200631 Unsafe stowage of steel coils

We were making use of wire slings to discharge the cargo; since the quantity was great and we have some powerful cargo gear, we were discharging six coils at a time with two slings (one 'threading' three coils together and the other the balance).

Since many coils were mismatched in the stowage and, worse, some coils were lying on top of the round of the coil right beneath in the next tier of the stowage. When one of our men was getting into the third or last coil of the 'thread' he was making with his sling, the second coil (already threaded) suddenly rolled over, trapping from waist to shoulder. It took more than five minutes to rescue our man; we immediately evacuated him to hospital and, thankfully, all his bones were found to be intact and his injuries restricted to some bruising. The man who has two years' experience in the discharge of wire rod in coils, has received training in occupational accident prevention (I was the main instructor in the last course he attended).

He was obviously not alone in the hold being worked; he was in fact working with three other dockers under the supervision of a signaller and a foreman who have nearly 30 years' accumulated experience in port operations.

We have been slinging coils in the way described for many years now and have experience aplenty in conducting restowage and resecuring operations of cargo shifting at sea. We have enhanced our safety precautions to the limit and well beyond that which would have been regarded as standard for this type of cargo, which I have been dealing with for more than 10 years.

My point is that while we place plenty of focus on ISM, ISPS, leadership and management and other topical issues of late, it would appear that we are missing the basics of good seamanship. No chief officer worth the rank would have allowed a stowage arrangement as bad as the one we faced and please do not blame the heavy weather that the vessel experienced during the sea passage; it was just the weather that would be expected for both this route and season.

In my incident investigation report, I will certainly identify improper stowage as the main root cause. As a former chief mate, I cannot easily understand how many current chief mates and masters in command do not give due attention to cargo stowage and securing. Don't forget that in addition to Solas and the IMO CSS (Code of Safe Practice for Cargo Stowage) Code, shipmasters today must take into account and are bound by plenty of national, and international regulations on occupational safety and health.