A bridge being struck by a cargo vessel seems to be a story as old as time and a bit of
a cliche Plainly Difficult Video Subject.
Although so far on this channel I’ve mainly covered similar events in the USA, today’s
disaster shows it can happen anywhere.
It is the evening of the 5th of January 1975, and 4 cars have plunged into the derwent river,
within a blink of an eye the occupants of the vehicles became the victims of a sudden
and Catastrophic structural collapse.
My name is John and welcome to plainly difficult today we are looking at the Tasman Bridge
Disaster.
Background
We begin our story in the city of Hobart Tasmania Australia in the 1940s..
The city is the most populous region of the Australian island state of Tasmania.
Hobart straddles the estuary of the river derwent, where the city extends along both
sides needless to say this requires methods to cross from one side to the other.
Much like other cities built along a river, ferry services and bridges supply the demand
to travel from either the east or west of the city.
The suburb of Clarence in the eastern side of the derwent had developed at a much slower
pace than the western city and its suburbs,
Originally the city had a bridge built in 1830, roughly 20km upstream from the eastern
shores suburbs, this led to a lopsided development of the city's major population centres.
In 1942 Hobart and its suburbs had a population of 65,000 on the western shore in comparison
to Clarence on the east that had only about 4,400.
Because of this in 1943 the city gained a newcrossing, a floating arch bridge, with
a lift span near the western shore.
This would spark major population growth in the eastern suburbs of the city, which would
triple between 1943 and 1964 from 4,400 to about 28,000.
The rather limiting and not particularly permanent looking float bridge was looked to be replaced
in the 1960s.
This led to the Tasman bridge, a 4 lane span built next to its predecessor.
Due to this bigger bridge population on the east side exploded yet again jumping from
28k to over 40k in just 10 years.
However eventually the city would have to rely solely on its bridge as the local Government
funding for the ferry services dried up, forcing commuters onto the roads.
By the early 1970s as many as 25,000 cars crossed over the tasman bridge every day,
making the crossing essential for the east side's population.
Let’s take a look at the specs of the Tasman bridge.
The bridge
With the float bridge being a bit long in the tooth the new tasman bridge was conceived
to provide a 24hr connection not requiring traffic to stop like it did for the original
for the lift section to open for shipping.
The new bridge would be designed by Reed & Mallik of prefabricated concrete housing fame.
*https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/103070746
The 7million £ bridge consisted of 21 spans supported by 10ft wide reinforced concrete
columns with a 350ft wide navigational span between pier numbers 14-15, this meant shipping
was intended to pass closer to the eastern bank of the river.
To support the piers, piles were driven into the riverbed; one set under pier 7 was the
deepest in Australia.
The bridge measures in at 4,650 feet with a Waterway width of 3,500 feet.
The bridge deck was 57 feet wide which accommodates 4 lanes and 2 walkways.
Construction ran from April 1960 to December 1964 with the first ship passing under the
construction in august 1964.
Although the bridge had its Official opening planned for 2.20 pm on Thursday, 18th March,
1965 by H.R.H the Duke of Gloucester.
The total construction crew peaked at 400 during the 4 years.
The bridge would serve the city well for 10 years allowing the eastern side of the city
to grow into a larger and larger suburban area.
The bridge became essential in stitching the two sections of the city together but just
under 10 years after its official opening a section of the bridge would fall.
The disaster
The harbour at Hobart is one of the deepest in the world, and this influenced the Tasman
bridges design, with its navigation span.
This needless to say meant that shipping was a common sight along the derwent river.
Both commercial shipping and cruise ships make their way under the bridge.
One such vessel was Lake Illawarra a bulk carrier, she weighed in at 7,274 gross register
tons (GRT) and 10,380 tons deadweight (DWT), measuring in with a length of 139.8 metres
(458 ft 8 in) and a beam of 18 metres (59 ft 1 in).
The handy size classified vessel has a top speed of 12.5 knots roughly 14mph, delivered
by its single prop steam turbine powered drive line.
She was in her second decade of service being launched in 1958, and was an Australian built
and operated vessel.
She is a regular sight along the derwent, and on the evening of the 5th of January 1975
the vessel is navigating along the river towards the Tasman bridge.
This evening her destination is upstream from the city of Hobart, the Risdon Zinc Works
refinery in Lutana, Tasmania, and she has a complement of 42 aboard.
She is carrying 10,000 tonnes of zinc ore concentrate which is probably pretty handy
given her destination.
In command this evening is 60 year old Captain Boleslaw Pelc, with Robert Bank 45 on the
helm making steering adjustments under the captain's orders.
The lake illawarra by 9pm is roughly 1300 metres just just over 1400 yards from the
tasman bridge, Captain Pelc after seeing there was no traffic on the river ordered full shipping
speed from the engine room, which would bring the vessel up to roughly 8 knots.
But although picking up speed the ship wasn't acting as it should, the lake illawarra had
started to move off course towards the left of the bridge's shipping channel towards foul
ground and shallow water.
Pelc seeing this ordered a turn to starboard but this didn't fix the problem,the ship was
not in line with the bridge markers which were there to guide ships through the opening.
Bank received another order steer due north, the bow swung quickly but it was not enough,
steer to 101 Pelc ordered, he was trying to line up the ship with the channel at the same
time as to correct the swing
But this quite drastic adjustment swung the ship far to starboard,all of these movements
were ordered whilst the ship was at full shipping speed, by now the distance to the bridge had
almost halved, Stop engines", ordered' Pelc.
Banks turned hard to port, but the lake illawarra continued to the bridge, at 300 metres roughly
350 yards, Pelc ordered the engine-room and to put the engines to full astern.
But still the Lake Illawarra advanced, panicked Pelc ordered "Double full astern then drop
both anchors," quickly followed with "triple full astern."
But it was too late, the ship was on a crash course with the bridge, with the port anchor
dropped, and the engines astern the bow turned starboard, the ship slapped into the bridge.
Meanwhile captain pelc and Banks had thought they had, although having hit the bridge not
hit it too hard, Banks said "Thank God it didn't hit hard . . ".
But the bridges fate was sealed, the roadway above had cracked, the electrical wiring that
was used to connect the two parts of hobart was sparking in the evening sky, soon enough
the realisation on the ships bridge was that a collapse was imminent and it would result
in tons of concrete landing on the Lake Illawarra.
7000 tonnes of roadway and concrete crashed onto the ship crushing Graham Kemp who was
trying to release the starboard anchor, killing him instantly.
The Ship with the impact of the bridge and now extra weight began to sink, she momentaillity
settled on the river bed, only to continue her descent as her weight of cargo pulled
her down.
Some crew started jumping overboard but disaster was not only aboard the lake illawarra, but
also on the tasman bridge.
Darkness had consumed the crossing and 4 cars could be seen from the river bank's headlight
on, falling from the bridge into the water's all consuming obscurity .
Frank Manley and his family were making the crossing as they went over the peak of the
bridge, Manley slowed to what he thought was a broken down car, his wife shouted look the
bridge is gone.
Manley slammed on the brakes of his Holden monaro, the first two wheels went over the
cliff edge that had now formed on the bridge, the car became beached on the edge, tittering
on the edge of darkness.
In a bizarre stroke of luck he and his family had narrowly avoided death, but just look
at how close he was!
Murray Ling and his family, managed to stop before the edge but was rear ended pushing
his car also onto the broken section, lucky his old Holden station wagon too did not topple
down to the river.
As many of the sailors bobbed on the river, one question hit them: what about the engine
room crew, these poor people who had no warning issued to them.
It would be later discovered that The engine room telegraph still read "full astern".
Emergency response was swift, many had seen the ship crash into the bridge from the shore,
some locals using smalll boats raced to the crash scene and recovered many of the Lake
Illawarra crew who had abandoned the ship.
By morning the full scale of the disaster became apparent, multiple witnesses had reported
up to 10 cars had gone off the bridge.
The police in the morning would say "We can only rely on reports about people who had
not arrived home by late night".
Three unsupported spans and a 127 metre section of roadway had disappeared under the collapse
of the 18th and 19th spans of the bridge.
Although disastrous Luckily due to the time of day and the fact it was a sunday, more
vehicles were not involved.
Over the coming days police divers located and recovered 4 vehicles in total 12 had died,
7 aboard the ship and 5 from the cars.
As well as undertaking a comprehensive survey of the wreck of Lake Illawarra on 13 January.
The city was split in two, and with 12 dead and millions of pounds worth of damage caused,
a big question hovered over the disaster and that was how, and why?
Investigation
Witnesses and survivors were painstakingly questioned and their stories corroborated,
engineers were asked for their opinion of the bridge's design.
The piers either side of the main shipping channel had been designed to withstand a blow
from a 20,000 tonne ship travelling at nine knots, but no other pier on the bridge had
been strengthened to withstand a blow from a passing ship.
"It would make the cost of such a bridge prohibitive, " engineers said.
A Martine court of inquiry starting on January 30 would investigate the collision, and it
would slam the crew but primarily captain pelc.
They found that the ship went out of control about two ship's lengths (300 metres) from
the bridge, due to the number of turns the ship was going too slow and had lost its steerageway.
The inquiry found Pelc at fault and suspended his licence for 6 months, he was quoted as
saying.
"I am eager to get back to the sea," "I have been at sea for 40 years and it has
always been a cruel sea, no matter what people say.
It's a tough profes- sion."
But this wasn't going to be the case ANL the ships operator quietly retired Pelc in November
1975.
Aftermath
After salvage being ruled out The ship would stay sunk just below the bridge, although
parts would be cut away for repair works of the bridge's spans.
The city would experience a drastic change in the way its suburbs experienced the region,
with extended journey times and desperate cues for the little ferry services that ran
across the river.
The easteern suburbs became more independent post disaster as the detour using the ol;der
bridge to the north added several hours to a round trip.
In March 1975, a Joint Tasman Bridge Restoration Commission was appointed to rebuild the Tasman
Bridge, in October plans began, it would not only restore the crossing but also add an
additional lane.
The two halves of the city would be reunited with a temporary bridge opened a year after
the disaster.
But Hobart would have to wait in total 2 years to see the Tasman bridge rebuilt, being completed
in October 1977.
Well one big implementation post disaster was the use of pilots, although not foolproof
the sunshine skyway would have a lot to say about it, are a definite improvement in safety.
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Plainly difficult videos are produced by me John, in a wet and windy suburban Southeast
corner of London, uk.
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/107895189@N03/15463604165/in/photostream
https://www.aic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-05/aftermath-tasman-bridge-collapse-crimological-sociological-observations.pdf
Australian Institute of Criminology as © Commonwealth of Australia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobart_Bridge
https://youtu.be/WQGfmN1djjw
http://railknowledgebank.com/Presto/content/GetDoc.axd?ctID=MjE1ZTI4YzctZjc1YS00MzQ4LTkyY2UtMDJmNTgxYjg2ZDA5&rID=NDIxMw==&pID=MTQ3Ng==&attchmnt=VHJ1ZQ==&uSesDM=False&rIdx=MTExOTI=&rCFU=
http://messui.polygonal-moogle.com/incident/1975_hobart.pdf
https://www.naa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-02/research-guide-government-tasmania.pdf P47
https://www.magistratescourt.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/362191/Deaths_from_a_Public_Place.pdf
http://maritimemuseumsaustralia.com/profiles/blogs/the-wreck-that-shaped-a-city/