Details Matter: The $1 Billion Typo

Golden Ray St. Simons Sound 2019

I was reviewing documentation the other day and it started to make me doubt the quality of build.

Why? There were little discrepancies between the way things were named in the document.

There was an element that was named differently in the tables, the diagrams and the screen grabs of the platform.

Which one was correct? You could assume the screen grabs, but the element in question was named differently from the other elements that served the same function, so the build itself was not correct.

Some might say, it’s just a name, why does it matter?

Or it’s just a typo or typographical error, why does it matter?

Details Matter.

I going to tell you a story that I call, “The $1 billion typo.”

There was a ship called the MV Golden Ray.

The Golden Ray was a 200m long roll on / roll off car transport ship that capsized on the 8th Sept 2019, near the port of Brunswick, Georgia in the United States.

It capsized when it made a turn in St Simon Sound and it capsized because it was unstable due to incorrect ballast.

And why was the ballast incorrect?

Investigators found that the direct cause was incorrect entries into the ship’s stability calculation program.

The incorrect entries meant the program did not compute the proper levels for ballast tanks, which left the ship unstable as she made her final turn out to sea.

A few small numbers. A typo. Details matter.

At the time, the Golden Ray was carrying 4,161 cars.

The estimated cost of the vehicles was $142 million.

The value of the ship was $62.5 million.

The salvage cost was originally estimated to be $250 million, however 2 years later it came in at $842 million.

The salvage took over 2 years, so there were other costs, damage to the environment, damage to the local tourism industry and damage to property values.

Details matter.

There’s a proverb that captures the essence of this disaster.

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.

For want of a shoe the horse was lost.

For want of a horse the rider was lost.

For want of a rider the message was lost.

For want of a message the battle was lost.

For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.

And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Details matter and overlooking details can have serious consequences.

Take the time to check and double check, because, details matter.

Image Credit: U.S. Coast Guard, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons