Impaled Whale

[mysticalblues]

Did anyone hear the story about a Royal Caribbean ship that impaled a whale with it's bow.

 

http://cnn.aimtoday.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?floc=FF-RTO-reodd&idq=/ff/story/0002%2F20040928%2F1113539621.htm&sc=reodd&photoid=20040927NY124

[JJS2K3]

It was in the CC E-Letter yesterday. Poor thing.

[L2J]

I just read that and googled. The page I looked at said that adults weigh between 40-60 tons. Seems to me the would have noticed the "drag" on the ship?

[pungo3]

liv, that was my first thought. How could the captain not know there was something different about the handling of the ship?

[L2J]

liv, that was my first thought. How could the captain not know there was something different about the handling of the ship?

Hmmmm...well it was RCCL so.....they may have been busy trying to break up a fight between two geriatrics waiting in line to see a show....or....maybe they were savoring the ranch steak? Your guess is as good as mine ;)

[sea_u_onboard]

I can't imagine the horror of seeing the poor animal. How would you not realize that something is wrong with the handling of the ship?

[SevenVII]

.they may have been busy trying to break up a fight between two geriatrics waiting in line to see a show....or....maybe they were savoring the ranch steak?

Your too cruel Liv :D

[L2J]

I can't imagine the horror of seeing the poor animal.

 

Oh come on.....:rolleyes: *shakes head*

 

Seven - No joke....that really was a thread on the "other" board!

[DebBrown]

I thought HAL catered to the geriatics??

[mo'vakayplz]

Terribly tragic incident, but the whale must have been sick or already injured.

 

The weight of the whale would have been unnoticed because of the tonnage of the ships in comparison.

 

Still sad, thankfully no one else was hurt or injured.

[Nunu]

It reminded me of the Austin Powers movie when the bad guy froze at seeing a steamroller coming at him at about 2 mph. As others have said, this must have been a sick whale not to get out of the way. (or was there a suicide note left behind?)

[L2J]

The weight of the whale would have been unnoticed because of the tonnage of the ships in comparison.

 

Let's assume it was already dead. That much dead weight suddenly added to the ship. Doubtfull that it could have been unnoticed.

[JJS2K3]

50 ton whale; 88,000 ton ship = .00056 %

 

For a Chevy Suburban it would be the equivalent of adding 1.5 pounds

 

It seems at least possible it wouldn't get noticed?

 

Yep, bored to death.

 

 

Jay

[TexasRed]

The parents of our local radio traffic reporter were on that ship. He said this morning that the passengers were told that the whale was already dead when it was hit.

 

Judy

[DeckCadet]

and the Radiance class has a tonnage of over 90,000. Plus they tend to use autopilot until they get near pilot station (how the pilot boat missed it I don't know, unless it was dark, and with constantly changing ballasting conditions, maybe the weather had forced additional ballast water to be put in the bow...... that might have fooled them