One Dead, One Missing as Offshore Crane Fails

We’ve received a report in confidence regarding a crane boom failure on an offshore rig leading to one fatality and another person still missing.

On 20th February a crew on the jack-up rig Rowan Gorilla IV in the Gulf of Mexico was installing ropes in preparation for re-entry into a well in the Blackbeard Prospect.

A personnel basket was attached to the rig crane and lifted with one person on board. He was tied off to the basket so he could hang off a boat rope on the side of the rig.

As the basket was being lifted, the book of the crane failed and fell on the deck. The large block hit a crewman who subsequently died. The basket went over the side with the passenger still tied on and sank. The body of the missing man was recovered the next afternoon.

 

At the time of the incident, the crane was secured by the brake in the up-right position with the boom several feet from the stop pads. The operator was standing near the controls, not operating the crane, when suddenly the boom collapsed.

One of the Gorilla IV cranes with boom in place

Crane with failed boom

Close up of part of the failed boom

 

Investigations are continuing. Since the incident the maximum lifting capacity of the rig cranes has been reduced to 85 per cent.

Following a Coast Guard inspection.One of the rigs life capsules was damaged in the incident and has been replace, as has a second capsule that was considered to be in questionable condition.

Maritime Safety News Today – 28 February 2008

Search resumes for crew of missing ship
Mumbai Newsline – Mumbai,India
The International Maritime Bureau, Kuala Lumpur already has ruled out the possibility of marine piracy. The families of the missing sailors, meanwhile, 

Sinking ship feeds flames in new Gib row
Olive Press – Orgiva,Granada,Spain
Spain summoned British ambassador Denise Holt to explain why a vessel that had a collision six months ago is still polluting nearby shores. 

High court could limit Exxon Valdez award

The US Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed to lean toward reducing punitive damages of $2.5 billion awarded to victims of the worst U.S. oil spill

Global Warming Melts New Sea Lanes for Norilsk, ConocoPhillips

Posted 02/27/08 at 10:17 AM

Norilsk, the world’s biggest producer of nickel, is building its own shipping fleet to capitalize on the melting of the polar ice caps, Bloomberg reported. The company ordered five reinforced cargo vessels that can plow through the waters north of Siberia as new sea routes open…

Facebook Fraud Brings Quiapo To The Web

It looks like social networking site Facebook where MAC has a maritime safety group, might do a Quiapo on the web if a press release from the UK’s Maritime And Coastguard Agency is any indication.

Although it concerns a private yacht and a yachtmasters certificate it is not out of the grounds that something similar could happen with a seaman’s ticket.

Those in the know, previously, have found their way to a street corner in a Manila suburb, Quiapo, where helpful folk will work up pretty much any certificate you want, now it seems much the same service is brought to you in a do-it-yourself way courtesy of Facebook!

Maritime Safety News – 26th February 2008

At least 11 missing in boat mishaps off Chinese coast
Thaindian.com – Bangkok,Bangkok,Thailand
Hangzhou (China), Feb 25 (Xinhua) Chinese maritime rescue service officials are searching for at least 11 seamen who have been missing off the east coast 

Leylon Sneed Runs Aground at Trunk Bay Reef
St. John Tradewinds – St. John,U.S. Virgin Islands
The Leylon Sneed drifted aground at the Trunk Bay reef near Jumbie Beach on Tuesday afternoon, February 19, as the vessel was loading up cruise ship

‘Ship crews face high degree of fatigue at sea’
Daily News & Analysis – Mumbai,India
Every-time there is an accident (now mv Rezzak has gone missing off the Turkish coast) on the high seas, there are theories about how high-stress levels 

Coast Guard on Alert for Toxic Ship

Posted 02/26/08 at 09:46 AM

The U.S. Coast Guard and the Guam Environmental Protection Agency are on alert for the possible arrival of the contaminated cruise liner, SS Independence, which is reportedly heading to Guam after being refused entry in Hawaii, The Variety reported..

USCG Sets Conditions Indonesia Ships

Posted 02/26/08 at 08:35 AM

The US Coast Guard issued a notice stating that, effective March 10, it will impose conditions of entry on vessels arriving from Indonesia. With the exception of vessels arriving from certain named ports, any vessel arriving in the United States that called in Indonesia during its previous five port calls must demonstrate the following: (1) that..

UN maritime agency endorses campaign for fair treatment of seafarers
UN News Centre –
… necessary measures should be taken to ensure that seafarers are treated fairly when detained by public authorities in the event of a maritime accident. .

Port workers threaten India strike
One-day protest in March will press for wage improvements, other demands.

New code for accident investigation
Safety at Sea – London,England,UK
LONDON 26 February – An IMO Marine Casualty Investigation Code will be “a major change in the maritime sector” predicts Brice Martin-Castex, 

Maritime Safety News Today – 26th February 2008

At least 11 missing in boat mishaps off Chinese coast
Thaindian.com – Bangkok,Bangkok,Thailand
Hangzhou (China), Feb 25 (Xinhua) Chinese maritime rescue service officials are searching for at least 11 seamen who have been missing off the east coast 

Oil rig collision probe launched
BBC News – UK
An investigation is underway into how a North Sea ferry broke free from its moorings and collided with an oil rig. No passengers were aboard the King of 

UN maritime agency endorses campaign for fair treatment of seafarers
UN News Centre –
… necessary measures should be taken to ensure that seafarers are treated fairly when detained by public authorities in the event of a maritime accident.

French lifeboat crews seek legal protection
Motor Boats Monthly – London,England,UK
French lifeboat crews are likely to get legal protection against claims from those they rescue. Three people rescued last year in the Mediterranean took

US Coast Guard may regulate discharge
A US Senate bill would give the USCG responsibility for overseeing water discharges from vessels.

Granny’s Bloomers and Safety In Confined Spaces

Department stores attach radio frequency Identity, RFID, tags on their goods to ensure that, for instance, their DVD players go out the front door by way of the cash register rather than tucked down some light fingered granny’s bloomers. New versions of that technology have much to offer the maritime industry once it decides to put a premium on safety.

RFID tags contain tiny radio transmitters that can be picked up by a reader. Research being funded, among others, by BP, will see smarter versions appearing in the workplace that can, for instance, monitor work and rest periods, the amount of vibration a worker is exposed to by machinery and ensure that these remain within accepted limited for health. For seafarers, however, these little tell-tales could mean the difference between life and death.

New generation tags can be networked together and detected using the sort of wi-fi technology now common in offices coffee shops, restaurants, bars, and hotels.

In an environment of limited domain, like a ship, the ability to track the location of people and objects accurately can present a number of safety benefits.

The simplest scenario is man overboard. Unless the casualty is lucky enough to be seen falling off the ship it can be hours before he or she is reported missing, as happened in a recent case involving a seafarer on a cruise ship, the Celebrity Constellation. Searches began after the ship docked in Port Everglades and he didn’t show up for a muster. Crew members recalled last seeing him at 5am on the morning of Monday, 18th February. The US Coast Guard called off the 1,500 square mile search on the next evening but restarted when video surfaced showing that the seafarer had actually fallen overboard at 3.25am on the Monday morning. He hasn’t been found.

Had that seafarer been wearing an RFID tag his falling overboard could have set off an alarm and a search started within minutes rather than several hours later.

When it comes to confined space incidents, smart RFID technology worn by seafarers and attached to equipment, could prove even more useful. Not only could it reveal when someone enters a potentially hazardous space but whether they’re wearing the right equipment, whether someone is on watch at the entrance to the space and whether appropriate rescue equipment is in place. Conceivably this could be an entirely automated system.

A shortfall in the present ’safety systems’ is that they rely on form-filling, an activity seen as an end in itself rather than a means of safety working. Increased training and education will not, by themselves, resolve the enormous problems of confined space entry deaths. Competency assessment certainly will help but companies appear to be reluctant to take that step, possibly because a number know that their crew are not competent and might be deemed liable if they were proven to be aware of that shortfall and it is in their interests ‘not to know’.

It will be interesting, indeed, to see which companies are the first to introduce smart RFID tag technology to keep their seafarers alive.

Maritime Safet News Today – 25th February 2008

13 Die in Boat Crash in Amazon River
Prensa Latina – Havana,Cuba
Brasilia, 22 Feb (Prensa Latina) The authorities and first aid lifesavers reinitiated the search for people disappeared during the shipwreck of the ship of 

25 Indians on board Panama vessel feared dead
Hindustan Times – India
The life raft breaks away from the ship when it starts sinking 10 metres. India plans to send an observer wherever the investigation into the episode takes 

Probe underway into collision between ferry and oil rig
South Tyneside Today – UK
An emergency maritime operation was launched just after 1.30pm yesterday after the DFDS Seaways vessel King of Scandinavia slipped its birth at Northumbrian 

Currents impede search for crew / 2 fishermen missing since crash …
The Daily Yomiuri – Osaka,Japan
The search for the two fishermen who went missing after their boat collided with a Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer early Tuesday has grown

Marine safety experts: Surveillance on Atago lax
The Daily Yomiuri – Osaka,Japan
… from a large ship. However, by keeping a sharp lookout, it’s possible to spot a fishing boat from as far away as four kilometers.” The Marine Accident 

24 sue over Seaport Taxi’s capsizing
Baltimore Sun – United States
Among those filing suit was the vessel’s mate. Suits were filed against the operator, Living Classrooms Foundation. Only the captain did not join in the 

Ministry to standardize autopilot use on ships
The Daily Yomiuri – Osaka,Japan
The Defense Ministry will likely set down standards on the use of autopilots on Maritime Self-Defense Force ships after the use of such systems was shown to 

Man indicted in connection with ship accident
San Francisco Chronicle – CA, USA
Four days after the accident, Cox made a false statement in a report to the Coast Guard about whether he possessed a license, the indictment said.

VideoRay Releases Images of Ship Grounding
VideoRay Releases Images of Ship Grounding. 04/20/2006. VideoRay LLC released what is believed to be the first images taken underneath a grounded cruise 

The Obvious Art Of The Goldfish

If maritime news is the art of stating the obvious then the recent statement by DNV Maritime’s principal safety consultant Dr. Torkel Soma about the worsening situation regarding navigational accidents was big news. Certainly it came as no surprise to anyone who regularly reads the News and Mail section of Maritime Accident Casebook, or to anyone with a memory longer than the attention span of a goldfish.

It is particulary ironic following last year’s statements by the president of the International Association Of Classification Societies suggesting that safety was pretty much under control and class societies would have to re-invent themselves for more politically correct challenges like pollution control. Prehaps class societies might re-invent themselves with more of an eye on safety.

Anyone familiar with detailed accident reports will be struck by the number of occasions in which equipment approved or accepted by a classification society has turned out to be inadequate and not fit for purpose. Rarely has a classification society been found liable for not doing its job.

Lately, MAC has received reports of class surveyors being subject to threat and intimidation, in particular in shipyards in the far east which are doing well in the newbuild boom.

Of course, class societies are paid by shipowners for approval, a hare and hounds situation that, we are assured, leads to no impropriety yet still generates a feel of instinctive discomfort.

Dr. Soma does not discuss the role of class societies in safety, he puts the blame on the shortage of officers, faster promotions, lack of experience, increasing technical complexity, increased workload and commercial pressure. It’s a shortage the industry has known about for decades, the results entirely predictable.

What Dr. Soma doesn’t point out is that the industry is doing pretty well, which is why there are all those bright shiny newbuilds coming off the slips looking for crew. What the industry isn’t doing is sending a little of that profit into substantial improvements in training and education in creating a safety culture throughout an organisation. Nor is the industry paying attention to the clear and obvious need for competency assessment and management of crew.

What Dr. Soma’s figures show is the inevitable result of short-term thinking and an industry which declines to invest in the future, invests little in safety less someone holds its feet over the fire and consistently looks for a quick fix instead of a coherent and stable long term strategy.

Dr. Soma says that safety culture is “something which the maritime industry evidentially needs to focus more on” and he’s right. Class societies are an integral part of that industry and we’re looking forward to hearing Dr. Soma’s recommendations as to what those societies should be doing to play their role in creating and enforcing safety regimes among those who pay their wages.

After all, if class societies aren’t partof the solution, they’re part of the problem.

Maritime Accidents Now Twice As Likely

From Det Norske Veritas 

Singapore: Updated figures for 2007 show that the losses from navigational accident within the shipping industry are continuing to increase. This trend is also confirmed by the insurance industry. Premiums may increase by as much as 30 per cent in 2008.

DNV monitors the annual frequency of serious accidents. Over the past five years, there has been an increasing incidence of serious navigational accidents in several shipping segments. This increase is confirmed by a lot of the leading insurance companies such as Skuld, Norwegian Hull Club and The Swedish Club.

In addition to the increasing frequency of navigational accidents, the cost of each repair caused by accidents is rising. The yards are overbooked, making it hard to find a repair slot resulting in increased prices. Collisions, groundings and contacts now account for 60% of the most costly accidents.

Dr. Torkel Soma, Principal Safety Consultant in DNV Maritime, says: “DNV’s statistics shows that a ship is twice as likely to be involved in a serious grounding, collision or contact accident today compared to only five years ago. In addition, estimates show that also the costs of these accidents have doubled. Since this is the general trend for the international commercial fleet, the maritime industry needs to act on this immediately.”

The boom in the shipping market and increased deliveries of newbuildings has resulted in pressure on crews. The shortage of officers has resulted in lower retention and faster promotion. As a result, the general level of experience is decreasing on board. At the same time new technical solutions have been introduced which might have increased the complexity of operations.

Dr. Soma pinpoint: “Reliable technology and complying manuals are no assurance against making errors. Collisions, groundings and contact accidents do almost always involve human acts.”

The latest figures were presented at a DNV seminar in Singapore. Helge Kjeøy, regional manager DNV Maritime South East Asia says: “The main factors explaining the negative developments over the past few years are – that the undersupply of crew worldwide results in reduced experience and that the high commercial pressure results in a high workload. Adding new and more complex equipment does not only help the situation. Avoiding accidents under such situations requires a good safety culture, something which the maritime industry evidently needs to focus more on.”

The experience of leading shipping companies shows that the focus has to be turned more in the direction of human elements and organisational factors, including all those involved – from the directors of the company to the officers on the bridge. Dr. Soma summarize: “Radical safety performance improvements with reduced accident frequency have been achieved through a structured approach addressing behaviour and culture. For the industry to maintain its traditional good track record, the resilience of operations has to be addressed on a larger scale by industry players.”

Maritime Safety News Today – 23rd February 2008

20 Feared Dead in Brazil Ship Collision

The Associated Press –
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) — Twenty people were reported missing and feared dead Thursday when a ferryboat with more than 100 passengers sank to the bottom of

Japan coast guards find empty lifeboat from missing cargo ship

RIA Novosti – Moscow,Russia
MOSCOW, February 21 (RIA Novosti) – Japan’s Coast Guard Service has discovered an empty lifeboat from a cargo ship that went missing with its Russian crew

Vessel Aground in River Clyde
The Arran Voice (subscription) – Brodick,UK
By John Kinsman Clyde Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC) received a call at 17.50 on Wednesday February 13 from the Clyde Estuary Control,
Tugboat Svitser-Korsakov Still Kept by Pirates in Mogadishu
÷ÏÓÔÏË íÅÄÉÁ – ÷ÌÁÄÉ×ÏÓÔÏË,Russia
Instead of that the company tries to find out who of the seamen working in the company are members of the Russian Seafarers’ Union. Lots of questions arise: .

Work continues to remove fuel from shipwreck
KTUU – Anchorage,AK,USA
Another ship rescued the two crew members. The 65-year-old boat has two large holes in its wooden hull, and it’s nearly submerged at high tide.

Bosses vote no to Nigerian war zone
Safety at Sea – London,England,UK
LONDON 20 February – The International Maritime Employers Committee (IMEC), with a membership representing over 5000 ships employing over 145000 seafarers …

CASUALTIES TWICE AS LIKELY AS 5 YEARS AGO
Maritime Global Net – Warren,RI,USA
… in DNV Maritime, said: ¡°DNV¡¯s statistics shows that a ship is twice as likely to be involved in a serious grounding, collision or contact accident today

Prosecutor appeals verdict in Queen Mary 2 accident
PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung) – Wien,Austria
… killing 15 people and injuring 29 weeks before the ship’s first trip. In 2005, another person died of injuries sustained in the accident. .

Bill would require peace officers on cruise ships

By Kimi Yoshino, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
4:24 PM PST, February 22, 2008

Seeking to improve public safety on the high seas, a state senator introduced a bill today that would require peace officers on cruise ships sailing from California ports.

If passed, California would have the country’s most stringent regulations monitoring the $35.7-billion industry, which has come under congressional and public scrutiny in recent years after several high-profile cases of missing people, passengers overboard and sexual assault.

Japanese MSDF chief to be dismissed over ship collision
Xinhua – China
… Self-Defense Force (MSDF) Chief of Staff Eiji Yoshikawa over failure to report a ship collision in time on Tuesday, Japanese media reported Friday.

St. Lawrence Seaway – opening of 2008 navigation season The Great Lakes – St. Lawrence Seaway System issued a notice stating that the Montreal/Lake Ontario portion of the Seaway will open at 0800 on March 22, 2008 and that the Welland Canal will open at 0800 on March 20, 2008. The maximum allowable draft for the Montreal/Lake Ontario portion will be 80.0 dm and for the Welland Canal will be 80.8 dm.

Court upholds million dollar award for permanent, severe skin reaction

The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld a jury award of $1 million to a seaman for a permanent, severe skin reaction resulting from exposure to coal tar. In the instant case, plaintiff crew member on several occasions was exposed to coal tar dust while cleaning the potable water tank on defendant’s vessel. Several other crew members engaged in similar work also experienced skin rash, but not to the same degree, and their reaction was only temporary. Plaintiff brought suit under Jones Act negligence and unseaworthiness. Defendant raised several grounds on appeal, including the alleged excessiveness of the award. The court held that the award, while high, was within the range of the proof. Taylor v. TECO Barge Line, Inc.,

Bill Introduced to Evaluate Certain Vessel Discharges

Posted 02/21/08 at 10:09 AM

Senator Stevens (R-AK) introduced the Vessel Discharge Evaluation and Review Act (S. 2645) to require the Commandant of the Coast Guard, in consultation with the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, to conduct an evaluation and review of certain vessel discharges…