It seems much more reasonable to only disengage the tugboats that were already helping the container ship get under way once it clears navigation hazards like the bridge, instead of keeping 24/7 quick-response tugboats at the bridge that try to intercept an out of control ship in a bare few minutes.
Moving large boats across water is slow. The Francis Scott Key bridge was 8600 feet long, or 1.4 nautical miles. AFAICT there were just over 4 minutes from the time that the first power outage started until the ship struck the piling.
A modern harbor tugboat can go perhaps 15 knots. In 4 minutes this means it would travel 4 nautical miles, at the very best (running start in correct direction).
So let's say that there would have been 4 minutes for a tugboat to (1) become aware of the problem, (2) travel to the location of the ship, (3) figure out what it needs to do, (4) maneuver into position [keeping in mind it might need to move to the other side of a 900' ship moving 8 knots] and (5) move the ship. And this assumes that the tugboat was idle in the first place.
There just would not have been enough time to do anything meaningful if the tug wasn't already right at the ship, on the correct side.
> A modern harbor tugboat can go perhaps 15 knots. In 4 minutes this means it would travel 4 nautical miles, at the very best (running start in correct direction).
It's probably pedantic, but I don't understand your math. Knots are nautical miles per hour. To travel 4nm in 4 minutes would imply a speed of 60 knots. At 15 knots, you would travel 1 nautical mile in 4 minutes. (15kn/60min * 4min = 1)
