So why didn’t they **DROP ANCHOR** immediately if they were drifting ?
Even that takes time....................
They apparently dropped one.
Reportedly, they did. Didn’t work.
The did drop the port anchor, but it didn’t help much.
ANCHORING SYSTEMS & PROCEDURES
It is fortunately rare to have to anchor a ship in an emergency. In most circumstances it is unlikely that the ship’s anchors would be capable of stopping a large vessel if the rate of drift at the time of deployment is in excess of about a half a knot. As anchor holding power is not proportional to vessel size, the larger the vessel, the less effective emergency anchoring is likely to be in arresting the vessel’s motion. Despite this, in an emergency every available means, including use of the anchors, should be considered for use.
https://www.facebook.com/ToPredictTheFutureWeMustCreateIt/photos/a.1050053648371011/4238177809558563/?type=3
Over half a knot, you'll probably just break the chain, if the anchor catches at all.
They did drop the port anchor. You can see it in photos. The starboard anchor can’t be seen due to debris hanging over the ship’s bow.
Anchors aren’t emergency brakes. Especially when ships get that big. What anchors mostly do is reduce (notice REDUCE) how much storms push the ship around. Most ships never even drop anchor anymore, they just aren’t that useful.
I think that requires power
Fifty feet of water with heavy currents? The anchor line would need to be a minimum of 250 feet long. The direction of the wind and current would determine the set of the anchor. I don’t see how an anchor in this emergency situation could have been used.
So why didn’t they **DROP ANCHOR** immediately if they were drifting ?
Probably has to have power to run windlass
This video is interesting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxOjoDvdJrs&ab_channel=marineinsight
They dropped the port anchor. That caused them to shift towards the bridge.
They did.. that what cause it to hit the bridge As it slew around the anchor.
I’m hearing that since the ship was on the proper line when it lost power. If they had done nothing, it would have continued on the straight line in the channel properly as they still had rudder controls
It was them trying to stop it Dropping the anchor and putting in reverse it when power came back on...That caused the ship to slew sidewise out of the channel and hit the bridge.
They dropped the port anchor, but as expected, it did no good. An anchor has to catch on the bottom to stop the ship, and they were going too fast; the anchor “flew” across the bottom.
You are correct, provided the anchor windlass been manned at the time, those sailors would have probably been injured or killed when the bridge structure fell on the front end of the ship. None of the crew was reported as injured or killed, therefore the focstle was probably unmanned at the time the ship hit the bridge support structure. JMO
Why?
Power was out, lowering a big ship’s anchor is not simple.
I’ve read the back anchor was dropped shortly before hitting the bridge support column.
I’ve seen the videos. Some are excellent quality. For some reason they were not going under the bridge in the center (taller and wider) space between columns. It looked like they were trying to move toward the other side of the column where it was taller and wider.