Every day on my way in to town I go past that old Matson cargo ship docked near the middle of the WS Bridge. I've been watching the water line and the stern is getting lower and lower. Anyone know if someone is paying attention to this? On one hand it would be entertaining to see it sink but on the other it could be quite a pollution hazard.
Brian
I don't know for sure, but I think that dock is a place where ships who have some kind of trouble tie up. A couple years back there was a cement carrier that had a little problem with water getting into the cement in the hold...it was "parked" there for a long time while they jackhammered the dried cement out.
ensignmarvin
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Ok, just spoke with my dad, a retired merchant sea captain who sailed with Matson for years. He said what they call the way that ship has been layed up is a "ruptured duck" the bow is higher than the stern. He says it should have been done on an even keel.
That area is good to store/lay up a ship because when the tide goes in and out, fresh water from the river will wash over the hull, which is important to keep marine growth off of it.
My brother is on the sister ship to that one right now which has a two week turn around going to hawaii and san francisco.
They are steam ships as opposed to deisel and use a larger amount of fuel to operate. Matson will bring both back on line when business picks up.
That ship has been sitting for some time now. I saw some fuel barges tied up to the side of the ship just recently. I thought perhaps they were fueling and getting ready to go back in service.
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Based on ensignmarvins comments I would suspect that they may have off loaded the majority of the fuel on board and transferred it to another vessel.
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