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Subject: QE2 grounding (was: Mercator vs. Great Circle)
Smith_Peter@XXX.XXX
Date: Wed Aug 29 2001 - 16:46:30 EDT
Rodney Myrvaagnes [mailto:rodneym@XXX.XXX] said:
> Please, Rick. You larger point is well taken, but you are confusing
> the QE2 with other vessels that did what you said. The QE2 was
> another problem entirely.
>
> The one that grounded off Nantucket was doing automatic ded reckoning
> almost all the way from Bermuda, because nobody looked at the computer.
> I feel pretty sure it started blinking as soon as the GPS > became
disconnected.
Actually, I think Rodney is thinking of the _Royal Majesty_ which went
aground on the Nantucket Shoals in June 1995 due to an unnoticed GPS
failure.
The _QE2_ nicked the ground in August 1992 near Sow and Pigs Reef at
the entrance of Vineyard Sound (west of Martha's Vineyard which is west
of Nantucket). What made it worse was that they knew exactly where
they were and overruled the local pilot. The pilot suggested a course
that kept them in deep water, but the captain was trying to make up
time and chose to cut the corner, believing the charted depth (39 feet
from the 1939 survey) to be sufficient (_QE2_ draws 32 feet).
After the incident, the US Coast Guard dispatched the survey vessel
_RULE_ to re-survey the area. In keeping with current practice, the
rock they found (with the QE2's bottom paint on it) was provisionally
named "Rule's Ledge", but locals are lobbying to get it named "The
Queen's Bottom".
-- Peter
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