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In this safety article, the water was flooding from the cargo hold, after the crew of a containership was washing down the main deck and cargo hatches.

The incident

It was morning and outside there was a light breeze and some drizzle. The crew of the container vessel was preparing to wash down the main deck and cargo hatches before arrival in port the same afternoon. They had the rare opportunity to do this as there were no containers on deck, only in the cargo hold.

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A seafarer died from a suspected heart attack on a supramax bulker anchored off the port of Paradip in Odisha, India, on January 3.

According to local media, the post-mortem examination was delayed as officials waited for the 55,000-dwt Al Danah to berth, while the police informed that a probe would be ordered into the seafarer’s death if necessary.

Crew members discovered the body, while the captain informed the port authority.

The vessel had 23 crew members on board at the time, and had left Chittagong in Bangladesh last month, transporting cargo to Maharashtra.

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Lessons learned from an incident where an outlet pipe of the exhaust fan of a dryer onboard was blocked with lint, which could have caused a fire.

The incident

During a weekly inspection of the laundry room on a vessel, rags and lint twisted together were found in the exhaust fan of one of the dryers. Further investigation revealed more accumulated lint in the dryers’ outlet exhaust pipe.

When the end of the outlet pipe was removed to check the inside, it was found to be almost completely blocked with lint.

Our member notes that it would only have taken a small spark, short circuit or static electricity inside the drying machine for there to have been a fire.

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The skipper of a beam trawler saw that his port side derrick, beam and fishing gear had fallen onto the wheelhouse roof of the other vessel.

The incident

Abeam trawler was taking fresh water on board from a quayside connection when the skipper decided to even out the vessel’s list by topping up the outboard (port) derrick, from which its fishing gear was suspended. The plan was to finish taking on water and then lower the beam and attached trawl gear onto the deck, ready for the next trip. As the harbour was quite busy, another beam trawler had been berthed outboard of the vessel.