Arriving in the office this morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see a particular email sitting in my inbox.  It was a message from Shipserv, the leading online marine chandlery.  The email contained a few things that were of particular interest to us here at gCaptain.com, and you, our readers, alike.

The first is that on February 16th, Shipserv celebrated it’s 10th birthday.  This is a huge milestone, especially considering the industry that they are operating in.  One thing we’ve always said here at gCaptain is that the maritime shipping industry is at least 5-10 years behind the transition to online.  One can only speculate as to why this is, but in our opinion, the flood gates of opportunity are just beginning to open.  I think Shipserv themselves say it best:

Back in 2000, ShipServ was founded in the web “gold rush” of the dotcom boom where anyone and everyone was setting up an internet business. In fact, someone was telling us today they remembered nearly 30 maritime purchasing companies similar to ShipServ being founded at the time although [Founder, Paul Ostergaard] will swear blind it was a lot, lot more). But none exist today – and ShipServ’s success is a testament to the vision of the founders and the tenacity of the subsequent employees and customers who’ve taken the company from strength to strength over the years.

The second thing that was of interest is something that has been mentioned here on gCaptain.com arleady, and that is the announcement that Shipserv has recently acquired Mariner’s Annual, a pub that many of you know and love. This means, that your support of ShipServ will translate into future digital and print versions of this useful catalogue, further transitioning the movement to digital platforms in the maritime industry.

Just recently, gCaptain partnered with Shipserv to help promote the launch of Shipserv Pages, a kind of search engine for operational ship supplies that easily matches suppliers with buyers at the moment they are ready to buy.  So if your ordering anything in the near future for your ship, please bookmark THIS PAGE to find the parts you need and a supplier that knows the value of offering their services online.

gCaptain.com would like to formally congratulate Shipserv on 10 successful years in business and commend them for their forward thinking and leadership in the transition to digital platforms in the maritime shipping industry.

When a maritime incident happens the most up to date information often comes from news sources close to the scene. How do you find these sources? Lifehacker tells us:

Want so see how the newspapers around your region played the Super Tuesday results on their front page? Just want to get a quick glance at your own newspaper’s front page without clicking through its web site? The web site of the Newseum, an interactive journalism museum, offers a nifty “Front Pages Worldwide” tool that’s updated daily and comes in list, gallery, or (coolest of all) map flavors. Simply mouse over a town or city to see that papers’ front page, or head to the list or gallery options to grab a read-able PDF of it. For capturing a piece of a major story in your town or just keeping yourself informed, the Newseum is the web version of having a stack of papers delivered to your desk.

Today’s Front Pages [Newseum]

For the latest news online try Now Public.

Here are gCaptain editor’s Top 10 upcoming picks of the week from gCaptain’s Maritime News Discoverer. Please Vote on the ones you like to have them published.

Warming May Reduce Hurricane Landfalls, Study Says
Contrary to many previous reports, global warming could reduce the number of hurricanes that strike the United States, according to a new study. read more »

Sri Lankan Navy mines sea border with India to block Tamil Tigers
The Sri Lankan Navy (SLN) placed an underwater defense system between Kachchatheevu and Neduntheevu (Delft Island) as part of their efforts to detain read more »

Greenpeace anti-whaling ship running out of fuel
Environmental group Greenpeace said on Saturday its anti-whaling ship, which has been harassing Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean, had saved an read more »

Russia abolishes offshore duties
Reuters reported that Russia has abolished for two years import duties and customs taxes for offshore drilling rigs temporarily imported to Russia fo read more »

News blackout for Chevron’s New Nigerian oil ship
The California-based company is afraid that armed groups in the Niger Delta might try to attack the billion dollar ship as it is being hooked up to o read more »

Long-range identification and tracking of ships
A new SOLAS regulation on long-range identification and tracking of ships enters into force on 1 January 2008, giving SOLAS Contracting Governments a read more »

Nigeria: Robbers Invade Maritime Academy
There was renewed wave of armed banditry in Akwa Ibom State on Friday as two commercial banks were attacked by men of the underworld in Oron. The sle read more »

Samsung Heavy Indicted for Spill
Samsung Heavy Industries Co. and Hong Kong-based Hebei Spirit Shipping Co. were indicted over an oil spill that occurred in December, South Korean pr read more »

Ice Prince In pictures: Shipwreck timber
Thousands of pieces of timber have been washed up on read more »

New Technology To End Sea Sickness
One of the things used quite a bit by the U.S. navy is rudder-roll stabilization,” he said.
“They monitor the ship motions and then they use a fairl read more »

I have been amazed lately by the number of errors in both media reports and political commentary related to the the container ship Cosco Busan that allided with San Francisco’s Bay Bridge. We first reported on the confusion between the words allision and collision but that debate is mostly semantic. The errors have grown as the debate has reached a national audience.

The most troubling mistake is reports that infer or flatly state the vessel is a tanker. This mistake has been made numerous times as can be seen by doing a simple google news search for the incorrect term but most seriously in USA Today’s, America’s most widely distributed newspaper, headline (page A6 of November 12th’s edition): “Coast Guard: Tanker crew tested for substances.”

The media is not the only “informed” party making this mistake. The San Francisco Chronicle reports on a statement by San Francisc’s mayor:

Newsom saw the disaster as an even larger statement on the weakness of America’s dependence on oil.

“We can do better than large oil tankers coming in and out of the bay of San Francisco, and move to a more energy independent future,” he said at Crissy Field. “We’ll continue to have these kinds of disasters inevitably if we continue to have more tankers come in and out to feed our addiction.”

So for those in the media or with a passing interest here is a picture of an Oil Tanker and the Cosco Busan:

Tanker

Container Ship

The major difference between the two is: a tanker transports liquids and a container ship transports containers filled with solids (i.e. toys, home furnishings, industrial supplies…). So before the flood of emails arrive… if the ship that hit the San Francisco Bay Bridge was not transporting any liquids why did it have 58,000 gallons aboard? The answer is… for the same reason your car carries 24 gallons of gasoline.

The fuel spilled in the bay was all to be used by the ship’s enormous engines during the long transit back to China. Had this ship been an oil tanker the spill could have been as large as the one caused by the oil tanker Exxon Valdez… then again probably not since the oil in those ships are now required to be protected by a double hull.

Here are gCaptain editor’s Top 10 upcoming picks of the week from gCaptain’s Maritime News Discoverer. Please Vote on the ones you like to have them published.

WIGS come to Alaska
This is a big deal. The first use of a commercial WIG is being planned for the Lynn Canal. A 12 passenger $1.2m vessel. Docks and Harbors Board ha read more »

Update on Arctic Expeditions – MAREX
In prior years, the question of who owns the North Pole and the Arctic in general was simply a theoretical one. The territory had been trapped in ice read more »

COAST GUARD CONDUCTING FIRST NORTH POLE FLIGHT
“The northern reaches of the Arctic is a new area for us to do surveillance,” said Rear Adm. Arthur E. Brooks read more »

BIMCO Feature – Feature: The blossoming of LNG shipping
The established, low-key world of LNG shipping is changing out of all recognition as trade volumes mushroom, the supply chain extends and offshore read more »

CNOOC Building Deep-sea Drilling Rig
China will finish its first deep-sea drilling rig with a maximum working depth of three kilometers by 2011, a spokesman for China National Offshore O read more »

Iran to Buy 52 ships by 2010
The Managing Director of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines says IRISL has signed a contract for purchase of fifty-two ships. Mohammad-Hosse read more »

Forward Looking 3D Sonar System for Collision Avoidance
FarSounder, Inc. a Warwick, Rhode Island based technology company has been awarded a $2 million grant from the US National Institute of Standards and read more »

Watchkeeper: Getting closer to the crew
There is concern about the quality of seafarers, and of the lack of experience of some given accelerated promotion to fill gaps. read more »

Crew Study Reveals Benefits and Perks Boost Morale and Retention
Amen! ….bring on the lobster tails. read more »

10 Reasons Why Captain’s Sink with the Ship
Whenever a ship sinks due to any reason, the Captain of the Ship prefers to sink with the ship. In my last post “Cargo ships collide in Thessaloniki read more »

“No longer is a sailor’s life necessarily one of adventure. Deadlines are tight, and manning is at a minimum.” -Rep. Elijah Cummings, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation (Source: MMP News)

Photo By suburbanbloke

In a post unusually harsh for gCaptain standards I asked some tough questions about actions taken by the captain of the doomed ship, Pasha Bulker. Here’s a recap;

…did the crew used their satellite comms to discuss the weather patterns with meteorologists or did they simply ignore the port authority’s warnings? Did the captain use his AIS to identify the surrounding ships and call fellow captains via GMDSS to discuss the situation? Did they have access to and use real-time weather data or wait for a 2-dimensional weather fax?

(read the full article HERE)

Today in a leaked version of the incident report the answer is clearly no.

In a candid interview with investigators the vessel’s captain disclosed his actions in the critical moments between weighing anchor and the ship’s grounding. Take a deep breath as you may find this hard to believe. He was eating breakfast! In the galley!!

Here’s a rundown of events as report by The Sydney Morning Herald (full article located HERE)

The trail of mistakes and incompetence began on the evening of June 7 when warnings about an approaching storm were issued to 56 ships anchored off Newcastle. The Pasha Bulker, waiting to load 58,000 tonnes of coal, was one of 10 ships whose captains chose to stay at anchor about 200 metres off Stockton Beach to assess the situation overnight.

At 5.30 the next morning authorities tried again, but the Pasha Bulker stayed at anchor. It was not until 7am, in a sea whipped up by 100kmh winds, that the captain realised he had to move, and move quickly.

46 ships decide to leave port to avoid dragging anchor in an unprotected harbor and the Pasha Bulker stays, while this action is questionable the decision is not necessarily breaking the rule of prudent seamanship. The next morning Port Authorities “try again” to evict the remaining ships. I do not have details on the warning but it’s normal procedure to give the availability of tug boats that could help a ship in danger. Either way rescue tugs never showed and were apparently not requested by the captain.

At this point the captain became a danger to the vessel and crew. A master’s disagreement with port authority suggestions is understandable and the choice to ignore the warnings are his prerogative but one necessary step was not taken; vigilance. This is the time for a captain to ask himself the questions mentioned above, this is the moment to question your own decision, this is your chance to solidify a bridge team management plan and put the crew on high alert.

The story continues;

As the Sea Confidence, a nearby vessel facing the same predicament began moving out to sea with its anchors still dragging, the Pasha Bulker stayed and attempted to weigh anchor before moving. Mariners say it is standard practice for a boat (sic) to be moved forward slowly to help raise the heavy chain from the seabed while it is being hauled in. It meant the ship would have already moved through the surf in the 10 minutes it would have taken to get the anchor aboard.

In an emergency, such as the one brewing by the 30-year storm, the anchors should be cut and left behind.

Instead, the captain ordered the engines to remain idle while the chain, up to 200 metres long with links each weighing 100 kilograms, was winched aboard. As a consequence, the ship was still in the danger zone an hour later when the anchor was finally shipped.

Here I take exception to the article. While the Chief Mate might have been able to release the anchor brake and allow the chain to fully pay out (the more appropriate action), there is no quick and simple way to cut an anchor chain the size of the Pasha Bulker’s. The decision made aboard Sea Confidence would have been more appropriate to the situation. While some shiphadling ability is lost if the anchor is left down (due to a movement of the vessel’s pivot point forward) the Pasha Bulker has plenty of reserve power and steerage to overcome any serious problem.

It was now just after 8am. With the winds and seas continuing to rise and the engine only just beginning to move the ship, the captain called the chief engineer and invited him to breakfast. Both were Korean in a 22-man crew otherwise made up of Filipinos. They met in the dining room while others were left in charge of moving the vessel through the dangerous conditions.

The Pasha Bulker, now in the hands of less experienced crew, was shunted north along the coast toward Port Stephens, unable to make much headway against the waves. It had traveled about three kilometres before the captain reappeared on the bridge and took command of his ship, which was now out of control.

Was the captain called by the mate on watch when his inability to make positive headway was identified? If the mate on watch was exceptional and the answer to the question is no… the captain might not have been reckless in making this bad decision.

At 8.30am the ship had been looped in almost a full circle by the power of 18-metre waves and was now headed toward Nobbys Beach on the outside of the southern entrance to the port.

The captain, in a panic as he told investigators in the offices of a Newcastle law firm, made one last desperate attempt to save his ship, but again made an error. Instead of swinging it hard to starboard, he ordered it go full astern, literally backing up into the pounding waves that were breaking over its decks. The stern was lifted above the waves, its rudder useless and the propeller spinning madly in the air. The 225-metre vessel then virtually surfed to the beach and hit a rock shelf called Big Ben Reef.

Ships are designed for forward motion. For example, the rudder is placed aft of the ship’s screws in order to benefit from the propeller wash pushing against it. When a ship backs down, however, the propeller wash is pushing against nothing and the rudder must rely on the vessel’s motion through the water to grab hold of water and turn the ship. When the ship transitions from froward to “reverse” motion there is a period of time the rudder is totally ineffective. This is why ships need tugboats when departing a dock… until they reach the minimum speed needed for the rudders to be effective (know as bare steerage) the tug must hold the bow on course.

More importantly an unladen ship with forward momentum and an engine working on an order of full ahead can turn quickly. It is important to note this rate of rotation is a critical factor. If a ship turns slowly (as happens during a reverse maneuver) the ship will have difficulty turning through the wind and can get stuck at a heading beam to (perpendicular from) the wind.

The collision broke the back of the ship – hogging, as it is called. It bent the ship into an inverted U-shape that could be seen by onlookers from the beach as ripples in the hull. The captain panicked again and ordered the ship to be abandoned even though there was no chance of it sinking, having already run aground, and needed at least a skeleton crew to minimize damage and monitor the hull to avoid an environmental disaster. They were taken off by helicopter.

Panic is enemy number one in an emergency situation. While some have more difficulty than others avoiding it a captain should never panic. This is a primary reason it takes 10 years of sailing experience and school to obtain a master’s license. I these 10 years you will be exposed to situations at sea that test your panic trigger, if you are unacceptable to panic or indecision at the time if crisis you should not take command of a ship. Many mariners face difficulty getting promoted to second mate for this very reason as this officer position is the highest pay grade obtainable without the need for making life threatening decisions in the face of danger. I have met few captains to which the Peter Principal applies.

For these reasons I find the report nearly unbelievable.

John Konrad is a USCG licensed Master Mariner of Unlimited Tonnage currently working as Chief Mate aboard a 835′ship in the Gulf of Mexico. Since graduating from SUNY Maritime College he has sailed 4 of the world’s oceans and reports from his ship via satellite.