Currents….

Two tug crew killed in girting accident

Safety precautions which could have prevented a fatal accident involving a tug and a UK-flagged containership were not followed, a Marine Accident Investigation Branch report has determined.

Two crew on board the Madagascan tug Domingue died when the vessel girted and capsized while assisting the 11,062gt CMA CGM Simba to depart from the port of Tulear in September last year.

The 320 hp Domingue was considerably less powerful and manoeuvrable than the 1,200hp tug which normally operated in the port, but was undergoing maintenance.

Investigators found that its crew were inexperienced in assisting large ships and the tug’s single towing hook was not fitted with an emergency release mechanism, no gog rope was rigged, and doors and hatches were left open during the operation.

The accident occurred during CMA CGM Simba’s first call to the port, as it inaugurated a new service linking Madagascar with South Africa, and the tug was being used to help pull the vessel’s stern off the berth.

During the operation, a force 4 wind and 1-knot tidal stream caused the containership to close towards a mooring dolphin and as the master sought to manoeuvre the vessel clear the tug girted and capsized.

The MAIB said the pilot had failed to warn the tug’s crew of the manoeuvre. ‘This omission resulted in the ship moving rapidly ahead before the tug could be manoeuvred into a safe position,’ the report points out.

‘The success of the departure manoeuvre relied on the tug and its crew being capable of meeting changing manoeuvring demands,’ it notes. ‘This required a common, detailed understanding of the plan, proactive communications, and an agreed means for monitoring the tug throughout the towing operation.’

However, investigators said the extent to which a plan for CMA CGM Simba’s departure had been discussed between the pilot and Domingue’s skipper was ‘uncertain’ and no one  on boar the containership was monitoring the tug’s position. All communications between the pilot and the tug crew were made in the local dialect, which the ship’s crew were unable to understand, the report adds.

The MAIB said that it had decided against making any recommendations in response to the investigation because the containership’s manager, Midocean (IOM), had taken action including a fleet-wide safety bulletin, amended bridge instructions and additional ship-handling and tug-use reference material.

UK ‘own goal’ on crew visas

Home Office minister Brandon Lewis has sought to defend a move by the UK government to waive work permit requirements for non-European crews of vessels operating in the windfarm sector.

Nautilus and the RMT wrote to the minister to express concern at the decision to make it easier for employers to recruit crews from non-EEA countries — warning that the move threatens to accelerate the decline of British seafarers and to undermine pay and conditions in the offshore wind industry.

In his response, Mr Lewis said the changes had been made as ‘an interim measure which has been introduced so as to ensure that the completion of significant projects in the sector is not disrupted in the short term’.

He said the government had made it clear to the industry that it expects to ‘return to a position in which the employment of the non-EEA crew of vessels engaged in energy projects in territorial waters will be treated no differently from the recruitment of non-EEA nationals into employment on the UK landmass’.

The minister told the unions that the government believes ‘the immigration system should protect the interests of UK workers — including protection against undercutting of wages, and of their access to employment opportunities, including in relation to work which takes place in territorial waters’.

Resource aims to prevent a second Piper Alpha disaster

Piper Alpha disaster has been welcomed by Lord Cullen, who headed the inquiry into the accident in which 167 off shore workers died. Launched in Aberdeen last month, the resource — called Encompassing the Future: Off shore Oil and Gas Operations — pulls together 40 years of inter-disciplinary knowledge and experience in environmental, health and safety and performance management.

Split over 10 volumes, the initiative is described as a knowledge repository that will help future leaders deal with the challenges of oil price volatility, technological innovation and the loss of experienced personnel.

Speaking at the launch, Lord Cullen said the database was very necessary and the lessons of Piper Alpha should never be forgotten. ‘More than ever such comprehensive reference material is required,’ he added. ‘A mature province with ageing infrastructure, challenging economics, demographics and technology that pushes new boundaries must welcome and make full use of such a resource.

**  IMO Conventions  **

IMO regularly updates its web page with new and amended conventions:  http://www.imo.org/

Here you can browse through the various publications that are available and buy those which interest you. To navigate the publications, you can either select one of the categories or use the advanced search.

**  M Notices  **

M-Notices are available in three ways: a set of bound volumes, a yearly subscription, and individual documents.

A consolidated set of all M-Notices current on 30 July 2007 (ISBN 9780115528538) is published by The Stationery Office for £195, www.tsoshop.co.uk/bookstore.asp

Annual subscriptions and copies of individual notices are available from the official distributors: Mail Marketing (Scotland), MCA, PO Box 87, Glasgow G14 0JF. Tel: +44 (0)141 300 4906; fax: +44 (0)141 950 2726; email: [email protected]

Individual copies can be obtained from MCA offices or by subscription. Lists of the active M Notices may be downloaded from the MCA website.

The Cayman Registry is that one where you can download their Shipping Notices free from their website. The site is at www.cishipping.com

Some recent notices:

MSN 1874 (M+F) — Marine equipment: The Marine Equipment Directive, other approval and standards

MIN 534 (M+F) — Marine

Equipment Directive: IMO approved fire test laboratories; UK process for recognition

MIN 554 (M) — VTS V103 and local port services courses 2017-2018

**  Spindrift  **

In brief ….

GARDLINE TAKEOVER: The Dutch firm Royal Boskalis Westminster is taking over the Great Yarmouthbased firm Gardline in a deal valued at £40m. Gardline operates a fleet of 40 specialist vessels, including survey ships and crew transfer vessels, and Boskalis says the deal cements its ambition to become a specialist provider of geotechnical surveys for the off shore oil and gas and renewables markets.

YARD CLOSURES: the downturn in the international shipping industry has resulted in the closure of more than 60% of the world’s shipyards over the past eight years, a new report of the market analysts Clarkson Research stated last month. It predicted that 30% of yards currently in operation could shut down by the end of this year, with the number of vessel orders down by 80% since 2013.

FATIGUE THREAT: seafarer fatigue remains one of the biggest maritime safety issues, US authorities warned last month. The US National Transportation Safety Board included fatigue, bridge resource management, access to high-risk spaces and use of medication while operating vessels among its ‘top 10’ list of key lessons to be learned from accident investigations.

RESCUE AWARD: The International Maritime Rescue Federation has been awarded US$450,000 by the TK Foundation to support its work to improve maritime search and rescue capability across 29 countries in Africa. The project aims to develop regional rescue coordination centres and rescue sub-centres, and to train a further 500 SAR personnel over the next two years.

RIVER RISE: Europe’s river cruise industry carried a total of 1.36m passengers last year, up by 2.7% from 2016. A total of 22 new river cruise vessels came into service last year and another 17 will follow this year. Operators have warned that recruiting good crew is getting increasingly difficult, and there are also problems with congestion at some major tourist sites.

FATAL COLLISION: 10 US Navy seafarers were reported dead and five injured after the destroyer USS John McCain collided with the Liberian-flagged tanker Alinc MC off Singapore last month. The incident comes barely two months after seven sailors died when the US destroyer Fitzgerald collided with the containership ACX Crystal off the coast of Japan.

CREW EVACUATED: 24 seafarers on board the Isle of Man-flagged bulk carrier Cheshire had to be evacuated last month following a cargo incident while the vessel was off the Canary Islands. The 56,598dwt Bibby Line vessel was sailing from Norway to Thailand when the cargo of ammonium nitrate-based fertiliser overheated.

GRAIG DEAL: The V.Group has announced a deal to acquire Graig Shipping’s shipmanagement division. The V.Group said Graig Ship Management, which specialises in newbuilding supervision and bulk carrier management, will continue to operate independently within its portfolio of operations.

SKIPPER FINED: a UK fishing vessel skipper was fined a total of £2,250 last month after being found guilty of three charges, including a failure to keep a proper lookout, when his vessel collided with another trawler off the coast of Northern Ireland in July 2015.

SHELL SWITCH: Qatar-based Nakilat Shipping has completed the first phase of taking over the management of its fleet of LNG carriers from Shell, with the LNG carrier Al Mafyar last month becoming the 10th vessel to change control over the last 10 months.

REEFER FALL: a seriously injured crew member had to be airlifted from the Bahamas-flagged refrigerated cargo ship Nederland Reefer after he fell from a crane when the ship was in the UK port of Falmouth last month.

WELL SAFE: Oil & Gas UK has welcomed the publication of a suite of updated guidelines to ensure the safety of off shore wells. The guidelines were devised by The Wells Forum — one of Oil & Gas UK’s formal bodies which allows member representatives to share good practice. Two of the three updates relate to competency guidelines, with one aimed at assessing, managing and developing competency of wells personnel and teams and the other aimed at ensuring the competence of well examiners.

SPAIN FINED: The European Court of Justice has fined Spain €3m for failing to meet a deadline to ‘liberalise’ its dock labour system in line with EU policy. The fine is much less than the €24m penalty originally tabled by Brussels, and dock workers’ unions have suspended industrial action and have struck a framework agreement with the employers’ association to enable the changes to be phased in over the next three years.

YARD NATIONALISED: The French government has moved to nationalise the country’s biggest shipbuilder, STX France, to prevent rival Italian firm Fincantieri from taking a majority stake in the company. Ministers said the sale to Fincantieri was being temporarily blocked in order to ‘defend the strategic interests of France’ and to enable time for a better agreement to be reached.

RUSSIAN WARNING: Russia’s largest shipping company, Sovcomflot, has urged the country’s government to continue with its plan to improve navigational safety measures on the Northern Sea Route and ban substandard ships from the environmentally sensitive region. It stressed the need for additional measures in response the significant growth of freight traffic in the Arctic area.

BOX LEAK: a major clean-up operation was mounted in the US port of Long Beach last month after a chemical spill during loading operations on the Panama flagged containership Harbour Bridge. Twelve dockers and a firefighter suffered minor injuries after dealing with the leak of the solvent propyl acetate when a tank was punctured during loading operations.

SINGAPORE SAR: Singapore’s Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore and Civil Aviation Authority have announced a US$6.2m plan to develop a new satellite based system to enhance search and rescue capabilities in the region. Due to come into service in 2018, the MEOSAR system should help to speed up maritime search and rescue operations.

TUI SALE: The German conglomerate TUI has sold its majority shareholding in Hapag-Lloyd, the world’s fifth-ranking container shipping firm, to increase its investment in cruise shipping. TUI says it is also planning to transfer two of its ships — Mein Schiff 1 and Mein Schiff 2 — from TUI Cruises into its British fleet over the next two years.

EVERGREEN RESCUE: The Evergreen containership Ever Diadem and the Marshall Islands flagged bulk carrier SBI Antares rescued 30 crew members who were forced to abandon a Taiwanese fishing vessel which caught fire in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Madagascar last month.

SAUDI GROWTH: Bahri, the National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia, has further expanded its fleet with delivery from the Hyundai Heavy Industries yard in South Korea of the 298,778dwt VLCC Aslaf. The new ship takes the company’s total fleet size to 86 vessels, including 39 VLCCs.

CABOTAGE CLAMPDOWN: Nigerian authorities are clamping down on compliance with the country’s cabotage laws, with the country’s Maritime Administration & Safety Agency (NIMASA) warning that it will no longer consider exemptions for key junior officer and rating posts on vessels operating in coastal trades. Special applications to employ foreign nationals as captains, chief engineers, and chief officers will be considered ‘on merit’ — and on condition that companies will ensure that a Nigerian seafarer takes over the job within one year.

CROATIA SIGNS: Croatia has become the 37th country to sign up to the Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks. The convention, which was adopted in 2007, came into force in 2015 and contracting states now account for just over 70% of the world’s merchant tonnage. Under its provisions, coastal states may legally remove wrecks that threaten the safety of lives, goods, property and the environment, with ship owners and insurers financially liable to cover the costs of removal.

BRITTANY GUARDS: French operator Brittany Ferries has hired 30 security officers to ‘invest in a secure environment for passengers’. The guards, hired directly by the operator, are present on all its cross-Channel ferries and on its routes to Spain. The company said the move had been made to ‘take the risk of terrorism seriously, not a response to a specific threat’ and the security officers could be called on to inspect luggage and respond to incidents.

TANKER ALARM: Belgian-based shipping firm Euronav has urged tanker operators to hold off on new orders and to consider scrapping older vessels amid concern over the threat of a growing gap between supply and demand for tonnage. The company reported reduced profits last month and said the big challenge was the delivery of 28 new VLCCs and 23 Suezmaxes in the next 18 months.

COMMS COURSE: Italian operator GNV and Genoa’s Merchant Navy Academy are launching a new six-month training course for the post of officer communications assistant. The course is open to qualified seafarers and successful candidates will be responsible for helping ship masters with various aspects of the vessel’s management, including GMDSS.

FORGERS BUSTED: police in India claim to have busted a forgery gang which was selling fake certificates to help seafarers get work. Four men in the city of Thane were arrested and charged with cheating and forgery of continuous discharge certificates. Detectives said as many as 400 fake papers may have been issued over the past six years.

CADET KILLED: an investigation has been launched after a 22-year-old cadet died in a mooring rope accident on board a ferry in Fiji last month. Local reports said Viliame Uluinaceva had died in hospital after his legs became entangled in the rope while the 2,305gt ferry was berthing in the port of Vanua Levu.

MCA rapped for safety failures

The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch has issued a warning over the Maritime & Coastguard Agency’s failure to implement more than 30 safety recommendations made between 2008 and 2014.

The MAIB’s annual report, released last month, notes that more than three-quarters of the 306 recommendations made in response to accident investigations in the decade to 2015 had been fully implemented.

But it also reveals that some 85% of the 39 recommendations issued between 2008 and 2014 which were accepted but have yet to be fully actioned were addressed to the MCA.

‘The MAIB receives updates from the MCA on the status of these recommendations on a quarterly basis,’ MAIB chief inspector Steve Clinch said.

‘However, it is clear that the optimistic completion dates that are provided to MAIB staff in these reports do not bear close scrutiny. ‘As deadlines approach, the dates for action are slipped — with the consequence that promises made as long ago as 2007 have yet to be actioned,’ he added.

‘This cannot continue and action will be taken to establish a more coherent action plan with the MCA over the next few months.’ Some believe that the MCA has become dysfunctional as a flag state authority and is typical of other flag administrations that are orientated towards the owner to the detriment of seafarers, the public and protection of the environment.

The MAIB dealt with an increase in accidents involving UK vessels or taking place in UK waters last year — a total of 1,190, compared with 1,057 in 2015.

Almost 40% of these were occupational accidents that did not involve any actual or potential casualty to a vessel.

For the seventh year in a row no UK merchant ships of 100gt and above were lost and the overall accident rate for UK merchant ships has fallen from 85 per 1,000 ships in 2014 to 78 last year.

Two merchant ship crew members died last year, but the number injured totalled 133, down from 141 in the previous year and from 233 in 2006.

There were 199 accidents involving merchant ships under 100gt last year and eight commercial fishing vessels were lost in 2016, compared with 13 in 2014 and an average annual loss of 16 over the past decade.

Mr Clinch urged seafarers to read the MAIB’s report on the loss of the Cyprus-flagged cargo ship Cemfjord, which was published in April.

Eight crew died when the ship sank off the north coast of Scotland in 2015 and Mr Clinch said the incident provided ‘a sobering example of what can happen if we fail to respect the awesome power of the sea’.

Source: Flashlight – September 2017  Edition no. 179