MV Dali Has Become the Conspiracy Theory Du Jour

As someone mentioned on Twitter/X, everyone is an expert on large vessel operations today. BREAKING: MV Dali Cited for Propulsion Issues Before Baltimore Incident

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
        — Hanlon's Razor

People who can't spell hydrodynamic pressure, and have never seen an equation that includes momentum, want to explain why there was no reason that 146,631 tonne, 300 meter boat can't stop on a dime.

Oh, and the failure of propulsion MUST be a Russian cyber attack. It couldn't possibly be a history of maintenance problems with that vessel. Nope. Must be Russian Hackers! This is literally Russia. Russia. Russia. 2.0.

According to records from the public ship safety database Equasis, MV Dali – the ship that collided with Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge this morning – was cited by port state officials in San Antonio, Chile, on June 27 for a deficiency related to “propulsion and auxiliary machinery.”

According to the report, the deficiency was described in detail as issues with “gauges, thermometers, etc.” but there was no detention resulting from this single detected deficiency.

No it couldn't be as easy as lack of maintenance. It couldn't be as easy as cost cutting biting people on the ass. It must be some conspiracy, or a cyber attack. It must be Russia, Russia, Russia 2.0!

And a lot of people don't seem to understand that the two harbor pilots on board the ship at the time of the loss of propulsion were employees of the Port of Baltimore, not the company that operates the ship.

There is more. Other collisions just in March of 2024. Another collision involving MV Dali. But because this incident is close to home, and because people know nothing about large ships, and because people love a good conspiracy theory, we have “Russia, Russia, Russia 2.0.”