Loss Prevention Advice
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Lessons learned from an explosion on a chemical tanker caused by unnoticed heating of styrene monomer cargo, leading to a thermal runaway and tank rupture.
A chemical tanker was moored alongside waiting for another vessel on its offshore side to finish purging its cargo tanks with nitrogen. Without warning one of the cargo tanks exploded, sending a large fireball skywards towards a major road bridge. Remarkably, just one crew member on each ship was injured.
The tanker had loaded a multiple parcel cargo some weeks before.
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A fire on an oil tanker caused by a failed fuel connection, which led to a serious blaze in the engine room but was quickly contained thanks to swift action from the crew.
On a chilly but calm autumnal morning, an oil tanker was approaching its destination berth to discharge a cargo of naphtha, a flammable hydrocarbon mixture used to manufacture fuels and solvents. The bridge team worked together to bring the vessel into position alongside the berth on schedule.
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On 8 April, the cargo vessel Hosei Crown, collided with a Vietnamese fishing boat in the Gulf of Bắc Bộ, Vietnam, resulting in four fatalities.
The cargo ship struck the fishing boat, causing it to capsize and upon receiving distress signals, the Vietnam Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Center (VMRCC) instructed the Hosei Crown to deploy buoys and initiate an immediate search and rescue operation. The VMRCC also dispatched its SAR 411 rescue ship to the scene to assist with the operation.
However, the collision resulted in the sinking of the fishing vessel and the tragic loss of four lives.
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If drugs are found on a ship in certain ports, the crew risk extreme prison sentences. Limited understanding of merchant ship operations can lead judges to believe that hiding drugs onboard or attaching them to the ship’s hull is impossible without the crew's knowledge.
Misguided assumptions
The international shipping industry needs to be alerted to the substantial risk of unwarranted arrests and severe prison sentences associated with docking at certain ports around the world. Additionally, the slow pace of legal procedures in certain countries can detain crew members and shipowners for many months.