Selected items from compilation of Intership Navigation Training Center. Issue 35 / 2010

1. CASUALTY WEBRIEF

Vlcc FLANDRE (French ST, 305700dwt), Ningbo to UAE in ballast was in collision with M/V HUA CHI 8 (China) that sank, off the Zhejiang China, 31-August-2010. Six persons were missing.

Cruise/pass CLIPPER ADVENTURER (Bahamas, 4376gt) w/ 197 passengers and crew, ran aground on a rock in Coronation Gulf, Canada while underway from Port Epworth to Nunavut, 27-August-2010. No injury and no pollution. Coast Guard icebreaker AMUNDSEN was en route to take the passengers to Kugluktuk. Initial efforts to refloat the vessel during high tide were unsuccessful.

Ferry DHARMA RUCITRA (Indonesia) ran aground off Singaraja in Bali during a crossing from East Java, 26-August-2010. Next day, about 138 passengers were rescued. No injury and no pollution.

2. PORT STATE CONTROL (Some recent detentions)

M/V MORNING GLORY (Singapore) detained 3d-13h in Fremantle. Deficiencies: numerous cargo holds’ dampers stuck in open position.

M/V MODERN CHANCE (Liberia), 2 d-23h in Port Kembla. Def: Maintained records of watchkeeping and rest not actual hours of work and rest. Lifeboat on-load release system. Lifeboat cable parted.

M/V TIEN HAU (Hong Kong). 2d-22h in Brisbane. Defective and missing hatch cover wedges.

3. PIRACY

M/V IDEAL BULKER (Hong Kong, 16721gt), underway in South China Sea, pos 02-59.7N, 105-12.2E or about 24 miles SW of Pulau Mankai was boarded at the stern by 6 pirates armed with long knives. They tied up the bridge duty crewmembers. The pirates then forced the electrician to bring them to the Master’s cabin. When they attempted to enter the cabin, the Master raised the alarm and escaped through a porthole. The crew was mustered and they proceeded to the Master's cabin. The master suffered injuries while escaping while the electrician sustained head injuries.

warship ESBERN SNARE (Denmark)’s received a distress call from M/V HOEGH OSLO (51964gt) that was being fired upon by pirates in the Gulf of Aden, 28-Aug-2010. When the warship’s helicopter arrived at the scene the pirates aborted the attack and headed for Somalia but the helicopter fired shot in front of the boat. A team from the warship boarded the pirate boat and "found spent and unused ammunition, knives and other piracy related paraphernalia onboard”. Esbern Snare is the flagship of NATO's Operation Ocean Shield, an anti-piracy mission off the Horn of Africa.

29-August-2010: a Japanese patrol aircraft spotted a pirate skiff with 7 occupants in the Gulf of Aden, “preparing to attack merchant vessels transiting the IRTC”. M/V CARRIBEAN CARRIER 1 (Panama, 16382gt)’s attackers fled when the Esbern Snare's helicopter arrived at her position.

Warship ITS LIBECCIO (Italy) from the EU Naval Force sent their helicopter to provide airborne support. The warship USS KAUFFMAN, closed and boarded the skiff revealing a pirate ladder and other pirate related paraphernalia.

4. NAVIGATION IN ARCTIC WATERS

Aframax M/T SCF BALTICA (Liberia, 65293gt), Murmansk to China passing the Barents Sea/ N of Novaya Zemlya I/Vilkitsky Strait/Taimyr ice fields/ Sannikov Strait/ Laptev Sea and ice fields of East Siberian Sea, and covering 2500 n.miles in 11 days, arrived Pevek, northern Russia 25-August-2010. She was escorted by a nuclear-powered ice-breaker. The tanker has 70000 tons cargo of  gas condensate. The voyage was undertaken in cooperation with the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation and the State Corporation Rosatom. Close contact was also maintained with Russia’s Maritime Operations HQ, from where the weather and ice conditions were monitored and operation of the ice-breaker escorts.

Meanwhile, Scandinavian and Russian business consortium is soon to try and send ice-class M/V NORDIC BARENTS (HK, 43731dwt, Denmark owned) with iron ore pellets to China through the northern sea route which has about 1/3 less mileage than the Suez route.

5. PROBLEMS WITH DRUGS

M/V SAMUTRA (Liberia) has a crewmember that was sentenced to six years in Poland prison, 26-August-2010, for smuggling 32kg of cocaine from South America into Gdansk, Poland. The seaman was caught in Warsaw in Feb-2009 in a large police action.

6. POLLUTION

M/V MAGDALENE (Liberia) was suspected of oil spill while berthed in Port of Newcastle, NSW, de-ballasting water to load coal, 25-August-2010. Some 30 people were cleaning up the oil, with 12 tons collected in the Kooragang basin. At least 19 pelicans were found covered with a dark and greasy sludge. The owners of the ship involved in the oil spill are facing fines up to A$ 10 million under the Marine Pollution Act. The act had potential fines of up to A$ 500,000 for individuals found guilty of “causing a discharge of substances into state waters”.