Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Hurrah for Tugboats

I don't know how many of you heard, but off the coast of southern California, a massive Carnival cruise liner has been stranded some 200 miles San Diego. There was an engine fire which knocked out power to basically the whole ship, also cutting hot water and electricity off. (There is a link to the article here.)
No crew or passengers were injured.
You would think, out of all the sea-going vessels, cruise ships would be some of the safest (Poseidon Adventure aside), especially with all that food. I never really thought about this problem, but with no electricity, the is NO REFRIGERATION. All that food, gone to waste. The US coast guard had to actually fly in emergency food supplies until the ship can make it back to land. 
Which, bring me to the purpose of this post.
How is a powerless, broken 113,000 ton (that means it's BIG) cruise ship going to make it back to land?
 
The answer, my friends, is tugboats.
 
Can you imagine it? These hearty little things are pulling that monstrosity all 200 miles back to safety.
My admiration level for these little boats has gone up immeasurably these past couple of days. I sure hope those passengers appreciate what is going in to save them, although I can pretty much assure that they are probably furious right now. 
Scared, maybe; furious, most definitely.
Anyways, as I was trying to find a picture of these brave little engines, these engines that could, I came across this delightful gem.
Who would have known!
(I'm kind of tempted to join now)
(...also, the style is very old school internet...the kind I remember learning about in elementary school. It kind of warms the cockles of your heart to see such nostalgia.)
Anyways, I'd thought I'd share what I've been following the past couple of days. Knock on wood that it turns out OK, and that everyone gets home safe.
Except poor Carnival...they are going to lose a boatload* of money.
*no pun intended.

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