if that isn't an insurance scam, I don't know what is...
..
As a mod on RCMB pointed out.....the engine had been removed, and all the weight is therefore distributed in the stern, the paddle wheels, prop shaft, greater amount of top hamper on her at the stern...
..and if there were no crew on the boat and she was being towed under no rudder command [as clearly can be seen as she goes down, why were the RNLI called, and actually standing by, just in time to video her taking her last swan dive
very fortuitous I would say.
In the report it said the vessel was well prepared for the tow, but the way all those wooden window covers popped off as she disappeared, they may as well have covered the windows with plastic bags...
.prepared my backside...
..the only preparation was that they had a tow rope AND A CAMERA to capture in on film.
and I'll lay a tenner on the fact that the MCA wasn't informed that they were attempting to tow her across the Irish sea...
..I'd be interested to know what they say, seeing as the company had removed engine and fuel tanks to avoid any pollution...
...a masterful amount of forethought......as though they were half expecting something like this to happen....
its actually laughable, but also interesting to know that she was of course insured for 0.27 of a mill...
am I cynical or what.
If it was heavy at the stern, why did it go down front end first? My observations of sinking models shows that the heavy end loses freeboard first. Camera? I expect that these days, cameras are obligatory, probably as a condition of insurance, and for an unusual job, as the basis for a future low cost Discovery Channel documentary.
Since the wooden panel that popped off was intended to keep water out and not air pressure in, it coming off due to force from the inside should not be a big surprise.
Anyway, calling it a paddle steamer is probably pushing it a bit - it was probably, when it had an engine, a screw driven diesel barge, but with a dummy paddle wheel bolted to the stern. Quite probably, the towing strains on an almost 100 year old hull were too much for it.
Very likely, whoever decided to bolt a heavy lump of iron to the stern, build a cafe on top and then tow it from a nice sheltered berth in Gloucester and across the Irish sea without ensuring that a hull that old that was designed as a canal boat might have some explaining to do.
