Followers of the saga of the MSC Napoli will be aware that following the successful operation to relieve her of her cargo the ship was refloated at the start of this week. By moving her off the sandbank near Branscombe and taking her slightly seaward it was possible for divers to at long last have a look at the structural damage she had sustained. The crack in her hull just forward of the accommodation block is evidently much worse than originally feared so, for safety's sake, Napoli will be beached again. Effectively her back is broken. She won't be on the move for the moment that's for sure.
In a previous entry I had expressed my concern that she should be thoroughly examined whether or not she was moved. Devon County Council's enquiry into all the events pertaining to the MSC Napoli is due to start later this year and the evidence the diving experts can produce will be fundamental in trying to ascertain the cause of Napoli's problem in the first place. The quality of the repairs after she had her first mishap is really important to determine if possible.
Looking back through the blog it is interesting to see just how often I've made an entry on the unfolding Napoli story. Starting with the dramatic rescue of her crew in the English Channel which I blogged about on 18th January this is I think the eighteenth time the MSC Napoli has been the subject I've written about. Phew!
It's been great to have comments from fellow bloggers Roger Thomas from Scotland (Applied Planetary Engineering) and Shaun from middle England (Shauns Bicester Info Blog). Thanks chaps!
This isn't the end of Napoli for me of course but as a reminder of the story so far here is a link showing a series of photos taken as the clean up began. And another link here of photos of this week's refloating.
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2 comments:
Hi again
I've been away a while from blogging. Its on my blog
This is the first thing I did on my blog on Napoli
http://millenniumprojecttwo.blogspot.com/2007/01/msc-napoli-part-1-of-many.html
As I said it is a story ith legs as soon as it happened. Partly I knew this as I was a metallurgist so knew straight away what would happen. Exactly whay has happened.
I promised shaun I would write a post on welding, fracture, Liberty Ships etc.
Anyway what you have reported is what we all knew ( as in me you and shaun) the day it happened.
I do have to say that I did get the highest marks ever awarded in metallurgy for my qualification at Manchester Polytechnic. More to do with the quality of the teaching and the worlds best engineering apprenticeship at Fodens than any input from me.
Soon as Napoli happened I went back 27 years and went " bloody hell".
Glad your still covering it. I wil try and write the metallurgical assessment I made as soon as it went into the news. I promised shaun I would do it. As a metallurgist it was so completely obvious in the first second, It was never going away, well at least until it was broken up on the beach. It was simple text book metallurgy from the the very begining, what has happened was inevitable, I really don't know why they didn't say straight away they would have to break it up on the beach.
A metallurgist doesn't need divers to tell them something which is basic metallurgy, which any metallurgist who was approaching any good would have known straight away. The very first news report would have told a metallurgist everything they needed to know.
Hi Roger
Good to hear from you!
There have been so many strands in the Napoli saga that a lot of people are ignoring the fundamental question of why the ship got into such serious trouble in the first place.
So you are right to flag this up.
Devon County Council did a powerful job when they carried out a public enquiry into the Foot and Mouth crisis that we endured back in 2001. I'm fairly confident they will treat the Napoli event with similar thoroughness.
At the time of writing I've made 27 entries (and counting) on the MSC Napoli. With events yet to happen and the enquiry there will be plenty more.
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