Bang
A major rescue operation was launched after a tanker laden with fuel and a cargo vessel collided in the North Sea off the East Yorkshire coast, with both vessels catching fire.
Great. Fabulous. Marine life and wildlife destroyed for miles around.
Maritime firm Crowley, which manages the tanker, said the vessel had suffered a ruptured cargo tank, adding crew had abandoned ship following “multiple explosions onboard”.
The vessels involved in the collision are the US-flagged Stena Immaculate tanker and the Solong, a Portuguese-flagged container ship, according to data from the ship-tracking website MarineTraffic.
No news on the crew of the Solong.
According to MarineTraffic, the Stena Immaculate had travelled from the Greek port of Agioi Theodoroi and was anchored by the Humber Estuary. The Solong had been sailing from the Scottish port of Grangemouth to Rotterdam, in the Netherlands.
I had been hoping the people who run these ships knew how to avoid crashing into each other.
The scenario plays out like this to me: Stena Immaculate is awaiting the Humber Pilot to board, and has slowed to almost a stop, but still technically underway. However, to take avoiding action would need to accelerate very quickly for steering to fully work. Meanwhile, the Solong should not be in that area if heading North, passing through the Humber Estuary Pilot point is plain stupid. Solong should have been about 30nm further East.
Stena Line has an excellent reputation for training, the Stena Immaculate was built to very high standards, which makes me think the Solong was at fault. The Stena ship was carrying aviation fuel, extremely volatile (but the fuel used in WW2 was worse!). A direct collision, with one unable to move out of the way, would result in such a catastrophe. However, the fire does mean less pollutants, as they will be burnt off.
The area outside the Humber is one I am very familiar with. Busy, with several ports along both banks, with Hull, Immingham and Grimsby. No one wants things like this to happen, but my call is that the Solong’s OOW was asleep/incompetent and the Captain and crew a random agency selection, not well drilled and barely understood each other.
Informative; thank you.
I can watch container ships going to and fro from where I’m sitting, so I take an interest. (Nothing in view at the moment except the Victoria Clipper zooming north leaving a large wake.)
I hope that the damage to life and the environment is minimal.
I can watch container ships, cruise ships, and fuel tankers, as well as many smaller craft, in Cork Harbour from the vantage point of any of the South-facing windows in our house, including the one by my bed. Often there are several parked out there, waiting their turn to get into the port. It sometimes occurs to me how disciplined the crews have to be, given that ships don’t have brakes.
According to Norwegian news sources, the Solong had several containers of cyanide on board. This could be quite interesting! The same source said the Stena ship was riding at anchor. You don’t get a lot less maneuverable than that! An animated track from Marine Traffic seems to show the Solong traveling in a perfectly straight line all the way to the collision. We’ll just have to wait to see what the investigation uncovers.
But at least, all crew members of both ships have been rescued.
(Did someone say marine life? They should just suck it up and live on land, like sensible folk.)
Tigger, good point. The ships I served on could take 5 miles to slow down from full speed, or 2 if a crash stop. Voyages were planned with emergencies in mind, but usually we were at full speed (24kts if possible) as soon as leaving a pilot station. The ships also didn’t steer properly below 5 kts.
Harald: Hazardous cargo containers were routine on board. The only things we couldn’t carry was crude oil and radioactives. Everything was possible: anti-ship missiles, ammunition of various types; chemicals that could kill on contact. Yep, all normal.
Freeminder:
Your last paragraph makes me think either radioactives are excessively feared, or the other things you listed are not feared enough.
Jim, there were three main reasons we didn’t carry radioactives (which meant fuel rods, disposed waste from nuclear industry, or radioactive elements):
1) We didn’t carry anything capable of cleaning up after a fire, or other damage, and were not trained for it.
2) Many ports do not allow radioactives in, even if the ship is not discharging them there.
3) Insurance and costs.
I am pretty sure that someone, somewhere has tried it, but it may have already happened: some companies were not honest about the contents of their containers (we found out the hard way).
Also bear in mind most box boats have a crew of twenty or so. Not a huge amount for dealing with emergencies. Only the officers were usually trained to command a response to an emergency. Radioactives were feared because we had no ability in dealing with them. The other stuff? Well, if you didn’t like it, stop working on them. We had several things on board that would make us shudder, when we had to plan, in advance, how to cope with them in fires or spillage. I can assure, trained sailors treat everything seriously, even if they joke about it. Try being on ship 2000 miles from anywhere, with a fire and no power….
Time to take this off the shelves:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Avoid-Huge-Ships-John-Trimmer/dp/0870334336