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In the beginning of Scott Manley's new video The First Commercial Lunar Spacecraft - 20 Years before Israel & Beresheet he takes a moment to talk about recent Falcon Heavy core falling off the boat incident. He advances his theory for what happened, and says that currently there is no evidence to the contrary:

I have an alternate theory, and there is nothing to disprove my idea that the driver of the barge simply didn’t notice this very unfortunate sign on their route home.

The sign shown in the video says 121 feet 6 inches, which is only about 36.8 meters. I don't know if this is a real photograph or just artwork as a visual aid.

Scott Manley is a generally recognized as credible source for space information in general, so if he says there's currently no information to the contrary, then this is plausible scenario.

But that leads me to wonder where there is a height limit of ~37 meters for ships bringing rockets back home, and what obstruction (if any) is causing that limit.

SpaceX Barge height limit

uhoh
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    I interpreted that comment as a joke. The incident occurred well away from port, and thus any possible obstructions. – Lex Apr 19 '19 at 15:47
  • @Lex If you can use a source to establish that the incident occurred well away from shore and any possible obstruction (wires, bridges, etc.) then please feel free to post an answer. – uhoh Apr 19 '19 at 15:52
  • @Lex He doesn't sound like he's joking. – uhoh Apr 19 '19 at 16:20
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    The sign itself would have to be a joke. Waterway clearances are communicated on navigation charts, not by highway signs. – BowlOfRed Apr 19 '19 at 16:59
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    @BowlOfRed I'll never trust anything Manley says again. The next think you're going to tell me is that Kerbals aren't real I suppose, even though I've seen a few in some of his videos? – uhoh Apr 19 '19 at 17:05
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    His accent is enough to convince me it's all true. – BowlOfRed Apr 19 '19 at 17:42
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    I believe he was following up on the memes around 11foot8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11_foot_8_Bridge which has it's own website and specifically the height sign being re-used in other contexts. I saw the sign on his twitter stream first, where the joke context was clearer, along with connection to 11foot8. In the isolated context of the video and his delivery it seems much more plausible. – GremlinWranger Apr 19 '19 at 23:29
  • @GremlinWranger Oh, I see! This makes a lot of sense. Apparently I'm a bit meme-deficient. Consider posting that as an answer? – uhoh Apr 19 '19 at 23:38
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    While clearly a joke to a native British speaker, possibly not so to users of other lanuguages. –  Apr 20 '19 at 11:22
  • @JCRM somehow I feel as though I've been called "unsophisticated" in an ever so polite way ;-) – uhoh Apr 20 '19 at 11:28

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Core loss was initially discussed from reddit reports of a pilot over the atlantic, and later confirmed by spacex on April 15. https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/15/18311945/spacex-falcon-heavy-center-core-drone-ship-rough-ocean

Ships were still offshore on April 17 and had yet to be near any structures/bridges/etc. https://twitter.com/SpaceXFleet/status/1118553932429709312

This tweet from EverydayAstronaut on the 15th suggests the fleet was ~1000km from shore when it toppled.

BowlOfRed
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  • Okay then, it seems Manley pulled one over on me, and possibly one or two other of his millions of fans (I hope I'm not the only one at least). – uhoh Apr 19 '19 at 16:49
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    The original tweet and the comments also provide more context as a joke than the video in isolation https://twitter.com/DJSnM/status/1118289719216017409 – GremlinWranger Apr 19 '19 at 23:37
  • @GremlinWranger he did it again! Radar image of hydrazine and N2O4 cloud (or it's reactants) shown but not explained here https://youtu.be/Fl3Jcczz5PY?t=40 but instead explained here https://twitter.com/DJSnM/status/1119784076230053888 Just asked Why does a hydrazine and N2O4 cloud (or it's reactants) show up in weather radar? – uhoh Apr 21 '19 at 11:14
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    @uhoh Some interesting choices there. My guess is it just flowed better without specific mention. He may have also been cautious about the (low) probability that the GIF turns out to be doctored. – GremlinWranger Apr 21 '19 at 11:23