“Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others" -Otto von Bismarck You might be tempted to assume that the above photo (courtesy of ShipSpotting.com and Vitaliy Kharchenko) is of the Comoros-flagged SL Star. That feeder container vessel capsized in Bandar Abbas, Iran on March 19th during cargo operations with up … [Read more...]
FIRE IN ANTARCTIC OCEAN Aboard USCG’s Last Heavy Icebreaker
The 150-member crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star fought a fire at approximately 9 p.m. PST Feb. 10 that broke out in the ship's incinerator room about 650 miles north of McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. After initial response efforts using four fire extinguishers failed, fire crews spent almost two hours extinguishing the fire. Fire damage was contained inside the … [Read more...]
Salvage Cranes Start Work On Norwegian Frigate KNM Helge Ingstad
(Reuters) - Two crane barges early on Tuesday began raising KNM Helge Ingstad, the submerged Norwegian navy frigate which collided with an oil tanker in November and has remained stranded off Norway’s west coast since, the armed forces said. The accident injured eight people and caused the temporary closure of a North Sea crude export terminal, Norway’s top gas … [Read more...]
Hull Cracks & Oil Spills From El Faro’s 46 Year Old Sister Ship
Thursday morning, shortly after mooring in Oakland, the hull of the 1,727 TEU Matson containership S/S Matsonia cracked spilling heavy fuel oil into San Francisco Bay. The vessel was built in 1973 by Sun Shipbuilding, one year before the doomed El Faro at the same shipyard using the same basic hull design. On Thursday the Matsonia's crew, noticed a sheen … [Read more...]
What Went Wrong? Back-to-Back Casualties Kick Off 2019
It’s been an active beginning to 2019 in terms of maritime casualties. The phone at the Panama Marine Accident Investigation Department was likely ringing off the hook with three major incidents on Panama-flagged vessels in the first two days. The first three weeks of the year have produced a wide range of serious casualties...and they are likely just the tip of the … [Read more...]