Quote:
Originally posted by Joe
The boat by all rights should have gone to the bottom and stayed there.
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Not true. It is why boats keep doors closed while underway when possible and convenient. It is why hatches are constructed to withstand major pressure such as the deck awash and are latched whenever possible It is why intake systems are designed to separate incoming water from air even under these rare conditions.
Notice that wheelhouse crew stayed with the boat - another tribute to the crew. They saw the problem coming and sent the deck crew off to the barges. IOW those pictures demonstrate a crew doing their job - able to think when things are happening too fast.
In The Perfect Storm, whole ships would be rolled 360 degrees without sinking. That means it too was properly built and crewed. It is not something you want happen. But is it what humans must consider when designing.
In another event, the ship sank. Why. The Edmund Fitzergerald, for reasons unknown, lost their hatch covers. Disaster was inevitable.
Those tow boat pictures are extraordinary, but then again, everything and everyone worked as designed. Most important, even the deck crew appears to have survived indicating that the crew understood their problem and adjusted professionally and in sufficient time.
BTW, much too small to be the Mississippi R.