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Dunno?🤷🏼‍♂️but look at the times. If at nite or a long duty cycle the day deckhands may have been off duty. No more 3 deckhands as watch standers on American vessels.

You would not wash down in the dark - what time did they reach Detroit light?

Yes, salt cargo was loaded in Cleveland.

Depends on hours worked in a 24 day. If the deck gang put in lots of hours loading and securing deck and then passed Detroit River Light then the would have to wait till Lake Huron

Back to the original question of washing the deck. Wasn’t this salt loaded in Cleveland? I know it was referenced that a ship can’t wash the deck in restricted waters. However, she covered half of Lake Erie like that. Any idea why they wouldn’t have washed the deck before they arrived in the Detroit river?

With the recent grounding of the Mark W. Barker and last month in April with the Kaye E. Barker off of Muskegon, this makes twice already this year that Interlake has had two of their ships run aground which definitely is not good news and a good thing! Hope things will get better for them as the season continues.

When I was on the Greene ('59 & '60) we used hot water through the deck line to clear away ice or frozen debris on the deck in freezing weather. The chief was always unhappy about this as it increased fuel consumption to heat the water enough to melt the ice.

Correct. No rinsing down in restricted waters.. open lake only.

In the [u]Know Your Ships[/u] guide, the Glossary refers to Deck Sprinklers. Their primary use is to cool the deck on hot sunny days to reduce the temperature differential above and below the waterline. This prevents hogging. It would seem that Deck Sprinklers could also do the job of washing down the deck. But they write volumes on what I don't know.

the lawn sprinklers you see on canadian ships arent for washing the decks but to keep the ship from hogging in warm weather in the canals with very limmited draft. while in theory your idea is okay but you need lots of presure to remove spilled cargo on the decks and hatch covers. what about in freezing conditions it would freeze in the pumps. as far as war ships go yes it would work but ive never seen a war ship carry cargo

[quote=Hobieone post_id=253194 time=1684422191]
On the entire "Marky-Bark" incident, the pics leave me with a question; why wouldn't they take the time and hose off the decks ? I know she was designed to haul salt, but ANYTHING that could be done to minimize it's effects I would think would be just good practices.
[/quote]

Would it be possible to fit ships with a deck washdown system similar to those fitted to warships but one that only uses freshwater to automatically rinse off the decks? As freshwater could be pulled directly from the lakes it seems like such a system would save money over the long term in both maintenance and repair costs as I doubt such a system would be overly expensive to install. It seems even a variant of an automatic lawn sprinkler system would even work to remove salt residue. Don't some Canadian ships have some type of deck watering system for use in the canals during hot weather? Can these be used to rinse dust/debris off the deck? Are there environmental restrictions concerning how these systems are used?

[quote=Hobieone post_id=253194 time=1684422191]
On the entire "Marky-Bark" incident, the pics leave me with a question; why wouldn't they take the time and hose off the decks ? I know she was designed to haul salt, but ANYTHING that could be done to minimize it's effects I would think would be just good practices.
[/quote]
I don't think they are allowed to hose off the decks while in the river anymore. They have to be several miles off shore before doing so.

hobione that same thought occurred to me. perhaps they were waiting for 0800 and the start of the day for the deckhands to avoid O/T. but yes even a quick rinse after departure would help.

On the entire "Marky-Bark" incident, the pics leave me with a question; why wouldn't they take the time and hose off the decks ? I know she was designed to haul salt, but ANYTHING that could be done to minimize it's effects I would think would be just good practices.

the cause is of no surprise to me .......... every time my car burps up a "check engine" or I hit a bump and get an ABS warning for a few minutes, it's no wonder a bundle of technology like that has a "brain dead" moment.

Assumptions? No. It lost power suddenly. That was reported and confirmed by interlake. It went aground, clearly. Crew reacted quickly and properly to avoid a more serious accident. The ship is controlled by microprossers, drive by wire. Engines are computer controlled as are/ is most of our machine world today. Such failure on a new ship is the risk taken in our digital electronic world. Currently anchored above belle isle for inspection and diagnosis of failure. The more emersive the technology the higher the failure risk.

Alot of assumptions there, yes it's new but even new can have faults

Looks like the Barker is aground abreast Belle Isle this morning. Appears burrowed deep in mud.🤦🏼‍♂️. Lost power. Seems a brand new high tech ship of aprox 80 million$ would not have such issues but with all the electronics and computer controls it’s always at risk. At least the CG didn’t have to travel far.🙄. Loaded with salt so I imagine she’s stuck good in that river mud with bank suction.