Despite what you may think from reading the news, the number of total losses and casualties in shipping each continued the decade-long downward trend in 2015, with 85 reported total loss incidents worldwide, according to Allianz Global's (AGCS) fourth annual Safety and Shipping Review 2016. Although the number of losses remained stable year-on-year, declining just 3% … [Read more...]
NYK Ship Loses Containers in Offloading Mishap
The U.S. Coast Guard and local fire department personnel were called late Saturday to enforce a safety zone for containers that fell in the water from the MV NYK Aquarius during an offloading mishap at SSA Facility Berth 57 in the Oakland estuary. The U.S. Coast Guard reports that at approximately 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, Coast Guard Sector San Francisco watchstanders received … [Read more...]
WATCH: Containers Topple Like Dominoes from Ship in Shanghai
A containership berthed at the port of Shanghai lost as many as 30 containers overboard after the stacks toppled over like dominoes for apparently unknown reasons. The timestamp on the port's surveillance video shows the incident happened on Wednesday morning, 12 November 2014. As you can see, plenty of containers were damaged, but luckily nobody was reported injured in the … [Read more...]
Russian Freighter Carrying Gold Ore Goes Missing in Storm
A Russian cargo ship with a nine-man crew and carrying 700 tons of gold ore has gone missing off of Russia's Pacific coast. The Russian-flagged vessel, known as Amurskoye, sent a distress at approximately 05:15 GMT that was picked up by the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Sea Rescue Coordination Center on Sunday while battling a storm in the Sea of Okhotsk. A nearby tanker was diverted to … [Read more...]
Incident Photo of the Week – Man Overboard?
This weeks incident photo comes to us via cargolaw.com's Photo Gallery of Cargo Loss. The photos above taken at The Port of Auckland show that the rails of M/V Vega Gotland are bent. So what happened? Has someone or something gone overboard? … [Read more...]
Incident Photo of The Week – Lost Timber
Yesterday the 450ft Russian flagged vessel, Sinegorsk, lost 1,500 tonnes of timber in a major shipping lane of the English Channel. The cargo was lost 14 miles off Newhaven, East Sussex, at 0815 GMT and it is now being reported that the wood has spread across eight miles with the main bulk of it is 12 miles south of Rye, East Sussex. The vessel has since been escorted to … [Read more...]
Maritime Law – Law of General Average
The law of general average is a legal principle of maritime law according to which all parties in a sea venture proportionally share any losses resulting from a voluntary sacrifice of part of the ship or cargo to save the whole in an emergency.In the exigencies of hazards faced at sea, crewmembers often have precious little time in which to determine precisely whose cargo they … [Read more...]