The sinking of MS Estonia: Case Reopened Part VII

By coincidence, I was just watching the new Drachinifel video on The US Third Fleet in WW2 and the damage done to it by Typhoon Connie.

USS Pittsburgh lost it's entire bow forward of A Turret due to the pounding effect of the waves.
It didn't flood and sink for several reasons. First because it was completely 'closed down' with all hatches and openings secure and second, the captain reacted quickly turning the stern to the waves while damage control crews shored the bulkheads that were exposed to the sea. It then 'hove to' and rode out the worst of the storm before making for port.

Had the captain of the Estonia realised what was happening and turned his ship either before or immediately after losing the bow the outcome may have been different.
In the same storm two aircraft carriers had their flight decks smashed down in to the hull by the weight of water and pounding of the waves.

Pictures are from after a temporary patch had been put over the opening to allow it to sail back to Hawaii for repairs.

View attachment 64080View attachment 64081

The Captain of Estonia, Andresson, was trained in the then Leningrad naval acadamy and was well-experienced. He was also authoritarian in the Soviet way (albeit being an Estonian) so whilst his crew might have feared drawing trouble to his attention, we don't actually have any idea what happened on the bridge, other than they had little to no time to react.
 
It's spelled Gotland, and Landsortsdjupet is normally referenced from Landsort, since that is closer than Gotland.


Why would deeper water be more scary? It's shallow water that you need to be careful around. And don't forget that fetch is a factor.
The context was that 'Estonia wasn't built for open sea'. I was simply pointing out it had passed the 'open sea' point as of where it sunk, if 'open sea' was a factor.
 
Vixen, I asked you two questions, which you just ignored. Would you please do me the courtesy of answering? Here is the first one:

I've mentioned this twice in another thread, but you ignored it as usual, so I'm going to rephrase it as a question. Alex Jones was on the air on September 11, 2001, claiming that the attacks were orchestrated by the US government. Was he just discussing "a current affairs news item?" Or was he a conspiracy theorist who was promoting conspiracy theories?​
I am not interested in 'personalities' stuff. I couldn't give a toss about Alex Jones and his theories. AIUI he is some kind of 'influencer' type bod. Nobody is interested in that stuff.
 
And the second:

So tell us, Vixen, how is it that you are perfectly fine with these experts' being allowed to criticize the JAIC report, yet you dismiss any experts who criticize the evidence against Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend (and Lucy Letby, for that matter) as "bent," "paid off," "hired guns," "incompetent," "ivory-tower academics," or supposedly just feeling sorry for the accused?​
I have no idea what any of those topics has to do with this one. Each topic has to be judged on its own individual merits.
 
Let me stop you there. I described your opaque use of AI and disingenuous, evasive responses as greasy, not you. This is yet another example that illustrates my point. The remaining crap is snipped, due to being utterly irrelevant.
The AI overview was no different from wikipedia, which is where it seems to glean much of its stuff from. Do you think wikipedia is also dodgy because most people don't consider a wiki source as sleazy or greasy.
 
The AI overview was no different from wikipedia, which is where it seems to glean much of its stuff from. Do you think wikipedia is also dodgy because most people don't consider a wiki source as sleazy or greasy.
Wikipedia doesn't regard Wikipedia as a reliable source of information.
 
The AI overview was no different from wikipedia…
False. Wikipedia is curated and edited. The final product is something a set of humans wrote, fact-checked, and remains responsible for.

Generative AI based on large language models is a transformational process carried out by an unsupervised algorithm that can introduce significant error. No human checks the final product.
 
I am not interested in 'personalities' stuff. I couldn't give a toss about Alex Jones and his theories. AIUI he is some kind of 'influencer' type bod. Nobody is interested in that stuff.
Why must you lie about what is being asked of you like this? He's not asking about the personality of Alex Jones, that is your invention.
 
The AI overview was no different from wikipedia, which is where it seems to glean much of its stuff from. Do you think wikipedia is also dodgy because most people don't consider a wiki source as sleazy or greasy.
Amazing.

As one of my university professors once told me "Wikipedia is a reasonable place to start your research but it should never be the end of it".

If you genuinely believe that citing Wikipedia is acceptable I wonder how you managed to get your degree, and if you think that the AI is equivalent to it I wonder what you think AI actually is.
 
False. Wikipedia is curated and edited. The final product is something a set of humans wrote, fact-checked, and remains responsible for.

Generative AI based on large language models is a transformational process carried out by an unsupervised algorithm that can introduce significant error. No human checks the final product.
Here's the AI overview of 'conning in a ship':

"Conning" refers to the act of controlling a ship's movements, and a "conning officer" is the officer responsible for giving the helm and engine commands from a designated position, often on the bridge, for safe navigation. The word "conn" itself also means the status of being in control of the ship's movements. The conning officer provides clear, unambiguous orders to the helmsman and engine operators, ensuring the ship's safe passage. "

I cannot see anything sleazy or greasy about this quick reference, when that is all that is required. The above links to Facebook and Wikipedia. Anyone who wants anything more scholarly isn't going to want a quick summary or definition, that should be obvious. Asking google search which SOLAS convention refers to the JAIC conclusion about the bridge visibility on Estonia is hardly sleazy or greasy, either. In fact, it was very useful, given the sheer number of paragraphs and chapters in SOLAS. Claiming that I was somehow being underhand is laughable.
 
Amazing.

As one of my university professors once told me "Wikipedia is a reasonable place to start your research but it should never be the end of it".

If you genuinely believe that citing Wikipedia is acceptable I wonder how you managed to get your degree, and if you think that the AI is equivalent to it I wonder what you think AI actually is.
I am perfectly aware of Wikipedia's shortcomings but as a reference source for simple facts, people use wiki all the time. There is no way I would recommend wiki as a study aid.
 
People should explain what they disagree with instead of trying to dream up cutting putdowns.
If only someone had explained that they disagree with @Vixen's claim that her figure of "15-18 knots" is "clearly stated" within the diagram, we could have avoided all of the subsequent posts in which @Vixen continued to insist her figure of 15-18 knots came directly from that diagram.

I sense no anger. I see someone with a plausible hypothesis for your ever-changing story of where your cryptic figures came from. You tell us to read them off the diagram but then admit it has to be inferred from information on the diagram because it’s not actually there verbatim.

If you devoted half the effort into learning how ships and investigations worked that you put into your various ploys for victimhood, this thread would be far less tedious.
No, we were discussing how bad the storm was. I mentioned I had travelled from Stockholm to Turku in the middle of January overnight with no problem, so there is nothing special about the end of September (and the water is deepest just NW of Gottland, and the stretch between Åland Islands and Stockholm can go up to >300). Compare and contrast to the relatively shallow waters near where Estonia sank (35m - 125m) plus, the Gulf of Finland midstream is quite deep. So having mentioned the January ferry journey, I stated the wind speed on 27.9.1994 was sou'westerly at 18 m/s. 18 knots.
The sentence I highlighted establishes a context in which @Vixen is talking about wind speed. Neither that sentence nor the sentences that precede it say anything at all about the speed of the boat.

From that context, we should have inferred that @Vixen knows full well that 18 m/s is not 18 knots. :solved1

So we then had dozens of posts from people claiming they couldn't see the word 'S = 18', on the JAIC diagram,
I suspect they were saying that because 'S = 18' isn't on the diagram.

Given I went to some lengths to explain it several times, plus I am a fully qualified chartered accountant who works with numbers every working day, uses kilometres here, in this country, as default, and has a mathematical sciences degree, there really is zero chance I could mistake 18 m/s windspeed for 18 knots boat speed. Having stated wind speed 18 m/s, there is zero chance I would bother to calculate the mph equivalent, as the person I was responding to already knows what 18 m/s windspeed means. However, person no. 2, claimed they just couldn't understand the difference between 18 m/s windspeed and 18 knots, and a whole load of people claiming I really thought 18 m/s = 18 knots. So yes, I do think it was hazing and not a genuine belief, given the background and my explanations.
How could anyone fail to be convinced by such plausible and well-evidenced claims to qualifications, expertise, academic degrees, probabilities, infallibility, and (my favorite) laziness ("zero chance that I would bother to calculate")?

Especially when anyone who doubts those claims can test them against the archives of this and other threads.

As I said, 18 m/s refers to wind speed, i.e., metres per second and 18 knots refers to the presumed maximum speed of Estonia that night (actually, 18.5 knots). What is it you do not understand? ETA to your question #3, I assumed it was common knowledge that knots in the context of Estonia in a storm refers to speed of the boat.
I should ask my pilot friend whether he's ever heard of anyone stating a wind speed in knots.
 
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Vixen, I asked you two questions, which you just ignored. Would you please do me the courtesy of answering? Here is the first one:

I've mentioned this twice in another thread, but you ignored it as usual, so I'm going to rephrase it as a question. Alex Jones was on the air on September 11, 2001, claiming that the attacks were orchestrated by the US government. Was he just discussing "a current affairs news item?" Or was he a conspiracy theorist who was promoting conspiracy theories?​
OK since a poster wasn't satisfied with my response, let's try again. The current news would be 9/11. One lone individual - Alex Jones or whoever - wouldn't be current affairs news unless they were a person of interest, that is a member of the Senate with influence, or someone directly involved in the incident. Some guy mouthing off doesn't make it 'current affairs', except perhaps if someone wants to start a thread to discuss what he is claiming. However, the reinvestigation of Estonia is current affairs because it is something that has happened recently and is ongoing. The fact is, many Estonians in the Estonian government and ex-JAIC were disgruntled, including Margus Kurm, a government lawyer, who set up a rival expedition to Arikas'. Plus the recent tv doc that set the reinvestigation off, Evertsson. That is why these guys get quoted because they are inherent to the reasons and wherefores there is the reinvestigation in the first place.
 
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I should ask my pilot friend whether he's ever heard of anyone stating a wind speed in knots.
BLOODNOK: Oh, oh, oh! I've never had it as bad as this before! Oh dear, the wind must be 40 knots at least! Well, I hope we don't have to launch the lifeboat tonight. Just in case they ask me, I'll put one arm in a sling and lie down in a mock faint.
 
BLOODNOK: Oh, oh, oh! I've never had it as bad as this before! Oh dear, the wind must be 40 knots at least! Well, I hope we don't have to launch the lifeboat tonight. Just in case they ask me, I'll put one arm in a sling and lie down in a mock faint.
In post n#3,660 I stated [excerpt] "Yes, historically wind might have been measured by knots..."
 
If only someone had explained that they disagree with @Vixen's claim that her figure of "15-18 knots" is "clearly stated" within the diagram, we could have avoided all of the subsequent posts in which @Vixen continued to insist her figure of 15-18 knots came directly from that diagram.



The sentence I highlighted establishes a context in which @Vixen is talking about wind speed. Neither that sentence nor the sentences that precede it say anything at all about the speed of the boat.

From that context, we should have inferred that @Vixen knows full well that 18 m/s is not 18 knots. :solved1


I suspect they were saying that because 'S = 18' isn't on the diagram.


How could anyone fail to be convinced by such plausible and well-evidenced claims to qualifications, expertise, academic degrees, probabilities, infallibility, and (my favorite) laziness ("zero chance that I would bother to calculate")?

Especially when anyone who doubts those claims can test them against the archives of this and other threads.


I should ask my pilot friend whether he's ever heard of anyone stating a wind speed in knots.
Once again, for avoidance of doubt, the '18 knots' reference was in a post BEFORE another poster asked for clarification. Being helpful I added a JAIC diagram, which because unfortunately it didn't include all the knots from 1 - 18 but only the one where the bow visor fell off (S=14) people were up in arms because it didn't say 'S=18', as if I had the clairvoyant power to know I was going to be producing that diagram later for a different poster and had somehow cheated them of their "S=18 knots".
 

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