Swedish P&I Club publishes Monthly Safety Scenario for September
The Swedish P&I Club publishes on a monthly basis a new “Monthly Safety Scenario” (MSS) to assist owners in their efforts of complying with the above regulations. Under the ISM requirement owners are obliged to carry out monthly safety meetings or safety committee meetings on board their vessels. This obligation stems from Chapter 5 of the ISM Code: “Master’s responsibility and authority” and furthermore from “5.1.2, motivating the crew in the observation of that policy”. Here below follows the Monthly Safety Scenario for September.
Leaking cargo hatch
It was late November and the vessel was loading grain in a port on the west coast of the US with China as its destination. Before loading began, the cargo holds had been inspected and passed by the loading port cargo inspector. The crew had also covered all the cargo hold’s bilge well steel covers with burlap and they had carried out a water hose test of the cargo hatches to ensure that they were watertight. This means that they sprayed pressurised fire hoses at the hatches to simulate waves hitting the cargo hatch. No water was found in the cargo hold after the fire hose test.
During loading it started to rain for a couple of hours. The master ordered the cargo hatches to be secured, which the crew and stevedores did quickly. When the rain had stopped the cargo hatches were opened again.
The master did not think it would be necessary to write anything on the bill of lading about the rain. He signed the bill of lading when loading finished the next day. On completion, all cargo holds were reportedly fumigated and afumigation certificate was issued to the vessel. The cargo hatches were also sealed with Ram-nek tape.
The charterer who had arranged weather routing informed the master that there were a couple of depressions and severe storms in the pacific and advised the vessel to take a southerly route to avoid the heavy northwesterly swells and very strong winds. The master chose the advisedsoutherly route. After 3 days the vessel suddenly encountered heavy weather conditions with northerly winds up to 10 beaufort.
The vessel was pounding heavily into the waves and also pitched and rolled heavily, the waves washed over the decks and the Ram-nek tapes were washed away. The master chose to take an even more southerly route. After two days the storm finally passed.
When the cargo hatches were opened in the discharge port traces of seawater were found on the inner hatch coaming plating of hold 1 & 2, which were the two most forward holds. It was obvious that the cargo had suffered wet damage as some of the cargo had already started to mould. The damaged cargo was just below the cargo hatch and mostly on the starboard side.
A surveyor came on board the vessel and did a thorough inspection of the vessel’s hatch covers, rubber gaskets, closing devices, non-return valves and ventilators, hatch access and double drainage channels. In order to verify the weather tightness of the hatch covers, an ultrasonic test was done and it showed that the cross-joints between the forward and aft hatch panels were leaking on cargo hold 1.
The advantage of using the ultrasonic test is that it can be carried out at any stage of loading without risking cargo damage and also anassessment can be done in sub-zero temperatures.
Read more in the following link in The Swedish P&I Club website
Source: The Swedish P&I Club
Read previous The Swedish Club Monthly Safety Scenarios
Machinery-Cylinder Damage |