You are working as an expert witness for the defense of a container ship captain whose ship ran into a reef surrounding an island. The captain is being charged with intentionally running the ship into the reef. In discovery, the following information is correct: The ship was traveling at 2.5 m/s toward the reef when a mechanical failure caused the rudder to jam in the straight- ahead position. At that point in time, the ship was 900 m from the reef. The wind was blowing directly toward the reef and exerting a constant force of 9.00 x 103 N on the boat in a direction toward the reef. The mass of the ship and its cargo was 5.50 x 107 kg. During the preparation for the trial, the captain claims that without control of the direction of travel, the only choice he had was to put the engines in reverse at maximum power, such that the total force exerted by the frictional drag force of the water on the propeller was 1.25 x 105 N in a direction away from the reef. From this information, construct a convincing argument that nothing the captain could do in this situation could have prevented the ship from striking the reef.
You are working as an expert witness for the defense of a container ship captain whose ship
ran into a reef surrounding an island. The captain is being charged with intentionally running
the ship into the reef. In discovery, the following information is correct: The ship was traveling
at 2.5 m/s toward the reef when a mechanical failure caused the rudder to jam in the straight-
ahead position. At that point in time, the ship was 900 m from the reef. The wind was blowing
directly toward the reef and exerting a constant force of 9.00 x 103 N on the boat in a direction
toward the reef. The mass of the ship and its cargo was 5.50 x 107
kg. During the preparation
for the trial, the captain claims that without control of the direction of travel, the only choice he had was to put the engines in reverse at maximum power, such that the total force exerted
by the frictional drag force of the water on the propeller was 1.25 x 105 N in a direction away
from the reef. From this information, construct a convincing argument that nothing the captain
could do in this situation could have prevented the ship from striking the reef.
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