To be honest after beaching, settling, being blown up, burned, broken in half, dragged out to sea, blown up again and then shot up by two Navy vessels the thing still wouldn’t sink I’ve got to admire the Japanese workmanship that built the thing.
@@fnamelname9077 A 1-crew ship is superior in every way to a drifter that ends up burning on a beach, bombed and passed around from one crew's responsibility to another .
I used to be stationed at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. A good friend of mine was part of the base EOD team, and he told me about this incident, as he was part of the team that tried to blow up the ship. They had to be very careful, the right amount of explosives to do the job, not too much causing the ship to release it's fuel to the environment, instead of just burning. What a shit-show it was, he said.
Most ships have only the required equipment on-board and GPS isn't on that list except as SOLAS-required safety equipment. And shipowners are too cheap to pay for anything they aren't forced to. Most shipwrecks and loss incidents are because of this clinging to past ways of doing things still being allowed by Maritime authorities.
@@P_RO_ I doubt the ship lacked GPS. The only thing more important to transport companies than cutting costs around equipment is cutting costs around operation. GPS would allow ships to hold course much more efficiently and save not only time and fuel but reduce the chances of navigation errors causing missed appointment times at port. My guess is rather than lacking GPS, they either had a generic GPS system that only gave course and position, or they didn't have the equipment on/monitored during the time at anchor.
@@P_RO_ By that time, the New Carissa should have had GPS; they very well may have still had LORAN units board, too. What I can guarantee is that the ship had at least two radar units. When at anchor, the expectation is for the mates to ascertain their position, either by GPS, LORAN or radar. Considering the weather conditions during the night of the grounding, it was reckless to utilize only one anchor.
@@moosecat Always two anchors with a long rode in a storm- even casual sailors know that much. As with so many wrecks better crew performance gotten from a better Captain could have prevented this; the outcome was foreseeable and preventable.
I'd love to see you do a video on the Damascus Missile Explosion from 1980. the tldr of it is that during routine maintenance work an accidentally dropped socket wrench punctured the hydrazine (a very nasty and corrosive fuel) tank witch (over the next 12 or so hours) ultimately lead to the complete destruction of a gigantic Titan II missile carrying a nuclear warhead. The 740-ton silo door, witch was closed at the time, was sent flying as was the nine-megaton W53 warhead on board. The warhead landed about 100 feet (30 m) from the launch complex's entry gate, and thankfully did not explode. 1 person was killed and 21 other people were injured.
As a side note oregon has some of the most dangerous harbor entrances anywhere. And some of the most unpredictable and intense weather 50' waves and 100+mph winds are not unheard of.
@@arialydia8095 almost all of the rivers on the Oregon coast have very small bays or deltas so fast moving river water can't spread out and slow down which causes it to create very turbulent conditions and standing waves that mixed with the unpredictable weather makes it very dangerous. The Columbia River bar is known as "the graveyard of the pacific" over 2000 large boats have wrecked there and countless small boats.
@@arialydia8095 look up sneaker waves here on YT. For some reason, the last couple of weeks they had been on my recommend list. Watching them is scary. Normal waves, calm-ish seas and then BAM! a wave all the way up the beach and over the land.
As a fourth generation of this area you did a great job!! So many people came from around the world to see this! We rolled our eyes at the foolish people!!
While in Port Angeles, WA, my uncle was told by crewmen from the Deadliest Catch series in Alaska that he was insane for regularly sailing out of New Port, OR. Here if the weather is even mildly bad, no one crosses the bar; We've known people personally who've died doing so in Bandon and Gold Beach. I can't believe the crew put down one anchor for a 640 ft vessel - there was readily available maps and, charting equipment, which plot the depths of the Oregon coastline. This is the captain's fault because they're in charge of checking a ship's course and schedule.
One anchor is fine if sufficient length of chain is used. It's the weight of the chain that provides the holding power, not the hook. Again, bad seamanship from Captain and crew. (old salt)
Your talking about 30 years of my life on the USACE Dredge Yaquina. We worked hard to make these ports safer and I always took it personal if an accident occurred at one of my ports. Stay safe.
@@markdavis8888 I work for Sheffield Marine we are working on a set for the Essayons at the moment. I did the props for the Salvage Chief after the New Carissa was pulled of back in the day. They were all sawtoothed on the edges.
@@mikebrase5161 I watched this salvage for years and of course Titan Marine came in to remove the stern in a professional manner. A jack up rig and helicopters removed the pieces.
I was in coast guard public affairs back then back then and my supervisor was offered the opportunity to lead the public affairs response to this issue I advised him no happily he listened to the advice and about a month later the person that took the job in his place was ready to shoot themselves because of how big a cluster it became. You ought to do a video on the ship that struck the Houston ship channel bridge on I 610 twice in early 2000
I assume there's a logical reason, but I find it strange that it wasn't an option to just pump the oil off the ship. Removal would seem like a better option than big clouds of black smoke.
It's the 90's, environmental protection is kinda... Meh at the time. They probably don't have equipment to suck it out anyway. The entire rescue is butchered...
That was a initial thought I had myself but kind of assume the risk of a second ship getting beached was just too high given the location and weather conditions
Weather was probably the biggest issue. My first thought was to reduce the weight (like by pumping stuff off) and waiting for high tide. One to reduce the draft of the ship, the other to increase the water depth. That might be enough to get the ship off ground.
the fact that nothing around the ship was doing anything resembling sitting still was a factor. it was discussed, but it was determined the vessel was already starting to break up, and they just couldn't wait for decent weather to attempt it.
There isn't much daily work to do. No sails to maintain or oars to row or cannons to load. Most is pretty well automated. I mean a long-haul truck can be manned by one person. A modern plane by two, and those have computer systems for basically everything.
@@HappyBeezerStudios exactly. most of the ship is just big boxes. you need a group to drive, a group to navigate, a group to check the oil in the engines, and a cook.
I remember hearing about this on the news when it happened! People were harkening back in panic to Exxon Valdez up in Alaska waters (which was also an oil spill disaster but it was much worse, since, that ship was a *tanker* and thus carried a lot more oil.)
it was a tanker, and full. And in full contravention of the promise of only double hulled tankers going in they made with the locals for the agreement to permit the construction of the pipeline and terminal.
I lived just outside of coos Bay back when this happened. I remember it being a pretty big deal and people came from relatively far away just to see it... In some small way I bet it actually had some economic positives just from the tourism. That whole Central area of the oregon Coast was pretty bad off back in the 90s mostly logging towns with a nearly dead logging industry.
Now, I feel like I know someone up her in WA going to Bandon or Coos Bay for vacation every other week lol. It really is a lovely area, but beachcombers and ships alike gotta be careful on the coast in the PNW!
My family moved to Coos Bay in 1986, which was right when the spotted owl lawsuits eviscerated timber harvesting. I recall McCullough Bridge being hit by a ship around that time, and Sunset Middle School being torched. Even a rare murder on my paper route. By 1999 I was living in Eugene but would visit my parents and friends in Coos Bay, and the ship sitting off Horsefall Beach was quite the site.
The "flag of convenience" practice is quite ubiquitous in maritime industries, from cargo shipping sealiners to cruise ships. Hasan Minhaj has made an episode about this in cruise ship industries, and even Brooklyn Nine-Nine made a joke about this.
Flagging by convenience is the original "race to the bottom" where shipowners choose whichever nation or "Flag" will maximize their profits while allowing them to crew their ships with near-slavery economics and limiting their uninsured liabilities to nearly nothing. It's just a system designed to create wealth for the wealthy and it needs to be brought to an end. But that won't happen because the system is run by the wealthy who will never do anything that might reduce their profits.
I lived in Coos Bay at the time. Our church car park was jammed with media trucks! One thing I remember is that, in Coos Bay, there are several tug firms in Coos Bay with powerful ocean going tugs that were willing to get to work immediately, but the owner insisted on a a tug that had to spend many days arriving from New York, by which time the NC was even more firmly esconced in the sand.
Diesel and bunker oil are like cooking oil - they aren't volatile. They don't spontaneously evaporate into large quantities of a flammable vapor, like gasoline does. You can dunk a lit match in them and they'll just put the match out. So it takes some... encouragement to get them to start burning. (Engines are able to get them to burn by vaporizing them into tiny droplets, greatly increasing the surface area and exposure to oxygen.)
this is is the earliest i’ve ever been to your newest upload because i’m always asleep when they’re published, but i’ve never missed any video of yours
The confident smoothness of your narration belies the incredible effort it’s taken to get to this point. Not that I haven’t always enjoyed your voice, but it flows so much more naturally than in your early days. Bravo (oh, and another great presentation).
Is there any way to outlaw flags of convenience? The only reason to flag a ship in Bermuda or whatever is to avoid responsibility and lower the cost by lax security, cheaper wages, and using uneducated staff. It's a recipe for disaster and I can't understand how it is still allowed.
I was thinking this too. Maybe there should be a more specific international version of the Jones Act that just targets these particular ships that use flags of convenience by taxing/fining them and just make it cheaper for it to sail from where it was built with only the banner of the country of origin, not where they want to get a flag/banner of convenience.
Yeah. Trying to claim fees for trespassing is a bit ridiculous too- it was only there because of Oregon's own industry, they weren't some poor bystander!
@@mattteee2973 I was born in Oregon, lived there for 34 years. Oregon is one of the most money-grubbing greediest states ever. Always looking for new ways to screw people. Its government and court system is owned by enviroterrorists and nature nazis whose sole reason for existence is to dominate the citizens. One of the best things I ever did was get out of that communist state.
@@Stevie-J if a corporation doesn't sue it basically equates to admitting fault in a situation like this. The amount is intentionally high, if they'd asked for 10 mil the govt would've been awarded 8 figures instead of 7 most likely.
Awesome video as always, sir. We have a similar thing here in New Jersey, at Sunset Beach down in Cape May, the southernmost tip of the state. It’s the remains of the USS Atlantus, a CONCRETE ship that ran aground and sunk there. Thankfully it’s too far gone for any hope of it being removed, plus it’s already been there for 80 years. Part of the hull still sticks above the surface just 100 feet out from the beach. Definitely one of the most unique “land”marks I know of.
Nice work! I really like learning about lesser known events like this (oil spill discussions involving the Pacific NW are usually dominated by the Exxon-Valdez spill in Alaska.) Oregon coastline is quite beautiful and worth seeing if you're ever in the area. There are dense pine forests, sheer cliffs, lighthouses ... and the life on those shorelines is rarely just birds and the random crab + washed up seaweed, shells, and jellyfish that characterize the US beaches that are warmer and more popular for beach vacations. Tidal pools are a famous attraction there on the Oregon coast, though even the vertical, exposed rock faces of the shoreline show off the many barnacles, oysters, and starfish that cling to them, too, when the tide goes out. P.S. for the Japanese company name Taiheiyo Kaiun, pronunciation like this: TAI (like "tie" in "black tie") HEI (like "hey" in "hey, you") YO (like "yo" in "yo, what's up?") KAI (like "tie" again, but with a k) UN (similar to the "oo" in "food", and add "n" like in "no")
Having a ship being officially tied to so many countries is something that it sometimes done to cover up any potential dirty dealings and evade sanctions. The New York Times has an excellent video detailing this, where they explain how Kim Jong Un got his Mercedes, despite there being bans on shipping luxury goods like that to North Korea.
Less dangerous than using the Two Hazmat Guys as a drink trigger. In the episodes about radiation accidents, that could get a person hospitalized! (n.b. this is not a criticism, I love the Two Hazmat Guys)
Used to be able to see the wreckage from my house, heading into Charleston. I feel like the tourism dropped after the removal and I remember hearing both sides of the discussion on whether to remove it or not
I remember watching this as a kid. I had always thought it had caught fire when it ran aground, and also remember watching the sides of the ship melt from the fire.
Excellent video! This kinda reminds me of the Golden Ray wreck. Took over 2 years to get it out of Saint Simon sound in Georgia. Cut it with an anchor chain. Unified Command was also in charge of the operation. The VB 10,000 was hired to cut into pieces.
I used to home port out of Yaquina Bay. The Oregon Coast is the most dangerous in the US. If you can skipper a boat out of here for two years, without any incidents, congratulations! You have just graduated, to being one of the best. There are over 1500 capitol ships, sunk just around the Colombia Bar. You want to crew a lifeboat for the Coast Guard, you will come here to learn, and our harbor entrances, are a very harsh teacher. The Savage Chef would have done the job but, the Coasties in their infinite wisdom, waited two days to put in the call. By that time, it was too late. I still have video of the bow coming ashore, behind my friends house. Sitting there drinking beer, looking up at the bow, was kind of cool. Not often someone parks half a ship in your backyard. There are on average, 6 storms with winds over 100 mph, every Winter here, rest of the time it is just gale force. It can be real nautical some days.
I was stationed on a ship in Alaska when this happened. At that time, almost like living on a different planet. I had no idea what was going on in the world and you wouldn't unless you had access to a newspaper (which I didn't at 19 on a ship). A year later I was at Marine Safety Office San Francisco and this was quite the talk. Our office (Captain of the Port) didn't have jurisdiction, but this was exactly the type of stuff we dealt with so it was talked about a lot.
Thanks for the video. I live in Albany Oregon and have been there, took pictures and knew a little about it as was on the news. But didn't know all the details you gave
"Chain too short" means there wasn't enough chain on the sea floor along with the anchor to keep the ship from moving. No ship drags anchor unless the anchor is on the bottom, so the graphic is a bit off. It's actually the chain on the bottom that is supposed to keep the ship in place. The anchor at the end digs in if the chain starts to drag. The captain should have added ballast as soon as they stopped. With more ballast, the ship is lower in the water, and less affected by wind due to the reduced "sail area" of the ship above the water. Also, if you run aground while ballasted, you can hope to float your ship later by removing ballast, assuming the damage isn't too great. (Also, if you are being pulled by tugs, removing ballast will help their efforts to get the ship off the grounding.)
speaking of environmental damage - could you cover the April 23, 2004 Formosa Plastics Plant explosion in Illiopolis, Illinois, as well as the controversy and dangers surrounding PVC production and use?
Hahah wow I grew up in coos bay as a kid during all this. Never thought I’d see a video on it! They had volunteers from town out taking oil samples from the shore for a while.
I remember coverage of this on the news as a kid; we made sure to tune-in to the live broadcast of the detonation. It was a spectacle, but I remember my disappointment when the ship didn't disappear and leave a smoldering crater.
It didn't help that I'd seen an anniversary video of the whale explosion on our local news. Growing up in Oregon, I thought everyone was solving things with explosions.
A Filipino here, and Yes, Being a seafarer is a popular choice here considering that we're an archipelago and that we're used to travel on the water, or simply to make it our vital income. Not to mention the highly-needed great salary offered by the job. I know this because my cousin is a seafarer himself and my father also tried to be one.
Amazed the Capt. and first officer could simply walk away from this completely free of penalty. An indication of the poorly monitored standards current in an industry capable of huge environmental impact. Even the most inexperienced of amateur yachtsman understands the concept of anchoring, anchors and the requirements of catenary chain for security when at anchor, never mind the most basic requirement of keeping an anchor watch! I can only hope that those officers spent the rest of their careers in Inner Mongolia, a few thousand miles from the ocean..
How about the backstory of the infamous detonation of the dead whale beached in the Pacific Northwest? Civic authorities thought it could be vaporized with explosives and instead chunks of rotting whale flesh were dropping on people, cars, property. Everyone’s seen the video.
From my point of view, I don't know poop. Otherwise, I live on the West coast of California and have a brother who has fished out of Coos Bay, Oregon for decades. Thanks for this plainly great sorting out of this debacle.
Suggestion, since this is on the subject of the Oregon Coast: a video, perhaps for April 1st, on the early 1970s “detonation” of a dead beached whale near Lincoln City.
Have a bunch of people been telling you that you talk too fast or something? I found that to get you back to "normal" I had to set the playback speed to 1.25. Damn fine video though!
Watched it burn when I was 19 ,coast guard was not very popular at the time if it wasn't for the bureaucracy it could have been pulled off the beach before it turned sideways
I know the attorney that handled the trespass case. It was a creative solution to a shit situation for the state. If I remember right, the ship's insurer was intentionally delaying in an attempt to eventually not have to remove it, or at least not pay for it. The state didn't have the money for the removal (This was late 90's OR after all, their primary exports were pulp wood and weed, and weed wasn't taxed yet). The other possible award the jury could have decided was $334mil if the wreckage was a permanent trespass due to being too dangerous to remove. I'm pretty sure that was at least partly a defense against the insurer making too strong of arguments for not removing the wreck. A few details that came out during the case. The ship hadn't deployed all of the anchor chain it could have, though that may not have made a difference, but the dragging likely would have been noticed earlier. And the capt didn't make use of the GPS system the ship had which could have warned about the drifting. I can't remember if the outdated charts thing played much in to the decision.
I hope you enjoyed the video! Have any naval disaster in mind for the future? Let me know below!
The Corinthos collision and explosion near Philadelphia back in the 1970s, please!
Cant forget the Halifax explosion
With love, from Oregon! Thanks for taking a look at this slice of my home state's history!
How about the RMS Queen Elizabeth Fire on 9th of January, 1972
You should do the Prestige shipwreck on the Galician shore. One of the worst ecological disasters to ever happen
To be honest after beaching, settling, being blown up, burned, broken in half, dragged out to sea, blown up again and then shot up by two Navy vessels the thing still wouldn’t sink I’ve got to admire the Japanese workmanship that built the thing.
Oh grow up. Ya little wuzz ain't got the tame to argue a position.
That was my thought. Hire those builders.
Yeah, but keep in mind that the problem began when the Japanese anchor chain was too short to keep her from drifting.
@@buckstarchaser2376 Big girl just wanted to sail. Wouldn't stay put. Wouldn't sink. Kind of endearing, TBH.
@@fnamelname9077 A 1-crew ship is superior in every way to a drifter that ends up burning on a beach, bombed and passed around from one crew's responsibility to another .
I used to be stationed at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. A good friend of mine was part of the base EOD team, and he told me about this incident, as he was part of the team that tried to blow up the ship. They had to be very careful, the right amount of explosives to do the job, not too much causing the ship to release it's fuel to the environment, instead of just burning.
What a shit-show it was, he said.
Blimey!! That does sound like a literal minefield!
Sounds like they did a decent job though! I would think the 3000 dying birds weren't so much from botched detonations as from the first spillage.
@@thomaskositzki9424 Agreed. They did the best they could.
Meanwhile - quite a few years prior - the UK used air strikes by the Fleet Air Arm to destroy the Torrey Canyon wreck.
Jim Taylor, has that been featured on this channel? If not, I hope you are listening, Plainly.
"Poor watch keeping" is an understatement., Even a cheap marine GPS from 1999 came with an "anchor drag alert"" feature.
Most ships have only the required equipment on-board and GPS isn't on that list except as SOLAS-required safety equipment. And shipowners are too cheap to pay for anything they aren't forced to. Most shipwrecks and loss incidents are because of this clinging to past ways of doing things still being allowed by Maritime authorities.
@@P_RO_ I doubt the ship lacked GPS. The only thing more important to transport companies than cutting costs around equipment is cutting costs around operation. GPS would allow ships to hold course much more efficiently and save not only time and fuel but reduce the chances of navigation errors causing missed appointment times at port. My guess is rather than lacking GPS, they either had a generic GPS system that only gave course and position, or they didn't have the equipment on/monitored during the time at anchor.
@@P_RO_ By that time, the New Carissa should have had GPS; they very well may have still had LORAN units board, too. What I can guarantee is that the ship had at least two radar units. When at anchor, the expectation is for the mates to ascertain their position, either by GPS, LORAN or radar. Considering the weather conditions during the night of the grounding, it was reckless to utilize only one anchor.
@@moosecat Always two anchors with a long rode in a storm- even casual sailors know that much. As with so many wrecks better crew performance gotten from a better Captain could have prevented this; the outcome was foreseeable and preventable.
@@moosecat No LORAN watchkeeping in a storm like that concerns me more than the possible lack of installed GPS!
I'd love to see you do a video on the Damascus Missile Explosion from 1980.
the tldr of it is that during routine maintenance work an accidentally dropped socket wrench punctured the hydrazine (a very nasty and corrosive fuel) tank witch (over the next 12 or so hours) ultimately lead to the complete destruction of a gigantic Titan II missile carrying a nuclear warhead. The 740-ton silo door, witch was closed at the time, was sent flying as was the nine-megaton W53 warhead on board. The warhead landed about 100 feet (30 m) from the launch complex's entry gate, and thankfully did not explode. 1 person was killed and 21 other people were injured.
Good suggestion.
But at least we know where the 10mm socket went 😋
@@zorktxandnand3774 I believe it was that ever elusive 110 mmsocket. 😂
But he already did it. ua-cam.com/video/Byl3vXilElE/v-deo.html
Nuclear warheads won't go off unless certain conditions are met.
I think you'll find he did. ua-cam.com/video/Byl3vXilElE/v-deo.html
As a side note oregon has some of the most dangerous harbor entrances anywhere. And some of the most unpredictable and intense weather 50' waves and 100+mph winds are not unheard of.
Can confirm. Even inland, Oregon can see some intense winds, especially at the west end of The Gorge
What makes the entrances dangerous? Idk much on the topic
@@arialydia8095 almost all of the rivers on the Oregon coast have very small bays or deltas so fast moving river water can't spread out and slow down which causes it to create very turbulent conditions and standing waves that mixed with the unpredictable weather makes it very dangerous. The Columbia River bar is known as "the graveyard of the pacific" over 2000 large boats have wrecked there and countless small boats.
@@arialydia8095 look up sneaker waves here on YT. For some reason, the last couple of weeks they had been on my recommend list. Watching them is scary. Normal waves, calm-ish seas and then BAM! a wave all the way up the beach and over the land.
@@triciac.5078 a couple on there honeymoon was killed by a sneaker wave while they were standing on the jetty in newport.
As a fourth generation of this area you did a great job!! So many people came from around the world to see this! We rolled our eyes at the foolish people!!
While in Port Angeles, WA, my uncle was told by crewmen from the Deadliest Catch series in Alaska that he was insane for regularly sailing out of New Port, OR. Here if the weather is even mildly bad, no one crosses the bar; We've known people personally who've died doing so in Bandon and Gold Beach. I can't believe the crew put down one anchor for a 640 ft vessel - there was readily available maps and, charting equipment, which plot the depths of the Oregon coastline. This is the captain's fault because they're in charge of checking a ship's course and schedule.
One anchor is fine if sufficient length of chain is used. It's the weight of the chain that provides the holding power, not the hook. Again, bad seamanship from Captain and crew. (old salt)
Your talking about 30 years of my life on the USACE Dredge Yaquina. We worked hard to make these ports safer and I always took it personal if an accident occurred at one of my ports. Stay safe.
@@markdavis8888 I work for Sheffield Marine we are working on a set for the Essayons at the moment. I did the props for the Salvage Chief after the New Carissa was pulled of back in the day. They were all sawtoothed on the edges.
@@mikebrase5161 I watched this salvage for years and of course Titan Marine came in to remove the stern in a professional manner. A jack up rig and helicopters removed the pieces.
I was in coast guard public affairs back then back then and my supervisor was offered the opportunity to lead the public affairs response to this issue I advised him no happily he listened to the advice and about a month later the person that took the job in his place was ready to shoot themselves because of how big a cluster it became. You ought to do a video on the ship that struck the Houston ship channel bridge on I 610 twice in early 2000
I was there. My friends and I used to sit on the bluff above the site and watch. For awhile that was a pretty common pastime in the Coos Bay area
I can imagine it would have a interesting sight to behold!
Dude, the Carissa running aground was the BIGGEST DEAL to us in school in North Bend. It was insane.
"New Carissa, what is your status?"
"Balls"
"This is gonna be a disaster"
Lmao
I assume there's a logical reason, but I find it strange that it wasn't an option to just pump the oil off the ship. Removal would seem like a better option than big clouds of black smoke.
It's the 90's, environmental protection is kinda... Meh at the time.
They probably don't have equipment to suck it out anyway.
The entire rescue is butchered...
That was a initial thought I had myself but kind of assume the risk of a second ship getting beached was just too high given the location and weather conditions
The pumps would also be subject to the winds and rains which could spray oil everywhere if it beached
Weather was probably the biggest issue. My first thought was to reduce the weight (like by pumping stuff off) and waiting for high tide. One to reduce the draft of the ship, the other to increase the water depth. That might be enough to get the ship off ground.
the fact that nothing around the ship was doing anything resembling sitting still was a factor. it was discussed, but it was determined the vessel was already starting to break up, and they just couldn't wait for decent weather to attempt it.
I think it’s incredible that a vessel that big can be manned by only 26 people
There isn't much daily work to do. No sails to maintain or oars to row or cannons to load. Most is pretty well automated. I mean a long-haul truck can be manned by one person. A modern plane by two, and those have computer systems for basically everything.
@@HappyBeezerStudios exactly. most of the ship is just big boxes. you need a group to drive, a group to navigate, a group to check the oil in the engines, and a cook.
^both these guys are morons
t. a Marine Engineer
Got up to snow, wind (cat refused to go outside and then complained to me), then a PD video. It's a good day, no matter what the cat says 👍
Haha snow here in southern Ohio too
I see your cat is judgemental
I remember hearing about this on the news when it happened! People were harkening back in panic to Exxon Valdez up in Alaska waters (which was also an oil spill disaster but it was much worse, since, that ship was a *tanker* and thus carried a lot more oil.)
Well, I remember the media portrayed this ship as a tanker frequently… guess they didn’t care about getting the facts right, then or now.
it was a tanker, and full. And in full contravention of the promise of only double hulled tankers going in they made with the locals for the agreement to permit the construction of the pipeline and terminal.
I think I'll ask the question on everybody's mind. What happened to the Old Carissa? Lol, great video as usual!
I lived just outside of coos Bay back when this happened. I remember it being a pretty big deal and people came from relatively far away just to see it... In some small way I bet it actually had some economic positives just from the tourism. That whole Central area of the oregon Coast was pretty bad off back in the 90s mostly logging towns with a nearly dead logging industry.
Now, I feel like I know someone up her in WA going to Bandon or Coos Bay for vacation every other week lol. It really is a lovely area, but beachcombers and ships alike gotta be careful on the coast in the PNW!
Well i remember those depressed years !:-)
🙏
My family moved to Coos Bay in 1986, which was right when the spotted owl lawsuits eviscerated timber harvesting. I recall McCullough Bridge being hit by a ship around that time, and Sunset Middle School being torched. Even a rare murder on my paper route. By 1999 I was living in Eugene but would visit my parents and friends in Coos Bay, and the ship sitting off Horsefall Beach was quite the site.
The "flag of convenience" practice is quite ubiquitous in maritime industries, from cargo shipping sealiners to cruise ships. Hasan Minhaj has made an episode about this in cruise ship industries, and even Brooklyn Nine-Nine made a joke about this.
Flagging by convenience is the original "race to the bottom" where shipowners choose whichever nation or "Flag" will maximize their profits while allowing them to crew their ships with near-slavery economics and limiting their uninsured liabilities to nearly nothing. It's just a system designed to create wealth for the wealthy and it needs to be brought to an end. But that won't happen because the system is run by the wealthy who will never do anything that might reduce their profits.
I lived in Coos Bay at the time. Our church car park was jammed with media trucks! One thing I remember is that, in Coos Bay, there are several tug firms in Coos Bay with powerful ocean going tugs that were willing to get to work immediately, but the owner insisted on a a tug that had to spend many days arriving from New York, by which time the NC was even more firmly esconced in the sand.
That completely contradicts what John says in this video.
Wait, a Plainly Difficult video where someone does not die? What a time to be alive.
Everybody lives, this time. Everyone lived.
"Sir. A ship ran aground at our cost, what should we d..."
"Napalm"
Diesel and bunker oil are like cooking oil - they aren't volatile. They don't spontaneously evaporate into large quantities of a flammable vapor, like gasoline does. You can dunk a lit match in them and they'll just put the match out. So it takes some... encouragement to get them to start burning. (Engines are able to get them to burn by vaporizing them into tiny droplets, greatly increasing the surface area and exposure to oxygen.)
Oregon blew up a whale one time too hehehe
this is is the earliest i’ve ever been to your newest upload because i’m always asleep when they’re published, but i’ve never missed any video of yours
Thank you!
The confident smoothness of your narration belies the incredible effort it’s taken to get to this point. Not that I haven’t always enjoyed your voice, but it flows so much more naturally than in your early days. Bravo (oh, and another great presentation).
Is there any way to outlaw flags of convenience? The only reason to flag a ship in Bermuda or whatever is to avoid responsibility and lower the cost by lax security, cheaper wages, and using uneducated staff. It's a recipe for disaster and I can't understand how it is still allowed.
I was thinking this too. Maybe there should be a more specific international version of the Jones Act that just targets these particular ships that use flags of convenience by taxing/fining them and just make it cheaper for it to sail from where it was built with only the banner of the country of origin, not where they want to get a flag/banner of convenience.
Sounds like Oregon got bailed out for having inadequate rescue infrastructure, classic
Yeah. Trying to claim fees for trespassing is a bit ridiculous too- it was only there because of Oregon's own industry, they weren't some poor bystander!
@@mattteee2973 I was born in Oregon, lived there for 34 years.
Oregon is one of the most money-grubbing greediest states ever. Always looking for new ways to screw people. Its government and court system is owned by enviroterrorists and nature nazis whose sole reason for existence is to dominate the citizens.
One of the best things I ever did was get out of that communist state.
@@Stevie-J if a corporation doesn't sue it basically equates to admitting fault in a situation like this. The amount is intentionally high, if they'd asked for 10 mil the govt would've been awarded 8 figures instead of 7 most likely.
The diagram of the ship... why does it need 3 large sewing machines on the deck?
for extra speed
Sew it can speed along at a rate of knots, threading its way into sandbanks, before its seam bursts...
🤫Ssh... Trade secrets...Those are for sewing up the wood pulp to make plywood 🤣
Thank you for the regular weather updates!
Good job pronouncing Oregon! Thanks for another great story
Thank you
Video recommendation
Granville train disaster, new south wales, Australia, 83 dead plenty others injured.
Thank you for the comment and the suggestion!
Awesome video as always, sir. We have a similar thing here in New Jersey, at Sunset Beach down in Cape May, the southernmost tip of the state. It’s the remains of the USS Atlantus, a CONCRETE ship that ran aground and sunk there. Thankfully it’s too far gone for any hope of it being removed, plus it’s already been there for 80 years. Part of the hull still sticks above the surface just 100 feet out from the beach. Definitely one of the most unique “land”marks I know of.
So when will you get to Costa Concordia?
I just want to say, I absolutely love your channel!!! Thanks for all your hard work
Can't help it. Every time I see the title, "Burning Down the House" plays in my mind.
Another great work John! Thank you!
Thank you
"A locally brewed napalm mixture" sounds like some beer for millennials.
I remember watching the coast guard catch the boat on fire when I was a kid. This video brought all those memories back
Hi from Portland OR, USA. This was a fantastic documentary.
Awesome, thank you!
Nice work! I really like learning about lesser known events like this (oil spill discussions involving the Pacific NW are usually dominated by the Exxon-Valdez spill in Alaska.)
Oregon coastline is quite beautiful and worth seeing if you're ever in the area. There are dense pine forests, sheer cliffs, lighthouses ... and the life on those shorelines is rarely just birds and the random crab + washed up seaweed, shells, and jellyfish that characterize the US beaches that are warmer and more popular for beach vacations. Tidal pools are a famous attraction there on the Oregon coast, though even the vertical, exposed rock faces of the shoreline show off the many barnacles, oysters, and starfish that cling to them, too, when the tide goes out.
P.S. for the Japanese company name Taiheiyo Kaiun, pronunciation like this:
TAI (like "tie" in "black tie")
HEI (like "hey" in "hey, you")
YO (like "yo" in "yo, what's up?")
KAI (like "tie" again, but with a k)
UN (similar to the "oo" in "food", and add "n" like in "no")
This has probably been the most well informed and thoughtful comment section I have ever seen.
Having a ship being officially tied to so many countries is something that it sometimes done to cover up any potential dirty dealings and evade sanctions. The New York Times has an excellent video detailing this, where they explain how Kim Jong Un got his Mercedes, despite there being bans on shipping luxury goods like that to North Korea.
I remember going and visiting this as a kid. It was extremely interesting and I wanted to explore it so badly.
This disaster rates a 3 on the "Balls!" scale. Drinking game: binge PD vids and every time you see Balls! in a thought bubble take a drink!
Less dangerous than using the Two Hazmat Guys as a drink trigger. In the episodes about radiation accidents, that could get a person hospitalized!
(n.b. this is not a criticism, I love the Two Hazmat Guys)
@@ZGryphon We all love the Two Hazmat Guys.
Thank you so much for pronouncing the names right. You'd be amazed how hard that is for Americans who don't live on the Pacific coast.
Thank you!
Used to be able to see the wreckage from my house, heading into Charleston. I feel like the tourism dropped after the removal and I remember hearing both sides of the discussion on whether to remove it or not
I remember watching this as a kid. I had always thought it had caught fire when it ran aground, and also remember watching the sides of the ship melt from the fire.
I love your videos and your voice is amazing keep up the great job my friend
Excellent video! This kinda reminds me of the Golden Ray wreck. Took over 2 years to get it out of Saint Simon sound in Georgia. Cut it with an anchor chain. Unified Command was also in charge of the operation. The VB 10,000 was hired to cut into pieces.
Was I the only person who laughed at "lube oil"?
Yes
As Did I!
I like the 1.5 gallon KY eze carry pump jugs
@@LTZxGOD no 😂
I used to home port out of Yaquina Bay. The Oregon Coast is the most dangerous in the US. If you can skipper a boat out of here for two years, without any incidents, congratulations! You have just graduated, to being one of the best. There are over 1500 capitol ships, sunk just around the Colombia Bar. You want to crew a lifeboat for the Coast Guard, you will come here to learn, and our harbor entrances, are a very harsh teacher. The Savage Chef would have done the job but, the Coasties in their infinite wisdom, waited two days to put in the call. By that time, it was too late. I still have video of the bow coming ashore, behind my friends house. Sitting there drinking beer, looking up at the bow, was kind of cool. Not often someone parks half a ship in your backyard. There are on average, 6 storms with winds over 100 mph, every Winter here, rest of the time it is just gale force. It can be real nautical some days.
1am. Time for my bedtime story.
Sleep well!
I lived around the Coos Bay Area with my family in the 00s. Not much there but it's a nice little seaside town. Very interesting story PD! ❤️
I was stationed on a ship in Alaska when this happened. At that time, almost like living on a different planet. I had no idea what was going on in the world and you wouldn't unless you had access to a newspaper (which I didn't at 19 on a ship).
A year later I was at Marine Safety Office San Francisco and this was quite the talk. Our office (Captain of the Port) didn't have jurisdiction, but this was exactly the type of stuff we dealt with so it was talked about a lot.
Thanks for the video. I live in Albany Oregon and have been there, took pictures and knew a little about it as was on the news. But didn't know all the details you gave
I worked for the Coos County Sheriff's Office when this happened. It was a cluster ....
This is the ultimate case of "But wait, it got worse".
"Chain too short" means there wasn't enough chain on the sea floor along with the anchor to keep the ship from moving. No ship drags anchor unless the anchor is on the bottom, so the graphic is a bit off. It's actually the chain on the bottom that is supposed to keep the ship in place. The anchor at the end digs in if the chain starts to drag.
The captain should have added ballast as soon as they stopped. With more ballast, the ship is lower in the water, and less affected by wind due to the reduced "sail area" of the ship above the water. Also, if you run aground while ballasted, you can hope to float your ship later by removing ballast, assuming the damage isn't too great. (Also, if you are being pulled by tugs, removing ballast will help their efforts to get the ship off the grounding.)
Very in depth episode this week
Would love to see you cover natural disasters like the Moore tornado or hurricane harvey.
speaking of environmental damage - could you cover the April 23, 2004 Formosa Plastics Plant explosion in Illiopolis, Illinois, as well as the controversy and dangers surrounding PVC production and use?
Hahah wow I grew up in coos bay as a kid during all this. Never thought I’d see a video on it! They had volunteers from town out taking oil samples from the shore for a while.
I live in Coos Bay and remember watching this all happen. Not much else to do around here
I remember coverage of this on the news as a kid; we made sure to tune-in to the live broadcast of the detonation. It was a spectacle, but I remember my disappointment when the ship didn't disappear and leave a smoldering crater.
It didn't help that I'd seen an anniversary video of the whale explosion on our local news. Growing up in Oregon, I thought everyone was solving things with explosions.
And here I thought we last lit up a Janeses vessel prior to 45'!
A Filipino here, and Yes, Being a seafarer is a popular choice here considering that we're an archipelago and that we're used to travel on the water, or simply to make it our vital income. Not to mention the highly-needed great salary offered by the job. I know this because my cousin is a seafarer himself and my father also tried to be one.
Amazed the Capt. and first officer could simply walk away from this completely free of penalty. An indication of the poorly monitored standards current in an industry capable of huge environmental impact. Even the most inexperienced of amateur yachtsman understands the concept of anchoring, anchors and the requirements of catenary chain for security when at anchor, never mind the most basic requirement of keeping an anchor watch! I can only hope that those officers spent the rest of their careers in Inner Mongolia, a few thousand miles from the ocean..
Sounds like a fair rating on the legacy scale, great job Daddy-O
5:58 The reverse side of the Oregon flag bears a golden beaver.
Women sit on a gold mine
Thank you for pronouncing Oregon correctly. :D
Thank you!
The weather for Southeastern London, UK is wet and windy, according to John. That was 3 days ago. Tonight's forecast is cloudy and chilly.
Came for the video, stayed for the music.
I guess thats why schlatt said u dont want to know what happened at 1999
How about the backstory of the infamous detonation of the dead whale beached in the Pacific Northwest? Civic authorities thought it could be vaporized with explosives and instead chunks of rotting whale flesh were dropping on people, cars, property. Everyone’s seen the video.
I'd love to see you cover another, more comical event from the same area...
I appreciate when people pronounce Oregon the proper way.
Imagine rolling up to work and being told it's your job to sink a half of a broken ship and failing at that
Thank you for pronouncing Oregon correctly
I bet Chief Makoi would have an interesting perspective on the New Carissa incident.
I really like the maritime themed stories.
Thank you
From my point of view, I don't know poop.
Otherwise, I live on the West coast of California and have a brother who has fished out of Coos Bay, Oregon for decades.
Thanks for this plainly great sorting out of this debacle.
Anyone else find the narration distractingly staccato of late?
What a strange tale.
I watched from the top of Radar hill when they blew her up. It was incredible.
I can imagine
Have you done one on Exxon Valdes?
I have not but ill have a look!
Suggestion, since this is on the subject of the Oregon Coast: a video, perhaps for April 1st, on the early 1970s “detonation” of a dead beached whale near Lincoln City.
11:18 I bet the navy crew had one hell of a time enjoying that job.
Coose bay is one of those middle of nowhere places dreams go to die. Ships as well apparently.
No place land.
Those poor birds. 😞
Have a bunch of people been telling you that you talk too fast or something? I found that to get you back to "normal" I had to set the playback speed to 1.25. Damn fine video though!
I do get upset when stories relay that no charges are laid. Annoying, especially against the cost of the environmental damage
This was very interesting for some reason. I wouldn't mind more actually. 🤘🏻🇺🇸
Glad you enjoyed it
i love how the bow just refused to obey the authorities XD
Titanic? Nah. This is the unsinkable ship. I'm just imagining the Navy firing an endless amount of weaponry on it yelling 'die you stupid ship!'
Oh damn, I remember this
Perhaps this is a stupid question, but why didn't they try pumping the fuel out of the ship?
Love your videos, by the way :-)
Fun fact: the coast in Oregon is considered a state Highway.
Sounds like a grounding best described as "pulp friction."
Watched it burn when I was 19 ,coast guard was not very popular at the time if it wasn't for the bureaucracy it could have been pulled off the beach before it turned sideways
12:30 $13m revenue. $6.5m fine. $6.5m profit! No reason to not do it again. That's the American way!
This is my home, Oregon, and such an Oregon kind of story...this is not far from where we blew up a beached whale...so Oregon 😞🌹⚓
I know the attorney that handled the trespass case. It was a creative solution to a shit situation for the state. If I remember right, the ship's insurer was intentionally delaying in an attempt to eventually not have to remove it, or at least not pay for it. The state didn't have the money for the removal (This was late 90's OR after all, their primary exports were pulp wood and weed, and weed wasn't taxed yet).
The other possible award the jury could have decided was $334mil if the wreckage was a permanent trespass due to being too dangerous to remove. I'm pretty sure that was at least partly a defense against the insurer making too strong of arguments for not removing the wreck.
A few details that came out during the case. The ship hadn't deployed all of the anchor chain it could have, though that may not have made a difference, but the dragging likely would have been noticed earlier. And the capt didn't make use of the GPS system the ship had which could have warned about the drifting. I can't remember if the outdated charts thing played much in to the decision.