99044 Sea Anchor to the Rescue

Sea Anchor to the Rescue
Report No. 99044

A Captain was sent to join a ship in a shipyard where she had been under repair one day before the ship was due to leave. The final phase of the repair was underway but the ship was in a still in a mess. The new Captain had no time to check the situation all round but was assured by the departing young Captain and Chief Engineer that "All is O.K.".

The ship sailed in ballast from the shipyard, loaded a cargo of rice in Vietnam and proceeded on voyage to South America. After several days at sea a serious engine problem occurred in number 7 cylinder. The Captain was ordered by the owners to divert to Lae in Papua New Guinea to buy a chart and then proceeded to Port Moresby for repair. The replacement part had to be obtained from Europe and was sent by air. Someone said that the part supplied did not have the correct certificates proving origin.

After one month the ship continued with the voyage. A couple of weeks later, there was a main bearing failure in number 8 cylinder and a crank case explosion. Without power, the ship started drifting on the west-going current at about 5 miles per day. The Captain reported to Head Office and asked permission to report to MRCC Tahiti. The owners would not agree to this because they were worried that there would be expensive salvage costs. Seven days were wasted trying to negotiate the cheapest price for a tug to tow the ship. The tug spent one day preparing for sailing plus another day going to Hong Kong for bunkers. The weather deteriorated and the drift rate increased to 37 miles per day. The ship was drifting west but the track varied either side of the drift line by between 0.4 and 18.4 miles a day like a sigmoid curve. An isolated, steep island was directly on the drift track and many of the crew were fearful that the ship would collide with it. The Captain again asked the owner's permission to call MRCC again but they would not allow this until about two weeks later when all the crew got so upset that they gathered in the Captain's cabin angrily shouting. Only then would the owners agree.

The next day a French warship came to the assistance of the ship. They helped the crew by making a sea anchor with 10 oil drums on a 250 m long, 24mm diam. wire which was attached to the bow.

Once this was rigged, the effect caused the ship to drift more to the south. The Captain watched the GPS all day long with a beating heart until they were finally clear of the island. The warship stayed with the ship until she was well clear and then returned to base without requesting any repayment for their assistance. "Long live the French Navy", said the grateful crew.

 

The tug finally arrived 6 days later and a towing line was rigged. The ship was then towed for a further 25 days to her destination.

The ship had drifted 570 miles in 28 days. One crew man had an injured leg because of the crank case explosion. The crew were thanking God that they had a cargo of rice because the refrigerator had broken down and there was no other food to eat apart from fish which they caught in the sea.

Will ISM stop incidents like this occurring?