The containership ONE Apus arrived at the Port of Kobe, Japan, after its eight-day trip from the middle of Pacific Ocean where it lost almost 2,000 containers during a storm.
While at the port, the ship and its cargo will undergo a full safety inspection to reveal the full extent of the damage.
Once the vessel and cargo are declared safe, surveyors from the various stakeholders will make their initial assessments whilst stowage planners and stevedores formulate and implement a plan to ensure the safe removal of the remaining units, Chidori Ship Holding and NYK Shipmanagement said. After that, a thorough evaluation will ake place on the exact number and type of containers that have been lost or damaged and damage to the vessel.
According to initial estimations, about 1,816 containers were lost overboard due to severe weather conditions, when the ship was approximately 1,600 nautical miles northwest of Hawaii.
Of the containers lost, there were also 64 Dangerous Goods containers, including 54 with fireworks, eight containing batteries and two with liquid ethanol.
According to the owners and managers, weather at the time of the cargo loss was reported as wind force 4 on the Beaufort Wind Scale, corresponding to 13-18 mph winds, with north-westerly seas of 5 to 6 meters and a “long high swell”.
However, weather maps show significant wave heights of up to 16 meters associated with the weather system encountered by the container ship.
