WHY Frequent accidents reporting at sea

Prepared by:

Ashan Silva

AFNI (UK), CMILT (UK), ACIM (UK),

Ex. MSc (Strategic Marketing), Ex. MBA, MBA, Reading for DBA 

 

 

 

 

Maritime industry is showing various kinds of accidents in the recent pass. Society is really concern about those incidents because it’s creating various bottlenecks to their wellbeing lifestyle.

Experts identified various factors contributing to those accidents. Poorly performing flag states became one of the major and condition of the seafarer who is working on board is also became another significant issue in this. Means when seafarers stress levels increased due to their living and working conditions deteriorates on-board vessels.

Some of such conditions are as

Modern ships with latest technology, due to short port stay and sign off issues prolonged stays at sea,

Rapid climate changes, tight accommodations, exposure to excessive noise levels / vibration and heat,

Family (isolation) and financial issues, short of crew, many reporting procedures, frequent communications, etc.

In addition, lack of proper training and human errors became another major factor for maritime accidents. Due to lack of seafarer availability, owners and operators tend to promote juniors before they gather enough experience within that rank. Specially deck and engine officers are facing this issue and with that lack of experience their situation handling capacity in a panic environment is not upto the required standard. Mean time some maritime colleges are also tightening their training schedules because of the market demand and pushing fresh candidates into the market with limited training.

Same time undermanned vessels are hardly giving any rest time to seniors to train (mentor) their juniors within their busy schedule.  

Ref: - Holder L. (2007). ‘The importance of mentoring.’ Seaways. (July 2007). pp16-17.  

Example: - 

On 1st November 2011, at 01:28 hrs, the M/V "Joerg N", under Maltese flag, collided with the F/V "Golub", under Croatian flag, at the position approximately 5 M southwest of Pula (Lat = 44° 47.3' N, Long=013° 44.8' E). After the collision, due to severe damage of the hull, the F/V "Golub" soon sank, and the M/V "Joerg N" continued its voyage without changing its course or speed, since the officer on the watch-keeping duty failed to notice the impact with the fishing vessel.

   

Source: - REPUBLIC OF CROATIA MINISTRY OF THE SEA, TRANSPORT AND INFRASTRUCTURE, File no. : 530-03-11-2 

In addition, because of the commercial importance vessel owners, operators, charters, sub charters, etc are pressurizing responsible officers for prompt communication to mete their targets. We can see the amount of communication which master is doing for a single voyage with various parties. Looks like captain is hardly having any time to supervise safe navigation of his vessel rather communicating to all those entities such as owners, operators, charters, agents, manning agent, etc.

On top of those they are facing internal and external audits, ports state / class / flag inspections, records, reports, maintenance, etc.

No one is resisting to any of the above because of his/her job security. So, they will stress themselves to complete those tasks timely to fulfil the satisfaction levels of those entities.    

Such workloads will keep them busy round the clock and same time he/she should handle that stress with his personal life. Some time it’s like way above the tolerable limit. 

Ref: - ‘Seafarer Fatigue – The Cardiff Research Programme.’ Smith A. et al (2006)  

We heard and read through some accident reports, some have navigated close to shore without following safe navigating routes to seek phone signals to connect their families. Such action led to some those accidents.

 

 

Example: -

The MV Wakashio oil spill occurred offshore of Pointe d'Esny, south of Mauritius, after the Japanese bulk carrier Wakashio ran aground on a coral reef on 25 July 2020 at around 16:00 UTC.^[1] The ship began to leak fuel oil in the following weeks, and broke apart in mid August. Although much of the oil on board Wakashio was pumped out before she broke in half, an estimated 1,000 tonnes of oil spilled into the ocean in what was called by some scientists the worst environmental disaster ever in Mauritius.

The Captain was arrested in August over the incident, charged with endangering safe navigation, and the probe into the incident continues.

There was no internet on the ship and I agreed to dock in Mauritius so that the crew members could communicate with their relatives as it helps keep the morale of the crew high,

…Captain Sunil Kumar Nandeshwar explained to the inquiry commission, according to AfricaNews.

Source: - https://safety4sea.com/wakashio-captain-confirms-coming-close-to-shore-in-search-of-internet-connection/

Due to high operating cost owners and operators are trying their best to control this cost for their vessels. As a reason some owners and operators are not supplying enough resources to operate their vessels safely. Information available as it went to an extend of vessel navigating without suitable navigation charts. E.g. approaching harbors by using small scale charts because relevant large scale chart is not available onboard.

Such action will definitely jeopardize seafarers, vessel as well as environment safety.

In addition, due to commercial pressure from owners, operators, charters, sub charters, etc. navigators using excessive speeds in narrow channels, harbor approaches, in high traffic density areas, etc.

Example: -

Transport Malta MSIU issued an investigation report on the grounding of the Maltese-registered container ship ‘APL Danube’ in April 2019.

While approaching the Km 133 mark, the vessel suddenly started to swing to starboard.

The helm was ordered hard over to port and the main engine’s revolutions (rpm) of the vessel were increased in an attempt to correct the heading.

However, APL Danube continued to swing to starboard until it ran aground by its bow.

The main engine was set to full astern, leading to the vessel running aground by its stern shortly after.

As a result, the vessel lost her steering capability and was later refloated with the assistance of two tugs.

APL Danube was eventually towed to a dry dock in Dubai for repairs.

The vessel suffered loss of directional power due to bank effect, since it was in close proximity to the Eastern bank of the Suez Canal.

 

Source: - https://safety4sea.com/transport-malta-investigation-ships-grounding-linked-to-bank-effect/

 

Same time navigators trying to cut the edges from their safe navigating rout (voyage plan – way points) just to save few hours to meet their given ETA for the next port. Owners and operators are recognizing such captains to be with them continuously and all others are also encouraged to do the same to secure their positions within the company.  Accidents are inevitable with such ongoing navigation practices. 

Example: -

The vessel while approaching the area, was delayed by currents. Master had authorized the watch keepers to deviate from the planned course lines on the chart to shorten the distance, and to search for the least unfavourable currents. While the vessel was scheduled to pass two nautical miles north of Astrolabe Reef, OOW decided to reduce the distance to one mile in order to save time. OOW then made a series of small course adjustments towards Astrolabe Reef to make the shortcut. In doing so, he altered the course 5 degrees past the required track and did not make an allowance for any compass error or sideways “drift”, and as a consequence the Rena was making a ground track directly for Astrolabe Reef. Vessel ran aground at full speed on Astrolabe Reef. The ship remained stuck fast on the reef and in the ensuing months it broke in two. The aft section moved off the reef and sank. About 200 tonnes of heavy fuel oil were lost to the sea. A substantial amount of cargo in the containers was lost but no injuries were reported.

 

Source: - https://safety4sea.com/cm-learn-from-the-past-mv-rena-grounding/

In addition, poor maintenance also became one of the major reasons for those accidents. Due to this malfunctioning of machinery became so frequent and will lead to manoeuvrability difficulties when necessary. Said lack of maintenance is happening due to vessel tight voyage schedules planned by owners and operators to meet their income targets, lack of spare parts supplies, lack of knowledge to carryout repairs or maintenance, etc. 

Example: -

General cargo ship RIVER ELBE suffered engine failure in the morning Apr 1 while transiting Bosphorus in southern direction, en route from Novorossiysk Russia to UK, and emergency anchored in the Strait, to stop drifting. Tugs responded, the ship completed transit, understood under tow, and was anchored at Ahirkapi anchorage, Istanbul, Marmara sea, later same day. As of 1450 UTC Apr 1(2021), the ship was still anchored.

  

 

Source: - https://www.fleetmon.com/maritime-news/2021/33213/general-cargo-ship-disabled-bosphorus-video/

 

Overconfident became another disaster to face some of those marine accidents now a days. Masters with several years of experience are taking undue risks to navigate their vessels to show their expertise by creating an unnecessary risk window for the safety of the crew and vessel. Costa Concordia disaster is one of the biggest example for the same.

Example: -

The ship was sailing too close to the coastline, in a poorly lit shore area, under the Master’s command who had planned to pass at an unsafe distance at night time and at high speed (15.5 kts). The danger was considered so late that the attempt to avoid the grounding was useless, and everyone on board realized that something very serious was happening, because the ship violently heeled and the speed immediately decreased. The vessel immediately lost propulsion and was consequently effected by a black-out. The ship turned starboard by herself and finally grounded. 26 passengers and 4 crewmembers died. No pollution was reported.

  Source: - https://safety4sea.com/maritime-history-costa-concordia-disaster/

 

Above are some of the reasons which I have taken with available information and experience I have. With all above vessel owner / operators / maritime regulating authorities / maritime colleges/ should revamp their strategies to address those issues.

This will help seafarers to work within a safe and sound environment, owners, and operators to mitigate their loses. Mean time such actions will help to protect environment pollution.

Otherwise, while all having their full attention towards all sort of green concepts to protect the environment, any of such accident due to above reason will compensate all those green concepts and will lead to a massive pollution overnight. Since such accidents are very frequent, above mention parties should get together and adjust their strategies without any further delays.         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THANK YOU

16th^th April 2021