Baltimore Bridge Strike Another Bizarre Disaster

Containers of CDC hazardous materials damaged.

Every week it seems we hear about window panels blowing off of passenger jets, trains derailing, manure vacuum trucks exploding in dairy barns, and other assorted disasters occurring in industries with long safety track records. It seems the Three Stooges are roaming about the nation's transportation industry.

Now comes the news that the container ship Dali has struck the Francis Key Bridge in Baltimore, thereby collapsing the entire structure and shutting down the busy port, further impairing the American supply chain and probably causing yet more inflation.

According to a CNN report:

Thirteen damaged containers, “some with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] and/or hazardous materials [HAZMAT] contents” are being examined by an elite Coast Guard team, according to an unclassified memo from the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The team is also examining the ship’s manifest to determine if any materials on board may pose a health risk, the official said.

I’ll resist the temptation to speculate, and look forward to reading the National Transportation Safety Board’s report on the collision. However, after watching a few videos of the collision, I must say that I find it puzzling.

The chart on the above left shows the ship’s position (green icon) traveling 8.7 knots (10 mph) as she starts to make a slight starboard turn, which ultimately puts her on a collision course with the pier. Judging by water’s appearance in the video, there does not seem to be a northeast wind blowing, and nor do any water currents seem to be in play.

The image below shows the point at which the turn to starboard was initiated. To me, this suggests it was a rudder input that initiated the turn. Why didn’t the pilot simply hold his straight course at 8.7 knots? With water flowing over the rudder surfaces at that speed, the rudder should have provided adequate steering control to have held the ship’s course in the channel and under the bridge.

Reports about rudder control are conflicting, with some stating that the ship lost rudder control when it lost power. However, a detailed CNN report states the following:

The pilot of the ship did “everything that he could have done” to both slow the vessel down and keep it from drifting toward the bridge, according to Clay Diamond, executive director and general counsel of the American Pilots Association.

Diamond told CNN he has been in close communication with the Association of Maryland Pilots regarding what unfolded on the Dali cargo ship in the moments leading up to the crash.

“Just minutes before the bridge, there was a total blackout on the ship, meaning that the ship lost engine power and electrical power, it was a complete blackout,” Diamond said.

The pilot quickly gave a string of orders, calling for a hard rudder to port – as far left as possible – and for the anchor to be dropped. The pilot was the one who contacted the pilot dispatch office to shut down traffic to the bridge, Diamond said.

Again, why didn’t the pilot simply hold his course? And if he called for a hard rudder to port, why in hell did he also drop an anchor, which nullified the course correction from the port rudder input? This was basically the same error made by the pilot of the Titanic, who turned the rudder hard to port while simultaneously reversing the engines.

The above shows the ship’s position just before it struck the pier, having continued its turn to starboard and out of the channel.

In short, the maritime disaster appears to be yet another huge head-scratcher. Lord, there are so many these days!

And what are we to make of those “thirteen damaged containers—some with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] and/or hazardous materials [HAZMAT] contents”?