Professor John Robertson OBA
Today’s news that the new MV Glen Sannox CalMac ferry has been taken out of service due to a small welding crack near the steering gear letting ‘a very small amount of water‘ in, has had many of out media hacks generating much larger amounts of fluid, in their pants.
When I heard the news, I immediately thought ‘settling in cracks‘ like the ones you get in new houses. Clearly it’s a bit different in a ship but is it unusual and don’t you just fix it?
From Crack assessment criteria for ship hull structure based on ship operational life, published in Cogent Engineering, in July 2017:
Some of the inducement factors detailed in Table 1 along with their attributable causes/reasons have been identified by the referenced authors primarily from a fatigue perspective, which generally happens after the ship is put into service and is operational for a considerable period of time. However from this study perspective, the authors of this paper strongly believe that the above mentioned inducement factors can influence crack initiation from a very early stage in the ship operational life, as influence of these inducement factors result in increased stress concentration at the weakest link, thereby creating a source for crack initiation. This is further confirmed by statistics presented by Bea, Pollard, Schulte-Strathau, and Baker (1991) which confirm the presence of cracks in newly constructed ships. It is based on these premises that the above inducement factors are included in the proposed assessment criteria even during the early operational life of the ship.
A newly built ship is expected to be crack free and unlikely to be dominated by operational issues such as corrosion or fatigue to cause cracks. Design and construction related issues are most likely to dominate crack initiation in the hull structure during this period. Cracks of undetectable and detectable size should have presumably been identified during the construction stage by the ship builder, the class surveyor and the ship owner/operator surveyor through visual inspection and NDE. However ships are complex and large welded structures and it is difficult to manufacture them without introducing some structural blind spots, some type of flaw, notch, discontinuity and stress concentration.
Teething troubles, as in the two new aircraft carriers? There have been four major faults leading to these two ships being pulled from service, including:
In May 2020, another investigation was carried out after a leaking pipe caused an ankle-high flood on board the carrier.
Steady as she goes.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
While a leak on any boat is never a good thing, the slavering and boxes of tissues at the ready from the usual suspects in the media regarding the Glen Sannox leak, is unfortunately expected.
However, does it really do them any good in their trying to get rid of the “hated SNP Government”? The viewers and listeners of BBC Scotland and the readers of the Herald are dropping so much now, that any impact from their “reporting” is much reduced and often ridiculed.
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Aaaah, but prof., these are SNP cracks. Not your common or garden Gordy Broon cracks in big boats wi nae planes.
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“small welding crack”…..on a Ferry that services Scottish Island(s)….
No worries BBC are already on the job (again)….
Not literally as in trying to fix the Ferry “crack” but in them once again commissioning the BBC Ferry Soap Opera that they have produced for so so long , so much so that they are now repeating the same story lines with pretty much the same cast members involved….
BBC online top story today on the main Scotland page:
“Crack found in hull of new Glen Sannox ferry”
Surely it deserves to also be on the Scottish politics page as well , as we all know that everything is politicised in Scotland (only), the BBC are slipping up here….still there is time to include it on that page too.
Oh but wait the Top story on their BBC Scottish politics page is a #LabourGood promoted story which is headlined as:
“Defence boost will create Scottish jobs – Chancellor”.
There is always money for defence irrespective of who the UK government is as a party , but also there is always space on the BBC website in the Scottish pages for some Labour PR by the BBC themselves…..
So included in the Ferry article the BBC do remember to get to the real point of their story when they note:
“A Scottish government agency owns the ferries, leading to criticism of the SNP from opposition parties”.
As sure as night follows day that is always the inevitable conclusion reached for everything that is categorised by the media as being ‘political’ news aka #SNPBAD , which is very much driven by politically motivated attacks against the SNP.
Though is it because the clue in this sentence is where one of the words is noted as being “opposition” . As that’s their job, as “opposition parties”, is it not, as in ‘to oppose’ (everything), well “oppose everything”, in Scotland that’s for sure.
They also included (the brass neck) of the Scottish Tory transport spokeswoman Sue Webber MSP who said:
“This news will come as a hammer blow for ferry passengers, who have been betrayed at every turn by this incompetent SNP government”
“After waiting nearly seven years for this massively overbudget vessel, island communities will be dismayed that it’s broken down within weeks of its launch.
“The SNP’s failure to provide a viable ferry network has left passengers stranded once again.”
Sue obviously forgetting about her Tory HQ and their many “overbudget” Tory government projects , also those Tory government projects that were way way behind schedule and some are still uncompleted Tory government projects when they, the Tories, were formerly in power as the Tory UK government.
(Too many Tory government projects to mention but HS2 is one that is still not completed and now way way over budget and also over schedule, now that’s one -of many- Tory “failures” that Tory MSP Sue conveniently and also deliberately forgets about, and hopes that we do too !).
Then in the article they also include Scottish Liberal Democrat Willie Rennie MSP who said:
“This has been a never-ending nightmare for this SNP commissioned ferry contract.
“Islanders, workers and taxpayers have had to suffer from this shambles.”
Well when Willie’s UK party were in coalition with the Tory government they helped impose austerity within their UK and that resulted in an estimated 300,000 deaths, which were attributed to those austerity measures imposed by Willie’s UK party and the Tory UK party at WM, which meant many people really “had to suffer” and also for all of those affected it really was a “never-ending nightmare”.
There was no critique (yet) in this article from any Labour MSP which may have been seen, by either the BBC or Labour themselves, as being a ‘Brass neck too far’ considering the mess Labour UK are making just now, which includes the anticipated cuts they intend to impose upon disability benefits which could also result in deaths happening through their Labour UK government imposed austerity measures.
Also GB Energy which is a Labour UK government project has , as yet , no employees formally noted in Scotland !
(Labour have been in power as the UK government since July 2024 and they have conceded that there are officially still no employees in Scotland in their, checks notes, “Flagship policy” which is GB Energy…..”sheesh” as Chris McCall the Deputy Editor of the Daily record would say, if he had the inclination that is (which he won’t).
Neither the Tories , the Lib Dems or the Labour party can assume that they all have the moral right to declare that the SNP are #BAD .
As all of their combined HQ’s records as part of various UK governments have all proven to be less than spectacular. (not forgetting also Labour in Wales and their poor performance as the Welsh government)
Indeed to quote some of the words used by Tory MSP Sue Webber against the SNP, well, we are seeing that with various UK governments, we , as voters, have seen :
“Betrayal” , “incompetence”, “massively overbudget” and vastly delayed government projects, and many of us have very very much been “dismayed”.
Also who could forget the Tory Aircraft carriers that cost billions that “broke down” (HMS Prince of Wales in 2023 & HMS Queen Elizabeth in 2024) , since this Tory MSP and, checks bloody notes again, Shadow Transport Minister , Sue Webber, is referencing a nautical failure that she attributes as only happening with the SNP.
Let’s be honest here none of the opposition parties are beacons of excellence in their performances as UK (or with Labour in Wales) governments.
In fact the new Labour UK government have now proven categorically that a “change” of party as the new UK government is certainly not an example of us seeing any “change” in UK government behaviour, UK government types of policies, UK government actions, UK government rhetoric , UK government cruelty, UK government betrayal, UK government failure, UK government incompetence, UK government austerity measures and also still getting , with Labour, some UK government ministers resignations (and the odd Labour MP and government minister scandals too).
However ultimately it is still a case of how the poor must always be those made to suffer in the UK because of various UK government measures , all being done (imposed) to ensure that the wealthy of the UK remain protected and untouched by various UK governments.
The UK where the poor get poorer and the rich get richer, irrespective of which political party is in charge as the UK government.
Vote SNP in 2026 to take a first step to making it all stop for us in Scotland.
Liz S
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Had to laugh last night at Paul (Wee Ginger) Kavanagh on Bsky on the Glen Sannox ….
“Do you hear that noise? That’s dozens of ecstatic Scottish journalists battering out copy for tomorrow’s papers demanding John Swinney’s resignation.” ….
“The Unionist press has just had a jizzgasm”
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From UK Defence Journal…………“From the images available, I believe this to be a minor issue related to stress relief or initial flexing in a welded seam, which is not uncommon for vessels newly in service. Cracks in weld seams near the waterline often stem from thermal expansion, contraction, or localised stress concentrations. In most cases, they are addressed by grinding out and re-welding or reinforcing the area as necessary. I would be surprised if the dive team assessing the vessel finds anything more serious, but of course, full inspection results will confirm that. Based on what I see, I do not believe that to be likely.”..https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/glen-sannox-temporarily-withdrawn-from-service/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CFrom%20the%20images%20available%2C%20I,contraction%2C%20or%20localised%20stress%20concentrations.
JB
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There are quite a few small cracks near the waterline that should be welded shut in the media and political sphere.
This is the photo as featured by BBC Scotland of the Sannox crack https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/316c/live/03d8b9b0-0103-11f0-b50e-9d086302645f.jpg.webp
The weld top right gives good scale to just how small the affected area actually is – The weep must have ballooned the paint and the engineers burst it back to identify the problem and alerted up the line for external inspection.
Despite the undoubted inconvenience and political hype, it’s a warranty issue… Simples…
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