# ship hits dock wall.



## billyboy (Jul 6, 2005)

http://www.cbs8.com/story/31613575/several-injured-after-hornblower-boat-crashes-into-dock


Brake fade or brain fade? she seemed to be coming in at a fair rate of knots for a docking.


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## Mad Landsman (Dec 1, 2005)

"Mechanical error" ?? - The handle came off me hand boss, honest....


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## Sister Eleff (Nov 28, 2006)

Perhaps they were demonstrating their ice breaking capabilities (?HUH)


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## Bill.B (Oct 19, 2013)

Quite an acceptable maneuver on the sailing barge Ethel with an ex Crescent skipper. The theory being if you hit the wall hard enough it gives you time and makes it easier to jump ashore and tie up. This proved most successful all around the West coast and South Coast except Barry. Coming into the locks resulted in ramming the Reefer that was on its way out of the locks. We did stop though.


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## kewl dude (Jun 1, 2008)

Did you notice that there were a bunch of people corralled behind ropes in line for this vessels next harbor cruise? They were herded together in the area where the bow hit the dock. The ship was blowing danger signals and the public got the hint and split. There was one elderly woman slowly walking with a cane who was not moving fast enough so a guy picked her up and carried her to safety. 

This is not the first time for this vessel. Two? Three? years ago the same vessel the same thing happened when they took a chunk out of a wooden pier. At that time USCG required the complete replacement of bridge to engine controls with modern equipment.

This time the pier was concrete and the vessel suffered a good sized chunk out of its plastic hull above the waterline. USCG is investigating.

Greg Hayden
Vista - San Diego area - California


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## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

Yes Greg , the old lady didn't seem aware of the danger and was lucky that the man intervened.


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## TOM ALEXANDER (Dec 24, 2008)

Heard on the news here that someone claimed the vessel actually accelerated as it was coming into the berth, which either denotes that there was a bridge to engine room link failure, or the captain, or designate was really p'eed off at something, or someone. (Cloud)


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## Dartskipper (Jan 16, 2015)

Possible failure of bridge controls linkage. On some installations, when the engine is in gear, and the control linkage fails, the engine may accelerate to full speed automatically. If the skipper was somebody who liked to overuse the controls, i.e. too many ahead and astern movements, then this can have unfortunate consequences. 
On Western Lady in 1972, I had a section of wire in the bridge control system detach itself from a rod when coming alongside the passenger steps. The Gardner engine was in "Ahead" and started to accelerate. Fortunately, I was able to get into the engine room and put the engine into neutral manually.
After remaking the connection where it had failed, and checking all the others in the system, we never had any more problems.

Roy.

PS, appropriate name for the vessel I thought !


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## Mad Landsman (Dec 1, 2005)

Roy,
That is pretty much the scenario I had in mind when I made my comment. Maybe it is not that uncommon that the idea stuck with me. 

Malcolm.


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## kewl dude (Jun 1, 2008)

This evening CBS 8 reported that the USCG announced that the cause of the run-away has been repaired, but that there was no explanation as to what happened; the vessel is in a ship yard.

Greg Hayden
Vista, CA


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