How the hell do the engines on a modern ship get "locked"?
Given the implications of a loss of power, one would think that engine control circuits would be doubly, perhaps triply, redundant. Even a telephone link to a sailor in the engine spaces who could manually throw some switches would be better than nothing.
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Regards, Marv
Experience is always far worse than pessimism
Engines get locked (in the report) when you realize where your career path is going if it comes out you were goofing off when you ran into the (pick one) [tanker, dock, big rock, sand bar, huge military ship]
I added the military ship since I was on one participating in Memorial Day services when a sail boat, under power, tried to cross the channel in front of us and got us broadside (port). The captain of the sail boat started all sorts of excuses, but as we had quite a bit of brass on board up through pentagon, I doubt the sail boat captain got far with his story.
Thankfully only 5 injured at last report. Those mega hotel ships are a huge problem for the Venetians, visiting Venezia I've seen the wash these monsters create, even when being towed, they usually dispense with tugs and self power into the dock from around the same point of this incident and the damage they do is eroding Venice's very foundations. Having been in a Gondola hit by the wash of a much smaller boat I'd hate to be in one when one of these pass through, the wash surge regularly over tops the canal sides much further into the small residential 'street' canal network than most realise.
The biggest problem is overcoming the cruise lines marketing of 'sailing through Venice' as part of their appeal, the alternative route via the Southern lagoon entrance using the commercial docks channel would be better for the City, and in my experience having worked on earlier liners enable easier turn-arounds as passengers will be less distracted sight seeing rather than getting ready to disembark.
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