How did this happen? Ferry vs Container ship

.....I remember seeing a small coaster going north across the shipping lanes, I could see through both bridge doors, there was no-one there.

That does not mean that a effective watch was not being kept. Most Merchant ships have the chart table behind the bridge deck separated by a bulkhead. Standard operating procedure is to plot a position on the paper chart hourly. That means checking for possible dangers via radar, ais and visually before nipping back to plot the position. Takes about two minutes and if you happened to look across the bridge at that time you would not see anyone. Coasters often do not have a second person on watch on the bridge as a bigger ship would. It is a bit like being on a yacht and nipping down for a quick pee after having had a good look around - perfectly safe.
 
Anchored container ship rammed by ferry off northern Corsica

https://www.thelocal.it/20181008/fuel-cleanup-begins-after-cargo-ships-collide-off-corsica

In good weather, too. Some fuel leaking out and being captured. No word if the ferry had passengers and what happened to them. Should be an interesting to read report, once the investigation concludes.

AIS still shows them stuck together, probably because the ferry is plugging the massive hole in the container ship and keeping water ingress/fuel leakage down: https://www.vesselfinder.com/?imo=9142459

e29fd39e67375c472ae4a7680b4f93bfb352271c6985da3b0d3fcd54e96a9750.jpg
 
That combination's going to be interesting getting to a berth or dry dock then. :)

There was a case years ago of an RN Type 42 destroyer in the Straits of Hormuz, with some poor inexperienced young midshipman left on watch, I think it was at night; he got it wrong in front of a humungous tanker, which hit the warship amidships.

Someone had the brains to call the tanker ' whatever you do please don't ********** stop ! ' - the broken warship was carried into port on the bulbous bow of the tanker.

As the navy had no budget for new ships but a big one for repairs, the ship was sorted out, at more than the cost of a new one. :rolleyes:
 
As the navy had no budget for new ships but a big one for repairs, the ship was sorted out, at more than the cost of a new one. :rolleyes:

When I was with 2Bn REME in Germany something similar happened to a Landrover. Rolled down a cliff on exercise somewhere in Eastern Europe, practically every part of it was either destroyed, bent, or flung off across the landscape and not recovered. No authorisation for a replacement, but unlimited ability to order parts, so almost an entire Landrover was requisitioned box by box. As they arrived they were being stacked up in the base workshop, where one of the German civilian mechanics was thoroughly looking forward to spending a few weeks assembling a brand-new Defender from scratch.

Pete
 
That combination's going to be interesting getting to a berth or dry dock then. :)

There was a case years ago of an RN Type 42 destroyer in the Straits of Hormuz, with some poor inexperienced young midshipman left on watch, I think it was at night; he got it wrong in front of a humungous tanker, which hit the warship amidships.

Someone had the brains to call the tanker ' whatever you do please don't ********** stop ! ' - the broken warship was carried into port on the bulbous bow of the tanker.

As the navy had no budget for new ships but a big one for repairs, the ship was sorted out, at more than the cost of a new one. :rolleyes:

Not quite - I assume you are referring to HMS Southampton's collision with MV Torbay. The board of inquiry report can be found here https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/collison_involving_hms_southamto and it makes clear that she made 70 miles to port under her own steam, though badly damaged.
 
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