On 8 June 2007 the “Pasha Bulker”, a medium sized bulk carrier ran aground in a storm on a beach at Newcastle, Australia.
Knowing my interest in commercial shipping, I was first sent these (bottom of linked page) photos of a vessel in a storm on 20 June. I received them again on the 21st. And again on the 26th. In each case, they were described as being of the “Pasha Bulker” just before she went aground. In each case they were sent to me by a colleague who had been passed them by other people who had been passed them by others in a long chain.
As you will see from the link, the photos in question are of the “Selkirk Settler”, in a storm in the mid-Atlantic in 1987. I first saw them in the mid nineties.
When they were sent to me the first two times, the filenames of the photos were “Selkirk settler.jpg”. Something of a giveaway you’d think, but apparently not for those too keen on passing on the latest gee wizz nonsense to engage their brains for half a second. The third time someone sent me the photos, still under precisely the same subject line, the names of the photos had been changed to something neutral.
You have to wonder about the person who first dug these up – who must have known they were of the “Selkirk Settler” - and sent them out under the subject line “Pasha Bulker”. You have to wonder even more about someone who leaves the subject line as is, but in order to cover up the fact they are sending on nonsense, changes the filenames to hide the truth
I got those pictures of the Selkirk Settler- I thought it was the Pasha Bulker and the title was a local newspaper which had published them. Thanks for clarifying.
Weird vuja de (deja vu, in reverse as I’ve never seen this…) in the wiki article saying they’ve started (and apparently failed) an attempt on the evening of the 28th - a time that hasn’t happened here yet, since we’re on the other side of the IDL. :eek:
More photos here from the invaluable cargolaw.com website run by law firm Countryman & McDaniel, a necessary bookmark for transportation geeks everywhere. There’s a terrific shot about 3/4 of the way down which, because of the compression effect of using a telephoto lens, makes it seem as though the ship is about to crash into that clubhouse-type building on the beach.
I have to find out if Clarke and Dawe are broadcast around here. (Most of our local PBS stations are infatuated with the Brits with an occasional view of Red Green.)
Thanks for that link, I’ll kill some time on that site. There is something deeply disturbing to me about pictures/videos of sinking or sunken ships. Sort of like finding the body of someone drowned. I don’t know why I feel like this. I’m not a sailor, or have much experience on the sea; they still freak me out though.
Then again I’m terrified of spiders but enamored by all spider-related threads.
That picture is fucking with my head like an optical illusion. For the life of me I just can’t process the proportions of the different parts of the picture and can’t understand how the telephoto lens would cause it. The ship looks too big, and the buildings at the bottom look too big, and the angle of the shot is confusing. It looks like someone just took a big wide shot of the ship and stuck it on top of a photo of the buildings.
That “clubhouse-type building” contains a surf lifesaving club, changing rooms for the public, and a snack bar that my youngest son worked in part time until about a week ago. He’s now in New York State at a summer camp – but for his last week in Australia he got a lot of extra work because of the extra crowds on Nobbys Beach, which usually doesn’t get a lot of people in June, since it’s the start of winter.
(Most of our local PBS stations are infatuated with the Brits with an occasional view of Red Green.)