[central_va]

I went through full trianing and qualifred as OOD. There was no reason for this accident. That ship lost control way before nearing that bridge and a lot of things could have been done. Once it looked like the ship was off course approaching that bridge support emergency action should have been taken.

[RinaseaofDs]

No tugs either. That felt strange too. You could drop anchors on a ship that size and its no guarantee your hooks will hold the ship with enough way on. No fenders around the caissons either. That makes no sense.

[griffin]

I agree with most you have said. Emergency anchors should have been dropped, regardless of if there was a tug in the way. Anchor DRAG is not intended to be a infinite immense shock to the main structure of the ship, but a somewhat damped, applied load that will not produce catastrophic failure of ship structure. Yield maybe, but hopefully not complete fracture and failure. But even if it did, so be it. Better to lose the ship in most cases, than a bridge of this size. Ship does not need to be brought to stop, but to as slow a speed as possible to help minimize collision impact damage.

Why emergency anchor release would require power, i don't know. I would think it should not, as loss of power could be the whole reason a dropped anchor(s) might be required. Mechanical sears should be possible to minimize force required to enable release, but i have not designed one.

In any event, I thank you for your excellent commentary.