Selected items from compilation of Intership Navigation Training Center. Issue 36 / 2010

1. CASUALTY WEBRIEF

M/V ANABAR (Russia) w/ 33-crew, ran into the rocks in the Sakhalin I, Sea of Japan, 7-Sept-2010. Seawater was filling the engine room. About half of the crew managed to reach the shore but the other half is still o/b. One of the crew who was washed overboard is missing.

M/V CLIPPER LIS (Bahamas, 28300dwt) while unmooring in Baranquilla, broke free and was dragged by strong current in Magdalena River and collided with berthed M/V CARIBE STAR (Panama, 6900dwt), 5-Sept-2010. Both vessels were damaged. No pollution & no injury reported.

VERMILION OIL PLATFORM No.380 had explosion/fire in the Gulf of Mexico, about 130km S of Louisiana, 2-September-2010. The 13 workers that jumped into the sea were rescued.

M/V OCEAN ACE No.6 (S. Korea, 1647gt) collided with a Chinese fishing vessel that sank, in the NE Yellow Sea, some 126 km west of Gyengnyelbi I, S. Korea, 1-September-2010. All crew members o/b went missing. S. Korean Coastguard sent 3 patrol vessel and a helicopter to the scene.

2. PORT STATE CONTROL (A recent detention)

A vessel was detained 6-Sept-2010 at Tyne. Deficiencies: The DOC shown to the PSC inspector was the obsolete one and not the new DOC recently sent by the company, Records of rest hours and working hours are missing, the Passage plan lacks information like the part covering Pilot station to berth, the emergency escape breathing devices have insufficient pressure, fire doors are kept in open position, gas instruments are unsafe, O2 and CO tests were not carried out during voyage, testers for these types of gases are missing, fire pump was not providing the required pressure and no gangway net was rigged. 

3. PIRACY

c.c. MAGELLAN STAR (Antigua &B, 7968dwt, 735teu) bound for Vung Tau was boarded by pirates in the Gulf of Aden, 8-Sept-2010. There were reports that crew locked themselves in a safe room. There is at present a stand-off between the pirates and navies, according to a Novosti press.

chem. M/T OLIB G (Malta, 6375dwt) w/ 18-crew (15 Georgian and 3 Turkish) was hijacked 8-Sept-2010 while transiting westbound the IRTC in the east part of the Gulf of Aden. Warship USS Princeton’s helicopter pilots were able to identify two pirates onboard."

M/V MILTIADES (Jamaica) w/ 23-crew was attacked by pirates but was foiled by the military.

M/V JAG RATAN (India, 52200dwt) was travelling in 12-ship convoy at IRTC under the protection of warship ISN DELHI (India) when a skiff approached the vessels at high speed.  The warship launched a helicopter and the suspected pirate skiff was intercepted before it got close to any of the merchant vessels. Commandos of the warship boarded the skiff and found 7 Somalis and a Yemeni. Arms, many fuel drums and ship boarding equipment were found and were disposed. 5-Sept-2010.

M/T CHEMROAD LUNA (Panama, 30350dwt) w/ 20-crew, was boarded by 2 pirates off Anambas I, Indonesia, 5-Sept-2010. The seamen were forced to handover their money then the pirates fled.

24 vessels with 429 people o/b are estimated to be held by Somali pirates as of 1-September-2010.

4. Ship to Ship (STS) operations between tankers

Ship to Ship (STS) operations between tankers will become regulated with the adoption of Resolution MEPC.186(59) to amend MARPOL 78/73 Annex I and introduce a new chapter 8 intended to prevent pollution during transfer of oil cargo between oil tankers at sea.

With the regulation entering into force on 1 January 2011, any oil tanker involved in STS operations will be required to have on board an STS operations plan, approved by the Administration no later than the date of the first annual, intermediate or renewal survey under MARPOL 73/78 Annex I carried out on or after 1 January 2011 but not later than 1 April 2012.

The person supervising STS operations should be qualified to a level that satisfies training requirements outlined in the OCIMF STS Guide. Records of all STS operations are to be noted in the oil record book and retained on board for at least three years.

5. PENALTRY FOR VIOLATING COLREG RULE 10 (b)

Trawler WILHELMINA (UK)’s owner/master, in a hearing by Folkstone Magistrate Court, this late -Sept-2010, has been fined £3,500 and ordered to pay costs of £3,752.20 after being found guilty of going the wrong way in an international traffic separation scheme off Texel, Netherlands last Jan-09 as monitored by Dutch Coastguard radars. A Dutch aircraft flew and identified the vessel and reported the incident to the UK MCA.

6. POLLUTION CASE

M/V NEW FORTUNE (Marshall I, 26136gt)’s chief engineer was sentenced in US District court in Oakland to $5000 fine, three years probation and $100 special assessment for failing to maintain an Oil record book.  The guilty pleas stem from the defendants’ overboard disposal of oil residue, sludge, oil and oily mixtures into the ocean and efforts to conceal these discharges by falsifying their onboard records. 3-Sept-2010.