Reduction in bulk carrier losses reported in 1997

Citation

(1999), "Reduction in bulk carrier losses reported in 1997", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 8 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.1999.07308eab.001

Reduction in bulk carrier losses reported in 1997

Reduction in bulk carrier losses reported in 1997

Shipowners' organisation Intercargo has pointed to a reduction in the number of vessels lost during 1997 in an update of its bulk carrier casualty statistics. More bulk carrier seafarers, however, lost their lives in the casualties.

In 1997, according to Intercargo, there were five actual total losses and two constructive total losses. Two were due to navigational error, three attributable to fire and explosion and a single sinking due to plate failure. Some 75 seafarers were killed in the casualties, compared with 49 who died in bulk carriers the previous year.

Total tonnage lost in 1997 was 371,799dwt and the average age of vessel lost was 21 years. The previous year 12 ships, aggregating 393,260dwt, had been lost, at an average age of 23 years.

Taking water

Intercargo said that in the years since 1990, there had been 106 vessels lost, with the deaths of 637 seafarers. Of the causes, the greatest number of ships (30) were lost as a result of taking water and plate failure, with 22 stranded and ten described as being lost through "adverse weather". Six vessels disappeared during the period, while 16 were lost as a result of engine-room accidents.

The organisation pointed out that both in terms of the numbers of ships and the lives lost in them, there had been a general trend downwards since 1991 when 22 ships were lost with nearly 200 lives.

The greatest loss of life had been aboard ships which sank because of plate failure. The incidence of this structural failure had greatly reduced from the 17 lost from this cause in 1990-1992 to the five lost through plate failure in the past three years.

Joint action

Intercargo chairman Sverre Tidemand attributed the reduction in the loss rate to the joint action of all those involved in the sector, the action by the classification societies and safety measures initiated by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO)

Better

He said bulk carrier losses "are no worse than for other ship types and indeed slightly better" and noted that no Intercargo member had lost a vessel in the two year period since the statistics had been last published.

(Lloyd's Casualty Week, Vol. 313 No. 11, 11 September, 1998)