Originally Posted by
petit plateau
That crane has to be stowed forwards as it obstructs the S300 VLS cells in the aft position (presumably it has a role in handling reloads).
So either the blast from one of the Neptune warheads has sent the crane upwards, or someone raised it. In many of the photos there is a lot of smoke coming from the void where the main mast was (which is the lower mast, carrying the Top Pair / Top Steer radar). That radar & mast seems to have mostly disappeared, unless it is simply hidden by smoke. Below that mast were the machinery control rooms / the damage control rooms. Awkward.
It is just possible that someone raised the crane to try to use it to direct some firefighting hoses into the void. That is a more positive explanation than either they had not stowed it prior to action, or that it just got blown up/back. But a lot of things about this action are odd......
Many pre-attack photos show a small boat (Captains Gig) on the portside of the left funnel. I do not spot any davits above this boat. Perhaps the crane was raised to launch the small boat as abandoned ship was undertaken? It is practice to lower small boats to shepherd the evacuees aboard the inflatable lifeboats.
You can make out the gig below a protective cover in this file photo.
https://www.reporter.am/pentagon-the...erica-morning/