[dweymouth]

But in this case with slow speed, it's the massive (literally) amount of mass of the cargo ship that gives it an un-intuitively large amount of energy.

[trilbyglens]

8kn isn't super slow

[rtkwe]

It's 10 mph which is pretty slow as speeds go.

[euroderf]

Slow-but-irresistible force meets movable object.

[samplatt]

All objects are surprisingly movable when they encounter enough mass.

[jaxson60]

To your point, it is mass. Most people don't understand mass on water. At 1 knot the ship would do the exact same damage, topple the support and drop the bridge.

[euroderf]

Motor control and rudder control in a momentumous frame of reference.

[lupire]

sqrt of 100K times weight of a car is 300 cars worth.