97024 Suspected Propeller Damage
Suspected Propeller Damage
Hong Kong
REPORT No. 97024
My vessel was instructed to moor at Buoy A8 in the harbour. The vessel'sspeed was gradually reduced but the inertia was still carrying us forward.When 50-70m abeam to the west of the buoy, the pilot put the engines tofull astern and attempted to swing the vessel through 180 degrees to makefast. Whilst going full astern we felt unusual vibration particularly aft.I protested to the pilot about this but he assured me that there was noproblem. The pilot said that he was experienced and that there was sufficientwater for a vessel of our draft. According to the chart depth the minimumdepth of water around the buoy was 8.4m and the height of tide was 0.8mgiving an underwater clearance of about 2m.
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After mooring at the buoy, the bilges, holds, ballast tanks and engineroom appeared not to have suffered any damage. On leaving the next day,once we were clear, I asked the engineers to increase speed to full speedof 130 rpm. After several attempts it was found impossible to increase thespeed to more than 110rpm due to overload of the engine. It was suspectedthat this behaviour of the engine was caused by the propeller blades havingstruck an underwater object or that there was a mooring rope/wire entangledaround the propeller blades. Being unable to examine the problem, I informedthe owners and charterers and we continued at 110rpm to our next port ofcall in South Korea. A diving survey revealed that the propeller bladeshad been damaged and it was then necessary to dry dock to have the damagerepaired. A request was sent to the harbour authorities to have the area aroundthe buoy surveyed for any submerged objects. |