The number of containers lost at sea is far lower than many believe. It is now estimated that about 350 get overboard each year, rather than the widely accepted figure of 3,000 to 4,000.
Insurers are beginning to seriously worry about what would happen if a tsunami or a hurricane met up with thousands of containers just unloaded or about to be loaded on a super-large container ship. The ship can escape by sailing but what happens to all those stacks of boxes?
Thin Places and Hard Knocks
In the Houston Ship Channel, the 274-meter tanker Naticina and the barge MMI 3024 being pushed by the towboat Alliance collided. A ballast tank on the tanker was breached but none of the barge’s 20,000 barrels of xylene (nasty stuff!) spilled.
The 1977-built, 6,000-hp salvage tug Leopard grounded and partly sank at St Vincent, Porto Grande, near the beach of Galé. (This apparently detailed location may be in the Cape Verde islands off Africa.) A tug failed to unground the bigger tug so it now needs salvaging. In the British Virgin Islands and late at night, the feeder container ship Tropic Sun ran up on rocks near the historic Wreck of the RMS Rhone Park, which was immediately closed to divers and other visitors. The ship was leaving Tortola for St Maarten and was refloated three days later. Recent floods brought much silt down the Mississippi and keeping the river navigable is a problem. The Hong Kong-flagged, coal-carrying bulker Jin Rui went aground at Mile 4 Above Head of the Passes, (this is about 24 miles from the Gulf of Mexico). The master reported hitting “sludge” when the ship’s forward progress started slowing.
A Pakistani dhow carrying petroleum products from Sharjah to Somalia caught fire and seven died while nine others were rescued.
Off Mexico’s Gulf coast, after Tropical Storm Nate disabled the liftboat Trinity II, ten crewmembers climbed into a small rigid-foam life raft after their high-tech raft blew away. Six survived. (A liftboat can lower legs to the sea floor and then elevate itself above the water level. This one was being used as a recording vessel and provided accommodation for the crew, and it was in waters about 25 feet (8 meters) deep.) At Philadelphia, two longshoremen died within eight days. A yard horse (a stubby tractor used for moving containers within a yard) backed into one man and the other fell on a ship while unloading cargo. At Shanghai, a cleaning lady was decapitated when a runaway barge climbed over five smaller vessels and onto a pier. At Manila in the Philippines, a shipping company radio operator finally succeeded. He jumped into the bay but was rescued. He did it again and was rescued again. After a third rescue, fellow employees made him promise not to try again. He promised but walked towards the barge Palawan and jumped from it. The fourth time worked. And the whole sorry process took less than one hour.
In Alaskan waters, the Coast Guard oceangoing buoy tender USCGC Spar small-boated a crewmember off the 82-foot fishing vessel Maverick and carried him more than 200 miles to St Paul Island where he could be flown to Anchorage for further medical care. Maverick is a crab-fishing vessel that is a star on the TV series ‘Deadliest Catch.' Near Saipan in far-warmer waters, the US Coast Guard rescued three fishermen. In Micronesian waters, one expects outrigger canoes and paddles but these three were in the 23-foot fiberglass commercial fishing boat Norma when it took on water and went under. They climbed into their life raft, triggered their EPIRB, and calmly asked for air support. A Coast Guard helicopter spotted a large white cooler and a small rigid-foam life raft bouncing around in 10-foot seas and all three fishermen were hoisted to safety.
At Port Adelaide in Australia, the livestock carrier Al Messilah was declared unseaworthy and its cargo of 67,000 sheep eventually ended upon the Al Shuwaikh, which then headed for Qatar. And Britain’s biggest oil port, Sullom Voe, was forced to close when employee cutbacks meant no vessel traffic services were available because one employee had called in sick and no replacement was still on the payroll.
Gray Fleets
The US Navy relieved the skipper of the destroyer The Sullivans of his command after he mistook a fishing boat for a towed gunnery target off North Carolina. Luckily, the warship’s gunnery proficiency was not yet up to hitting the FV. But a three-admiral panel ruled that the former commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise had committed misconduct and had demonstrated substandard performance when he showed raunchy movies but the panel decided he could continue his long Navy career.
In a nighttime training exercise that involved boarding a moving ship, a 37-year-old Royal Marine died at Portsmouth. Although attached to the vessel by a safety line, he had failed to secure the crotch strap of his utility vest and it rode up and strangled him. Fatigue was thought to be a factor.
Canada’s Conservative government announced that the navy and air force, known for more than three decades as the Maritime Command and Air Command, would revert to their earlier names of Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force and the announcement greatly surprised many and pleased those who loved those two services. Gone are the days when every military member wore the same green uniform and admirals were generals. Canada’s Land Force Command is now known as the (non-royal) Canadian Army.
The British government is continuing to play “on again, off again” politics with the two big aircraft carriers it is having built. Maybe it won’t necessary after all to mothball one carrier as soon as it is finished.
In April but the news was released only recently, HMS Iron Duke was approached by a speedboat, possibly operated by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, in the Persian Gulf. When the vessel and its two occupants were uncomfortably close, a machine gun on the frigate sprayed the water to one side of the skiff. It quickly veered away with a farewell wave, possibly cheerful, from one occupant. Months later and off the Libyan coast, the frigate fired starshells to illuminate attacks by other NATO forces. The Royal Navy’s three other representatives off Libya, the destroyer HMS Liverpool and helicopters from the assault ship HMS Ocean, also mounted attacks while the minehunter HMS Bangor concentrated on humanitarian tasks.
One of most-expensive sea battles for the Royal Navy was World War One’s battle of the Isle of May although no enemy warships were involved. Twenty miles off Fife Ness on Scotland’s east coast during night-time fleet exercises, a series of collisions killed 270 men within 75 minutes, sank the submarines K17 and K4, and damaged the submarines K6, K7, K14, K22, and the light cruiser Fearless. (The reader really owes it to himself to read up on this pseudo-battle, perhaps at Wikipedia under “battle at May Island.”) Although the K-class subs were operating on the surface that night, they had been designed to accompany the fleet at speed, only submerging when necessary. The problem was that they were steam-powered and submergence meant killing the oil-fueled fires under the boilers, blowing off steam, stowing two funnels, and closing all openings. This took time, and the subs were stifling hot and extremely clumsy to boot. Twenty-seven subs were built (including M-class variants armed with 12-inch guns). None were lost to enemy action but seven succumbed to various causes including several collisions. Now the two sunken subs from the “battle” have been surveyed for the first time because they are war graves in the middle of a windfarm.
White Fleets
A North Korean firm tried running a cruise from China to scenic Mount Kumgang near the South Korea border. The Chinese passengers liked the cruise but not the ship, a 1970’s Japanese veteran named b i. Cabins were musty, food was served on trays, and there were no showers during the 21-hour trip. A grand finale to this first voyage was when the ship rammed the dock at the North Korean port of Rason, shattering a few yards of concrete. Tugs could have helped dock the ship but the port has no tugs yet.
On the Danube River, the river cruise boat b i was battered by a cargo ship just south of Passau, Germany. Damage was considerable but nobody was hurt and passengers were transferred to another long, low, two-decked cruise ship, the b i.
In Alaska, a Coast Guard chopper hoisted a 70-year-old man off the Statendam. He was exhibiting symptoms of congestive heart failure.
Those That Go Back and Forth
Nearly 200 people died in Tanzania after the overloaded ferry Spice Islanders capsized. At least 192 bodies were recovered, while more than 600 passengers survived the accident. The disaster, following on a 2006 capsizing of an overloaded vessel, brought immediate condemnation from survivors and others who feel the ferries were being operated without regard to safety. The Spice Islanders was bound for the island of Pemba in the Indian Ocean, near the island of Zanzibar, the site of the 2006 accident.
At least eleven people, including nine schoolchildren, died when an overloaded ferry capsized in a river in southern China. "It was so crowded we had trouble breathing," one survivor told the paper, adding that she had seen a half-erased notice on the boat saying it was only licensed to carry 32 passengers. Local authorities said 45 people, including two crewmen, were aboard the boat when it became ensnared in a cable and tipped over. But witnesses said there were 92 schoolchildren on the ferry, and one blogger claimed to have counted as many as 63 bodies in the river.
In the Philippines, the fast ferry Express 1 caught fire and the 70 persons on board were safely transferred to a competitor’s ferry, the Sea Jet, which had departed Cebu 35 minutes later. The Express 1 then sank. Off South Korea, the southbound Seolbong caught fire and many passengers jumped overboard before being rescued. No deaths, though. And in New Zealand, another fast ferry caught fire in an engineroom. The Jet Raider was between Auckland and Waiheke Island when the fire started. The 316 passengers were transferred to another ferry, automatic fire extinguishers did their thing, and firemen checked for surviving hot spots with thermal-imaging equipment.
At Nanaimo in British Columbia, you drive onto a ferry by using a curving trestle but it was unusable after a paving truck loaded with asphalt for repaving the passenger walkway broke through the railing and ended up upside-down and submerged. The driver escaped without serious injuries. He had been told where to drive but drove elsewhere and that collapsed the trestle.
A distraught French-speaking woman jumped off the Statue of Liberty ferry Lady Liberty while it was still moored at Battery Park in New York City. She quickly changed her mind, grabbing a life ring thrown to her and waiting for the ferry’s recue boat.
Legal Matters
The Panama Canal Authority ruled that it would no longer allow transit of the Canal by single-hull oil tankers over 600 tons deadweight and under 5,000 tons after December 31, 2012. In the meanwhile, such tankers will be assigned “extraordinary” (PCA language) tug assistance at all locks and through Culebra Cut, at the owner’s expense, of course. “Single-hull” includes single side/single bottom, single side/double bottom, or double side/ single bottom. Other tankers may also be furnished compulsory and extraordinary tug assistance as the Canal prepares for the day when tugs will take all vessels into and through its new set of large locks.
On the River Cam, the irascible owner of a 72-foot barge didn’t like the boat races and repeatedly obstructed them, colliding with some boats, and addressing indecent language at others. He told a judge that he was merely protecting the River’s famed swans, which belong to the Queen, but his ill-temper will cost him about £7,000 in court costs. That sentence posed one small problem. He explained, “I haven’t got the money and only receive £90 in benefits a week. I have no idea where I would get it from.” (The swans need little protection. In fact, one evil bird dubbed "Mr. Asbo" has repeatedly attacked river users including eight-oared shells, went after a father and daughter in a dinghy, and even capsized a canoeist. One suggestion was to clip the feathers on one wing so Mr. Asbo would be unbalanced while attacking.)
In New Zealand, the sailing yacht Classique ignored danger blasts of a horn and skimmed close across the bow of the ferry Seaway II, trusting that the ferry would give way. It did, slowing rapidly and going into reverse, and there was no contact. In court, the yachtie insisted that he had deliberately ignored the international collision-prevention laws, boldly asserting that a customary body of law existed that allowed him to use his own experience and judgment to prevent a collision. The court disagreed and he was fined $4,000 plus costs of another $1,356.
Nature
In this age of global warming, unusual cold weather has been killing some coral reefs in Florida. In January of last year, water temperatures dipped to 51°F (11°C) whereas coral is not usually found in waters below 60°F (16°C). Scientists surveying the US’s only barrier reef, which stretches from Martin County to Key West, found mortality rates far above the rates found after warm-water events such as those that caused coral bleaching in 2005, with rates reached forty percent for some species of coral.
Metal-Bashing
The new British Columbia ship-docking tug Shuswap features two life raft canisters on the roof of the wheelhouse. Each is connected to an arm that can swing out to deploy the raft at water level and close to the tug’s side. The arms fit snugly against the wheelhouse sides and can drop down into slots built in the wheelhouse railings. Credit veteran designer A. G. McIlwain for this clever, and possibly lifesaving, idea. (Al is an old-time designer who still draws vessel plans by hand but his ideas are very contemporary.)
A Russian court seized an almost-finished floating nuclear power station. Oh it’s safe enough but the builder is in bankruptcy and the undelivered barge unit is a $340-million asset of the yard.
Nasties and Territorial Imperatives
Pirates released seven Danish yachtsmen, hijacked in February in the Indian Ocean while sailing their 43-foot yacht Ing. Reportedly, a $3 million ransom was dropped on the bulk carrier Dover where the Danes were being held hostage. They were given a small boat with an outboard engine and set free. A few miles away, a Danish warship was waiting to pick them up. The Danish family consisted of two adults, three children, and two deckhands. Reportedly, the ransom would have been waived if one pirate could have married the 13-year-old daughter.
The chemical/oil tanker Fairchem Bogey was seized by pirates while anchored at the Omani port of Salalah, two miles off the coast and well inside Omani territorial waters. An attack so close to a port is unusual for Somali pirates, although they have been driven back to waters around the Gulf of Aden and coast of Oman because of the ongoing Indian Ocean monsoon. The hijacking is the latest in a series of attacks against oil tankers. That sector may now be specifically targeted because ransoms are much-higher-than-average for oil and gas carriers.
The Somali businessman who negotiated possible ransoming of four US citizens held hostage on the high seas (they were later killed on their yacht Quest by the pirates) and arranged for the ransom paid for the German-owned bulker Marida Marguerite is as much a pirate as any skiff operator with an AK-47 and a boarding ladder. So argued US prosecutors and the Somalian was indicted on 15 counts by a US federal grand jury. (His cut of the Marguerite ransom was about $30,000 to $50,000.)
Odd Bits
A Hollywood personage has been in the UK filming a TV series featuring his barge, the Princess Matilda. He and his wife were on the River Medway, a river they knew well, but they were overtired and bedazzled by lights on shore and they turned the wrong way. A RNLI crew receiving training in their boathouse overheard radio discussions about the couple’s bewilderment and launched a lifeboat for a successful rescue.
The 100-foot monohull maxi sailboat Rambler 10, valued at somewhere between $10 and 14 million, was leading its division in the prestigious 608-mile Fastnet Race when its canting keel dropped off. The boat immediately flipped, dumping the crew of 21 in the water for several hours. The vessel’s EPIRB failed to work (but it did start some ten hours later!) and it was a crewmember’s personal emergency position indicating beacon that alerted Irish and British rescuers. The mastless, keeless vessel was towed to Bantry Bay and righted after several attempts. The mast was located on the seabed and it, sail bags, and personal possessions were later retrieved by divers.
The US has several large icebreakers but they are often out of service or are committed elsewhere so the National Science Foundation has to rent an icebreaker for about $8 million to keep channels open to its research stations in the Antarctic such as that at McMurdo Sound. Last year, it was the Swedish icebreaker Oden. Starting at the end of December, it will be the Russian breaker Vladimir Ignatyuk. This vessel was originally constructed as the Arctic Kalvik in Victoria, BC in 1983, and was sold by Gulf Canada to Murmansk Shipping in 2003. A similar sister vessel, the Terry Fox, is now a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker.
Feet keep washing ashore on the West Coast, mostly in British Columbia, but authorities are not particularly concerned. Eight feet have been found in the Vancouver area since 2007, with another three on Washington beaches. DNA tests showed that two came from the same woman, four were from known missing persons, and none could be demonstrated to be result of foul play. Most of the feet were wearing some kind of shoe, usually a sneaker or running shoe, and the footwear provided flotation for the feet. Authorities surmised that region’s many bridges may have inspired suicides and noted that feet probably became separated from legs much as corpses on land fall apart due to decomposition and the actions of scavengers.
Head-Shakers
An Australian Navy seaman claimed the Navy failed to detect that she was pregnant when she enlisted and that medical staff ignored her when she told them on three occasions that she had missed her period. She wants the Navy to help support her child.
The Finnish 28-metre excursion boat King routinely carries passengers around Helsinki harbor but it ran aground because the master was stuck in a bathroom due to a jammed door. Minor injuries to some of 54 passengers and cosmetic damage to the vessel and, worst of all, the Finnish Coast Guard was investigating whether the master’s actions were criminal!
