Watched the huge ship pass under the Bay Bridge today

[J.A. Veil]

Possibly the tallest ship to ever enter the Chesapeake Bay passed underneath the twin spans of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge this afternoon. I spent the morning fishing then stayed out to get some photos. I decided to leave the kayak at home today and head out from Sandy Point in my Scout center console. I fished for 4 hours, jigging pilings and finding fish in open water 2 miles south of the bridge where I left them on Mon. I caught at least 25 rockfish today, and probably more. The disappointing part was that most were 10"-14" and the largest was 16".

I first got near the ship about 12:30 as it was opposite the lower end of Kent Island. At that point there were only about 20 spectator boats around. I was able to ride all the way around (keeping a wide set-back distance) and get photos from various angles without other peoples' boats in the foreground.




The ship is Chinese and is transporting 4 gigantic cranes that will be installed at the marine shipping terminal in Baltimore. There are only a few other ports in the world that have cranes as large as these. The loaded ship was 14 stories tall (approximately 140 ft above the water level). There was some concern as to whether the tips of the cranes could clear the bridge.

I left the ship and rode up to the bridge and caught a few rockfish while waiting for the ship to approach the bridge. By that time, they were easily hundreds of spectator boats on all sides. It seemed to me that the ship stopped just short of the first bridge for about 10 minutes, then began inching forward. It was quite a spectacle.



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[ronaultmtd]

Shame these aren't US made cranes and ships- but these are wonderful pictures, John

[Biggrizzly]

Pretty cool stuff!

[AnimalPA]

Great pics, thanks for sharing for those who couldn't be there.

[On the fly]

I'm with you ronaultmtd, the Chinese made cranes passed right by the closed Old Bethlehem steel plant.

[daddyg]

Nice pics I saw it come under the Key bridge. I work next to the Port Of Baltimore.

[jet]

great pics! wish i could have been out there to see it. i kept hearing the clearance was less than 10', but looks like they had plenty of space, 30+, from these and other pics i saw

[Devildog4329]

Really cool pictures. I also agree to bad they arent American made.

[HJS]

I heard on the news that the crane ship had to take on a "boat load" of water as ballast to sink it low enough to get under the bridges. By the looks of it she didn't have much free-board left to spare.

...and all those dink stripers... God bless their little hearts... they are going to be a PITA this entire year, and maybe some of next year before they get up to an interesting size. I glad they are there though, bodes very well for the future.

During the past few weeks a lot of small ~8"-12" stripers have invaded locations along the northeast coast, all the way up to the southern coast of Maine. Dunno if they are Chessie born or if they were hatched out in one of the other northeast rivers, like the Hudson, where stripers are known to breed. It's been several years since the northeast states has had an influx of new stripers. I find it hard to believe that dink stripers from the Bay have already made it that far north... but stranger things have happened.

[ictalurus]

Cool pics, John. It reminds me when the bridge across the York River was completed. The construction company had to wait for the highest high tide of the year to get the uppermost span on. Things like that don't leave much room for error.

[J.A. Veil]

I heard on the news that the crane ship had to take on a "boat load" of water as ballast to sink it low enough to get under the bridges. By the looks of it she didn't have much free-board left to spare.

That is exactly right. When I first saw the ship from 2 miles off, I could only see the bow and stern. The entire middle section was riding very low. The letters on the hull were only half way visible.

The bridge closure and start of the pass-through began somewhat later than initially announced -- I suspect the officials wanted to take advantage of as much of the tide as possible. Even so, the tide was still moving out when the boat passed through ( I know because my boat was drifting south when the motor was not in gear).

[chex]

Very cool! Thanks for the pics... even on photo it looks HUGE!

Yeah, lots of little dinks in the shallows... better than nothing, and I sure hope it indeed bodes well for the future. Hopefully they find bunker to eat and fatten up on.

[Tyrone Shoes]

Holy Ship! I didnt know Harbor Freight Delivers!

Id love to know how big a check one would have to write for purchase and delivery and installation!

Awesome pics!

[Southerly]

back in the day,...

Bethlehem Steel's Steel Mills, and Belthlehem Steel Shipyard, both at Sparrows Point were cutting edge, at least for some time. The Steel side had fallen behind Japanese steel making for awhile in the 70's but updates with new furnaces and a continuous caster (i think) had them on top again, for awhile. There was always complaints of unfair import practices, dumping steel, etc, and that would all be decided politically.

The shipyard had/has a huge drydock. At one time, i think it was the largest in the world. But at any rate, it enabled them to service ships that could not be taken elsewhere. They can even dam it into sections, each large enough to hold a ship. Besides the dry dock, they had/have 7 ways (land slips) for building ships simultaneausly. At some time in the 70's they built the world's largest supertanker there. In 1982 it was hoped that building drilling rigs might breathe some new life into their shipyard operations. They built one. It was so large, that it was made in sections to be assembled on the other side of the Bay Bridge. There was some mishaps in construction and I don't know the details, but that was essentially the end of building drill rigs there.

I don't know how tall the sections were when they passed under the bridge.

http://www.rigzone.com/data/rig_detail.asp?rig_id=790

More old days,...

General Motors had a plant at the edge of the city near there also. It ran into some tough times coming into the 80's, but then they invented, and started building minivans there first. Huge success and things went well for many years. I suppose SUV's took their place and they closed the plant some years ago. Then they cleared the land and built warehouse/distribution facility there. This location can accept cargo from the nearby Dundalk Marine Terminal (SeaGirt now I believe), trucking adjacent I-95 and railroads run there also. This location should make it easy to distribute imported goods from overseas, unloaded by the cranes made in China.

[jet]

Holy Ship! I didnt know Harbor Freight Delivers!

Id love to know how big a check one would have to write for purchase and delivery and installation!

Awesome pics!

Baltimore Sun reported the cranes cost 40 million

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/201...nd-key-bridges