Trying to Get Walter Straight

Photo swiped from Duluth Shipping News, which is a kickass site.

It's January 19th, 10 below zero, with a wind chill of minus 32 and you've got a thousand-foot ship to get righted.

The water fills the engine room to a depth of 20 feet, covering the ship’s four 3,500-horsepower General Motors Electro Motive Division diesel engines. Response personnel estimate that approximately 450 gallons of miscellaneous oils have been removed from the flooded engine room, the Coast Guard said. There are an additional 2,500 to 3,000 gallons of oil and fuel in adjacent tanks, engines and generators, but there is no threat of those liquids escaping, the Coast Guard said.

Once the engine room is pumped dry, officials will be able to determine if the ship can be repaired where it is or whether it will have to enter dry dock.

And I make a big deal of my annual task of fluid handling around the winterizing two motorcycles.