Marine

Citation

(2001), "Marine", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 10 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2001.07310bac.001

Marine

Marine

15 May 2000 – Leader L.

Most of the hull insurance risk for the m bulk carrier Leader L., which sank with the loss of 18 lives off Nova Scotia, on March 24, this year, is expected to be borne by the Norwegian market, it has emerged. Earlier reports circulating in the insurance sector have implied that cover was placed 100 per cent with Lloyd's syndicate 329 J.L. Jones & Others, which additionally wrote the protection and indemnity policy. It is now understood that the hull element was structured 30 per cent in London, 52.5 per cent in Norway and 17.5 per cent in Italy. Largest individual shares were taken by Storebrand with 27.5 per cent and Mr Jones' operation with 23 per cent. Analysts said that a total loss claim on the hull, with a likely value of $6m, would normally have been presented by the owner, in this case Leoninus Shipping of Monrovia, by about this stage. It is believed a formal submission has yet to be made. Reinsurance will absorb some of the claim to agreed levels. Investigations into the casualty are being carried out by the International Association of Classification Societies, and by Polski Rejestr Statkow.

18 May 2000 – Norwegian Dream

An overload of information and too much work for a bridge officer on m passenger vessel Norwegian Dream led directly to the mistake that caused the cruise vessel to collide with m container vessel Ever Decent last year, a report will conclude. This key conclusion has emerged from the investigation conducted into the incident by the Bahamas Maritime Authority, the flag administration of the Norwegian Dream. The authority believes that the absence of a decision-support system was the ultimate cause of the navigational error which led to the collision between the passenger vessel, which had some 2,400 people on board, and the Ever Decent. Speaking at a conference on the future safety of large passenger vessels in London, Douglas Bell, deputy director for maritime affairs at the Bahamas Maritime Authority, said the intention was not to put the blame squarely on crew negligence. Mistakes had been made by both vessels, he said, and the incident had involved many complex factors, not least a very busy traffic situation. At the time of the collision, which occurred off south-east England in August last year, there had been ten vessels in a very small area – a crossing point in a traffic separation scheme in the eastern approaches to the English Channel. As the Norwegian Dream approached the crossing area, the traffic situation became busier. The officer of the watch also was under pressure from other factors, such as vessel reporting duties and the need to attend to the work of other crew members. In the end it all became too much. "The officer of the watch became overloaded," Captain Bell explained, "and in the heat of the moment [he] appears to have made a mistake in reading the information on the radar." This eventually resulted in him taking the wrong collision avoidance action. The watch-keeping officer had a great deal of technology readily available. However, none of the equipment had been of real help to assist in the management of the information, Captain Bell said. While the Bahamas had followed and enforced all the relevant international rules and standards, "there is more to our job than simply enforcing the conventions," he stressed. In this particular case, the Bahamas had decided that the present requirements for equipment and training were "not adequate" for a large passenger vessel of the type of the Norwegian Dream. "We must look at the burden which we place on the people on board and ask ourselves if it is reasonable … there is a need to look more carefully at the management of information on the bridge of a modern cruise ship." There was a case, Captain Bell believed, for the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to consider "whether the management of information should be regulated in some way so that the officer of the watch can prioritise the data fed to him to minimise the chance of an accident." Maurice Storey, chief executive, UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency, who also addressed the conference, said that there was a case for an IMO working group to consider operational safety issues specifically associated with large passenger vessels.

31 May 2000 – Dena

At least 13 people were killed and 50 injured when fire broke out on board a disused m tanker Dena (178,257 gt, built 1975) near Chittagong port today, police and fire officials said. "Thirteen partly charred bodies have been recovered and nearly 40 people have been moved to hospitals. At least ten others were given first aid," one fire fighting official said. The exact cause of the fire on the tanker at a ship-breaking yard was not yet known. Serajul Huq, an inspector in the Government's explosive department, said "combustible gas accumulated inside the empty tanker could have been ignited by fire." "However, nothing can be said for sure unless there is a full investigation," he said. Police said this evening the blaze on the tanker was under control. They said a rescue operation was under way and that the death count could rise. Witnesses said the fire followed a big explosion that tore off part of the tanker while workers were dismantling it using gas torches. "Debris from the vessel rained down on the whole yard hitting some people on the ground," one witness said. He said smoke from the vessel covered the sky around the yard. Bangladeshi ship-breakers, ZN Enterprise, bought the disused tanker from an Iranian company a few months ago, yard officials said. They could not provide further details.

1 June 2000 – M tanker Dena, was beached on May 19 in Shitalpur, Chittagong ship-breaking yard, by a local firm Namrin (? Namreen) Enterprise, Chittagong who bought the tanker for scrapping. About 200 people were involved in scrapping the tanker. At about 11.00, May 30 there was an explosion on board the vessel. The blast is said to have occurred in one of the gas chambers of the tanker which reportedly was not gas free. At least 12 workers were killed and 50 other injured and some more are being admitted to Chittagong Medical College Hospital for necessary medical treatment. As per press information search for trapped workers inside the vessel was still on going and the casualty figure may rise. However no one from Namrin Enterprise could be contacted for their comments in respect to above incident.

2 June 2000 – At least 20 people are feared dead and 35 others were badly injured in an explosion on m tanker Dena at a ship-breaking yard near Chittagong yesterday. Police at the Sitakunda ship-breaking ground, near Chittagong, said 11 people were confirmed dead so far, nine of whom died on the spot and two others in hospital. Among the 11, the bodies of two victims were burned beyond recognition, police said. The death toll is expected to go up as the condition of some of the injured was stated to be serious. All victims were labourers, aged between 30 and 50, engaged in breaking the tanker. They said the search for trapped workers inside the vessel was still going on and that the death toll could rise. Doctors at Chittagong Medical College Hospital said around 50 of the injured were receiving treatment and the condition of two of them, suffering severe burns, was "critical." Witnesses said fire-fighters who reached the site after the midday blast on Dena took several hours to put out the blaze. Fire-fighters finally contained the flames four hours later at around 16.15. Up to 150 workers were in and around the former Iranian oil-tanker, witnesses and local residents said, adding the blast may have occurred in one of the gas chambers. Namrin Enterprise had bought the vessel and brought her for wrecking on May 19.

2 June 2000 – At least 16 people were burnt to death and 50 others injured, 15 of them seriously, as m tanker Dena tanker caught fire while being scrapped at the Shitalpur ship-breaking yard at Sitakunda today. According to police and witnesses, Dena caught fire during scrapping at the ZN Enterprise Shipyard at about 12.00. Sources said, the workers started scrapping the tanker at about 10.00 this morning when gas leaked from the No. 1 tank of the vessel. At about 11.30 the workers again tried to scrap the vessel leading to a loud explosion. Fire engulfed the oil tanker quickly. Nine people died on the spot while two others succumbed to their injuries at the Chittagong Medical College Hospital. About 50 people were injured. Of them the condition of 15 persons is stated to be critical. The injured were admitted to Chittagong Medical College Hospital and clinics. Witnesses and police apprehend that more workers were trapped in the blazing tanker. Sources said some 800 workers had been working in the ship-breaking yard. On receipt of information, the Fire Brigade personnel rushed to the spot, but could not extinguish the raging fire. The nearby vessels in the bay sprayed water on the tanker and brought the fire under control in the evening. Sources said all the victims were labourers, aged between 30 and 50, engaged in breaking the tanker brought back by ZN Enterprise ten days ago from Singapore. Sources at the ship-breaking yard said that 30 workers were still missing.

6 June 2000 – We contacted Namrin Enterprise, Chittagong who have beached the vessel for scrapping. They further advised: ten workers were killed and 14 others were injured due to the explosion, and not 12 workers killed and 50 workers injured as reported in the daily newspaper. There are presently no trapped workers are inside the vessel. The situation was brought under control the same day as the explosion.

31 May 2000 – Sleiner

A Norwegian insurance company today offered a compensation package of about $3.3 million to those who survived or lost family members in the November 26 sinking of m ferry Sleipner. The Skuld insurance group based its offer on calculations of the real economic losses suffered by the victims or their families. All those who survived the accident will get at least $17,800. Those who lost a spouse were offered a minimum of $83,300. Children who lost a parent were offered $40,277, plus $1,300 a year until they turned 18, while those between 18 and 25 were offered a lesser amount. Parents were offered $22,200 for each child lost under age 25, and $11,100 if the children were older. The insurance company also said it would consider higher individual claims in some cases. Lawyers for the survivors and families said they would recommend accepting the offer.

7 July 2000 – A second attempt is to be made, next month, to raise m ferry Sleipner, the Norwegian fast ferry that sank during a Stavanger-Bergen voyage last November claiming 16 lives. Georg Bide, of Kvinnherad-based Bide Marine Services, said his firm will, weather permitting, seek to raise the vessel in the first half of August. Bide Marine Services' appointment follows a failed attempt to raise the Sleipner last spring. The project was abandoned after only the bow section had been raised. The inquiry commission appointed by the Norwegian Ministry of Justice had insisted that it needed to study the entire wreckage in order to complete its task. The commission has announced no timetable for its work. But its report is widely expected by the autumn, provided the August salvage comes off. Sleipner rests 99m underwater. The hull section was first raised to a few metres underwater before being lowered back, in the last salvage attempt, and then was actually a few feet out of the water before being lowered again.

12 June 2000 – Derbyshire

The inquiry into the sinking of bulk/oil mv Derbyshire, due to resume last week after the Whitsun recess, has been delayed. The report on the latest series of tank tests conducted at the Marine Research Institute in Holland has revealed massive discrepancies in the interpretation of the data, contained in 48 CD-ROMs as well as two large paper files. The information is essential to determine how the vessel's fore-end flooded in a tropical revolving storm, and the cause of the loss. The Attorney-General's lawyer told the judge that according to which interpretation method was used the results were entirely or vastly different. He has called in an expert in the science of extreme value statistics, Dr Jonathan Tawn, professor of statistics at Lancaster University, to advise which methodology is appropriate and whether the test data provides a certain enough basis for assessing the probabilities of hatch cover failure. Dr Tawns report is expected by June 20. Meanwhile the inquiry is hearing loss scenario evidence based on the underwater wreckage imagery.

8 June 2000 – Flare

Federal safety regulators have concluded m bulk carrier Flare split in two, taking 21 lives with her, because she was not weighted down enough to prevent heavy seas from snapping the vessel. A report to be released today calls for the federal Transportation Department to push ship owners to do more to ensure other aging vessels do not suffer the fate of Flare. The vessel sank on January 16, 1998, in frigid waters off St-Pierre-Miquelon. Only four of the 25 crew members survived. The others died of hypothermia and exposure in the 28C waters. An attachment to the report by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, says a combination of rough weather, existing "fatigue fissure" damage in the vessel's deck and inappropriate ballasting led to the sinking. The report said some of the vessel's ballast tanks were empty when she sailed from Rotterdam for Montreal. Lawyer Daniele Dion, who represents the vessel's owners, ABTA Shipping, said in an interview today from Montreal that the master was responsible for how the vessel's weight was distributed. The master was among those who died when Flare sank. Dion also said the board's conclusions are inaccurate and not supported by the evidence. "The information isn't there for anyone to draw any conclusions," she said. "Everything is speculative at this point." The ballast tanks had been ordered repaired in a Cuban port only two months earlier by Lloyd's Classification Society. The surveyors gave ABTA three months to carry out the repairs to the ballast tanks. The four surviving crew members said during a 1999 Radio-Canada television documentary that rust and cracks in the tanks were not repaired in Cuba or Rotterdam. A repair crew attempted to fix the ballast tanks during the passage to Canada, meaning some could not be filled with water. "The required structural repairs were not effected before leaving Rotterdam, a port with extensive ship repair facilities," said the TSB report. The report said the fractures at the "boundaries" of the ballast tanks were repaired, but the "internal structural repairs" required by the surveyors had not been completed at the time of sinking. The 70-page report also said the loss of life might have been prevented if an emergency signalling device had been properly installed and if survival suits had been available for the crew. "The loss of life was probably exacerbated by the lack of information from the vessel regarding the location of the distress situation. The mayday was short, incomplete and difficult to understand and the signal did not provide any information." The report noted "Flare included six immersion suits and 27 thermal protective aids which stayed in the lifeboats." The crew did not succeed in unlashing the lifeboats because the vessel sank in a mere 20 minutes. If the crew had been able to wear the immersion suits, it would have increased the survival times of the men "from between 12 and 14 hours depending on the clothing worn." Paul Newdick, the lawyer representing many of the families of the men who died, said in an interview from London, England, that "had this vessel had a proper emergency signal and survival suits, many of these men would have been saved."

17 June 2000 – Dweepraj-2

At least 20 people were feared dead and 40 others injured when a Dhaka-bound launch, mv Dweepraj-2, from Barisal and a Barguna-Amatali-bound launch, mv Manoshi-4, from Dhaka collided in the River Meghna off Badarpur under Muladi upazila in Barisal district on Wednesday night (June 14), according to Bangladesh Shipping Industry sources. It is reported Dweepraj-2, with some 800 passengers on board, rammed Manoshi-4, carrying over 400 people, around midnight. The bodies of nine of the victims were recovered from inside Manoshi-4. According to police sources, the injured were admitted to different hospitals in Dhaka, Keraniganj and Chandpur. The Masters of both launches disappeared from Dhaka on June 15, police added. Meanwhile, State Minister for Shipping Mofazzal Hossain Choudhury Maya also expressed his deep shock at the tragic incident. A three-member inquiry committee has been formed to investigate the accident. The committee has been asked to submit its report to the director general of the Marine Transport Department within a week identifying the people responsible for the accident.

21 June 2000 – Linkuva

Refrigerated mv Linkuva (4,160 gt, built 1988) was in position latitude 15 03N, longtitude 103 29W, approximately 220 nautical miles south-west of Acapulco, at approximately 07.00, UTC. She reported a main engine casualty while in hurricane "Carlotta". The vessel was in ballast, with low bunker fuel. She was rolling 35 to 40 degrees in heavy storm conditions. Coast Guard are readying aircraft to over-fly the area. Timed 17.30, UTC: Refrigerated mv Linkuva has 18 persons on board. A Cl30 airplane has been launched. M bulk carrier Citrus Islands is proceeding to the scene, expected time of arrival in approximately four hours time. US Coast Guard Petty Officer Tyler Johnson said Linkuva lost contact with the mainland at approximately midnight (07.00, UTC, today) after reporting main engine failure approximately 220 nautical miles south-west of Acapulco, Mexico. "At that time they were basically in the middle of the hurricane," Johnson said. Officials at the Port of Acapulco said they had no information on the vessel, but they said they were also trying to contact her. Johnson said the Coast Guard C130 was expected to reach the area by about 14.00, (21.00, UTC) and the vessel, which had been diverted to the area because she was the closest, several hours later. Linkuva was believed to be carrying about 18 people, and was empty of cargo. The vessel was last reported to be rolling 35 to 40 degrees in heavy storm conditions created by hurricane "Carlotta." "With main engine casualty they could certainly run into some serious trouble if they can't manoeuvre or steer," Johnson said. "When a vessel stops like that (in a storm) she turns sideways and the waves just beat her to death." "Carlotta" was upgraded to a Category Four storm early yesterday, according to Mexico's National Weather Service, which put the storm about 240 miles south-east of Mexico's coastal state of Michoacan. The storm was expected to be upgraded to Category Five at 13.00, EDT, (18.00, UTC) and could post winds of more than 150mph with gusts of 183mph per hour.

23 June 2000 – Following received from Coast Guard San Francisco, timed 08.25, UTC: refrigerated my Linkuva, still not located. Two vessels and Cl30 aircrafts are still searching. Sea conditions are calm. Six foot swell reported.

22 June 2000 – Ferry, China

An overloaded ferry carrying an estimated 200 day-trippers capsized on the Yangtze River today and scores of passengers were missing, Xinhua News Agency reported. Only about 20 had been rescued from the vessel, which was on its way to a country fair, Xinhua said. Seven bodies had been pulled from the river. Xinhua said all on board were tossed into the water after the vessel tipped over on a fast-flowing stretch of the river in the south-western province of Sichuan. Today's tragedy occurred in the early morning near the city of Luzhou. Xinhua said the ferry was owned by a farmer who bought it from a steamship company. None of the passengers had been issued tickets for the voyage, so there was no record of the exact number of people on board.

Chinese state media said 59 people were either dead or missing. A total of 13 bodies and 51 survivors were recovered after the ferry sank this morning in Hejiang county in south-western Sichuan province, the China News Service said. It said 46 people were still missing. Investigators believe "the accident was caused by turbulent waves and overload," the state-run Xinhua News Agency said. Today was a busy market day in Hejiang, near Luzhou city, and the farmer who hired the boat did not keep a record of tickets, Xinhua said. It estimated the ferry was carrying about 200 people. But the China News Service put the number of passengers at 110, above the ship's capacity of 101. The ferry set off from Luzhou's Hejiang port and overturned at around 07.00, said a river navigation official, Cao Ling. The ferry capsized after hitting rocks amid heavy fog, said the China News Service, a local television reporter and a provincial official.

25 June 2000 &#150 Chinese rescue workers are searching for about 120 people still missing a day after an overloaded ferry hit rocks in thick fog and capsized on the Yangtze River, the Xinhua News Agency said yesterday. By early yesterday morning, only 14 bodies had been recovered, the official agency said. It said 63 people had been rescued from the passenger vessel Rong Jian, which was crammed with about 200 people. The vessel had a capacity of just 70 passengers, it said. Xinhua said the ferry was owned by a farmer who bought it from a steamship company. None of the passengers had been issued tickets for the voyage, so there was no record of the exact number of people on board.

13 July 2000 – Leros Strength

A report by the Norwegian Maritime Directorate into the 1997 loss of m bulk carrier Leros Strength is highly critical of the way in which the survey system by classification societies appeared to permit a severely wasted ship to continue to trade. The vessel, with 20 persons on board, sank approximately 30 miles south of Stavanger with all hands, shortly after her master had transmitted a distress message saying that the bow of the vessel had submerged. The report, which was undertaken after the Norwegians had located and used submersibles to examine the wreck, notes that it has been impossible to identify with certainty the specific direct cause of the loss. The vessel was severely damaged as she lay in deep mud, and the examination, partially financed by the International Transport Workers' Federation, was hampered by bad weather, poor underwater conditions and at one stage actively prevented by lawyers acting for the vessel's owner, Lamda Sea Shipping Co. In collaboration with the Cyprus authorities, which have already published their report into the casualty, the work of the NMD subsequent to the underwater operations, has been to examine the vessel's survey documentation, both under American Bureau of Shipping, which had classed the vessel since her construction in 1973 and finally by the Italian society Rina, which took over the vessel in 1996. The Norwegian report offers a "confusing picture" of a vessel where survey documentation is lacking, where the vessel had in fact operated without necessary certificates, and where descriptions of deficiencies are "imprecise and unclear." The NMI provides a range of recommendations which are designed to introduce stricter requirements and restrictions which would apply to the transfer of class between societies. A number of these recommendations have been, or are in the process of being implemented. In particular the Norwegians recommend that renewed consideration should be given to the length limit which prescribe reinforcement under IMO rules for bulk carriers of more than 150m to make these requirements applicable to bulk carriers similar to the Leros Strength, which was marginally below this length. (Note –Leros Strength sank at latitude 58 54.4N, longtitude 04 38.8E, February 8, 1997. Bow broken away from rest of vessel. Wreck lying in 245m of water.)