Re: QE2 grounding
Subject: Re: QE2 grounding
From: Lu Abel (lunav@XXX.XXX)
Date: Thu Sep 06 2001 - 01:04:19 EDT
At 08:36 AM 8/30/2001 -0400, Rick Emerson wrote:
>Thanks, Russell, for the article. Looking at chart 13218 "Martha's
>Vinyard to Block Island" (1:80000), venturing in as close 2.5 miles of
>Cuttyhunk seems like a problem looking to happen even if Rude Rock
>wasn't known. Sow and Pigs Reef (extending roughly SW from Cuttyhunk)
>and an area up to about 3 miles south of there is marked as "Rk" and
>"Blds" and further marked by a bell off Sow and Pigs and a whistle
>SSE of that light (near rocks marked as 31 and 33 feet). Not a place
>to bet the boat on...
The QE2 was well south of Sow and Pigs, in an area which was charted as
having at least 40' of water. The problem is that the depths were from a
survey done in the 1930s (as I recollect, looked for survey dates on
1210TR but couldn't find them). While a depth sounder was likely used, it
only scanned beneath the survey ship and apparently none of the survey
lines crossed Rude Rock. Today's surveys are done with side-scanning sonar
giving a picture of features across a wide swath of the bottom.
Lu Abel
