An interesting comment in today's Toronto paper:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...ory/Front/home
"There is no clear picture yet of what sank the Explorer. The ship's captain called company owner Mr. Poon Tip by satellite phone shortly after the Explorer began taking on water. According to Mr. Poon Tip, the captain said
there was no noticeable impact, and that the first sign of trouble was the water in the cabin.
The Explorer had radar to detect icebergs above water level, and side-scan sonar to spot ice or other objects below the surface. The captain was specially trained in polar operations. Although there was widespread speculation yesterday that the ship had hit an iceberg, Mr. Poon Tip said there was no basis for that conclusion.
"
We don't know what the ship hit," he said. "There's just been a lot of speculation."
I'll speculate that the inner hull suffered some kind of failure first that went undetected, and that perhaps a weld failed on the outer hull just from age or fatigue. The whole article has snippets of technical information providing clues to those of you who've worked on bigger ships and who may also speculate, but with a better background from which to do so.