Crane accident at Southampton

[onlyme]

On the SCT official website there are daily updates replacing the VTS information. http://www.sct.uk.com/content/portuserzone/DailyReport.aspx
 We were told today that the boom should be removed from the Kyoto by Monday, so I assume it will sail as soon as we finish discharging her cargo, and possibly loading some back too.  
Today there were 5 cranes operating, J K L M and P and fingers crossed the other "numbered cranes" should be back in operation soon.  We are waiting on the full x-ray inspection to be done on them. Things seem to be getting back to some kind of normality and the workforce (and I am one of them) are in good spirits.

[Kelvin Davies]

Thanks for the link.
Foolishly, I have been looking at the SCT page; News section!
Kelvin

[henrycourt]

For those of you who are able to get on to or receive P.Sinkes Maritime Press Clippings 2008-no: 26 page 8. You will see 3 very interesting photographs concerning the subject that has been rousing various shades of opinion over the past week or so. At least one of them has probably been taken from the bridge of Kyoto Express. Another shows how much crane appears to be in the bottom of the hold. I should be interested in any comment, Somebody thinks the pictures should be seen. Rgds jw.

[SKYGOD]

we at Felixstowe stop at 45mph at crane height for shipping and 50mph at crane height we shut down the park

[Jan Arends]

google one time:
Chuck Bradford crane collapse

Then you will see what happened.
No high winds or any other.

Exact reason not known, maybe wire snapped.


Bk

[henrycourt]

Good Pictures--everyone interested in ships and shipping should have a look at these. It's only providence that no one was hurt.. Rgds jw.

[SKYGOD]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7-YlfVey1Y
Not Southhamton but very impressive!

[onlyme]

It seems cctv footage has leaked to the southern daily echo, and its on their website.

[onlyme]

It seems we arent the only port with problems now!
http://www.eveningstar.co.uk/content/eveningstar/news/story.aspx?brand=ESTOnline&category=News&tBrand=ESTOnline&tCategory=News&itemid=IPED01%20Mar%202008%2008%3A01%3A40%3A487

[Michael]

Indeed, and just like SCT, PoF is hampered by a local press that hasnt a clue what its writing about and getting ill informed reports from 'alleged' staff who should quite frankly know better.

Like SCT, I dont think PoF have released an offical reply four days later, my understanding would be to get the exact facts right and release a press statement as and when they see fit, both companies are not at the beck and call of local press to explain either incident and shoot from the hip with ill informed information and thus fuel more speculation.

Best

Mickoo

[onlyme]

Do tell more Mickoo.  Its always interesting to hear the truth from people who really know.  So much crap was thrown about with our incident but as of yet we still have no idea of the cause. Thankfully no-one was hurt but my mate is now feeling the after effects a bit.

[McNob]

Can't comment on the SCT collapse but I can tell you what exactly happened at Felixstowe.  The Zhen Hua 23 was berthed at Landguard terminal for what was only supposed to be one night due to high winds.  Winds of up to 95mph were slamming her right in the stern with no shelter from any other vessels and she lost a couple of ropes.  The ropes were heard to snap by port workers in the Landguard quay office and while they were on the phone reporting it, the Zhen Hua slowly drifted down the quay.  It eventually reached cranes 2 and 3 which were boomed up and storm-pinned and the overhang from the crane aboard the Zhen Hua due for Gothenburg collided with no. 2 crane pushing it into no.3.  Inevitably, they both  collapsed under the strain in the way they are designed to in such a circumstance.

It's lucky the quay had been evacuated due to the wind but if the cranes had been a couple of hundred feet further north, they would have taken out the quay office which was inhabited at the time.  The actual collapse was heard up to 12 miles away so you can imagine the impact.

Also aboard the Zhen Hua 23 were 3 new ZPMC ship to shores and the ill-fated (and possibly jinxed) no. 25 that was originally returned to ZPMC for repair after being hit by a Maersk whose engines failed during an unassisted departure.

I like the way some reports make you believe that the wind just blew them over......he he he

As for the SCT crane, was that not a gearing problem ?

[Michael]

Actually, with respect thats not exactly what happened, the vessel was berthed facing North with cranes 1,2 and 3 astern and crane 4 ahead, the wind was from the West and hit her port bow not her stern, she broke free and drifted astern into crane three which fell over onto crane two which then fell on top of the remains of three, next in line was crane one but the vessel stopped short when her stern ran aground on Landguard viewing area beach. Look at the pictures in the Felixstowe incident thread and you'll see three cranes astern of the vessel, crane one is nearest Landguard, crane four is furthest up river.

Neither crane collapsed in a designed or controlled manner both were subjected to catastrophic failures and we're now left with 2500 tons of scrap metal.

Regarding SCT, I am led to believe that the boom hinge gave way, yet watching the video it is clear to see the boom hinge remains intact until it is forced apart by the free fall of the boom, from watching the video it looks like a boom rope or mechanism failure which causes the boom to free fall ( thankfully it was in the lower slow down zone ! ) past the horizontal, rip offthe A frame and sheer the boom hinges.

We also operate Morris cranes so all our hinges have been inspected but I think the root cause goes much deeper and my engineering gut reaction is a boom mechanism failure, either a rope ( unlikely as there are two ) or more probable a shaft or hoist drum mounting failure, neither would have been picked up by the crane controls quick enough to apply the brake.

It looks like the boom motors and drums are within one machine house like our last three Morris cranes, in which case it should be possible for them to ascertain the exact cause in due time.

Whilst I dont know exactly what the cause was, I can only go on the video and my own technical background in Morris cranes.

Hope that helps

Mickoo

[McNob]

Sorry yes, I obviously meant the bow took the wind as we can all see that in the pics....(oops).  I was under the impression that they had a slightly rearward centre of gravity when boomed up and thusly kinda flopped semi-backwards, when challenged, as a matter of course.  Although being pushed sideways at the same time didn't help.

Anyway, they were pushed by a crane on a ship and fell over.  

There, better ?

Needless to say, as soon as it was noticed, everyone in the North Quay office at Trinity got the hell out of dodge and evacuated that quay too.

P.s. I work there too but I ain't tellin' ya where..... :-D

[Michael]

Shameful isn't it, we can chat here but are afraid to say who we are ?.

Obviously like you I speak my own views and not those of the company but try to impart the truth and not bring the company into public disrepute.

Regarding the cranes, well its hard to say where the center of gravity lies as this changes with the boom up or down, I do know that the front rails take most of the weight so that leads one to think there nose heavy, I think the ZPMC cranes are pretty well balanced fore and aft when boomed down but with the boom up they might be aft heavy.

Quite a few of our cranes have concrete in the rear legs to counter balance them, so that would make them nose heavy in some circumstances with out that added counter balance weight.

The OMG ( Landguard crane three ) is like the Trinity MGMs and is well known for the tail hang down and is always an uphill drive out to the boat even when boomed down. The Liebhierrs are also tilted back and the trolley has a habit of rolling back on greasy rails, the OMG and MGMs don't as there rope driven, I believe both are designed like this so its structurally safe and correct.

It is a very tricky situation but I think its fair to say that boomed up they wont have the stability they have when boomed down, add into that they were also subject to high winds as well so it would not take much to knock them over, as can be seen on the Swedish crane, there is little damage to physically see.

Anyway, nice to chat to a colleague.

Best

Mickoo