Tug vs. bridge

[Slithy_Tove]

A remarkable series of photos documenting a fight between a tugboat, and a bridge.

Man, that gave me a good smile for the morning. Thanks

That's pretty amazing...

[That Guy]

Holy gee willakers! That <b>is</b> amazing. Any details? When/where/who?

[Joe]

So did the coal barge (with the two guys on it) actually make it under the bridge, and the tug in the last frames is going after it?

I suppose there would be nothing left to do except hook back up and keep heading down the river.

Someone, somewhere, be it boat captain, bridge operator, or Coast Guard, needs to get a serious talking to after this. The boat by all rights should have gone to the bottom and stayed there.

Tough boats, those tugs.

[warch]

Very cool! Ride 'em cowboys! Looks like the Mississippi somewheres...

[sleemanj]

Originally posted by Slithy_Tove
A remarkable series of photos documenting a fight between a tugboat, and a bridge.

Err, is it just me or did the boat "sink" on the same side of the bridge as it "surfaced" (look at the "tall side" of the bridge in the before and after photos) ?

[datalas]

Originally posted by sleemanj


Err, is it just me or did the boat "sink" on the same side of the bridge as it "surfaced" (look at the "tall side" of the bridge in the before and after photos) ?

Perhaps... although the text (on the sign, saying clearence) is the right way round in both the before and after shots... which is just as odd.

Perhaps they are taken from opposite sides of the same bridge? then again that would make it not sinking and rising again anyhow...

Very very odd.


Datalas

[warch]

What the hey?!.....good eye there sleemanj. Maybe she was pulled down and managed to swing somehow out of the current and round back to the barge?

[warch]

Or maybe the engines cut out, she hit the bridge and managed just after the dunk to get them rolling again to head back upstream? but then why didnt the barge come slamming into the bridge? dunno.

[That Guy]

If you're talking about the boat going under on its port side, and coming back up on its port side, then you're correct. If you're asking if it went down on one side of the bridge and came back up on the same side, it didn't.
And from the looks of the photos, he ran (walked??) to the other side of the bridge to take the photos after the boat was going under it.
You can also see in the second and third photos that the coal has already made it under the bridge (giving an idea of at least how much clearance was down there).
Then again, it's all just water under the bridge.

[Joe]

You can see that the bow of the boat is still facing the viewer, but the bridge is now on the other side. Unless that boat sank and made a U-turn under water, that can't happen unless the boat is now on the other side of the bridge.

[MaggieL]

Looks to me like it was swept completely under the bridge by the current. The apparent shifting of the tower on the bridge looks like it's due to parallax when the cameraman moved to the downstream side of the bridge. While the bridge probably has the same clearance sign on both sides, the high-tension lines (looks like there's two sets of them) are both on the downstream side. (left hand side if I have all this correct)

Notice how nice and level the tops of the piles of coal are after they've made the trip under the bridge....use two *level* bargefulls of coal.

[tw]

Originally posted by Joe
The boat by all rights should have gone to the bottom and stayed there.

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.

[Joe]

The site was moved from it's original address to here:

http://www.annex-group.com/towboat.htm

but even this has won't load. This morning I got a link to this same address from a friend on a rave mailing group. Apparantly the whole Internet wants to see this incredible story, and the server just can't handle it.

Anyone know of a mirror other than the link above?

I have a mirror, and I'll post a link to it soon.

The boat definitely went down and came up on the same side of the bridge. Definitely. If the guy ran to the other side of the bridge (as it looks like he did), then the boat would have come out on the RIGHT side of the pictures, not the left. Oh well. Not quite as incredible, but still pretty amazing.