What nearly punched a hole in this Japanese oil tanker?

What nearly punched a hole in this Japanese oil tanker?

news.yahoo.com

The M. Star, a Japanese oil tanker, suffered ... something in the early-morning hours Wednesday as it passed through the Strait of Hormuz. Crew members heard a blast and saw a flash, windows were blasted out, ceiling panels in a dining room were shaken loose, and one crew member suffered minor injuries. And most significant, an enormous dent appeared on the tanker's starboard side, extending from the waterline more than halfway up the hull. But what caused it? the New York Times asks. Who knows?

(visit the link for the full news article)

Any ideas? A surfacing sub...? I couldn't imagine the odds of that? Thought us here at ATS could come up with some good scenarios...? There doesn't appear to be any real collision marks/scratches? Also doesn't appear to be any evidence of a blast either? I did notice there was a small earthquake that day, but the damage is to local and specific to be a wave in my opinion? They said the windows "blew out" and that there was a flash of light? That resembles a blast/explosion? The damage seems to stop at the water line, which to me discounts a "mine"? Maybe some drunk Iranian's in one of their "fast attack vessels"? But no mention of radar contact?

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

C'mon this is a no brainer! Godzilla did it!! Or maybe that big turtle monster.

reply to post by bair1975


Explosive device, somewhat above the water surface maybe a few feet, uncontained in any structural metallic casing. standoff distance between 5 and 10 ft, ie non contact and likely command detonated. Intermediate to high rate of detonation, device not typical for offensive military ordnance other than maybe anfo trenching charge, which at 25 lbs or a few multiples is in the right size range.
Likely delivery in R/c zodiac. WOuld be nice to see surface detail horizontal to blast center to see fragmentation pattern if any,
Surface analysis will easily tell if solid esplosive and what class used.


[edit on 30-7-2010 by mordant1]

This is the first picture ive seen of the damage, and its understandable why people are struggling to find a cause.

Looking at the damage, i think collision with another vessel can be ruled out, its not severe enough and its too localised. Even a light bump would of at least took the paint off and surface scratched the hull.
An explosion from any type of rocket/mine/missile also would of left more damage, even in a near miss explosion you would expect to see scorch marks or some type of residue left over from the blast.
Freak wave is out of the question, Puterman done a good job of debunking that in this thread for me to rule that out.
An inactive mine would of caused damage more localised to the water line, and probably wouldnt of caused this much damage without exploding.

I cant think of anything else to rule out without going into the unusual. I cant wait for the outcome of this one.

a scalar wave weapon, well thats my theory
these things exist maybe a bit off target or
a direct hit but a little weak?

reply to post by bair1975

not to be rude
already discussed here
www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by Danbones


not to be rude, but so far I'm the only one thats close

It's obvious......CHUCK NORRIS!

On a side note it is a known fact that Old Spice is made from Chuck Norris' sweat.
P-P-P-P-P-P-P-POWER



But I don't know what could have caused this op.

S+F(I would like to say thanks for the wake up call Catch a fire star for you!)

[edit on 30-7-2010 by Gentill Abdulla]

Originally posted by mordant1
reply to post by Danbones

 

not to be rude, but so far I'm the only one thats close

*sigh*
were you the winner of the coffee or the beer?
or was that the Godzilla farts guesser?

reply to post by Danbones


From all appearances I'm closest to sticking to the OP question. This is a problem how?

reply to post by mordant1


Mine is the most accurate.

It was obviously Chuck Norris who did it.

He had to blow his nose so he ripped it off then put it back on, but left the dent.

[edit on 30-7-2010 by Gentill Abdulla]

reply to post by Gentill Abdulla


I defer to your post as the true winner. My initial thought of plasma rifle in the 30 megawatt range is a bit off.
Nothing beats chuck norris, but actually chuck pushed the whole ship to starboard EXCEPT for the divot on the starboard side

[edit on 30-7-2010 by mordant1]

[edit on 30-7-2010 by mordant1]

Originally posted by mordant1
reply to post by Gentill Abdulla

 

I defer to your post as the true winner. My initial thought of plasma rifle in the 30 megawatt range is a bit off.
Nothing beats chuck norris, but actually chuck pushed the whole ship to port EXCEPT for the divot on the port side

[edit on 30-7-2010 by mordant1]

No chuck would have destroyed it, he clearly just had to sneeze and used part of the hip as a napkin then but it back in with his awesome power.

I like the Remote Control Zodiac theory as well.

It's a miniature boat that you can control remotely, thus making an excellent delivery vehicle for this type of terrorist attack.

It seems plausible also when accounting the visible damage on the boat.

But why? And for what purpose?

This is a Japanese flagged tanker after all, why would anyone attack that specifically? It's all quite bizarre.

I don't think it was a old underwater mine because I assume other ships would have set that thing off prior to this incident as the Straight is a high traffic area.

Whats going on with ATS lately?, the OP asked a valid question, so many replies and nothing of serious substance. Stay on topic people, there are other forums for fun.

reply to post by Catch_a_Fire


I hope you are not referring to me, I'm as close as you get without having to pay serious money and I would appreciate someone with something I can actually learn something from.

[edit on 30-7-2010 by mordant1]

reply to post by Danbones


Not to be rude but the initial thread/report you linked didn't have a picture of the damage or a report stemming further than two lines reporting there was an incident.....

My guess they had a faulty vent. Or somebody didn't open the vents when purgeing tanks.

Perhaps a torpedo or missile that hit the hull but didn't explode? I have no proof to back up my claim, just figured since the crew reported seeing an explosion and it appears something slammed into the outside of the ship, perhaps high speed explosive device that malfunctioned.