The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) issued an investigation report on the grounding of the bulk carrier ‘Orient Centaur’, which lost power while transiting a channel from the Port of Weipa, in November 2017. This incident highlighted gaps in the port’s risk plans, ATSB noted.
Vulcan’s R/V petrel deep-sea team, dives into the ocean and researches the WWII Fletcher class destroyer at a record depth of 20,400 feet., meaning the deepest discovery of a shipwreck. To be more specific, the vessel lies at a depth of of 6,220 (3.9 miles) meters on the edge of the Emden Deep in the Philippine Sea.
On Sunday 27 October, the U.S. Coast Guard rescued a 44-year old man from the TUI cruises ship called “Mein Schiff” at a position about 20 nautical miles east of Atlantic City, in order to receive medical care. For the time being, the crewmember’s health condition remains unknown.
A Russian icebreaker, carrying 33 people on board, sent out a Mayday call during a storm off the coast of western Norway on October 22. However, Russian authorities said that the distress signal had been issued by accident. An outage during a storm accidentally sent the signal, but the ship and the crew are fine.
The US Coast Guard medevaced a crewmember from the crude oil tanker Paramount Hanover, approximately 92 miles offshore of Galveston, Texas, on October 5. The crewmember was experiencing severe abdominal pain. The Air Station Houston helicopter crew hoisted the patient and transferred him to the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston where he was reported to be in stable condition.
The sinking of the ferry vessel MS Estonia in the Baltic Sea marks the second-deadliest peacetime sinking of a European ship, after the Titanic, as well as the deadliest peacetime shipwreck to have taken place in European waters. At the time of the incident, the ship was carrying 989 people, of whom 852 lost their lives. When the MS Estonia sank it shook the shipping industry, due to its unprecedented extent in the number of victims, and the damage it was caused.
The general cargo ship ‘Volgo-Balt 205’ caught fire in Russia on Wednesday, September 27 at about 0400 Moscow time, near Tolyatti city, Volga river, Central Russia. The 12 crewmembers evacuated the vessel when it caught fire; Thus, there were no injuries reported.
The sinking of the container ship ‘El Faro’ in October 2015, claimed the title of one of the biggest marine tragedies in the recent US history. The ship had sailed directly into the path of Hurricane Joaquin, with NTSB and USCG noting that the key cause of the accident was the Captain’s failure to handle the ship against the storm and make appropriate use of weather data. As a result, all those on board perished in the sinking.
The US is trying to cope with another storm passing through, Tropical Depression Imelda, as it has caused many disruptions and dozens of inches of rain near Beaumont, Texas, while the USCG is assisting the local authorities.
As the vehicle carrier ‘Golden Ray’ capsized in St. Simons Sound, Brunswick, Georgia, four of its crewmembers went missing; Thus, the USCG, along with the help of the vessel’s master and the chief engineer, are conducting search and rescue operations to stabilize the vessel and find the remaining crew.
