re: "15' pipe not an accident"
Let me try to put an end to this particular 'tin foil' discussion topic. While the PIQ (pipe in question) may or may not have contributed to the damage to the ship, it was almost certainly not placed there for that objective. I've spent a great deal of my life doing silly stuff underwater, and I tell you from experience that, for volumes of reasons, this simply CANNOT be the case; particularly where deployment by scuba divers as bad guys is concerned.
This is not to say that the ship damage was / was not an accident. Simply that the pipe was not placed for that purpose by malefactors.
Since the ship was penetrated by a gash while in motion, in my mind that almost assures that it was probably an accident. If you were going to take go after ships using that waterway, underwater obstacles would not be the drug of choice. My bet is the pilot erred and hit something he shouldn't have in an area in which he shouldn't have been, and is trying to cover.
sub6
Thank you subsea06 for that input.
I appreciate that.
I made no claim as to how the pipe got there. I only made a speculation on how the damage could have occured.