 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 5th January 1975, and four cars have plunged into the Derwent River. Within the 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're looking at the Tasman Bridge Disaster. We begin our story in the city of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia in the 1940s. The city is one of the most populous regions on 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 the 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 shore's 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 and in comparison to Clarence on the east, they only had around 4,400. Because of this, in 1943 the city gained a new crossing, 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 four-lane span built next to its predecessor. Due to this bigger bridge, population on the east side exploded, yet again jumping from 28,000 to over 40,000 in just 10 years. However, eventually, the city would have to rely solely on its bridge as the local government funding for 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. Now let's take a look at the specs of the Tasman Bridge. With the float bridge being a bit long in the tooth, the new Tasman Bridge was conceived to provide a 24-hour connection, not requiring traffic to stop like it did for the original lift section to open for shipping. The 7 million pound bridge consisted of 21 spans supported by 10 foot wide reinforced concrete columns with a 350 foot wide navigational span between pier numbers 14 and 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 measured at 4,650 feet with a waterway width of 3,500 feet. The bridge deck was 57 feet wide which accommodates four lanes of traffic and two walkways. Construction ran from April 1960 to December 1964 with the first ship passing under the construction in August 1964. Although the bridge actually had its official opening on Thursday the 18th of March 1965, the bridge would serve the city well for 10 years, allowing the eastern side 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 navigational 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 the Lake Illawarra, a bulk carrier. She weighed in at 7,274 gross registered tons and 10,380 tons dead weight, measuring in with a length of 139 meters or 458 feet with a beam of 18 meters or 59 feet. The handy sized classified vessel has a top speed of 12.5 knots roughly 14 miles an hour, delivered by a single prop steam turbine powered driveline. She was in her second decade of service in the 1970s, 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 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 Rizdon Zinc Works Refinery in Lutana, Tasmania. And she has a complement of 42 crew aboard. She is carrying 10,000 tons of zinc or concentrate, which is probably pretty handy given her destination. In command this evening is 60 year old captain Bolslaw Pelk with Robert Bank, age 45 on the helm, making steering adjustments under the captain's orders. The Lake Illawarra by 9pm is roughly 1300 meters, just over 1400 yards from the Tasman bridge. Captain Pelk, 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. Although picking up speed, the ship wasn't acting as it should. The Lake Illawarra started to move off course towards foul ground and shallow water. Pelk 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, steered you north, but the bow swung quickly, but it was not enough. Steer to 101 Pelk ordered. He was trying to line up the ship with the channel at the same time as trying 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 Pelk. Banks turned hard to port, but the Lake Illawarra continued to the bridge. At 300 meters, roughly 350 yards, Pelk ordered the engine room to put the engines full of stern. But still the Lake Illawarra advanced. Panic Pelk ordered double full stern, then dropped both anchors, quickly followed with triple full of stern. But it was too late. The ship was on a crash course to the bridge. With the port anchor dropped and the engines of stern, the bow turned starboard. The ship slapped into the bridge. Meanwhile Captain Pelk and Banks had thought they had, although having hit the bridge, not hit it too hard. Banks even said thank god it didn't hit hard. But the bridge's 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 ship's bridge was that a collapse was imminent and would result in tons of concrete landing on the ship. 7,000 tons of roadway and concrete crashed onto the ship. The ship, with the impact of the bridge and now extra weight, began to sink. She momentarily settled on the riverbed, 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 a crossing and four cars could be seen from the river's banks, 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 beach-teetering 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. Luckily, his old Holden station wagon too did not topple down to the river. As many of the sailors bobbed in the water, one question hit them. What about the engine crew? These poor people had no warning issued to them. It would be later discovered that the engine room telegraphed still red for the stern. Emergency response was swift. Many had seen the ship crash into the bridge from the shore. Some locals using small boats raced to the crash scene and recovered many of the ship's crew. 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 who had not arrived home by late night. Three unsupported spans and 127m section of roadway had disappeared under the collapse. Although disastrous, luckily due to the time of day and the fact that it was a Sunday, more vehicles were not involved. Over the coming days, police divers located and recovered four vehicles. As well as undertaking a comprehensive survey of the wreck of the Lake Illawarra on the 13th of January. In total, 12 had died, seven aboard the ship and five from the cars. The city was split in two and with 12 dead and millions of dollars of damage caused, a big question hovered over the disaster. And that was how and why. The investigation. Witnesses and survivors were painstakingly questioned and their stories corroborated. Engineers were asked for opinion on the bridge's design. The piers either side of the main shipping channel had been designed to withstand a blow from a 20,000 ton ship travelling at nine knots, but none of the piers 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 maritime court of inquiry started on the 30th of January, 1975 and investigated the collision. It would slam the crew, but mainly Captain Pelt. They found that the ship went out of control about two ship lengths or roughly 300 meters, just over 300 yards from the bridge. Due to a number of turns, the ship was going too slow and had lost its steerage way. The inquiry found Pelt at fault and suspended his license for six months. He was quoted as saying, I'm eager to get back to the sea. I've been at sea for 40 years and it has always been a cruel sea and no matter what people say it's a tough profession. But this wasn't going to be the case. A and L, the ship's operator, quietly retired Pelt 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 on the bridge later on. The city would experience a drastic change in the way its suburbs experienced the region, with extended journey times and desperate for the little ferry services that ran across the river. The eastern suburbs became more independent post disaster as the detour using the older 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 two 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 that. It is definitely an improvement in safety. This is a plain difficult production, all videos on the channel are Creative Commons attribution share alike licensed. Plain difficult videos are produced by me, John, in a currently wet and miserable corner of southern London UK. I'd like to thank my Patrons and YouTube members for your financial support. If you're enjoying this outro song, you can check it out on my second channel made by John. I also have Instagram, Twitter and Spotify if you fancy checking out more of my content. And all that's left to say is Mr Music, play us out please.