Marine

Citation

(2007), "Marine", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 16 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2007.07316cac.001

Marine

2 November 2005Ouro Do Brasil (Liberia)

The skipper of trawler Lindsay had gone to bed and there was no senior officer on watch when the fishing vessel and fruit juice tanker Ouro do Brasil collided off Port Elizabeth, killing 14 fishermen, a Court of Marine Inquiry heard yesterday. The long-awaited inquiry into the disaster held its first sitting at the Cape Milner Hotel in Cape Town yesterday. The inquiry is probing who was responsible for the collision. It is expected to focus on the vessels positions and the extent to which the vessels had kept a proper lookout. Lindsay was hit just before midnight on May 8 by Ouro Do Brasil while anchored nine miles off the coast near Sardinia Bay. Of the entire crew of Lindsay, only the skipper, Paul Landers of Mossel Bay, and one crewman, John Ehlers, of Cape Town, survived. In a statement by Ehlers read to the inquiry, the spare hand claimed he had been on deck with another junior crew member, Royden Koeries, to keep watch when they saw a red light heading towards them on the port side of their vessel. Ehlers claimed the skipper had gone to bed below deck and he and Koeries, who was in charge of watching for other vessels, had been left upstairs alone, without the supervision of a senior officer. “I told the deck-hand ‘Oppas, be careful, the boat is approaching fast’ but he said, ‘Do not worry, it will pass us’. The next thing I knew, there was an impact, I was thrown off and rescued”, Ehlers’s evidence read. When Koeries realised they were in danger of being hit, he switched off the autopilot and unsuccessfully tried to alter course, Ehlers testified. The vessel capsized within 20 seconds of the collision and sank soon afterwards, Andrew Pike, prosecuting examiner for the transport department, told the inquiry. Ouro do Brasil was only slightly damaged and was detained at Port Elizabeth harbour under the Maritime Safety Act. The inquiry – chaired by retired magistrate Dickson Ncapayi, with two assessors – heard the testimony of the two Lindsay survivors, the master of Ouro Do Brasil and his second mate. Testimony was gathered in interviews and read at the meeting by Captain Nigel Campbell, chief investigator of the SA Maritime Safety Authority in Port Elizabeth. Campbell took statements from the tanker’s master, the officer in charge of the watch and the lookouts of both vessels a day after the accident. The commission of inquiry was set up by the transport department in accordance with the marine accidents clause of the Merchant Shipping Act, said Andrew Mashangane, director of Maritime Bilateral Safety and Security. Proceedings will continue until Friday (November 4), and may continue next week, depending on when cross-examination by all parties is completed. Cross examination would start within the next day or two, said Mashangane. According to Campbell, both Lindsay survivors had trouble dealing with the event after it happened and struggled to provide statements during the early stages of the investigation. They have therefore been subpoenaed to give evidence this week.

18 November 2005Liaopuyun – 777

On November 8, cargo vessel Liaopuyun – 777 sailed from Pikou port to Haiyang Island port for discharging. The vessel was also carrying passengers at the time because the ferry Zhangzidao 5 between Pikou and Haiyang Island had been suspended for two days due to mechanical problems. There were 58 tons of air bricks, six tons of cement, 120 boxes of beer, 39 passengers and seven crew members on board. The cargo was loaded on the top deck and most people stayed on the lower deck. Liaopuyun – 777 overturned while it was being discharged at a berth at Haiyang Island at about 1900, local time, November 8. All but one of the 46 people on board fell into the sea; 27 of them were rescued. The other 19 died in the accident. The vessel was re-floated with the help of the 350-ton revolving crane engineering ship Zhiffudao, belonging to Yantai Salvage Bureau, in the morning of November 11. Understand that the stability of the vessel was not good and the incident remains under investigation by the MSA. Liaopuyun – 777 is at the berth of Haiyang Island, Lujun port now and all the cargo has been discharged. Understand that the vessel itself was not badly damaged and looks in normal condition. The next step regarding repairs will determined by the result of the investigation.

22 November 2005An Jin (China)

General cargo An Jin sank in the morning of November 22, about 140 miles off Vung Tau beach, Vietnam. Nine crew were saved by tug/supply Pacific Cheetah and anchor handling tug/supply Seabulk Hawk. These crew are now staying at Vung Tau city awaiting repatriation. The Salvage Centre of Vung Tau is still now looking for the remains of the missing 13 crew and notifying all the vessels around the accident position.

25 November 2005

Nine seamen who were rescued from the South China Sea after general cargo An Jin sank along the coast of Vietnam will be allowed to return home next week, according to the Chinese Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City. One crewman on the vessel has been confirmed dead and 12 others, including the master, are still missing. “The weather at that time (of the casualty) was terrible, with heavy rain and wind blowing up waves nine meters high,” said Huang Xiping, China’s consul general in Ho Chi Minh City. “I talked with the surviving crew members and know that the cargo sank quickly – within five minutes.” Two vessels working around a nearby oil drilling platform saw the An Jin go under and rescued nine of its crew members, two of whom were trapped in the vessel after the master gave the order to abandon the cargo. Singapore sent ten rescue boats to search for the missing crew members shortly after the accident. The boats gave up their search yesterday. Some rescue efforts were still under way last night, however, as three vessels from Vietnam were patrolling the area and the Vietnamese government had called for all craft in the area to keep an eye out for the missing crew. Helicopters were unable to join the rescue efforts as the weather was still too bad. A group of officials from Shanghai Yong Zheng Marine Co. has been dispatched to talk to the relatives of the missing sailors and the one dead crew member to talk about compensation. “We are still investigating the causes of the accident and we do hope the families will understand that marine work is dangerous due to unforeseeable weather conditions,” said company Manager Shen Hongwei. The company said it lost contact with the vessel November 22, eight days after it set out from Shanghai. It was later informed of the accident by Chinese diplomats in Vietnam.

25 November 2005Bright Sun (South Korea)

Manila-based Malayan Towage and Salvage Corp. said that it called off the search, Tuesday (November 22), after no trace of the vessel could be found. “Our tugs have been crisscrossing the area where the vessel is supposed to have sunk but nothing has turned up, not even debris,” Capt Renato Torreno said. Malayan harbour tugs Monarch and Stanford, have been searching an area, 25 nautical miles off Currimao town, where the bulk carrier sank.

1 December 2005Bunga Mas Lapan (Malaysia)

Thirteen South Korean fishermen are missing after their vessel was in collision with c.c. Bunga Mas Lapan (7998 gt, built 1998) just off the south-western coast of the Korean peninsula and sank, a rescue official said today. One person was plucked from the sea by a passing fishing vessel, but the others were missing three hours after the collision, a coast guard officer said by telephone. “We’ll have to see, but the situation is not good,” he said.

4 December 2005Andrew J. Barberi (USA)

The master of the Staten Island ferry (ferry Andrew J. Barberi) that crashed in October 2003, killing 11 people, is suing the city. Michael Gansas wants his job back, with back pay, or he wants the city to arbitrate his grievances in front of a labour panel. He claims city officials made him a scapegoat by firing him the month after the crash and that they made false statements about ferry regulations. In the suit, Gansas says it’s untrue that he violated rules requiring two captains to be in the pilot house when a ferry docks because there was no applicable rule in his case, according to published reports. Richard Smith, the assistant captain of the ferry, was alone at the wheel. He lost consciousness before the accident. Gansas filed suit on November 22 in federal court in Brooklyn.