Research Ship falls over in Leith drydock

[NickW]

From https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-65038617

Thirty-five people have been injured after a ship tipped over at an Edinburgh dockyard.


NHS Lothian said 23 people had been treated in hospital and 12 people at the scene of the incident at Imperial Dock, Leith.


A major incident was declared after the research vessel Petrel became dislodged from its holding on a dry dock.


People have been asked not to attend A&E at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary (ERI) unless it is an emergency.


Pictures posted on social media showed the 3,000-tonne vessel, which is owned by the US Navy, leaning at a 45-degree angle.


The US Consulate in Edinburgh said it was monitoring the situation and offering support to US citizens who were involved.


"We thank the emergency services for their prompt response. Our thoughts are with all those affected by this incident," it added.

Nick

[bluedog225]

Hope no one is badly hurt.

I wonder who’s job it is to make sure it doesn’t tip over. Seems important.

[robm]

Somebody miscalculated the cribbing? Peerie Maa might know a bit about this kind of thing?

[Jimmy W]

Pictures posted on social media showed the 3,000-tonne vessel, which is owned by the US Navy, leaning at a 45-degree angle.

The 250-foot Petrel was previously bought and outfitted by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, whose estate still owns the vessel.

So who is right?

[NickW]

So who is right?

From the bottom of my original BBC link

The 76m (250ft) ship has been owned by the United States Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center since October 2022, and operated by Oceaneering International.

The vessel was previously owned by the estate of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.


It was placed into long-term moorage in 2020 as a result of "operation challenges" during the Covid pandemic, and has not been used since.


Before this, it had been used for deep water searches for shipwrecks and war graves at sea, including the lost World War Two heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis, which was discovered 18,000 feet (5.5km) beneath the surface.


The RV Petrel was fitted out for the specialist searches before billionaire Mr Allen died in 2018, having already pledged to commit most of his fortune to philanthropy and non-profit scientific research.

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RV_Petrel

Nick

[bluedog225]

45 degrees seems a bit of exaggeration. Maybe 43..

[Stiletto]

Would refilling the dry dock get her afloat again?
What do the experts think?

[bluedog225]

I’ve researched it…

but there’s really only one way to find out….

[Peerie Maa]

The only time I have seen anything like that is with the vessel afloat and becoming unstable.
The dock blocking would not be tall enough to allow the hull to go that far over, before the bilge touched the dock bottom, if they were not actually pushed over.
She has 15m beam, for her to go over to 45deg the keel blocks will have been about 4.5 m high.
Really strange.

[rbgarr]

Not to make light of the incident but these quotes are so Irish:

"He said one worker he sees every morning had put down his bag to "nip to the toilet", and when he came back the ship was over ... all (we) want (is) to go home for our mince and tatties to our wife and kids...."

[L.W. Baxter]

needs sponsons

[AnalogKid]

Not to make light of the incident but these quotes are so Irish:

"He said one worker he sees every morning had put down his bag to "nip to the toilet", and when he came back the ship was over ... all (we) want (is) to go home for our mince and tatties to our wife and kids...."

Sounds very Scottish to me, don't know what the Irish attribution is about here or on the other thread.

[Peerie Maa]

The only time I have seen anything like that is with the vessel afloat and becoming unstable.
The dock blocking would not be tall enough to allow the hull to go that far over, before the bilge touched the dock bottom, if they were not actually pushed over.
She has 15m beam, for her to go over to 45deg the keel blocks will have been about 4.5 m high.
Really strange.

This morning's report states that they do still think that high winds loosened the breast shores, allowing her to fall. She must have a very narrow bottom and big bilge radius to fall that far.
8 people are still hospitalized, but not reported to have life-threatening injuries.

[WszystekPoTrochu]

She must have a very narrow bottom and big bilge radius to fall that far.

It appears you're right

skynews-leith-dock-ship-edinburgh_6097573.jpg
source

[Peerie Maa]

It appears you're right

skynews-leith-dock-ship-edinburgh_6097573.jpg
source

And a docking keel, which makes it worse.

[LeeG]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mg8nZy7KVTw