Tom K wrote:

From one article:

"It's possible, with small areas of damage, to prefabricate a [steel]
patch and put it into place," says Dawn Gorman, editor of the magazine,
International Tug & OSV.

It says SMALL AREAS of damage.

Possible to patch small areas of damage. That does not mean there are only
small areas of damage. It does not say the damage is small. And since you
only quote part of the article I can't see the whole context. I can quote a
lot of articles on this that say the whole is large and the damage was
major. You seem to be looking for any straw that will support a notion you
came up with. I have been reading dozens of articles and looked at lots of
the pictures. The consensus from what I read was that it is a large hole.
And none I have seen put forward your notion. Really though until the
investigation is done and we can read the results all is speculation.



--
Charles