I was laying a pipeline in the shallow waters of Mobile Bay. We were using conventional bucket dredges on cranes sitting on barges to dig the trench and we were storing the dredge spoil in temporary piles along the route.
When the phone rings late at night it is never good news. "We knocked out the ferry", was the message I got and I was quickly on the road.
The Mobile Bay Ferry is link between the southern sides of the bay and is quite busy in the summer. Our construction was causing him to deviate from his normal route and it was taking him a little longer per trip. The captain decided to take a short cut but, unfortunately, it was over one of our spoil piles and he didn't have the depth he needed. The ferry propulsion is from 2 thruster pods that have vertical drive shafts (like an outboard motor) but they can swivel 360 degrees. They hang below the hull and the lower section is designed to break away in the event of a collision. It functioned as advertised when the ferry ran into our spoil pile.
Needless to say, things were a little tense for a while and it took several days for the ferry to get his replacement shaft.
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3 comments:
Z-drives are not cheap. Hope you all didn't have to buy it.
There may have been some compensation but the captain took what was obviously a restricted route. We had markers on the piles of dirt and the crane barges and tugs were obvious. Plus, he had watched us working all day so he couldn't claim ignorance.
I think the units were Finnish so the shaft had to come from quite a ways.
Yep, Z-drives are great until they break... And I'm surprised you had to pay anything. That was ALL on the ferry captain for knowingly hazarding his craft in restricted waters.
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