64 passengers spent nearly two days in lifeboats before all were rescued
The safety of the approximately 700 sail-training vessels in the world’s oceans has been called into question by a probe into the sinking of a Canadian ship off Brazil.
The tall-ship Concordia capsized and went down in February, 2010. The 64 passengers, teachers and crew spent nearly two days in lifeboats before all were rescued.
According to a report issued on Thursday by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, the ship went over and filled with seawater because the officer of the watch was unaware of the danger as a gust of wind approached. He did not reduce sail, change course or order places where water could enter to be sealed.
The report showed that the officer was not trained on Concordia’s squall curves, crucial information about the handling and stability of the ship. The material was available on board, but the TSB said the officer was unfamiliar with it and was able to get his certification without learning it.
The board found that the lack of such a requirement is universal. It is calling for Canada to take a lead role in pushing for beefed-up training for all countries that register sail-training vessels.
“It’s a large concern,” TSB senior investigator Paulo Ekkebus said after the report was released in Halifax, noting the agency had identified 700 sail-training vessels registered under various flags.
“Nobody on sail-training vessels, at this time, is required to know that type of information. Not even the master. We’ve not been able to find any country, any flag-state, requiring the study, or for people that they are familiar with this type of information, if it is provided on board the ship.”
The probe assigns no blame to the officer.
“He did not perceive the risk associated with the squall,” Mr. Ekkebus said. “He was asked [by the master] to make a judgment call on when there was a risk to the vessel perceived. And to make that judgment call, he did not have the training to use the squall curves to indicate that the vessel would be at risk.”
Terry Davies, founder of Class Afloat, the owner of Concordia, is also a trustee of Sail Training International, a not-for-profit representing owners of sailing ships used to train young people. In a telephone interview from Montreal, he suggested that many ships go farther than the minimum standards of the countries in which they register.
But he backed the board’s call for stricter standards.
“Clearly, the industry is missing a rule,” he said. “The [TSB] is making a very clear recommendation to Transport Canada to change that. And I endorse that. But I want to be clear that we were there 10 years ago, 20 years ago. We weren’t waiting for a statute.”
Barbados, in which Concordia was registered, does not require that squall curves be on board. The material was on the ship, though. And Mr. Davies said that his own information was that the officer of the watch knew the material, although he was not required to learn it.
“It is my understanding from discussions with the master that his officers were familiar with the booklet, its availability and its contents,” he said.
Mr. Davies said he had not asked the officer directly and had been unable to reach the man, who is at sea, since a draft copy of the TSB report landed on his desk Wednesday. He said he could not speculate on why the officer was unable to avoid the danger if, in fact, he did know the material. But he cautioned against second-guessing an incident that he said unfolded very quickly.
Source: The Globe and Mail
