Selected items from compilation of Intership Navigation Training Center. Issue 23 / 2010

1. CASUALTY WEBRIEF

c.c. CMA CGM AZURE (Singapore) had a seaman that suffered a fall injury while the ship was in the English Channel, 6 miles off Kent, 5-June-2010. He was transferred to a RNLI lifeboat then airlifted by the Dover Coast Guard helicopter to hospital. He got injuries in the back, facial, neck and leg.

M/V SELI (Panama) had welding accident on board resulting in gas explosion, shrapnel flying through the air, and fire, sending thousands of people on the beach running for cover. The 22 salvors, some with minor injuries, were evacuated. 4-June-2010. The vessel was stranded at Cape Town’s beach since Sept. and being dismantled due to failure to refloat it.

2. PORT STATE CONTROL (Recent Detentions in MoU ports)

M/V AASFJORD (Norway) detained 4 days at Dublin. Deficiencies: Tables of working hours, Emergency 2-way comm., emergency preparedness, ready availability of fire fighting equipment. 

M/V VENEZIA D (Netherlands) detained 8 days at Antwerp. Deficiencies: Fire dampers, launching    arrangements for survival craft, maintenance of ship and equipment and reports of N/Cs, etc.

M/V TAYLAN KALKAVAN (Turkey), 1 day at Antikyra. Deficiency: Voyage Data Recorder (VDR).

M/V SIR ALBERT (Cyprus), 1 day at Aarhus. Def: Cold Room, doors and sanitary facilities.

M/V RYSUM (Antigua &B) 4 days at Hamburg. Def: Emergency lighting, batteries, switches, emergency preparedness, maintenance of the ship and equipment and Oil filtering equipment.

M/V MISS KIKAKI (Panama) 22 days at Setubal. Def: Em. Firepump, INMARSAT stn, FF equip, etc.

M/V MINE-S (Turkey), 2 days at Thessaloniki. Def: Charts and Voyage or Passage plan.

M/V MEGANISI (Malta), 18 days at Eysk. Def: Echo sounder, EEBD, Facilities for reception of marine information and Rescue boats.

M/V MARINE LEGEND JR. (Malta), 2 days at La Rochelle. Deficiency: Overloading.

M/V LADY-M (Sierra Leone), 3 days at Sibenik. Def: Jacketed high pressure lines, Lifeboats and AE.

M/T LADY CHIARA (Liberia), 9 days at Gibraltar. Def: Cleanliness of ER, Emergency preparedness, SMPEP plan for NLS, Doors within main vertical zone.

M/V KARIM H (Korea DPR), 6 days at Thessaloniki. Def: Abandonship drills, Continuous synopsis record, Echo sounder, Gyro compass, Radar, FF and LS equipment, Emergency preparedness, etc.

M/V PORT AZOV (Cambodia), 3 days at Rostov, Def: LRIT, Lifeboats, Cert for BO Pollution Damage. 

3. PIRACY

M/V QMS DUBAI (Panama, 15220dwt) was stormed by Puntland-Somalia soldiers, a day after it was hijacked 2-June-2010. After a brief fighting with the captors, seven pirates surrendered after they killed the ship‘s captain.

M/V RIM (Libya owned, 4800dwt)’s crew who have successfully retaken their ship from the Somali pirates and killed 5 pirates,  abandoned the ship and were picked up by NAVFOR warship JOHAN DE WITT, 4-June-2010.

Warship HMAS PARRAMATTA (Australia) stopped a skiff with suspected pirates in the Gulf of Aden, 25-May-2010. According to an officer, the suspects threw items overboard, including suspected weapons before the boarding party approached the skiff. Equipment & supplies potentially used to undertake piracy activities were removed from the skiff. As no piracy was committed the skiff was left to return to Somalia.

4. ISM CODE AMENDMENTS  WILL COME INTO FORCE ON JULY 1, 2010

Latest amendments include periodical review of SMS’ effectiveness, procedures plans and instructions (than just preparing), identification of potential emergency shipboard situations and procedures for responding, preventing recurrence of n/c, conducting annual internal audits o/b not more than 12 months and not more than 3 months in exceptional circumstances, requirement for risk assessments. New Certification requirements are included in the amendments.

5. PENALTY  FOR  DAMAGING  UNDERWATER  CABLES  BY  SHIP’S  ANCHOR

M/V LIBERTY EAGLE (USA, 28762gt) paid fines and repair costs of about one million US dollars to the Suez Canal Authority for the damage caused by her anchors to underwater telephone lines. The accident happened 30-May when the ship encountered steering problems while entering the Canal southbound, coming in contact with M/V MARIA GREEN (Gibraltar, 11894gt) and dropping anchor that hit the cables. Liberty Eagle was detained in Port Said but now released. 7-June-2010.

6. POLLUTION CASE

M/T CHEM FAROS (Marshall I, 21145gt)’s operator was sentenced by the US Dept. of Justice to pay $850,000 penalty for pollution related violations, of which $150,000 is going to the US National Fish and Wildlife Foundation as a community service payment. 7-June-2010. The company also was sentenced to 5 years probation, during which it must implement an environmental compliance plan. The operators guilty plea comes a month after the C/E of Chem Faros pleaded guilty. The ship was found violating pollution laws last March during USCG inspection in Morehead, North Carolina. More info can be viewed at http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/June/10-enrd-668.html