely distracted. See the result for yourself.
Peter
Not the best way to wake up from one's sea faring snooze. Would be interesting to be a fly on the wall for that one. Yikes!
Given the number of people standing around watching and/or filming, I'd lean towards mechanical failure. Otherwise why shout "woah" while holding up your camera, instead of doing something productive?
Guy in the foreground is just short of a facepalm. Order another drum of buffing compound.
What, exactly, can anyone on the tug or the tanker do that was "productive"? There was not a damn thing they could do to stop or alter the course of the dredge. All that could be done was to get out of the way, film the event, and shout "Woah!"
I used to live in s little town a little inside the mouth of the Columbia River, with a good view of the river. The ships moved slooooooooooooowly, with river captains piloting, except when ship captains had learned the river and were certified to do so.
I recall one time when a ship at anchor was too close to the bridge from there to the Washington side, and the tide came in and pushed it up against the bridge.
Well, that was unfortunate. The Malacca Strait does get crowded, to be sure.
They can thank Neptune the damage was above the waterline……😳