Box Boat makes Bavaria quality look good...

I respectfully beg to differ; photos taken soon after the two halves separated show both sections floating more or less on an even keel; I suspect that the reason for the present bow down trim is flooding of ballast compartments through the bilge/ballast pipework- many bilge and ballast line valves will slowly leak back, over time.

This is a Mitsui OSK Line ship after all - her owners are one of the world's most respected shipping companies, and she was operating within a respected consortium so the terminal operators are not rubbish either.
 
Minn said:
I respectfully beg to differ.................
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Not a problem, and your knowledge of the systems is much greater than mine.

Your point about the respectability of the company etc. is also well understood - However, the fact remains that she did break her back, so something went wrong in either the loading, the ballasting, the way she was handled at sea, the ship design or the maintenance of the vessel. (or, more likekely, a combination of these).
 
Agreed. She had just passed her first Special Survey (NK) so the maintenance "ought" to have been OK. The photos of the break taking place show a compression failure of the double bottom rather than what so many of us would have predicted - a tension failure of the sheerstrake and decks. I understand this is a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries design built at Imabari, and I do just wonder if there may have been some "over-optimisation" of the steel weight.

As you say, there might be a ballast water exchange issue, too.

One might also assume that her Russian officers were content to carry on with a wave encounter pattern that was close to the ship's length between crests; this may or may not have been connected to the timing of her ETA at Jeddah and also perhaps to the need to avoid an encounter pattern that would stimulate paramentric rolling, which is a known hazard of the big barge shaped hulls.

But I'm just speculating here.
 
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