The current difficulties are clearly caused by the hull cracks just in front of the bridge.
Why they developed is another question, the ship was stranded with a full load high and dry on a reef for 60 days about 6 years ago. One would have to know if she has sisterships and if they have problems.
I would assume that she was built using high strength steel, which while light and strong is also brittle and more prone to corrosion, compared to mild steel.
As an aside there is a german shipping company "Egon Oldendorff" that will only buy ships build with mild steel...
The bad weather alone certainly is not the main factor or we would have broken ships all over the place.
There was a series of british ships (all with the suffix "Bridge") a while back that all developed cracks at frame 68 within 6 years of being build.
I assume those are the ones you are referring to?
As far as repairing her? that's a simple equation of market value and what would have to be repaired.
Splicing in a few feet of hull certainly would be cheaper than a new ship and most certainly faster.
A
FWE wrote:
The MSC Napoli appears to be on the brink of similar fate to the MSC Carla (http://www.containershipping.nl/casualties.html )which broke up in the Atlantic with both in loaded condition in heavy weather. Are there any common factors ? eg lengthening ? speed in conditions ? loading ? stress ?
This is not a Derbyshire and Kowloon Bridge type of link but question is if it is coincidence or a common factor apart from weather itself ?