China: we love you for producing good products at low prices. But this appears to be just the opposite.
Every product has a basic function to fulfill. An iPhone must make phone calls. A bottle opener must pry the cap off your beer. Any extra frills certainly provide added value, but its original purpose comes first. A boat’s primary function is to float, right? One Chinese company is heading back to basics after failing this simple step.
(PHOTOS: River Boats Collide in Russia)
During its unveiling ceremony, the SS Jiugang was launched to sea amid much fanfare. But in a horrifying turn of events for the makers, the vessel immediately dropped like a block of concrete as it entered the water, becoming hopelessly submerged in the Yellow River. The ceremony on September 29th was intended to cast the 104-foot (32-meter) houseboat downstream – they just didn’t anticipate which form of down the boat would go.
A translated statement originally reported on Chinese news site iFeng chalked up the major failure to “improper handling from the builders who mistakenly estimated the water level causing the water level to exceed the limit.” According to Trade Only Today, the boat apparently sat submerged in the river for four days before it was finally grounded. Officials wrenched the boat out of the water on October 2nd and brought it in for repair.
The launch sequence in Lanzhou was filled with so much promise, an exuberance that quickly sank along with the boat’s stern. Luckily there were no people aboard the highly anticipated riverboat, which cost an estimated 17 million RMB to build – the equivalent of $2.6 million. That’s one expensive sinker.
Nick Carbone is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @nickcarbone. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.