The casualty, an overweight ship mechanic, fell while climbing the ladder from a boarding platform on a tender. He was unable to reach a lifebuoy throw to him. Suddenly he stopped swimming.

It appears that the fall into the water may have caused cold shock triggering cardiac attack or circulatory failure.

Lessons:

Always wear lifejackets when transferring from one vessel to another.

Crew should not use the pilot ladder to transfer.

BSU Report

On 25 January, in Facebookese Akhona Geveza wrote: “Ey gudpeople 2day is my last day in South Africa *crying* sometymz in lyf have to choose btwn the ones we love and education.anyway i love you all guys i wll miss u you all.” In March she made her last entry: “enjoying my time in Korea,missing u all”

A South African National Ports Authority, Transnet, cadet doing her onboard training on the container ship, Safmarine Kariba – was found to be missing around noon on 24 June.  After a two hour search, her body was found at sea by local police near the port of Rijeka, Croatia where the vessel was due to berth.

A memorial service was held onboard the Safmarine Kariba on Friday, 25 June 2010.  The vessel’s engine was stopped soon after the vessel had left the port of Rijeka at the location where Ms Geveza was found.  The crew gathered on the bridge wing, the ship’s horn was blown and a minute of silence was observed as the crew lowered a floral wreath into the sea in remembrance of Ms Geveza.

South African newspapers subsequently reported claims that she had told a colleague she had been raped by the ship’s Ukrainian chief officer. Other Transnet cadets were quoted making allegations of male and female rape, pregnancy and bullying and harassment.

Says Safmarine: “As soon as we became aware of the allegations regarding Ms Geveza, Safmarine instructed that the Chief Officer onboard the vessel be relieved from duty…
Safmarine is not the only provider of training berths to South Africans and we are therefore most concerned that the Sunday Times article may erroneously leave the impression that all the sexual allegations mentioned in the article took place on Safmarine vessels. That is not the case.”

Among the allegations made by South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper are:

“Several cadets in the maritime studies programme, speaking to the Sunday Times on condition of anonymity, said there was systematic abuse of power by senior officers, who threatened cadets’ careers if they did not perform sexual acts. The sex abuse allegations include claims that :

• Two male cadets were raped by senior officials while at sea;
• A female cadet terminated two pregnancies that followed her rape at sea;
• Three female trainees were pregnant at the end of their 12-month training stint;
• A male cadet was sent home a month before finishing his programme because he refused to have sex with a senior official; and
• A female cadet has a child with a married South African Maritime Safety Agency executive after he forced himself on her and threatened to cancel her contract if she told anyone.

Said a former female cadet: "When we arrived on the vessel, there were 10 women, and we were told that the captain is our god; he can marry you, baptise you and even bury you without anybody’s permission. We were told that the sea is no man’s land and that what happens at sea, stays at sea."

Said another former female cadet: "It was like we were dumped in the middle of a game park."

The former male cadet who was allegedly raped said: "I really don’t want to talk about it. Bad things are happening at sea and I am one of the victims."

As an African woman in a male-dominated industry was, in a sense, a pioneer. Over the past two years 15 women have graduated from the Transnet programme, 14 of whom are still at sea.

Says a contributor to a Facebook memorial page: page W’l 4ever b proud of u sisi, u broke da boundaries. showing dat even f u’r a village gel, da sky s da limit. u r da inspiration”.

Inquiries

Safmarine Kariba was a UK-registered vessel and Nautilus International has called for the UK government to ensure there is a full and transparent inquiry into Akhona’s death and the subsequent allegations of rape and harassment.

General secretary Mark Dickinson says the case should serve as ‘a wake-up call’ to the international shipping industry. ‘The reports are deeply shocking and extremely serious and it is imperative that every effort is made to investigate and learn from this as a matter of urgency,’ he adds.

‘It is essential for the shipping industry and for the UK register that no effort is spared to establish the truth of the allegations and – if true – to ensure that appropriate action is taken,’ Mr Dickinson states.

‘The claims being made run the risk of putting the issue of equal opportunities back decades,’ he warns. ‘It is therefore critical that there must be no whitewash and no cover-up and that the authorities and the owners respond in a constructive and engaged way.’

Mr Dickinson says research by Nautilus a decade ago shows serious problems of sexual harassment in shipping. As a result, the union developed equal opportunities policies with the UK Chamber of Shipping and these had subsequently been taken up across the European Union.

The union is also writing to the UK transport minister and home secretary to highlight the need for Britain to play a leading role in the criminal and accident investigations. Nautilus is reviewing its existing arrangements for enabling members to report problems onboard their ships, and has also approached the Chamber of Shipping to discuss ways in which the industry can reassess its equal opportunities policies and to ensure that lessons are learned from the case of Akhona Geveza.

‘We are determined that this incident is not swept under the carpet and that some good can come from this tragic loss of life,’ Mr Dickinson says.

‘We have a 30% wastage rate among young people entering the industry, and we really need to make very sure that bullying, harassment and discrimination are not tolerated in shipping and that all seafarers, regardless of sex, sexual orientation and race, are not treated in ways that were not even acceptable 100 years ago.’

Transnet has established an independent bard of inquiry and the South African police are also investigating.

As yet, there is no news of an investigation by the UK authorities.

A vibrant 19 year-old is dead, the tip of a particularly nasty iceberg. The industry has a duty of care towards these youngsters and it’s time to take that duty seriously.

Two died and two others were seriously injured when a twin-fall lifeboat from the Diamond Offshore-owned, OGX-leased rig was being recovered from the sea after training and maintenance operations. A Triple 5 hook from the lifeboat is being examined by the manufacturer, Survival Systems International.

The Triple 5 hook is based on an early design by the same company with a record of 25 years without an accident. It is designed to fail-to-safe under load.

The report, expected in Q3 2010 is expected to address the issue of lifeboat recovery with crew aboard, which frequently results in deaths and injuries when safety-critical hoisting equipment fails.

Another Two Lifeboat Deaths

Relevant Podcasts

The Case Of The Killer Catch

The Case Of The Fallen Saviour

The Case of the Fall From Grace

Relevant Posts

Intertanko Marine Manager :”Whole lifeboat system unsatisfactory”

Safety Alert – IADC Caution on Lifeboats

Lifeboats: Trashy Training Troubles Tokyo/Paris MoUs

Schatt-Harding – “hooks made of wrong steel”

Lifeboat D-Ring Alert

NEPIA Highlights Lifeboat Safety

Freefall release fears shut platform

Lifeboats – The Pinto Of The Sea

Free Fall Lifeboat Hazards – A Drop In The Ocean

Lifeboat hooks not fit for purpose – Worldwide

Australian Maritime Safety Authority: Prevention of accidents with lifeboats

Lifeboats – Who gives a f*** ?

Your Lifeboat Experiences

It is worthless to expect such worthless examples of cowardice to hang their heads in shame, for they have none.

Their fellow officers will know who they are, and those officers would be wise to to refuse to be in the same bridge, and be tainted with the same shade of yellow. Honourable companies will kick these men out of the industry they have disgraced – they have no place on a bridge.

The foregoing opinions are those of MAC, but may be unique.

Here, for reference is the introduction to the latest MAIB Safety Alert. Other may judge whether MAC’s comments are appropriate.

“MAIB is currently investigating the death of a seafarer, during which we have discovered evidence of dereliction of one of the most fundamental duties of the mariner – the moral and legal obligation to go to the aid of those in peril on the sea. Even at the height of war, civilised combatants went to great lengths to save the lives of sailors from enemy vessels they had sunk. Yet here we are, in the 21st Century, finding ships failing to respond to Mayday messages.

“In the case we are investigating, poor visual lookout meant that most of the major vessels within 10 miles of the sinking vessel reportely failed to see a series of distress flares. This in itself is disappointing, but even more alarmingly, most of the same ships also failed to respond to the Mayday Relay, issued several times by the Coastguard. Some claimed not to have heard the VHF (poor standards of watchkeeping again); some claimed not to have received the DSC distress alerts (!); and some masters claimed not to understand that they have a legal (and moral) duty to react.

“SOLAS is quite clear on the subject:
“Regulation 33 – Distress Situations: Obligations and Procedures
The master of a ship at sea which is in a position to be able to provide assistance,
on receiving information from any source that persons are in distress at sea, is bound to proceed with all speed to their assistance, if possible informing them or the search and rescue service that the ship is doing so. This obligation to provide assistance applies regardless of the nationality or status of such persons or the circumstances in which they are found. If the ship receiving the distress alert is unable or, in the special circumstances of the case, considers it unreasonable or unnecessary to proceed to their assistance, the master must enter in the log-book the reason for failing to proceed to the assistance of the persons in distress, taking into account the recommendation of the Organization to inform the appropriate search and rescue service accordingly.”

”I approached the senior management of each of the ships involved. I am pleased to report that all reacted with horror that their vessels had not responded, and took urgent action to instruct all their ships to respond properly to such situations in the future.

”I would urge all companies and mariners to remember that this requirement is not optional.

”It is also not up to coastal stations to call ships with a request to assist; in such circumstances it is the duty of every “master of a ship at sea which is in a position to be able to provide assistance” to at least call the search and rescue service and then respond to their instructions.”

Here we have an instructor, apparently in Eastern Europe, doing an STCW course. He’s not wearing a hardhat, nor is he wearing a lifejacket. This tells us that he’s not teaching safety, and not teaching safely. He’s only teaching the students to pass STCW certification, not the safety lessons that might keep them alive and injured when they’re on a ship.

If the instructor isn’t taking safety seriously, will his students?

Isle of Man instructors are in Malaysia investigating the collision between the tanker Formosaproduct Brick and Ostende Max, which cost nine seafarers their lives. The Manx investigators do a good job and despite current attempts to hustle things along they know their business well enough to take the time necessary to do the job right.

It’s quite a complex investigation which will cover how the collision happened, how the Formosaproduct Brick caught fire, how the fire was fought and why the nine fatalities occurred, whether the Vessel Traffic Service was on the ball and whether the incident response was timely and appropriate.

It is likely, however, that liability issues and fear of legal action against the two vessels’ officers will hamper the gathering of necessary information for the safety investigation.

It does seem to have some similarities to the 1993 British Trent/Western Winner incident. Hopefully it will have a more satisfactory resolution.

Sweden saw the collision of two ferries, Gotlandia and Gotlandia II, at Nynäshamn port, south of Stockholm, possibly with the help of a small barge. Some 15 injuries were reported. A boiler room fire, apparently in the thermal heating unit (thermal heating?! BDC) forced the ferry Atlantic Vision to return to port in Nova Scotia, the second fire on the vessel since December last year.  A smaller ferry, Captain, grounded on a boat launch on Balboa Island on July 21.

Apart from Atlantic Vision, fire ranged far and wide in the past seven days. Fire gutted a passenger-cum-cargo ship, MV Pemba at Dar es Salaam habour. Thiswas the second fire and fourth incident in Tanzanian waters in the past four months, which included a capsize with loss of life and another in which, says a Tanzanian report, “its backdoor fell off while in the Indian Ocean”. Three men were rescued, one sent to hospital, when the shrimp boat Kemo Sabay caught fire off Protection Island, in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the somewhat larger,2,545 grt, containership Forum Avarua suffered an engine room fire.

Two whale stories, one of which got worldwide coverage: Princess Cruise Lines’ Sapphire Princess, went inadvertently spear fishing with its bulbous bow and came up with a 70-tonne, rare, fin whale. At the other end of the scale of size and intelligence were the 32 passengers aboard the whale-watching boat which sank off Mayne Island, Canada – none were wearing lifejackets in the open inflatable.

Thanking their lucky stars this week were two seafarers from the coal carrier United Treasure whose scaffold collapsed while they were painting a hold, resulting in four badly broken legs, a broken arm and serious spinal bruising. Also in the lotof the fortunate were the 20 crew of the bulker Ioannis NK, rescued by helicopter after the ship capsized and sank 98 nautical miles off Cape Columbine on the West Coast, near to Saldanha Bay.

Inevitably, there were the aftermaths of tragedy: the burial of the first victim of the Aguila sinking and the naming of an oilman whose body was found after he went missing from the Brent Delta platform in the North Sea.

Be safe out there

Chief Officer Charles P. Posas, has scored a dubious first in legal history. He is the first person to be charged with a violation of the US Anti-Invasive Species Law in addition to two felony counts of lying to the Coast Guard and violating recordkeeping laws. His superior, Captain Panagiotis Lekkas, is charged with violating anti-pollution laws, ship safety laws and obstructing a US Coast Guard investigation. Both have pleaded guilty in a Federal court in New Orleans, sentencing for both officers defendants is set for 14 October, 2009.

Says the US Department of Justice: “Posas is the first individual ever charged under the anti-invasive species law, a law designed to mitigate the introduction of marine invasive species into waters of the United States. Aquatic nuisance species are non-indigenous species that threaten the diversity or abundance of native species or the ecological stability of infested waters.

“Lekkas, who was the highest ranking officer aboard the ship, pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, one count of obstruction of justice and two counts of violating the Ports and Waterways Safety Act. Posas, who served as the vessel’s chief officer, pleaded guilty to one count of false statement and one count of violating the Nonindigenous Aquatic Nuisance and Prevention Control Act.”

Their vessel, M/V Theotokos, is owned by Liberia-based Mirage Navigation Corporation and managed by Polembros Shipping Limited.

In the summer of 2008, on passage from the Suez Canal to China, Lekkas and Posas suspected that the aftpeak ballast tank was leaking, but the crew was unable to confirm a leak during an inspection. Later, while at a dock, offloading cargo in China, Lekkas and Posas saw a crack of about 60 centimetres in the ship’s rudder stem. It was evident that water had passed through the crack because water was streaming out of it from inside of the ship. Lekkas reported the crack to company personnel, but failed to write a written report. Lekkas did not report it to the Coast Guard until he was confronted by Coast Guard inspectors in New Orleans.

In court documents, Lekkas admitted that he knew the crack could have adversely affected the safety and safe handling and operation of the vessel. No repairs were undertaken on the rudder stem crack until the Coast Guard ordered it repaired upon its discovery.

The Port and Waterways Safety Act, PWSA, requires that a vessel operator must report all hazardous conditions to the Coast Guard prior to arrival in a US port. Under the PWSA regulations, a hazardous condition does not have to be a definitive danger or imminent threat, but need only be a condition that may adversely affect the safety of any vessel, bridge, structure or shore area or the environmental quality of any port, harbour or navigable waterway of the United States..

The  US Coast Guard has notification processes in place for vessels arriving at US ports that have identified hazardous conditions onboard, such as excessive leaks and major equipment malfunctions. A vessel operator has several options available, including notifying the Coast Guard 96 hours prior to arrival of the hazardous condition or contacting the applicable ports’ 24-hour Sector Command Center or Vessel Traffic Service.

Through further investigation, the Coast Guard also found fuel was leaking, or “migrating”, from the deep fuel tanks into the forepeak ballast tank. Directly astern of the forepeak tank were two fuel tanks, known as the deep fuel tanks.

In mid-September 2008, Lekkas and Posas learned that fuel oil may have been leaking into the forepeak ballast tank because it was reported that the sounding tapes were dirty with oil. After opening the tank’s hatch, two inspections confirmed the presence of oil in the forepeak tank. Following this discovery, Captain Lekkas ordered the crew to undertake a cleaning operation that initially involved skimming the surface of the water in order to remove the oil. In order to facilitate further cleaning, Lekkas ordered the level of the liquid in the tank lowered by pumping it directly overboard through the ballast pump. As the liquid level was lowered the crew could clean more of the tank, with the cleaning operation expanding to rags and a portable pump. The discharged ballast liquid was contaminated with oil.

The Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships and its regulations require that discharges from the machinery spaces of a cargo ship must be fully and accurately recorded in the oil record book. This obligation extends to emergency, accidental, or other exceptional discharges of oil and oily mixtures. Lekkas ordered the ballast discharges and counter-signed each page of the oil record book, certifying its accuracy. However, none of the contaminated ballast water discharges were recorded in the Oil Record Book.

When the vessel was about two days out from arriving in New Orleans, in late September 2008, it was clear that oil was continuing to leak into the forepeak tank. Prior to entering the Mississippi River and about a day out from New Orleans, Lekkas ordered two fitters to fabricate and install an obstruction device onto the forepeak tank’s sounding tube so that during Coast Guard inspections, when taking a sounding, the results would only reveal water and not the presence of oil in the tank. The obstruction device consisted of a rubber hose with a metal stopper at the bottom end. Before being affixed to the sounding tube, the rubber hose was partially filled with water.

On Oct. 1, 2008, the Coast Guard boarded the M/V Theotokos near New Orleans in order to inspect the ship. During the inspection, the Coast Guard oversaw the sounding of the forepeak tank which indicated the presence of water in the tank but did not reveal the oil. Later, as part of the inspection, the Coast Guard had the crew open the hatch to the forepeak tank which revealed approximately one meter of oil in the tank. During the initial inspection, confined spaces safety regulations prevented the Coast Guard inspectors from retrieving the obstruction device. Although the inspection lasted another two days, Lekkas ordered the fitters to remove the rubber hose from the tank and restore the sounding tube to its original condition. The removal occurred before the Coast Guard had an opportunity to enter the tank.

In addition to the obstruction regarding the sounding pipe, Lekkas admitted in court documents that he knew about the fuel leak into the forepeak tank well before coming to New Orleans and that he chose not to report the leaks to the Coast Guard. Lekkas further admitted that the fuel migration may have adversely affected the safety of the M/V Theotokos or the environmental quality of US ports and shores because the oil contamination in the ballast system meant that captain could not have utilized the ballast system, with its attendant direct overboard discharges, without polluting the marine environment.

Additionally, during the inspection, a Coast Guard inspector asked to see complete ballast records for the Theotokos. Posas responded by physically handing the inspector a copy of the 27 September, 2008, ballast report, which is a report of soundings and volumes of water in the ballast system. Posas prepared, signed and maintained these reports as part of his duties as chief officer. In court documents Posas admitted, that at the time he presented the ballast report to the Coast Guard inspector, he knew that the form was false.

Maintenance of accurate ballast water records is required under Ballast Water Management for Control of Nonindigenous Species regulations promulgated under the Nonindigenous Aquatic Nuisance Prevention and Control Act.

“Invasive marine species are a serious problem that can be transmitted in the ballast water of oceangoing vessels. Today’s pleas should act as a warning to industry and crewmembers alike that we will investigate and prosecute those who ignore not only pollution laws but those laws designed to protect native species,” said John C. Cruden, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.

US Attorney Jim Letten noted, “The message should be clear that this office, in conjunction with its partnership with the US Coast Guard, the Department of Justice Environmental Crimes Section and all its law enforcement partners, will vigorously prosecute individuals who impede or obstruct the US Coast Guard’s mission and pollute our marine environment.”

“This case clearly demonstrates the Coast Guard’s commitment to work with our interagency partners to aggressively enforce all maritime anti-pollution and safety of life at sea laws. The breadth and magnitude of the investigation that underpinned the charges brought forth is a testament to the dedication of all persons who were involved in resolving this matter including the Coast Guard Investigative Service, the US Department of Justice‘s Environmental Crime Section, and the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana,” said Rear Admiral Mary Landry, Eighth District Coast Guard commander.

Investigators will probably concentrate on three elements: the fouling of the cable, the radio communications problem, and the over-riding of the hydrostatic release. Inadequate training and drills is likely to surface as a root cause.

Cosco Busan, every San Franciscan’s favourite hate-object, is very much in the news. Setting aside the issue of the pilot’s medication, there are lots of lessons worth learning or re-learning. The latest Maritime Accident Casebook podcast, The Case of the Foggy Pilot, looks at bridge team management, how to get information out of a cranky pilot and how to ask and answer questions. After all, if you don’t ask a question right, you’re not asking the right question.

It’s when we think we’re safe that bad things often happen. A master and crewmember drowned when a boat ferrying them ashore capsized in Vietnam around 700 metres from their ship. Did anyone mention lifejackets?

Typhoon season is setting in around the western Pacific so we expect the usual heavy-weather casualties, as the discovery of more than 400 bodies in the Princess of the Stars in the Philippines reminds us. Two vessels were lost recently in the Arabian sea, fortunately without loss of life.

Time to look at anchoring, when to stay put and when to go, and keep an eye on speed, reminders of Pacific Commerce, Pasha Bulker and MSC Napoli respectively.

Take an overloaded ship with negligible freeboard, heavy weather and a steering failure and you end up with the Cap Blanc, which capsized off Canada’s Burin Peninsula last year. A photograph of the vessel taken the previous February tells the story, and the overloading was habitual, but also raises the question: Where was Port State Control?

Also there has been the explosion aboard the tanker Nhat Thuan,with three seafarers missing, the sinking of a trawler off of Thailand following a collision with an unnamed cargo vessel with one dead and five missing, a thankfully lossless collision between Marti Princess and Renate Schulte off the Turkish island of Bozcaada and the fire aboard Royal Princess of Princess Cruise Lines.

It’s been a bad time for piers, with the 653-foot Otello thumping a pier at the Port of Hueneme, the Staten Island Ferry doing ditto with 15 hurt, and bad news for lovers of paddle-steamers as the last of the ocean-going variety hit a landing pier on the Clyde.

Finally, a different sort of casualty from long ago. Today, July 1, sees the inauguration of a plaque to the Australian victims of the Japanese hellship Montevideo Maru at the only memorial to hellship victims, located at Subic Bay Freeport. Many hellship victims were merchant mariners, including in this case 31 Norwegian seafarers. Remember them.