In today’s weekend Wall Street Journal there is an article summing up Bayesian’s sinking. Unfortunately it was not written by anyone with knowledge of naval architecture but there are a few interesting tidbits of information.
First Porticello, off which she anchored is primarily a fishing port. Commercial fishermen either understand local weather or die young. Bad weather was forecasted early enough that the fishing fleet decided to “wait out weather” by remaining in port.
A boat moored by one anchor will automatically swing into the wind. The SV Robert Baden Powell moored nearby found it necessary to start its engine during the storm to keep her pointed into the wind.
Both moored vessels apparently dragged their anchors.
This limited evidence would point to wind rapidly changing direction. This would imply cyclonic nature such as a waterspout. By maritime tradition and law a professional master of a ship is totally responsible for its safety. It can, therefore, be assumed that Bayesian’s professional captain with access to state of the art weather forecasting technology would have known that some sort of foul weather was predicted but he might not have understood its local effects as well as the fishermen. Unfortunately the vessel’s owner was also aboard hosting guests. Orders by the captain to secure the vessel to withstand bad weather might have been overruled by the owner concerned about the comfort of his guests, leaving her vulnerable to flooding via open windows and air ports.
Roger
