I have no idea how they’re going to get that steel off of that ship.
I sure hope it didn’t interrupt the wedding!
Several of the captions state that the boat “struck the bride”.
“COPY AND PASTE” at its best! [(-D]
Hey, at least this shipwreck is still right side up and the captain didn’t accidentally trip and fall into a lifeboat!
ummmmm…anyone have a crane handy?[:-^]
When the bridge was built in 1932, The Army Corps and the state highway people (such as they might have been at the time) could not have envisioned ocean going ships that far inland. I can just imagine the repercussions within the heavilly government subsidized maritime industry following the inevitable accident investigation (especially if the ship’s master is not found to be 100% at fault)…
Certain lawyers are gonna have a guaranteed salary for a while and be looking at some old Abe Lincoln case law.
Must be a mighty shallow draft ship. 9’ channel depth.
My understanding from a local on another forum was the the ship was using the recreational boat channel under the bridge - not the commercial channel.
Curiosity got the better of me, and I started to look around,something was strange about this, wasn’t there a "Rocket Train’ a couple of years back that was on a regional rail line in South Mississippi that derailed and put a couple of UP engines and part of their train in a river?
Now this: “Ship carrying rocket parts, hits Kentucky bridge”
First of all, what was an ocean going 300 plus foot long vessel doing in the Tennessee River near Benton KY? I had driven that US 68 in a Truck and with a car as well**.** Sounded like the vessel was out of the channel(?) on an approach span**.** IMHO**.** and I’d bet the farm this was not its first trip though that area.
There used to be a small ocean going line that traveled on the Mississippi River from Memphis, and occasionally St. Louis into the area of Central America on a regular basis. Those ships were shallow draft, and about a third the length of the Delta Mariner.
NASA at one time used barges on the rivers to transport their rocket sections to Cape Kennedy**.** via the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers to get to the Gulf and the Cape.
Politics has scattered these Federally operated projects all over the map to insure continued funding, because politicians would not kill a project in which their constituency had a vested interest**.** Of course, Redstone Arsenal, at Huntsville, Al has been building rockets since John Kennedy kick started the Space Program and helped to create what became NASA**. 'Accidents happen, and such’ you have to expect a major screw up once in a while. [:-^] in about any mode of transportation.** This too will be fixed and we’ll move on, and the story of why this incident happened will come out. Just be glad no one lost their life and this was not
For all the time I spent in the area in the 1980’s, I never saw anything but pleasure vessels, tow boats and barges transit the lock at Kentucky Dam on the Tennessee east of Paducah. Searching, I discovered the Delta Mariner was built in 2000. I’d guess it probably is a “TenneMax”, i.e., about the largest that could transit the Tennessee from Decatur to the Ohio River.
Photos show that the bridge was built with 6 truss spans in the mid portion of the bridge and the two in the middle seem to have the highest elevation. The boat took out a span to one side of the two in the middle.
As samfp suggests above, perhaps the only the center spans had the necessary clearances for the boat and the pilot just screwed up. (Any job openings at McDonalds?)
Other causes include the possibility that the span had dropped due to problems with the structure or support piers, or the boat was not correctly ballasted and riding high. Seems less likely, but it’s possible that the water elevation was high. That is the part of the Tennessee River known as Kentucky Lake, which is formed and controled by Kentucky Dam.
As an aside, the ex IC Paducah and Louisville Railroad crosses the Tennessee on the top of Kentucky Dam.
Tagging on:
I read the news story, and according to it the boat is a shallow draft vessel designed for use on the navigable rivers of the U.S.
I can think of several possibilities. He may have been out of the shipping channel where clearances were too low, or the rocket boosters it was carrying exceeded the normal height of the ship if indeed he was in the shipping channel) and hit the bridge. In the photo there does not appear to be any upper deck damage to the ship but the rocket boosters may have been pushed overboard by the force of the collision. They may have exceeded the allowable height and that may account for the apparent lack of damage to the ship. I,too, have never before heard of ships plying those waters. Most of the traffic is tugs and barge tows almost anywhere north of Baton Rouge. Back in WWII destroyers were built at DeFoe ship works in Bay City, MI. They were sent to Chicago and then to the Mississippi. Because of low bridges their superstructure had to be completed there before they were released for sea duty. Had they been fully finished they couldn’t have cleared the bridges.
Needless to say, that bridge is now history and will likely,considering it’s age, will be replaced by one with higher clearances for river traffic. In the meantime I’m sure some of the locals who used the bridge daily will be inconvenienced by a long detour. Repairing a bridge built in the thirties does not seem economically viable so I’d bet it will be replaced with a new one.
As usual, I will wait for the NTSB report before making a judgement. We, well most of us, remember the barge striking a railroad bridge in Louisiana and the Amtrak disaster it caused. Thankfully, this one did not result in loss of life.
That first shot reminds me of the B&O bascule bridge over the Calumet River that was similarly draped over an ocean liner.
I agree, Jay–this one looks like it was built to take full advantage of length and height limitations. And it definitely looks like there were spans that would have afforded the ship sufficient clearance, not all that far away (in which case I’m surprised he missed the piers!).
(I’m lucky enough to have seen a PAL train on the bridge/dam there; they had lots of rapid-discharge hoppers. I may have ridden over the now-missing bridge on the same trip, about 15-17 years ago–I remember seeing buffalo along the Trace.)
Sam:
The “Rocket Train” was on the Meridian & Bigbee on a timber pile structure, no shipping was involved and the railroad bridge construction people (plus an FRA official) caused that problem IIRC. The bridge had been made unstable during bridge repairs. Rocket Science vs. Simple Mechanics?
M.C You are exactly correct! [bow]
It was the Meridian& Bigbee. I had forgotten the whole story, just partially remembered the incident. I believe that the cargo in that case was solid rocket booster motors (?) from Thiokol Corp. in UTAH. The derailment, near Pennington,Al.was as Mudchicken stated due to a partial timber trestle collapse.
The two UP engines were flipped on their sides and the booster car went derailed, the other car involved was a restored, former SouRwy sleeper ‘Warrior River’ ( which belonged to the NRHS Promontory Chapter; in which the 2 (?) injuries occurred).
linked item:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/05/02/derailment.shuttle/index.html
This link shows another instance of how bridges can effect navigation on rivers. The MV Cahaba’s misadventure with the Rooster Bridge on the Tombigbee R is still an amazing watch, even some years later:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/05/02/derailment.shuttle/index.html
Not to be a nitpicker but I remember that event, the boat involved was a bulk freighter under Greek or Cypriot registration, not a lake boat but no ocean liner, either.
Thanks, Paul–I remember that it was Cyprian, but I’m certainly no expert on boats and ships. It just had the bridge draped around the wheelhouse pretty much like this one.
I can remember at least two other railroad bridges on the Calumet River that were struck by freighters. In 1961 or 1962, the swing bridge of the Calumet Western Ry (NYC/PC paper road) near Torrence Avenue was struck by a freighter and knocked off of its center pin. Railroad traffic (mostly IHB grain transfers) was routed onto the CWI. The bridge was removed around 1965 and a connecting track just north of 126th Street was built at that time to connect the Calumet Western with the CWI. In the early 1970’s, the CWI bascule bridge was struck by a freighter. The bridge was repaired but was later replaced by a vertical lift bridge.
I do not remember the year, but it was between 1931 and 1936, that a steamboat on the Tombigbee hit the Southern’s bridge on its Rome, Ga., to York, Ala., line and severed that line. For many years afterwards, the Southern continued to operate between McDowell and York, but eventually that segment was completely abandoned. So far as I know, NS still goes into Demopolis, which is on the east side of the river. The Southern had no reason to rebuild the bridge, since it had the use of the AGS.
There’s some excellent pictures of the M/V Delta Mariner on the CargoLaw.com website under "there’s a bridge on my bridge.
Creepctank:
Thanks for posting that link.
Pretty interesting stuff!
Here’s a [snip] from the Boeing section of the linked item. It might explain part of the cause for the incident (Make that ALLISION)!
FTL: “…Four vehicles were on the bridge at the time of the collision at 8:10pm Thursday, January 26. No injuries have been reported. High water levels may have played a role in the crash, the ship has passed under the bridge many times over the previous 10 years without a problem. Some reports stated that the navigation lights on the bridge were not lit…” [Emphasis added by: samfp1943]
If you go to the Cargolaw web site, be sure to turn your speakers DOWN, upon the page loading it immediately starts playing the theme to TV’s “Perry Mason”… or at least the 1st 4 notes I heard before I closed the window sure sounded like it. I won’t go back to that site… there is NO NEED to play any sort of sound or video immediately upon loading a page.