Sometimes all you need to have a successful sail is a bit of luck. No wonder sailors are known for their superstition and strange rituals. Looks like these sailors have done everything by the book, since they have had the enormous luck not to sink this tugboat as it “sailed” beneath the bridge. Just look at this series of sequential images and see for your selves. You won’t believe your eyes what impossible maneuver they managed to pull-off. This was definitely not just another day at the river for them!
The towboat is approaching the bridge with barges loaded with coal.
This frame gives you an idea of how fast the river is running. Obviously at or near flood stage…
Looks like trouble.The bridge didn’t open and the boat can’t stop. Notice that the tug has released the barges. He is backing as hard as possible to try and avoid a collision with the bridge.
Can’t back down enough against the current.
Uh Oh! The current has swung the boat around sideways.
The cook thinks maybe something isn’t quite right.
The boss is going to be REAL mad!
Uh… Boss? Do we have flood insurance on this boat?
Uh…. Boss? You ain’t gonna believe what we just did!
She’s low, but the flag is still flying.
The wheelhouse door and the door in the second deck are now open.
Look close at the bottom righthand side of the picture and you will see that the bridge guardrail is underwater.
Look at the water pouring out of the second deck doorway.
The working deck is still underwater, but rising.
Notice anything unusual? Look at the smoke coming from the exhausts. This thing is running!!!
It is a truly amazing sight. Even when you realize that any vessel of that size or larger is simply a lot of metal boxes clustered together, and each metal box can be made airtight and watertight.
The Canadian military had ships that could be submerged to the bridge superstructure simply by flooding some of the compartments. That was to lessen the effect of nuclear fallout. The compartments could be pumped out and everything was back to normal.
THATS how you drive a tug boat!! captain probably never left the wheel