Mars Report – Lessons learned
The Nautical Institute has issued Mars Report on an incident where flood tide broke mooring lines.
The Incident
A small products tanker docked at terminal to load a cargo of tallow.The pilot had given the Master the local pilot information card thatwarned of three to five knot tidal currents in the river waterway. Thecard also warned of the importance of skilled line tending when mooredin the river, stating: equal tension or equal weight on all ropes at alltimes; mooring winch brakes shall have a holding near the strength ofthe line.
The next day after loading, and in order to refuel, the vessel wasshifted about three miles downriver during slack water. This wasaccomplished by the same pilot from the previous day and the transitwas uneventful. At the new berth, ten mooring lines were used asillustrated.
Because of draught considerations, the vessel was docked such thatthe ships bow extended 30 feet beyond the east end of the wharf. Afterdocking, a crew member conducting a patrol noticed dust and smokecoming from the brakes of the mooring line drums on the bow. The alertwas given and the bridge team tried using the ships bow thrusters topush the vessel toward the dock but to no avail.
As the vessels bow was pushed into the river, the three mooring linesthat were on bitts parted (both forward springs and one aft spring).The remaining mooring lines were on winches; the winch brakes beganslipping and the lines quickly ran free off the drums and fell into thewater.
Within about 10 minutes of the initial warning, the ship was adriftin the river. Anchors were dropped but they only slowed the drift. A fewminutes later the vessel struck a bridge, which sustained approximately$2.5 million in damage, while damages to the vessel were estimated at$1 million.
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Lessons learned
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Source & Image Credit:Mars Reports/ The Nautical Institute
