Quote:
Originally Posted by vinny
I read that is had been attached to tugs, they had released and the harbour master was still on board.
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Probably not exactly correct.
They would have had tugs coming away from the berth, once they hit the channel the tugs would have been let go.
The "Harbour Master" would never have been on board, he sits in an office and manages the port - there would have been a Harbour Pilot on board "to advise the Master" (in reality he navigates the vessel inside the port but for the most part bears no responsibility in casualties). In Chesapeake Bay/Baltimore, the pilots are all part of private companies,rahter than government entities, not that that makes much difference- it doesn't appear that this was a pilotage error - unlike the Ever Given in the Suez Canal.
This looks to have been as a result of a blackout.
There will be an endless investigation as to why she blacked out - mechanical failure? contaminated fuel? human error? but it also seems probable that putting the vessel full astern increased her swing to starboard and into the bridge due to something called "wheeling effect" - the correct counterintuitive action might have been hard a port and full ahead. That being said we don't really have a clear view of all of the aspects of the event - very easy to be the armchair QB when you're not standing on the bridge watching the disaster unfold.
The eventual inquiry will be full of them.