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Maritime Global Net tells us:

Cruise West’s Spirit of Glacier Bay is reported to have run aground in Glacier Bay. The US Coastguard is attending the incident. There are no injuries and hull integrity has not been breached, although a boom has been deployed as a precaution. The reason for the grounding is still unknown. Passengers are being transferred to the departure port of Juneau, and the vessel is expected to re-float at high tide.

UPDATE:

Ship Grounded - Glacier Bay Alaska from John Konrad on Vimeo.

Looking at the piracy chart for 2008 got me reminiscing about recommending routes through the eastern Arabian Sea , Somalia coast, and Gulf of Aden.

Our directive was to work with the Captain to assure a safe voyage. However, like the Captain, we had no way of knowing whether a pirate attack would occur during a voyage. The coast of Somalia has been a high risk area for piracy as long as I can remember. So, even without a weather-related reason, we often would acknowledge a Master’s intended route which remained well off the coast and added sometimes hundreds of miles. Many times, these routes would travel east and north of the island of Socotra.

There was an exception — the summer months and the Southwest Monsoon. During projected gale and storm sw-lies in the western and central Arabian Sea, recommended routes going westbound from the Indian Ocean toward the Suez Canal would remain south of the monsoon core and the highest waves in the central Arabian Sea. However, this route presents a navigational issue (mostly piracy-related) once the route nears the coast of Somalia.

Captain’s choice during the summer: Do I want to avoid the coast of Somalia (potential pirates) and face more rolling on a more northern route? Another problem… If the vessel passes east of Socotra, will the Captain be able to safely steer the vessel west-bound into the Gulf of Aden during a monsoon event?

In this case, strange as it may sound, heavy weather might be working in the Captain’s favor. Are the pirates desparate enough to try and board a moving merchant vessel during gale or storm conditions?

Many Captains chose the improved weather to the south during the summer, passed near the eastern coast of Somalia, then adjusting heading to sail well off the nothern coast of Somalia after passing Cape Guadafui.

Have any gCaptain readers out there has faced similar choices?

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This Post was written by Brad Snook, Meteorologist. Brad spent 13 years recommending routes and forecasting seas and swells for merchant ships around the world. He know lives with his family near gCaptain Headquarters in Morro Bay California. You can read his previous articles HERE.

Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the worst offshore oil disaster.

The Piper Alpha was a North Sea oil production platform operated by Occidental Petroleum (Caledonia) Ltd. It accounted for around ten per cent of the oil and gas production from the North Sea at the time. The platform began production in 1976 first as an oil platform and then later converted to gas production. An explosion and resulting fire destroyed it on July 6, 1988, killing 167 men. Total insured loss was $ 3.4 billion. To date it is the world’s worst offshore oil disaster.

The Amazing site Oil Rig Disasters writes about the Piper Alpha. they tell us:

On 06 July 1988, work began on one of two condensate-injection pumps, designated A and B, which were used to compress gas on the platform prior to transport of the gas to Flotta. A pressure safety valve was removed from compressor A for recalibration and re-certification and two blind flanges were fitted onto the open pipework. The dayshift crew then finished for the day.

During the evening of 06 July, pump B tripped and the nightshift crew decided that pump A should be brought back into service. Once the pump was operational, gas condensate leaked from the two blind flanges and, at around 2200 hours, the gas ignited and exploded, causing fires and damage to other areas with the further release of gas and oil. Some twenty minutes later, the Tartan gas riser failed and a second major explosion occurred followed by widespread fire. Fifty minutes later, at around 2250 hours, the MCP-01 gas riser failed resulting in a third major explosion. Further explosions then ensued, followed by the eventual structural collapse of a significant proportion of the installation.

BBC Report:

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Photos:

The Piper Alpha, as seen from a crew change helicopter, before the fire started.

All that remains of the oil platform after the devastating fire burns out.

The fire in full blaze. Imagine the heat that was generated.

A simulation of the survivability of the Piper Alpha’s Lifeboats.

The Blaze lit the night sky for miles in every direction.

Video Links:

• Piper Alpha Tribute Video
  
• Video animation of Piper Alpha Explosion
• “My Duke of Edinburgh” Movie Trailer

Links:

• 10 Deadliest Offshore Accidents
• BBC Report on this incident.
• Memories of the men who died
• UK Study on preventing large shipboard explosions
• Fire and Blast Information Group: Piper Alpha

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The BBC gives us more details on the tragedy:

The operation to recover hundreds of bodies inside a sunken Philippine ferry has been suspended after a highly toxic pesticide was found to be on board.

Ten tonnes of endosulfan were illegally in the cargo, destined for a Del Monte pineapple plantation, officials said.

Whether the ferry operator, Sulpicio Lines, knew of the toxic cargo is unclear, though a senior official warned it could face prosecution.

Only 56 of more than 850 passengers are known to have survived the disaster.

The MV Princess of the Stars controversially left Manila harbour on 21 June despite the approaching Typhoon Fengshen. Continue Reading…

Death came early this year. The typhoon season has only just started and already, brightly coloured flop-flop rubber sandals are arriving on the coastlines of Sibuyan in the central Philippines. They are very small slippers because many children were among the 800 or so aboard the 1984-built 23,824 tonnes Sulpicio Lines ferry Princess Of The Stars that capsized on morning of June 21 in a typhoon known internationally as Fengshen and in the Philippines as Frank.

One can only say ‘or so’ because it is unlikely anyone will ever know exactly how many people were aboard. Passenger manifests are unreliable in a country where regulations are rarely enforced, even if they are supposedly adequate in the first place. In a grounding incident in 2007 a ferry had a manifest of a little more than two dozen people, the Philippine Coast Guard rescued more than a hundred. The true human cost of the Dona Paz disaster in 1987 remains unknown, except that it possibly exceeded 4,000.

Current known figures for the Princess Of The Stars are around 626 passengers, an unknown number of minors, and 212 crew. At the time of writing there are four confirmed dead and 34 known survivors.
Sulpicio Lines has a poor safety record. In addition to the Princess Of The Stars and the Dona Paz, other casualties include the Dona Marilyn in 1988 and the Princess of the Orient in 1998. The Philippine government has ordered it to stop operations and inspections of the company’s other vessels is underway. Volunteers against Crime and Corruption, VACC, has said it will file a class suit against Sulpicio Lines management.

The domestic ferry industry has a traditional safety problem: In 1994 the William Lines Cebu City collided with a Singaporean vessel, Kota Suria, and sank with the loss of 140 lives; Kimelody Cristy of Moreta Shipping caught fire and sank in 1995; in 1996: An overcrowded wooden ferry, ML Gretchen, capsizes close to shore of central Negros island, killing 54, including 31 children, and leaving 12 missing; Trans-Asia Shipping’s Asian South Korea, another ferry, sank in 1999;Maria Carmela, a ro-ro ferry owned by Montenegro Shipping, caught fire in 2002 with 2390 people on board of which 23 were confirmed dead and 27 missing;the wooden ferry Catalyn-D caught fire and sank in 2007 losing five lives out of 250 people on board. (A full list of incidents can be found HERE)

Despite the regularity of maritime incidents in Philippine waters there is no full-time independent maritime investigation agency in the Philippines. Marina, the country’s maritime regulatory body delegates its enforcement functions to the Philippine Coastguard, which allowed the vessel to leave Manila as the typhoon was approaching. Both agencies will conduct the investigation.
Philippine President Gloria Magapagal Arroyo has, as is usual in high-visibility incidents, ordered a board of inquiry to be convened but there is no legal requirement for any of its members to be qualified maritime casualty investigators and consists of Coast Guard officers, Marina officials and members or graduates of the government-own Philippine Merchant Marine Academy. A lawyer is required to be one of the members but he, or she, is not required to have expertise in maritime law.

The aim of the Board is to establish liability, safety issues are secondary. Despite that, not a single ferry company or ship owner has been brought to book in any incident in the Philippines.
Casualty investigation reports are not made accessible to the public.

International maritime investigators would like to bring the Philippines within the fold and help it develop a more realistic and effective investigative capability but the political will is lacking, which may not be unconnected with the high level connections between ferry companies, shipowners and the country’s legislators.

It is unlikely that the Philippines will respond to the new IMO code of conduct for maritime casualty investigation any time soon. Despite becoming a member in the mid-1960s the Philippines has yet to lodge a single maritime casualty investigation report with the IMO, as it is mandated to do for serious casualties under the terms of its membership, despite the recent election of a Filipino, Neil Ferrer, as IMO deputy secretary general.

Currently, fingers are being pointed in all directions. The vessel left Manila at about 8pm on Friday, 20th June as Typhoon Fengshen approached the islands. Storm Signal Number One, the lowest level warning, had been issued by the Pagasa, the country’s under-funded and under-equipped weather bureau.
Although the typhoon was not predicted to present a threat on the vessel’s route, typhoons are notoriously erratic. Although not expected to hit the main island of Luzon, by 11.30 the highest level warning was issued, Number Three, but by then the Princess Of The Seas was in the Visayas region still heading for Cebu.

The vessel was allowed to leave Manila because it was believed that she would only enter the periphery of typhoon, but the typhoon suddenly changed direction, putting the vessel directly in its path. It reached Sibuyan Island at around 7am.

According to reports, at about non on Saturday, 21st June, the ship’s main engine failed, but some survivors say the ship only slowed down as it encountered large waves. With winds of 73 miles an hour gusting up to 94 miles and hour the ship grounded off the coast of Sibuyan Island in Romblon province, tore a gash in her hull and took on water. The master, Captain Florencio Marimon, who is still missing, ordered all passengers to abandon the ferry, which capsized 15 minutes later.

Reportedly, few passengers were able to board the 14 liferafts, a number of which flipped over in the large swells and high winds, and about half were able to don lifejackets before jumping off the ship.
Later, police in the town of San Fernando in Romblon province reported that the vessel was two or three kilometres offshore, upside down off the coast of the town, a hole visible in the hull.

History suggests that the Princess Of The Stars tragedy will have little effect on the safety of Philippine ferry passengers or their crew. The Philippines will continue to ignore its obligations to the IMO and to the security of its travelling public because there isn’t the political will to do otherwise no matter how many children’s rubber slippers wash up on its beaches.

This post was written by Bob Couttie of Maritime Accident Casebook. Bob Couttie has written for a number of maritime industry publications, including the prestigious Lloyd’s List International daily newspaper and Lloyd’s Ship Manager magazine. His reportage on problems with ship’s officer certification examinations in the Philippines in the late 1990s influenced the adoption of computerized examinations for ship officers by the country’s Professional Regulatory Commission.

You can read more of Bob’s articles on gCaptain (LINK) and on his blog (LINK).

CNN sends news of a tragic ferry capsize in the Phillipines. They write:

Rescuers have found at least 33 survivors and at least six dead among the nearly 750 aboard a ferry that capsized in  Typhoon Fengshen that battered the southern Philippines, a Red Cross official said Monday.

A U.S. Navy ship equipped with helicopters will soon join the search and rescue effort, said Richard Gordon, the head of the Philippines Red Cross and a member of the country’s Senate.

Fishermen found 30 survivors from the ferry Princess of Stars, which rolled over early Saturday morning, Gordon said. One person died after being picked up, and another was lost during rescue efforts, he said, but the remaining 28 have been delivered to police.

Filipino troops have found five more survivors and five dead, Gordon said, bringing the known toll from the accident to six.

“There’s quite a few people out there that are still missing,” he said. “We are trying our best to find them, and I hope we could get some help.” Read More…

Watch images of the ferry sinking » |  Watch a report on the disaster »

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UPDATE:
GMA News of the Phillipines has this report:
This page requires a higher version browser

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UPDATE 2:
Bloomburg Tells Us:

June 24 (Bloomberg) — Philippine divers found “many bodies” after entering a ferry that capsized in a typhoon three days ago with at least 849 passengers and crew on board, the Navy said today.

Divers can’t tell how many bodies are in the vessel because “it’s dark and they don’t have search lights,” said Coast Guard Commodore Luis Tuason, adding the chances of rescuers finding survivors are “slim.’

Only the tip of the bow of the 24,000-ton MV Princess of the Stars is above water off the central island of Sibuyan, where it sank June 21 in what may be the country’s worst ferry disaster in two decades.

Authorities have identified 48 survivors who made it to various islands, a revision from the figure of 57 reported earlier today, Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander Rogelio Villanueva told reporters at a briefing in Manila. The additional survivors were from separate sea and land incidents, he said.

The number of dead climbed to 70 after 55 bodies were reported in Claveria, a seaside town east of Sibuyan, he said. The dead include three bodies taken by divers from the ship.

There may have been as many as 862 passengers and crew on board, Salvacion Buaron, vice president of ship owner Sulpicio Lines Inc., said at the briefing. Continue Reading…

In a feature appropriately titled “Worst Case Scenario” Popular Mechanics brings us “The Coast Guard’s Most Extreme Rescue - Alaska Ranger“. They write:

“Mayday, mayday, mayday. This is the Alaska Ranger. 5, 3, 5, 3 North, 1, 6, 9, 5, 8 West… We are flooding, taking on water in our rudder room.”

It was 2:52 am on March 23, Easter morning, when Coast Guard Station Kodiak picked up the distress call from a point almost 800 miles west, in Alaska’s frigid Bering Sea.

“Roger. Good copy on position… Request to know number onboard, over.”

After a static-filled pause, the answer came through loud and clear: “Number of persons: 47.”

Capt. Peter Jacobsen was in the crowded wheelhouse of the 189-ft. fishing vessel. When the trawler’s emergency alarm had first sounded about an hour before, crew members descended below decks to see water rising fast in the ship’s stern compartments. They had pulled out a pump, but the effort soon looked futile. Now Jacobsen, 65, a veteran captain who had been fishing in the Bering Sea for 23 years, was making calls to his ship’s sister vessels, repeating the coordinates of the Ranger’s position 120 miles west of the Aleutian Island port of Dutch Harbor.

Be sure to visit our previous Alaska Ranger Coverage including commentary by Kennebec Captain titled “Sinking of the Alaska Ranger - Fishing Master vs Captain“. Then read Popular Mechanics full article which can be found HERE.

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INTERESTING LINKS:

• Interview With A Helicopter Rescue Team
• Top 10 Coast Guard Rescue Videos
• Full Alaska Ranger Coverage

MayDay Call:

 

 Alaska Ranger Mayday - Fishing Boat Sinking Offshore Alaska: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Coast Guard officials say a fire aboard a container ship in the North Pacific has been put out.

The 781-foot India Lotus, from Malta, reported a fire in the engine room shortly after midnight.

The ship was assisted by a nearby British container ship. The British ship was contacted by the Automated Mutual Assistance Vessel Rescue System.

The India Lotus was traveling about 700 miles south of Dutch Harbor. No injuries were reported.

Our good friend Captian Koos sent us this photo of the May 30th Jumbo Crane Collapse at the Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding in Pudong China.

Lloyds List Reports:

Sources said columns on the cranes buckled and collapsed at about 0025 hours on today. Two security guards were injured, one critically, and both were taken to a local hospital.

While the accident prompted concern that one of the dry docks at the yard could be out of action for up to six months, industry insiders have already suggested that the shipbuilder would try to spread work among its other facilities to mitigate delays.

The Hudong-Zhonghua group has four shipbuilding facilities including Shanghai Edward Shipbuilding, at Pudong, Punan and Fuxing.

They include a dry dock capable of building very large crude carriers, a 120,000 dwt floating dry dock and five shipbuilding berths for vessels up to 20,000 dwt, 70,000 dwt and 120,000 dwt. The shipbuilder has eight 100 tonnes capacity cranes working at its shipbuilding facilities.

One source said: “The accident is potentially crippling for the shipbuilder. But until a proper assessment can be carried out and executives can review how much work can be carried out by other facilities it is difficult to comment on how much impact the accident will have on production.”

UPDATE

The AP is now reporting 36 confirmed casualties:

Rescuers have found more bodies in the wreckage of a 600-ton crane that collapsed at a Shanghai shipyard, raising the death toll to 36, the official Xinhua News Agency said Wednesday.
The crane collapsed Tuesday as it was being raised at the Shanghai Hudong Shipyard, causing a column to fall on a group of 30 laborers. Three people are hospitalized with injuries and two others were treated and released, according to Xinhua.

The shipyard says the cause of the accident is under investigation.

Shanghai, China’s biggest port, is a major center for shipbuilding and repairs. The Hudong yard, opened in 1928, is one of the city’s biggest

Here is the PDF with details and photos: [Continue Reading →]