Posted on 06/30/2011 2:01:31 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Israeli saboteurs have carried out underwater "terrorist" attacks on two ships bound for Gaza in an attempt to break the blockade, activists have claimed.
Organisers said Israeli divers cut a piece out of the propeller shaft of the Irish ship MV Saoirse, endangering the lives of 20 activists who planned to be on board. The vessel, which was docked in Turkey, will not now be able to participate.
They said the damage appeared identical to that inflicted on Tuesday on another vessel in the convoy, the Greek-Swedish ship Juliano, docked in Greece.
"It was pure luck that the damage to the Irish boat was discovered," said Ann Wright, a spokesman from "The Audacity of Hope", an American activists' boat also docked near Athens.
"The damage to the propeller could have caused the ship to sink and those on board to drown. Quite simply it was act of terrorism." The damage is a repeat of that sustained by ships which took part in last year's attempt to break the blockade. That ended in the storming of the lead ship, the MV Mavi Marmara, by the Israeli navy, killing nine Turkish activists.
A renewed attempt to reach Gaza by sea, the "Freedom Flotilla 2" of eleven ships with more than 300 activists from 22 countries on board, is due to launch in the next few days. Israel has pledged it will again stop them breaking through.
It is offering to allow the flotilla to dock at the Israeli port of Ashdod and to escort the aid on board to Gaza by land.
The damage to the two ships is not the first snag for the flotilla's organisers, an umbrella group of pro-Palestinian groups from the Middle East, Europe, America and elsewhere.
The Turkish Mavi Marmara, which was due to be the flagship
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
The ship's at the dock w/o a propeller shaft. If it sinks for some strange reason it's going to sink at the dock because it isn't going anywhere - that was the whole point of the extra cirricular handiwork.
Bubble-jet proximity torpedo would do nicely. Ships tend to sink all by themselves mighty quickly when they find nothing but a column of air bubbles under their hull.
Damage to the propeller and/or shaft would not allow water to enter the vessel. There is a shaft log with packing around the shaft inside of the hull that prevents watering from leaking in.
Since the seal on the shaft is inside of the hull ahead of the hole in the hull where the shaft comes through, cutting the shaft would not cause a leak.
The vessel could be inoperable, but it would not sink the ship. If the propeller is damaged, and they attempt to leave port, there would be some serious vibration (assuming a blade is missing or bent) but it still would cause a leak.
I guess they would prefer to be torpedoed to the bottom of the sea instead of being relatively peacefully sabotaged. I say give them their wish.
Shame we won't get to find out either way.
Thanks, I thought there would be something like that - it would seem to me to be a serious design flaw if not. Also, if the team had access to the propeller, they’d have had access to other ways to sink the ship, if that’s what they wanted to do.
If many many factors are just right, the rotating prop or damaged shaft could contact/breach the hull.
It is very, very unlikely though. This method is probably the easiest and safest way to disable a ship after it is a few hours of days under way.
Who knew turning the propellor wasn't supposed to make the whole ship vibrate like a cymbal in a hailstorm?
No bubbles no troubles....:o)
Better check that shiny new trim on their ships sea chests as well.....flex linear “come to Jesus” shape charge event....is next IMO.
Good day when hamas / PLO is pissed on an off....
Yippeeee !
Cutting a piece of the prop shaft out is utterly ingenious, because next to replacing the propeller itself, replacing the primary prop shaft is one of the most expensive repairs a vessel can require. The shipyard would have to make a new shaft from scratch, if the original plans are even available, and if not, you would have to extract the old one, plug the shaft tunnel, and wait for a new one to be made.
All of that requires very expensive drydock and extended layup time for what is probably a POS in the first place. These “Useful Infidels” were lucky that someone disabled these vessels before they embarked because getting underway on one of these museum rejects is a lot more hazardous than not...
Reichstag fire.
They need to put limpet mines on all of them. The only good terrorist/terrorist supporter is a dead one.
1. Engine damaged (not leaving the dock) (not sinking)
2. Propeller shaft section missing (not leaving the dock) (not sinking)
3. propeller damaged (not leaving the harbor) (not sinking)
Most are saying propeller because it is the only part on a boat they know.
One guy says he has seen the damage. No mention of him being a diver. (propellers are located UNDER the water) sarc.
We don't know what damage, exactly, has been done to what.
We immediately stopped the engines to determine what had happened. We continued on home on one engine. Although the vibration and shaking was severe (for the few moments after it happened and before we shut down), there was no damage to the cutlass bearing or shaft log.
So, it would be very unlikely that they would have any additional damage since they would immediately notice a vibration when they attempted to leave the dock. If the shaft is cut, then no damage could occur since the prop will not turn and the vessel would not go anywhere.
Actually, cutting the shaft is very effective in disabling the ship safely.
I’m guessing that all of these boats were unusable to begin with, which provides them with a nice scapegoat.
Looks like they’ve been reading Vince Flynn - Scott Coleman’s first gig as a private contractor was taking out a Greenpeace ship with almost this exact move, except it was in Rekjavic harbor.
Colonel, USAFR
I’m guessing this is sort of a numbers game like the convoys during WWII. Another analogy might be the Critical Mass bike riders in San Fran Sicko and elsewhere that make their point by sheer numbers. Israel seems to be saying that we can deal with 9 boats easier than we can with 11. The trick I guess is to pick as many of these targets off as early as possible.
Why disable it safely?
Thanks, that does seem unlikely. That was the only thing I could think of, but it seemed like if the saboteurs really wanted to sink the boat, and had access to do this, they’d have done it. The reaction in the article seems hystrionic to me, and geared toward all their readership who, like me, don’t know much about boats.
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