We have a coincidence of coincidences at the moment too. There’s Russian spy tit-for-tat and we have Rupert Lowe MP being accused of bullying the Reform Party chairman only days after Lowe had criticised the “leadership” of Nigel Farage. Odd that isn’t it? Of course Farage like Trump is an admirer of Putin. Isn’t it odd how the fascist right and the authoritarian left, once arch ideological enemies, have somehow coalesced into an authoritarian threat to civilisation and the rule of law? But somehow they have…. Still, isimple money may get Trump in the end. American shares took a beating yesterday: the Nasdaq was down 4% and the S&P500 down 2.7%. And just wait until those tariffs he loves feed through into higher prices in the shops when he promised to bring them down…. Still he’s the oddest of things: a property tycoon who doesn’t understand how property is valued, or at least that was his defence at his fraud trial, blaming his employees instead. Maybe he doesn’t understand inflation and share prices either.
Despite all the high-rises going up in Plymouth, there are still parts of the Sound and the river where I can see ships going in and out. I spotted one in the Sound in the bright sunshine and got the binoculars out. It’s that gas tanker that goes up to Cattedown. Not too reassuring given what’s been happening off the Humber estuary……
Was the captain of the container ship Russian? I thought I heard something on the news. That will send the rumour mill into top gear. Shadow fleet, fuel for American military etc. More likely though the captain had been on the vodka and there was nobody on the bridge. Apparently, its engines kept running AFTER the collision.
Collision was approx 0930/1000hrs ?.....you would have thought someone would have had half an eye open at that time.
They say that a modern aeroplane needs three things to fly. A computer, a pilot and a dog. The computer is there to fly the plane. The pilot is there to watch the computer flying the plane. The dog is there to bite the pilot if he tries to press any buttons. It's much the same with modern ships, The route is in the autopilot and the role of whoever is on the bridge is to monitor and observe. But if the observer isn't there, the autopilot keeps on sailing even though the windows are full of a tanker getting closer and closer. Mind you, aeroplanes also have transponders and traffic collision avoidance systems which track other planes around them and sound ever louder warnings if tracks intersect. Do ships do that? I don't know. They have transponders and they only have to work in 2D not 3D so it's a simpler process.
Yes but it's transponder would still have been running. Here's a current snap of the Plymouth Sound area. The two brown blobs at the bottom are RFA Tidespring and a Norwegian frigate F314 HNoMS Thor Heyerdahl
So would there have been an automatic warning signal that there was a rather large object in its path.....makes you wonder how such an accident could happen in the first place whoever was on the bridge whatever the weather......I realise such a ship of that size doesn't turn on a sixpence.
I don't know if ships have the aviation world's Traffic Collision Avoidance System. What you can see is that any fool with an internet connection can see what ships are where and their course, speed and recent track. I'd be amazed It's not just larger ships that are tracked: here's a Penzance registered beam trawler heading out of Newlyn in all likelihood, heading SW at 9.5 knots. You can see there's another vessel on her port side going the other way. It's a smaller Penzance registered fishing boat, the Martha May. Now if I can see this, do you think the crew of a large container ship can't? I don't.
Here you are... have a play. https://www.vesselfinder.com/ Each colour and shape relates to a different type of ship. Click on one and you'll see its details. You won't see many warships because they turn their transponders off once at sea. There's everything there from tankers to sailing yachts. When you get bored with that, you can have a go at this. If you go up on the North Sea coast, there are a couple of RAF Typhoons and a pair L159's that they use for combat training. https://www.flightradar24.com
It's a bit busy busy ain't it.....heading towards the busiest water way in the world.....like a giant missile out of control.
I was on a Survey Ship back at the beginning of the 70's. The Rule of the Sea in those days were that we had right of way if we were flying the survey pendant and other ships were supposed to get out of the way to allow it. Given the Hydrographic Service of the RN did most of the charts for the World and it's accuracy was essential for all of their safety you would think ships would want to comply with that rule. We were three parts of the way through a days work running lines up and down the Ocean one day when a ship appeared over the horizon. Of course it was heading straight for us and we were on a collision course. The Captain ordered the Officer of the Watch to contact the said ship and tell it who we were and to basically feck off somewhere else. He tried and tried but there was no reply. Eventually to avoid a collision we had to break off the survey and avoid hitting it. We lost the days work and had to re-do it all. When the ship passed it was blatantly obvious there was nobody on the bridge and clearly nobody in the radio room either. We were surveying off the West side of Scotland at the top of the Irish Sea. The trafic there was the nautical equivalent of the M25. Sticking George on and getting your head down is nothing new. The fishing fleets off Iceland wouldn't move either if they had their nets out and they just ignored us completely but at least they were awake and working.
Some of the things that I have read recently make me wonder if there is no hope for the future. 1.....There are parents who don't bother anymore to send their children to school....since having them at home during covid they take that as the norm. 2.....We have children leaving school and not seeking a job....some our third generation....who have never known their parents or grand-parents ever working so expect to go on benefits when able. 3.....Political correctness and wokeism......trying to rewrite history to conform to their ideas.....I'm no longer a pensioner but an older person etc.....so many other things that our "being brought up to date"......sigh. 4.....If Putin starts WW3 and we start National Service....how many will try and avoid and refuse being called up ?
Probably about the same as in World War 2. There were plenty of draft dodgers in the good ole days so it is a bit naff to suggest otherwise. As for the todays mob, lets hope we never have to find out. The State pension wasn't paid to people of a certain age in the UK until 1909. Therefore the word pensioner is modern history rather than history itself. Prior to 1909 people would probably have been called "older people" Therefore neither woke nor political correctness.
Apparently, parents working from home has contributed to school absenteeism. If Mum and/or Dad don’t go off to work, why should the kids? Those parents are of course white collar professionals since a factory worker or lorry driver can’t work from home. Truanting is often characterised as being a in sink estates and so on but increasingly, it’s not.
