Driving its ships at high speeds (more than 18 knots) through pirate-ridden Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden and paying for piracy-related crew hardships cost shipping giant Maersk $100 million last year and that figure is expected to exceed $200 million in 2011 due to increasing fuel costs.
Thin Places and Hard Knocks
On the Kiel Canal, the clipper bow of the container ship OOCL Finland swept the entire wheelhouse off the Russian container ship Tyumen-2. Two of four men in the wheelhouse ended up on the bottom of the Canal, still inside the upside-down wheelhouse. A tanker ran into the embankment while trying to pass the two ships. In Australia, Fremantle authorities were reminded that a 2004 engineering report had stated that the port’s “traffic” (vehicular?) bridge was structurally unsound when the re-fuelling tanker Parmelia 1 hit the nearby rail bridge. It appeared that an incoming tide contributed to the alllsion. No fuel was spilt and the small tanker was towed away after the incident. The container ship MSC Maria, en route from St. Petersburg to Rotterdam, ran into the concrete breakwater outside Kronstadt harbor at 10.8 knots even though the crew had dropped an anchor. Apparently the vessel experienced a rudder malfunction. In the North Sea, the standby safety vessel Grampian Defender lost all power as it approached the BP Magnus platform and the vessel slid under the platform. One bent mainmast.
In Australia at Gladstone, the coal- loaded bulker Dumun ran aground in the main shipping channel due to steering failure and a tug helped free it an hour and a half later. In the Philippines, the Panama-registered cargo ship Double Prosperity was en route to India from Australia with 65,900 metric tons of coal when it hit the Bakud Reef off Kiamba town.
About forty nautical miles off the Kannur coast in north Kerala, a fire broke out in the engine room of the Orchids, a tanker bound for Cochin Port from New Mangalore with gasoline. The fire was immediately doused and there was no fuel or gasoline spill and no casualties. Off remote Tristan da Cunha Island in the South Atlantic, an explosion (probably fueled by an ammonia gas leak) resulted in a fire on the Taiwanese fishing vessel Lai Ching. Dead were five crewmembers, four went missing, and the remaining members managed to survive by jumping off the ship, getting into lifeboats, and waiting for help. They were soon picked up by the nearby Hsiang Man Ching. This vessel waited for Tristan da Cunha rescuers to take the eleven most-severely injured crewmembers and then headed for Cape Town at ten knots with thirteen slightly injured crewmembers. Meanwhile, the South African Navy Valour-class frigate SAS Isandlwana headed for Tristan da Cunha to assist in treating the seriously injured Taiwanese sailors. In the Faroe Islands, fire broke out on board one of the Islands’ largest fishing vessels, the 345-foot trawler Athena, which was being rebuilt at Runavik after a massive fire last October. The latest fire went out of control, a large explosion was heard, and the coastguard vessels Brimil and Tjaldrid were deployed to fight the fire. People in the local area were evacuated due to dangers of the smoke and escaping gas. (The vessel's ammonia plant contained 18 tons of ammonia.) An attempt was made to tow the ship out of the harbor but that meant passing a towing wire through the Athena’s bow-thruster tunnel underwater since it was impossible to make fast above deck. It was the third time Athena had been stuck by a large fire.
Off New Zealand’s South Island, more than 100 people are marooned for a while on the drill ship Noble Discoverer off the Taranaki coast. The rig, which had been drilling on the Ruru-1 exploration well on the southern boundary of the Maui gas field, was disconnected it from its wellhead as a precautionary measure before heavy winds hit. But, during the height of the storm, some of the vessel's anchor lines failed and the remaining lines were released, enabling the ship to be steered safely away from the location to find shelter in deeper water. Rolling heavily in the big seas due to its drilling derrick, the top-heavy vessel may have drifted within 1000 meters of the Maui-B production platform near the Tui oilfield to the north and the floating production and storage vessel Umuroa, laden with thousands of barrels of crude oil. While leaving a pier at Houston, the container ship Horizon Challenger clipped the dock and damaged a crane. Any problems were quickly and amiably resolved. Off Campeche, Mexico, 713 oil platform workers were evacuated when the flotel (“floating hotel”) oil platform Jupiter sank. The structure is taller than the water depth so much of the flotel remained above water.
In the Fermer Baelt in the Baltic, a seaman was crushed on Solitaire, the world largest pipelay vessel, and he was rushed to a Norwegian hospital. While laying cables in Scotland, a crewman on the landing craft Forth Guardsman fell overboard and was trapped between the cable and the vessel. He died. Five miles off Slaughter Beach, Delaware, a crewmember fell some 20 feet into a cargo hold on the Greek oilrig Cosmic. Paramedics back-boarded the patient for transport. A State Police helicopter then lowered medical personnel to the ship. They and the casualty were hoisted up to the chopper, which went to the shore where the casualty was stabilized. He was then flown to a hospital where he was listed in critical condition. Lifeboat drills again took a human toll. This time it was in the Chinese port of Yantian and it was two officers on the containership Christophe Colomb who died when the release mechanism failed and the lifeboat dropped into the water. Ironically, the lifeboat was fitted with an IMO-recommended fall preventer. At Singapore, a Bangladeshi dockworker and the corpse of a companion were found in a container. They had been there for nine days with nothing but a pack of cigarettes and had entered the container for a post-meal nap. At Houston, a crane was used to retrieve an injured female stevedore from the hold of a ship, possibly the Norwegian-flag bulker Fermita.
Gray Fleets
The US Navy demonstrated a new laser weapon by tracking a small boat underway in rough water. First the laser set fire to one of its two 200-hp outboard motors and soon both motors were aflame. Worldwide, millions of video viewers silently cringed at the wanton destruction. The 15-kW laser was mounted on the destroyer USS Paul Foster (DD-964). The Navy plans to acquire a megawatt laser weapon that should cut through 2,000 feet of steel a second.
Up to 1,000 workers may be added to Newport News Shipbuilding's Virginia-class attack submarine construction program as production increases to two subs per year. But the Navy suspended the authority of its Norfolk command to oversee repair of Navy ships by private contractors, citing missing and flawed reports. A senior officer will provide technical oversight until confidence is restored.
The US Navy relieved the commanding officer (a female) of the USS Ponce (LPD-15) for poor leadership and failure to follow up on reports of sailors hazing other sailors. She was also charged with improperly handling a loaded weapon, thus endangering some of her crew. The executive officer (a male) was relieved for failing to support her. Both officers were “mustangs,” having started their Navy careers as enlisted personnel.
The Royal Navy’s latest £1.2 billion nuclear submarine, the hard-luck HMS Astute, continued its trouble-attracting career. The hi-tech nuclear-powered attack sub was towed to the Faslane Naval Base after it suffered “a technical issue with hydraulics” that could have killed the entire crew. Reportedly, the hydraulics controlled the sub’s diving planes.
At Singapore, a civilian sub-contractor working on one of the ship's sea boats fell 13 meters from the side of the Australian replenishment oiler HMAS Success into the water. Three Navy sailors came to his aid, entering the water to bring the unconscious man to the surface, but he died a few hours later from his injuries.
White Fleets
Cruise fleet operator Carnival Corp filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court Eastern District of Louisiana seeking damages for “economic losses and damages” it claims to have suffered as a result of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The lawsuit named just about every firm or organization and person connected with the spill.
In Turkish waters, the cruise ship Melody lost power near the Akbas Light while transiting the Canakkale Strait and that gave its 946 passengers a thrill. The tug Kurtarma-1 soon arrived and stood by until the cruise ship’s engines ran sweetly again. In Alaska, the 935-foot cruise ship Westerdam was maneuvering through ice near Hubbard Glacier ice in the vicinity of Yakutat Bay when it sustained damage approximately 15 feet below the waterline. The hull was reportedly not breached and no injuries or pollution were reported. The Westerdam continued on her voyage to Sitka,
In the Bahamas, a passenger from the Carnival Sensation was killed and another was seriously injured in a shore-side jet-ski accident.
How sanitary is your typical cruise ship? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rigorously inspects each vessel and assigns a sanitation rating. Anything below 86 is a fail. One cruise company averages a rolling 12-month average for all of its ships of 98.7 and the Norwegian Epic got a 100 in its first test. A few cruise ships do get close to the fail level but none have failed since the Albatross, a private vessel, earned a 69 back in February 2010. Standards seem high. Dipping a pot in a hot sanitizing mix for less than 30 seconds is a typical no-no, as is storing strawberries in a plastic bag in the same chest freezer as raw meat.
They That Go Back and Forth
In Libya, the passenger ro/ro Red Star came under rocket attack from government forces while helping to evacuate people from Misrata. At least five people died and there was widespread panic among those trying to board the vessel. The vessel, chartered by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), had waited offshore for several days because of the continuing fighting.
At least twenty people drowned and five others were missing after a minibus carrying 32 passengers slipped into the Nile while it was disembarking from a ferry. The bus was returning from a traditional visit to a graveyard on the 40th day after the death of a relative of one of the passengers. In Bangladesh, the double-decked ferry Bipasha, operating at night on the Meghna River and badly overloaded with 200 on the 30-person-capacity ferry, struck a sunken vessel and itself sank. About sixty swam to shore but more than thirty died.
The anchor of the Norwegian ferry Pride of Telemark (28,559 gt, built 1983) dragged a fiber-optic cable about 200 to 300 meters out of position while on a voyage from Spind to Lundevagen, and that left customers at Spind without broadband. The vessel required the assistance of pilot boats to get loose. The cable was destroyed and a new cable was estimated as costing a surprisingly modest 150,000 Norwegian Crowns (about $27,000).
In the Sea of Japan, the Russian ferry Michael Lukonin sent out a distress call during a storm, with waves of up to 2.5 meters high and with winds up to 15 meters per second. It had lost use of its main engine. The Sahkalin Shipping Company’s large Pioneer Kholmsk went to the rescue (as it often seems to do) and towed the disabled ship to Djigit Bay in the north of Primorsky Krai. There, repairs were made and the ferry headed for Korea, possibly to be scrapped.
Somewhere probably in the Philippines (the news item was negligent in the completeness of its reportage of Who, What, Where, When, Why), the passenger ro/ro Mary The Queen (7,054 gt, built in 1985 as the Ciudad de Valencia) ran aground after “the vessel tried to head back to port due to big waves. Due to low tide, the vessel was maneuvering back to port but got stuck in shallow water about two km off pier 8.” That left at least 1,000 passengers stranded. Two tugs proceeded to the scene to tow the vessel off but had to wait until the high tide came in.
In the State of Washington, a multi-car collision on the Kingston ferry dock delayed sailing of the Spokane. One vehicle collided with a railing and that caused at least one other vehicle to crash. One person was transported to a hospital.
Boisterous Cook Strait separates the two main islands of New Zealand and several large ferries provide cross-Strait service. Last month, several ro/ro ferries made the news. Passengers on an unidentified Cook Strait ferry (probably either the Aratere or Kaitai) were distressed to watch a cow in a trailer parked on the top vehicle deck become distressed and then collapse and die. Another cow was later found dead in the same trailer. The stock company explained it had transported twenty loads a week for fifty weeks a year and had had no problems in the last three years. While en route from Wellington, the Interisland Line's ferry, the Monte Stello, veered off-course (possibly due to the helm being put the wrong way) and collided with what was initially reported to be an “object” just inside the Tory Channel. A company spokeswoman acknowledged that a brief grounding had taken place, the starboard propeller had been damaged, and that the ferry had continued on to Picton on one engine. There were truck drivers on board the ferry but no other passengers. Finally, at Wellington, the Cook Strait ferry Santa Regina was pushed by strong winds onto a berthed fishing boat at Glasgow Wharf. The FV had been for sale for many months and any damage to it seemed of little concern to anyone but the ferry suffered a long dent and gash on its stern quarter and was taken out of service for repairs.
In the US, determining a safe passenger load for a ferry was legally based on an average body weight of 160 pounds but a deadly accident or two demonstrated that humans now tend to weigh somewhat more so the US Coast Guard has raised the figure to 185 pounds.
Legal Matters
The Chinese bulker Shen Neng 1 ran aground on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef about a year ago and an accident report stated that the principal reason for the grounding that was that its new chief mate had had too little rest. He had wanted to make sure that the cargo of coal was loaded properly but loading took far longer than planned and he got only two and a half hours of naps in the 38.5 hours preceding the moment when he made a navigational error that put the ship aground. The accident left a scar three kilometers long in the Reef and it could take twenty years for Nature to repair it.
Nature
Fire ants can assemble themselves into a waterproof raft that can float for months. Trapped air helps provide flotation and enables the bottom ants to breath.
Imports
Since the outbreaks of unrest in North Africa, at least 25,000 Africans have used small boats to escape the troubles and to get a better life (ie, a job) but many of these migrants died in their attempts. Typical was a very small and overcrowded boat carrying 300 African immigrants that sank in the Mediterranean Sea near Libya’s coastline and broke into pieces only an hour after sailing. Dead were at least sixteen African asylum-seekers.
Nasties and Territorial Imperatives
Somalian piracy is getting nastier. Executions (including beheadings) and torture are now not uncommon (but such nasty deeds do tend to reduce the ransoms paid). In an example of spite, pirates held eight Indian seamen after their ship, the asphalt carrier Asphalt Venture, was freed after a $3.6 million ransom was paid because the pirates were mad at the Indian Navy for capturing pirates and putting them on trial In India. A pirate spokesman explained the situation thusly: “India has not only declared war against us but also it has risked the lives of many hostages.”
The Royal Navy has been teaching pirates it captures how to treat prisoners with dignity. It then usually releases these pirates as probably unprosecutable.
Metal Bashing
Brazilian iron ore mining giant Vale SA took delivery of the world's biggest ore carrier, a 400,000-ton capacity vessel built in South Korea by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. The new vessel, named Vale Brasil, is the first of seven ore carriers ordered by Vale from the South Korean shipyard.
Later this summer, Maersk should order another ten 18,000-TEU container ships from a South Korean builder and competitors CMA CGM and Claus-Peter Offen are discussing with builders about enlarging five 12,800-TEU ships on order to 16,000 TEU but the #2 company, Mediterranean Shipping, is not considering enlargement of any boxship it has ordered.
Odd Bits and Head-Shakers
The main function of the replenishment ship USNS Walter S. Diehl (T-AO 193) is to refuel warships while they steam alongside and so its after structure bears two captions. They may bewilder foreign warships but the port-side caption reads FULL SERVICE while the matching caption to starboard reads SELF SERVICE.
Russia launched an urgent rescue mission after the nuclear-powered icebreaker Taimyr developed a nuclear leak in the frozen Kara Sea about 2,000 kilometers east of Norway’s border and was forced to abandon its mission. The seriousness of the event could be registered as a zero on the seven-point International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale – a level officially defined as “bearing no safety significance” but officials did look into the possibility of the situation becoming more serious. In any case, the incident was serious enough to force the mammoth vessel to abandon its mission and head back to the northwestern city of Murmansk using only its diesel engines. Another icebreaker was dispatched to help the vessel’s journey back to port.
In the Indian Ocean, a Military Sealift Command replenishment tanker and a warship customer routinely changed course to improve sea-keeping conditions for an upcoming fuel transfer, and they ended up headed towards a small Arabian dhow. It nervously changed course to avoid the oncharging grey vessels. Soon after and perhaps coincidentally, a large yellow plastic bag, quite empty and with its corners neatly clipped off, was spotted. Nearby were the corners, still afloat.
