yes, some of this new stuff could only come from Barksdale but it is meaningful that he is not directly quoted or interviewed like if he wanted to talk but not come openly publicly in what regards this. I guess that many would have wanted to interview him if he was available.
quote:
He had also had few conversations with the other crewmembers, which is why
he hadn't even heard that a storm was approaching….
"I know that some of you all have been getting e-mails and phone calls regarding the hurricane," Walbridge told his crew as he stood on the deck.
Then he said that the ship would be safer out at sea than in port…..
When Barksdale saw the engine room for the first time, before the trip began, he wanted to clean it up, but there was no time for that. New fuel tanks had been installed, and he spent his first three weeks connecting the tanks to the engines, laying the pipes and securing the connections….
Early Sunday morning, Barksdale
shut off one of the two generators for maintenance work. ….
As the generator cooled down, Barksdale escaped the hot engine room for an hour. During that time, the gauge on the day tank, which contains a one-day supply of fuel for the engines, was smashed. Barksdale saw the damage when he returned, but he didn't notice that the tank was almost empty. According to the gauge, there was still enough fuel in the tank. Barksdale didn't notice the error until the generator failed……
He was exhausted, the result of being thrown back and forth in the engine room. His body was covered with bruises, his leg hurt, he had injured his index finger and he could hardly breathe. Nevertheless, he managed to keep at least one generator running. But the water was rising underneath the floorboards. Barksdale noticed that
the power from the generator was fluctuating, and that the bilge pumps, which are supposed to pump water out of the ship, seemed to be clogged. They weren't pumping quickly enough, and the water level kept rising. Taking on Water….
The water was now almost two meters high inside the Bounty….
At about 4 a.m., Barksdale realized that he had lost his battle against the water in the engine room.
A Legendary Ship's Final Hours Battling Sandy - ABC News
This article seems an informed one (by Barksdale) and "The Spiegel" is one of the most reputed information newspapers in Europe but Braksdale is not quoted directly and some things are a bit contradictory with other information, some of them give also from Barksdale. Before going on what seems to be those contraindication let me talk about what seems new and relevant:
First of all it seems that part of the crew, or at least Barksdale did not have an idea of how big was the storm coming in. they just trusted the Captain.
The other important information is that this statement "Then he said that the ship would be safer out at sea than in port" that I had seen attributed to the bounty organization was after all stated by the Captain to the crew as the reason for leaving port. This is relevant in my opinion. The crew just assumed that they were doing the safest and right thing to do even if some had doubts (that Claudene phone call and email). Some had doubts but in doubt they trusted their Captain assuming he new better what was doing in what regards the Ship and their lives safety.
Regarding the contradictions, it has been reported that the Captain refereed to the organization (they had said that publicly) that one of the Generators? had an electric problem.
No electric problem is referred on this account.
On the other article that quoted Barksdale and used him as information source it is referred the frantic and desperate attempts by himself, the captain and the first made to unclogging the water pumps. Nothing is referred here as if he was all alone dealing with the problem. It refers however that clogging of the pumps was a major problem and that the second generator was not working properly. Ir was also referred that the bilges were not properly cleaned after works being performed on the ship and that the Captain new about that.
He says also that he stooped one generator for maintenance but does not say why he stopped it when he new that he was going to need all the power he could get on the next hours. It is referred "As the generator cooled down" and that eventually indicates that he stopped it because he was malfunctioning and overheating. Nobody does maintenance on a generator in the sea in bad weather if it is not urgently needed.
Two final comments: It is odd that he talks about the generators pumps and clogging but does not talk about the engines. This does mean that he is talking about the last hours of the ship and the two engines were out of service already for a long time? It is said that they had given up when there was already two meters high on the bilges and no engines would work on these conditions.
I guess that more information will be given by Barcksdale now that the American media notice that he is willing to talk. I hope for a more consistent and complete report on what really happened with the engines, generators and pumps since he is the one that knows all about that.
The other comment is about "The Spiegel" that shows here, relating an American story, why he is considered one of the best European news source. I am a regular reader and I recommend it to all that want to follow European problems and European views about the world. They have an English international site on the Internet and even the news on the German pages are easily translated to a comprehensive English by the automatic Google translater.
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