In this particular case the “girting” of the tug was caused due to sudden and too fast course change of the the tall ship. Stern tug was not able to fallow the course change. Actually quite strange why the tall ship was going so fast and uncontrolled. This good example of why every tug boat Mate ned to have seaman’s knife in the pocket! 👍
Love the follow-up :) Russian navy cadets happened... Jokes aside, it was the quick turn that got the tug in trouble. Once the Kruzenstern started to accelerate and turn I guess the only option to attempt to right the situation would have been to reverse at full steam until the tug lines back up behind it. However that's easier said than done: you would be reversing into the big ship's wake which opens up a whole new can of worms. At the very least the tug would get pushed away, if it gets too close that's an even greater risk, especially if the line starts slacking. So idk if any halfway sane tug captain would even attempt that. All things considered, the only way out was to cut the line, they obviously did not really need that tug any more at that point, with open water ahead. Would love to hear the radio exchange though :)
In hindsight, the safest option would have been turn the tug to port and pace the training ship, as there appears to be plenty of sea room to make such a maneuver. This would have allow more time to deal with letting go the line without needing to cut. The line is through a forward port side chock and it’s understandable that the personnel on deck were distracted by the crowd to port. Don’t forget there are “cadets” on deck at the receiving end of the whiplash, albeit the energy would have likely dissipated by along such a lengthy section of rope against sea and hull. The tug could have use this time pacing the training ship to radio the pilot & master, who are ultimately responsible for knowing they are tethered to a ship-assist vessel and should not have allowed the crowd to distract them until they were cast off from all tugs.
@@Swath700 absolutely not. You can not pace a vessel that size with a Damen 14 tug Launch. The 'tug' was absent of a gog-line. Which prevents capsize when winched right in. The blame lays solely on the skipper of the launch, not positioning himself correctly. If there was a gog-line, he could have taken all way off, sat there quite comfortable being towed astern by the ship. From there made contact with the vessel to slow down and drop the tow when in open water or safe area to do so. This, unfortunately, is a regular occurrence on these launches.
When we were departing Aden in 1962, for Mombassa on HMS Albion, we pulled a Tug over and 4 Arab Seamen lost their lives. It happened so quickly no one had time to react, plus with having all the Skylights open it went down like a stone. Its always dangerous when Tugs are manoeuvring a large vessel underway.
Most tight manuovers with ships are done at a snails pace. That ship has a lot of windage and it was blowing so They may have been forced to make a risky turn.
from my point of view, and that is as a tug skipper doing this manoeuvre frequently with a twin screw tug, and at roughly the same speed, the tow rope should have been on the head of the tug this is a safer bet with speed, alternatively with a stern tow setup, a gob rope should have been used, this moves the pivot point further aft and reduces the chance of girting. But my first choice with a tug that shape would have been to have the rope on the bow of the tug.
The guy with the knife was a lucky man not to get hurt, his crew mate should've given him a shout befire hitting the rope with the axe! Also if a ropes under tension its better to cut it where its attached so as to lessen the chances of the knife accelerating out of your hand or hitting you.
@@BoatAfloat I saw the short version first. After viewing the longer version, I thought that I remembered seeing the Russian vessel run over the tow line and begin the girding. I guess that I was mistaken; the situation was that the Russian began making her own propulsion, and kind of outran the tug and began towing her, no? Sorry for the mistaken feedback. This clips are terrific. If you have another coming I am waiting eagerly!
Speaking as a former boatswainsmate and able seaman, those tow lines seemed awfully small diameter. Granted they were being stretched but Ive seen many a towline or mooring line stretched and they were never that small. Guess though in this case it was a good thing as the deck seaman was able to quickly cut it loose with no injury to himself.
Looks can be deceiving. I run my own tugboat and my boyfriend personally knows the axe-man in question here but rest assured, that rope is perfectly adequate for the job. Modern fuse mixes and super fibers like uhmpe give you plenty of performance. often outperforming steel wire.
Have my eyes deceived me but was the lead tug not on a line on the port side and had to quickly, with too much speed, cut across the bow to pull her to starboard, making her stern pull hard on the tug in trouble?
Yes - lack of communication between the ship and tugs. Windage was significant and the lead tug should have been directing the stern tugs to hold tension and steer the stern. Also lack of communication between the deck crew and the skipper of the tug in the incident. There would have been a pilot aboard the ship who SHOULD have been aware of the complete situation.
It would take a lot to capsize a tug boat they won't capsize that easily. The draft of a tug boat goes deep below the water line which would make it more stable
The problem is....who was managing the ship's manoeuvring??? Probably pilot or ship's Master. I'm a tugboat Master and I talk about my experience...a ship secured to tugboat lines MUST to act considering tugboat's abilities in order to have a safe and effective aid during manoeuvre . It means to regulate speed and rate of turning. Unfortunately few pilots and Captains have been on the tugboat side. Congratulations to very reactive crew of stern tug
Should of been going slower with better comms between fore & aft tug. Aft tug should of been 25 to 50% less braking power than pulling tug depending on conditions.
The head end tug was going too fast for the tug on the stern to have a line up from his stern bits. Looks like they had atleast two other small tugs availab
What a cluster-f&^%! That entire maneuver occurred at about 3 times the normal speed that such evolutions are performed. I doubt the communication between the various vessels was good, either. One thing I should note - it's good practice, though often not followed - to close up the watertight doors in the cabin of a tug that its towing in that manner for precisely that reason. If a tug "trips" like that one did, it happens fast. The only real danger to the tug in this case is water ingress - that pull, at that speed, wasn't going to actually capsize the tug. Good job by the crew, BTW - and an unusually small line allowed to happen. On a US tug, or at least the ones I know - it would have been a line at least 50mm in diameter - a completely different matter.
A gog or (gob) rope further aft would have avoided girting the tug. High speed ,changing course suddenly and lack of communications all contribute to these occurrences.
1 the tugboats are navy tugboats and not familiar with harlingen (NL) you have to take a very sharp turn to leave the harbour 2 the towing line of the leading tug is to long it takes a eternity to go from the PS bow to the SB side bow of the sailing ship ( when altering course ) 3 the last means he has to increase power to catch the bow of the sailing boat as not to hit the beacon on the exit at the breakwaters 4 the increase of speed is to much for the stern tug and she can't put herself strait anymore under the wire even with 2 propellors 5 the small black tugboat with the red funnel are the guy's with experience as they do the fruitships and the shipyard jobs 6 is the navy involved time for beer and chips the crew of the stern tug was lucky cutting the wire under tension can be letal
My question is what size is the rope that was about to pull that tug under water, must have been one hell of rope, however he cut it with a knife, doesn’t add up to me I would have thought the rope would have popped under all of that pressure..
They followed the tides. If the winds permitted, they'd use some sail as well. In dead calm with no significant tidal surge, they'd put out a couple of row boats and tow it by manpower. They also couldn't build up the speed that tallship was moving. That was just unprofessional, dumb and dangerous. the whole thing was a crap show
The captain of that tug wasn't doing to well cause before it cornered he was going sideways but he should of been way astern so when it finally cornered it starting drawing him under instead of him being straight astern
Usually ,when a tugboat is fastened astern of the ship ,keeps line slacked and follow the ship's movements with it's on bow near the stern. It can start to tend the line once ship speed is comfortable and safe for manoeuvring. Also because higher ship speed means proportional loss of tug effective
1. No abort 2. Excessive speed 3. Never add power and go hard over in a girding situation, your going to roll. Keep the tow line off the stern 4. Wear your life jacket on deck when yarding
Well sounds cocky but it looks more dramatic then it was and imho the action of the crew was a bit overkill. Sure she is sideways, and sure there was some water om the deck. But the angle of the line on the H Bit to the ship is to steep and high to capsize the tug! The gravity of a tug is super low with the big engine and the line was not low enough.
ABSOLUTELY NO TIME TO RELEASE THE TOW ROPE, WOULD OF BEEN DRAGGED UNDER IN A SPLIT SECOND... THE TUG WAS GIRTING, ALSO MISSING A GOGLINE, TO KEEP THE TOW ROPE AT THE STERN, STOPPING GIRTING... TOTALLY THE TUG SKIPPER FAULT
ABSOLUTELY NO TIME TO RELEASE THE TOW ROPE, WOULD OF BEEN DRAGGED UNDER IN A SPLIT SECOND... THE TUG WAS GIRTING, ALSO MISSING A GOGLINE, TO KEEP THE TOW ROPE AT THE STERN, STOPPING GIRTING... TOTALLY THE TUG SKIPPER FAULT
Because if you undo the rope, it will start to "jump". there's tonnes of pulling pressure on the rope so you risk getting pulled with it, basically. Cutting may damage the paint work on the bollard but at least it saves you from potentially losing a hand.
TUG IS GIRTING, NO GOG ROPE, TO KEEP THE TOW ROPE AT THE STERN OF THE TUG, TO PREVENT GIRTING... TUG SKIPPERS FAULT, ON CONFIGURATION OF TOW ROPE... NONE OF THE TUG CREW SKIPPERS OR DECKHANDS, ON BOTH TUGS NOT WEARING PFD'S, IS ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVABLE... THIS SITUATION IS EXACTLY WHY THEY MUST BE WORN CORRECTLY 🤬🤬🤬
Plain and simple to much headway on the sailing ship he should have been down to 2 to 3 knots, speed is a problem in these situations as you have just witnessed or better still let the stern tug go earlier he was not needed when the vessel had made his turn, also the bow tug should have been fast in the starboard lead ready for the starboard swing and I can't believe he didn't break adrift bringing his towrope tight that quick the Skipper was lucky there...all in all the whole job was to fast and manic which will always create problems sometime's even fatal.
The line from the tug should have been taken off earlier and there would have been no problem. The whole operation was too fast and forceful. Slow and easy is best!
Really a safe conventional tug should hang the spliced head of the line on a towing hook. Towing hook offers a better towing performance due to its own elastic structure and,most important,is safer because of an emergency release which ,in those cases ,saves lifes and boat from sinking due to girting
This is a good example of poor radio discipline. It could've been avoided very easily. The tug on the stern of the Krusenstern should not have put ten turns around the bitts, thus making casting off time-consuming. When disaster was starting to loom, the skipper of that tug should have given the order to cast off the warp, thus avoiding embarrassment on all sides. If this manoeuvre had been discussed face to face BEFORE casting off her land lines, with radio comms clear between the three skippers, it would have been much more controlled and calmer, and would have saved the appearance of the cut-all knife. In the stern tug, the crew should have known better than to put ten turns on. Three would have held fast, crew holding the coils in his hand, ready to cast off. Easy.
