Marine

Citation

(2005), "Marine", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 14 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2005.07314aac.002

Marine

23 March 2004Hera

Turkish divers recovered a fourth body from the wreck of general cargo Hera today. It was transported to a local hospital, where it will be identified. The vessel sank near the Bosphorus strait more than a month ago with 17 Bulgarians aboard. The first body that divers retrieved from the wreck of Hera was identified to be a Ukrainian. Preliminary information identifies the second body recovered as Ukrainian Oleksi Levchenko. The identification of the third body found is yet unconfirmed. Relatives of the Ukraine sailors are to arrive in Istanbul for DNA samples.

24 March 2004. A Bulgarian rescue team searching for wreck and bodies from sunken general cargo Hera has called off coastline operations. The third Bulgarian team, consisting of divers, alpinists, rescue workers and doctors left for Turkey on March 18. Five bodies have been recovered so far, two of which confirmed to be of Ukrainian sailors. The first body that divers retrieved from the wreck of Hera was identified to be the Ukrainian Alexander Serafimovich, a ship mechanic. According to preliminary information the second body found aboard belongs to the Ukrainian Oleksi Levchenko. DNA samples are yet to confirm the identity of the other three bodies recovered by Turkish divers.

29 March 2004. Most probably, the rest of the sailors from general cargo Hera jumped into the rough sea and their bodies taken by underwater drifts, commented Sevdalin Stamov, lawyer of the firm which owned the vessel, Maestro Shipping. According to experts, there is no chance that the 12 missing members of the crew have survived. The retrieved bodies of Bulgarian sailors have been visually identified, but their names will be announced in public after the investigation is over.

24 March 2004Bow Mariner (Singapore)

Attorneys representing the surviving crewman of chemical/oil carrier Bow Mariner say they are trying to negotiate a deal that could offer the men immunity from prosecution in exchange for their testimony. They also want to make sure an investigation into why the vessel exploded and sank off the Virginia coast nearly a month ago doesn’t have a detrimental effect on any proceedings in Singapore, where the vessel was registered. The vessel, carrying 3.2 million gallons of ethanol, sunk 58 miles east of Chincoteague on February 28, leaving three of the predominantly Filipino crew dead and 18 missing. Six men survived, but because four have so far refused to answer questions, the Coast Guard has not been able to determine what happened. The four men were subpoenaed to appear today before a federal grand jury, but the hearing was postponed until April 9 to give the lawyers more time to negotiate, said Norfolk attorney Stanley Sacks, who is representing two of the survivors. The new hearing will be held in Newport News, VA, Sacks said. “We’re trying to see if there’s a solution that’s satisfactory to everyone,” Sacks said. There has been no suggestion of criminal charges, the attorney said, but the goal is to protect the men from any possible sanctions. “I don’t know what made the ship sink,” Sacks said. “Conceivably, it could have been something the men did.” Today, the four survivors who have remained silent, seaman Ramon Ronquillo, electrician James Bactat, engineer EdiMarch Aguilar and officer Lugen Ortilano, briefly appeared at the US District courthouse in Norfolk to have new subpoenas served on them. The men have been staying in Norfolk since Bow Mariner went down. They lost their travel documents when the vessel sank and the Coast Guard has asked the Philippine Embassy to withhold reissuing new ones. The two men who did talk to Coast Guard investigators, the chief cook and a cook’s helper, were not able to provide any concrete information about what happened, only about their escape from the burning tanker, said Jerry Crooks, Coast Guard chief of investigations. The others have invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

“We’re still trying very hard to get the folks to cooperate and talk to us,” Crooks said today. The lawyers, who were hired by the vessel’s owners and operators, said they’re trying to ensure that nothing in the US investigation can be used against the men in Singapore. If the men were found to be at fault and prosecuted there, they could face prison sentences, said Andrew Jones, who is representing Ortilano. Shortly after the accident, Singapore investigators asked the Coast Guard to take the lead in the investigation, Crooks said. As the flag state, Singapore must prepare a report for the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency based in London. A safety investigator from Singapore, not a criminal investigator, has visited Norfolk, Crooks said. “There’s no suggestion they did anything wrong,” Sacks said.

10 April 2004. The first of four survivors from chemical/oil carrier Bow Mariner testified before a federal grand jury yesterday after being granted immunity by the USA. Until yesterday, the four crewmen from Bow Mariner had refused to answer questions about what happened February 28, when their ship exploded and sank 58 miles east of Chincoteague, leaving three of the mainly Filipino crew dead and 18 missing. Only six survived. Two of the survivors have already been interviewed by the Coast Guard, which is investigating the accident. But the men, the chief cook and messman, were unable to provide much information because they were in the galley at the time of the explosion. The remaining four crewmen invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Lawyers hired by Bow Mariner’s owners and operators said they wanted to make sure that nothing the men said could be held against them in the USA or in Singapore, where the ship was registered. After a judge granted immunity from prosecution by the USA, the men appeared in the Newport News federal courthouse yesterday afternoon to answer questions. Ramon Ronquillo, a seaman on Bow Mariner, spent an hour and a half with the grand jury before leaving the closed-door proceedings looking spent. Because of time, Ronquillo was the only one to testify; the other three are scheduled to testify Wednesday in Norfolk. Keith Leonard, one of the lawyers representing Ronquillo, said his appearance before the jurors went well. Representatives from the US Attorney’s Office and the Department of Justice declined to comment after the proceedings. Some of the lawyers representing the men said they don’t think any of the men really know what happened the night of the explosion. Singapore refused to grant immunity, but Leonard said he doubts anything will happen to the men there. Singapore had asked the USA to take the lead in the investigation. Since the ship went down, the crewmen have been staying at the Norfolk Waterside Marriot at the expense of Bow Mariner’s owners and operators.

15 April 2004. Crew members may have been cleaning empty cargo tanks when an explosion occurred that sank chemical/oil carrier Bow Mariner off the Virginia coast, according to preliminary information from the owners and Coast Guard investigators. However, it has not been determined whether such cleaning could have contributed to the Feb 28 explosion of the tanker. A federal grand jury in Norfolk began taking testimony Friday and continued yesterday from four crewmen who agreed to testify after being granted immunity from prosecution. The tanker had unloaded a portion of its cargo the day before the explosion. Knut Dybvik, vice president of US operations for the owners of the ship, Odfjell Seachem, of Bergen, Norway, said it would not have been unusual for the crew to vent and clean the empty tanks while en route between ports. “We know there was no hot work going on,” Dybvik said, referring to welding or other repairs that could have led to an explosion. Jerry Crooks, of the Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Office in Norfolk, said he is not yet sure tank cleaning was taking place when the explosion occurred. He said he heard that information “third-hand.” The Coast Guard has said Bow Mariner was in compliance with all known inspections. US officials agreed to grant the survivors immunity from prosecution in return for their testimony, but other jurisdictions, including Singapore where the vessel is flagged, have not, the Coast Guard said.

19 April 2004. An experienced marine surveyor said Friday (April 16) that it was not likely the ethanol, but vapours left over from an entirely different product – a gas additive that had been dropped off in New Jersey – that exploded and sank the chemical/oil carrier Bow Mariner 50 miles off the Virginia coast, killing 21 of the 27 sailors on board. The location of the cargo on the vessel revealed by the Coast Guard on Friday – and matched up with previous sonar images showing the location of gaping holes in the deck – show that the explosions that sank the vessel occurred not in the central ethanol tanks, but in tanks carrying a gas additive called methyl tertiary-butyl ether, or MTBE, according to Alyn F. Fife, a Newport News surveyor who’s been inspecting vessels for shipping lines and others since 1948. The Bow Mariner, left Saudi Arabia with a crew of Greek officers and mostly Filipino seamen, carrying 11 million gallons of cargo. That included 7.8 million gallons of MTBE, an additive used to boost octane in auto gasoline, which it dropped off in Linden, NJ. It also included 3.2 million gallons of ethanol, a product used in gasoline production, planning to drop that off in Texas. Of the 28 oil tanks on the vessel, the Coast Guard said Friday, 22 held the MTBE and were empty at the time of the accident – save for the vapours and residual product that remained. Six tanks at the centre of the vessel, meantime, were filled to the brim with ethanol. The mixture of a liquid gas is usually too rich to be combustible, experts say, and explosions are more likely to happen with gas vapours – which is why a nearly empty automobile gasoline tank is more likely to explode in an accident than a full one. The Bow Mariner accident might have occurred, Fife surmised, when crew members were cleaning the empty tanks that had held the MTBE. Tanker crews often do such cleaning while under way, between deliveries. The vice president of US operations for the owners of the vessel, Odfjell Seachem, of Bergen, Norway, said it would not have been unusual for the crew to vent and clean the empty tanks while en route between ports. “You have to vent the tanks out so the crew can go down and get whatever muck was left,” Fife said. “They have to shovel it into buckets, and hoist it out. Especially gas from Saudi Arabia, sometimes there’s 20 inches of sand at the bottom of the tanks.” During that cleaning period, he said, the inert gas systems in the vessel – which envelops the explosive gas in a sort of blanket of oxygen-free gas – are turned off. Turning the system off and putting oxygen in the system allows the crew to fill the tanks with an oxygen mixture so they can enter the tanks. Another local surveyor, Tate Austin of Norfolk Maritime Surveyors, speculates that the accident began not inside the tanks, but on Bow Mariner’s deck – possibly when a manhole cover or what’s called an ullage cover were taken off, allowing vapour that was not yet inert to come out. “All it takes is a small spark, and you could have had a flash fire and subsequent explosions in the tanks,” Austin said. Maritime experts say the accident is more likely to have begun with the cargo tanks and have pretty much discounted the theory that the accident began in the diesel or fuel tanks used to power the ship. Those fuels are less combustible than the cargo fuel the vessel was carrying.

29 March 2004Andrew J. Barberi (USA)

This week, the Brooklyn Federal Court will begin proceedings that could stretch for more than a year in a ferry accident, On October 15 Staten Island ferry Andrew J. Barberi crashed. A total of 11 people died and scores were injured in the crash that has also triggered a federal grand jury investigation. A battalion of city and private lawyers are to appear before Chief Judge Edward Korman on Thursday (April 1) in the first hearing involving the city’s controversial legal effort to limit its financial exposure from the crash. In the face of $3 billion in legal claims, the city filed the request in December under an 1851 federal law which, if successful, would limit its liability to $14.4 million, the value of the repaired vessel plus an allowance based on its tonnage. The law has been used by ship owners several times, with mixed results, since it went into effect. Complications in a case as large as Andrew J. Barberi are already looming. Federal prosecutors have asked that depositions in the case be delayed so that they don’t interfere with an ongoing grand jury probe. Anthony Bisignano, a Staten Island attorney who represents scores of ferry passengers who have filed claims against the city, said attorneys for the passengers are willing to co-operate with prosecutors but do not want to jeopardize any fact-finding for the lawsuit. Experts say the fact that a criminal investigation is under way also will likely make crucial witnesses such as ferry Captain Michael Gansas and Assistant Captain Richard Smith assert their Fifth Amendment rights and not testify in any depositions. “When they have a criminal case, you will not be able to get depositions of potential [criminal] defendants in the civil case,” said Paul Edelman, a maritime lawyer who is not involved in the lawsuit. The city filed the federal case to cap its liability to protect its pocketbook from the hundreds of claims arising from the horrific crash, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and corporation counsel Michael Cardozo said at the time. The city also said, however, that families of those killed or injured could try to settle their cases before trial, a posture that personal injury attorneys blasted as nothing more than an attempt to stampede people into settling. “In my opinion, this is nothing more than an attempt to scare people into accepting less than their cases are actually worth,” said attorney Sanford Rubenstein, who represents a Brooklyn man with a $10 million claim in the case. “I strongly believe the limitation [case] will not stand.” As of Friday, only two claimants have settled for a combined total of $5,000. Under federal law, the city would be able to limit its exposure to the $14.4 million if it can show that the ferry management did not have “privity or knowledge” about the conditions which caused the crash. To answer that question, Korman will have to gather evidence from maritime experts, as well as the passengers and crew from the ferry. Until the exact causes of the crash are determined, it will likely be difficult to determine what liability the city, as ferry owner, has in the deaths and injuries. However, should it be shown that safety regulations or rules were violated at the time of the crash, legal experts say, the burden then shifts heavily against the city. Under US Supreme Court precedent covering maritime cases, the city would have to show that any breach of the safety rule didn’t cause the ferry crash and could not have, the experts said. That Supreme Court rule is often an insurmountable burden for vessel owners, Bisignano said.

2 April 2004. New York City has reached the first settlements of lawsuits stemming from the accident involving ferry Andrew J. Barberi in Staten Island, agreeing to pay a total of $35,000 to five people who reported suffering head and neck pains and psychological trauma, city officials said yesterday. The settlements were mentioned during a legal proceeding in United States District Court in Brooklyn, where the city has filed a petition to limit its liability to the value of the boat. City officials later confirmed that the five cases had been settled this week and that five similar cases were close to being settled.

The settlement money is being paid through the office of the city comptroller, William C. Thompson Jr, and will come from funds set aside every year in the city’s $45 billion budget for such legal cases, city officials said. “We currently are in the process of scheduling and holding settlement conferences in an effort to achieve results that are both fair to the claimants and to the city,” said Jeff Simmons, a spokesman for Mr Thompson. Survivors of the accident and the families of those who died had until January to mail a legal notice to the city if they planned to sue. City officials said last night that 191 people had filed claims, and that the first settlement conferences were held last week. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and city officials have repeatedly said that they want to settle with the ferry victims as quickly as possible, and have urged them not to wait for a long trial with an uncertain outcome.

16 May 2004. Last year’s deadly crash of ferry Andrew J. Barberi continues to take a heavy toll on the New York city treasury. The city has already agreed to spend $4.3 million on private lawyers with expertise in criminal and admiralty law, according to testimony yesterday at a City Council budget hearing. Those attorneys will represent the city in some 157 civil suits seeking $3.39 billion from the city for the October 15 crash that killed 11 passengers and injured dozens more. The city has settled 19 suits, paying out $266,500. Two of the private firms will get at least $3.7 million, while another 15 firms would share $600,000 in contracts. Because they provide specialised services, the city was able to hire them without competitive bidding, which prompted several council members to criticize Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo. Cardozo, who oversees 650 lawyers, said lawyers who specialise in criminal and admiralty law are not kept on staff, and outside experts had to be quickly hired when the crash happened. The crash is still being investigated by a Brooklyn federal grand jury, which could bring charges against the city and some of its employees.

24 March 2004Rocknes (Antigua & Barbuda)

On March 24 air leaks were found in two ballast tanks. Repairs were necessary, and these lasted through the day. On March 25 one ballast tank was repaired. Second tank repairs are under way.

28 March 2004. The parbuckling operation is moving forward as planned. When the vessel reaches a gradient of 130 degrees, the salvage team will stop the pulling. They will then pump water out, and air into the vessel to reach its original draught depth. They will also start repairs on some of the vessel’s instruments and spray parts of the vessel with anticorrosion material

29 March 2004. After a week of complicated salvage work, the righting of the wreck of bulk Rocknes is now nearly completed. It is expected that sometime today the vessel will be afloat in an upright position. By yesterday evening the vessel’s superstructure was above the waterline, and it is already evident that the ship is not as damaged as was expected. When the ship is completely secured, the police will start their search for the two seamen who are still missing. The operation of righting Rocknes is the most complex ever carried out in Norway. The vessel was turned over using two large barges with winching equipment and a floating crane. In addition large pumps have been used to control the water level in the ballast tanks. Next week Rocknes will be towed to the Bergen Mekaniske Yard, where it will be examined by three yards which are interested in bidding for the refurbishing of the vessel.

30 March 2004. The body of one of two seamen still missing after bulk Rocknes capsized and sank off Bergen in January was found yesterday as the bulker was being turned upright. His body will be sent to the coroner’s institute for positive identification. Two persons from the Bergen fire and police departments went on board the bulker to search once more for the two still listed as missing. The vessel will probably be fully upright by last night, and crews were working to stabilize the ship. So far, the vessel shows little sign of the tragedy that cost 18 lives: A mast is broken, there are dents on one side of the ship, many windows are broken and all inventory was flung to the right. Otherwise, there’s little visible damage. “It’s too early to say anything about the damage, but it generally seems to be less than we thought,” said Tom Evensen, an attorney for insurance companies Gard and the Norwegian Hull Club. Plans are being laid to rebuild the vessel, and the Norwegian company that controls it, Rederiet Jebsen, has contacted ten shipyards that may take on the job.

A team of 12 is searching for the one remaining victim. A start is being made with the de-rigging of the vessel which means that all wires, bollards and anchors will be removed from the vessel and the shore. Eventually Rocknes will be towed to a floating dock in Bergen, Norway, where attempts will be made to repair the vessel.

6 April 2004. Bulk Rocknes was yesterday towed from its temporary moorings at Aagotnes to the Bergen Mekaniske Yard at Laksevaag. The tow took four hours to complete, using two tugs. The ship will be dry docked at Bergens Mekaniske, and technical experts will now examine the ship inside and out, to evaluate the condition of the vessel.

17 May 2004. Bulk Rocknes arrived Gdansk in tow of tug Alphonse Letzer. The owner of bulk Rocknes and their insurance company are suing the Norwegian authorities, claiming that they knew about the rock that the vessel struck but refrained from making this information available. The damaged vessel is at Remontowa yard, Gdansk, to effect extensive repairs, valued at €35 million.

18 April 2004Superferry 14 (Philippines)

Vice Admiral Arthur Gosingan, Coast Guard commandant, said yesterday that the passenger ro/ro Superferry 14 would have to be re-floated before further recovery of the remains of the passengers would be conducted and the investigation of the cause of the accident would be determined. Gosingan said that WG&A shipping company which operates Superferry 14 has already hired a salvage company that would undertake the re-floating operation starting this week. He said that re-floating the vessel would take not less than two months. “And we, the Coast Guard, with the divers, medical and marine environmental protection teams will be there round-the-clock once the operation starts. We will look into every step of the salvaging process. That way we will be able to give due respect to the victim’s remains that would be recovered,” said Gosingan. The retrieval operation has collected 67 body parts, 22 skulls and 43 skeletons, which are undergoing DNA testing at the National Bureau of Investigation for identification. Meanwhile, the government, through the National Disaster and Coordinating Council, handed over P10,000 financial assistance to each of the relatives of the victims who have been identified.

22 April 2004. An official inquiry into a fire on board passenger ro/ro Superferry 14 in February, which killed more than 100 people, has failed to find any definitive cause for the blaze. While leaving open the possibility it was sparked by a bomb, the inquiry says there is no evidence to back claims of responsibility by the Islamic extremist group Abu Sayyaf. The head of the Board of Marine Inquiry said the fire could have been started by a gas explosion or an explosion through sabotage. However Rear Admiral Danilo Abinoja said the main cause of the blaze had not been determined. He also said there was no forensic evidence reinforcing the Abu Sayyaf group’s claim of responsibility for the fire, which killed 118 people. President Gloria Arroyo initially played down the possibility of a terror attack, but later announced the arrest of an Abu Sayyaf member who allegedly confessed to have planted the bomb on the vessel.

23 May 2004Lighting Sun (Pakistan)

Ferry Lighting Sun, carrying more than 200 passengers, has sunk in southern Bangladesh. The double-decker vessel sank during a heavy storm in the Meghna river near Chandpur, 170 km (105 miles) south of Dhaka. Police said 57 survivors have been found, leaving many others feared dead. Eight bodies have been found so far. Lighting Sun was en route to Dhaka from the southern Madaripur area, when it capsized during a tropical storm, at about 0330, local time, today (2130, UTC, May 22). The head of police said 50 people had managed to swim ashore and a further seven had been rescued. Women and children were reported to be among the eight dead found so far. Many of the passengers were asleep when the accident happened and were feared to be trapped inside the vessel, Mohammad Dulal Miah, a police officer at the scene said. The ferry sank close to shore, but the river is turbulent there and it is hampering the rescue work, Mr Miah said. Villagers and fishermen using motor boats are trying to rescue survivors, according to local reports.

24 May 2004. Bangladeshi rescuers picked up 13 more bodies overnight, raising the death toll of yesterday’s launch mishap to 23 today. Some 200 people are still missing in the river Meghna, as a Dhaka-bound launch Lighting Sun crammed with 200 to 300 passengers capsized amid fierce storm near south-eastern town Chandpur, 170 km from the capital Dhaka yesterday, before dawn. Ten bodies were retrieved yesterday while over 50 passengers managed to swim to safety. Police source said the fishermen and divers picked up 13 more bodies overnight from the river and inside the hull of the overturned vessel, raising the death toll to 23 so far, as thousands of relatives of missing people are waiting anxiously along the river bank. The rescue vessel and divers are trying to refloat the ferry, as Chandpur administration feared over 100 more persons were still trapped inside the ferry, while the strong current of the mighty river Meghna might have taken away many other bodies to the downstream falling in the Bay of Bengal. A television channel last night added besides the overloading passengers and other cargoes, the launch carried about 100 goats, which were all drowned. Police source said three other ferries also sank in southern Bangladesh during last night’s strong storms, but fortunately there was no casualties in those accidents.

24 May 2004. The death toll from yesterday’s accident involving ferry Lighting Sun in south-eastern Bangladesh climbed to 60 today, as rescuers searched for more than 100 people still missing after the vessel capsized in a tropical storm. A government salvage vessel had pulled most of the wreckage from the Meghna River, and while rescuers did not expect to find more bodies inside, some bodies may have been swept downstream, rescue official Mohammad Amir Hossain said. Hundreds of anxious relatives thronged the banks of the river to look for loved ones after the accident yesterday when the double-deck ferry capsized near Chandpur town with about 250 people on board. The Shipping Ministry ordered an investigation into the sinking and three crew members of the ferry were detained for questioning. Sixteen bodies were found stuck in mud under the ferry late today, bringing the death toll to 60. A total of 29 bodies were recovered earlier today, while 15 bodies were found yesterday. The victims included 11 children. Rescuers said about 104 people were still listed as missing. They estimated that 80 people swam to shore safely, and said seven injured passengers were rescued from inside the vessel.

25 May 2004. Rescuers found eight more bodies today from ferry Lighting Sun in south-eastern Bangladesh, raising the death toll to 68 with 90 people still missing, officials and witnesses said. Seven bodies were found washed ashore today on sand banks in the Meghna River, while one body was recovered from the wreckage. Forty-five bodies were recovered yesterday and 15 bodies were found on Sunday (May 23). A government salvage vessel pulled out the ferry’s wreckage and towed it ashore late yesterday before calling off the official rescue operation. There were no more bodies inside the wreckage, rescue official Mohammad Amir Hossain said today. However, volunteers and relatives of those still missing were still searching the river and nearby sand banks for bodies which may have been washed downstream, witnesses said. About 95 people were still listed as missing, officials said. Nearly 80 people swam to shore safely or were picked up by passing boats, while seven injured passengers were rescued from inside the vessel.

3 June 2004O Bahia (Spain)

Rescue services have found the bodies of five crew members from fishing O Bahia which sank off northwest Spain. The Galician boat O Bahia, with a crew of ten, went down in rough seas near the Sisargas Islands last night. Rescuers spent the night searching the area and have found bits of the boat, including life-jackets, say reports. The search for the rest of the crew continues. The boat sent an emergency message yesterday evening before losing contact a few miles from the islands at about 2015, local time (1915, UTC). Reports say the sea conditions were not the worst but there were strong winds and heavy seas. O Bahia was returning from the Basque region, where it had been fishing for anchovy, to the port of Cesantes, in Redondela. The crew are all from the area.