42 sailors and 5,867 cows feared dead after container ship capsizes

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Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/09/03/42-sailors-and-5867-cows-fear.html

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I just watched several of those crazy YouTube videos about giant waves and “rogue waves” a few weeks ago. Scary stuff, that a giant container ship isn’t safe.

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42 crew seems big for a modern vessel. I guess that a bunch of them might have been stockmen. A sad disaster all round. :frowning:

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The cows were in containers? That’s evil.

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I think that was a mistake on twitter, as it’s not in the actual stories. I’ve removed it from the headline.

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OT: So I guess I should read the post.
Veal gets treated that way before butchering.
It’s delicious.

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Oh man - how horrible.

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That is horrible. I’ve been at sea in a hurricane and it is terrifying, even in a large ship. (Much worse in a small trawler, in my experience, but I don’t recommend either).

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Iman Omivore.

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The Wreck of the Edmoond Fitzgerald

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I see your Gordon Lightfoot and raise you a Stan Rogers…

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Undercrewing modern vessels seems to be a thing. A combat vessel of that displacement would have 350 crew.

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That gets me every time :cry:

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Same here.

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That was totally unnecessary. (Uh… any others like that?)

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Screen Shot 388
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I saw before/after pics of the Gulf Livestock 1, from when she was a containership to after retrofitted into a livestock ship. Looks like she was doomed the day she left the shipyard. Like, how open are the holds, from top to bottom, deck to bilge, if the ship is fully dedicated to livestock?

Instead of allowing a big wave to bash off of closed containers and drain off, the new permanent superstructure looks like it could easy hold water long enough to fully capsize the ship. Livestock containers have lots of ventilation for the critters. Plus, there are walkways between the containers so the stock tenders can provide feed and water. If the cowtainers fill up with water, the ship will lose stability.

Surprising the international certification bodies hadn’t taken all that into consideration.

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That got a genuine, belly-shaking, coughing, choking LOL from me. We are bad people.

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