Container ship breaks in half and sinks

[Ivan Cloherty]

Forget what year it was but a long time ago when hearing about the scantlings on new buildings being reduced due to the new types of paint and anti corrosives used in shipbuilding and such things. Steelwork on modern shipping never seemed to me to have the robustness of older tonnage. John Sabourn

Even in the 70's the scantlings were becoming leaner and meaner than previous vessels of the same size, the distance between frames became longer, it hits you in the face when your job involves dockings/repairs.

It was found in the Liberty (and other) ships that the vessel never broke at the weld, the weld remained intact but ships broke adjacent to the weld, the heat from the weld having altered the molecular characteristics of the steel adjacent to the weld by the high heat used in welding. Of course the situation was exacerbated by all the strakes of plating being the same length and finishing at the same butt because of prefabrication methods, so once the tear had started it just continued straight around the hull and there was nothing to stop it. In the old days ships had staggered butts so the tear never transferred to the plate above or below except in very extreme (and rare) cases.

How many of us have watched films/TV documentaries showing these giants being built in sections and welded together, no herringbone plates in sight, just a straight weld around the hull, seems nothing has been learned from various court findings about plate abutment.

[j.sabourn]

Wonder what the old papers we had for ship construction and stability look like today. They must be quite different now as the subject matter as regards the building of ships was different. I have never heard for a number of years now of any mention of a ship when its keel is first laid, of any attempt for it to be on the North south line to minimize the magnetic deviation, perhaps now with gyro compasses and computers this is all water under the bridge now. Different times different answers. Just shows how old we are getting. John Sabourn

[Rick R]

I find the idea of a 5 year old ship breaking up quite horrifying to be honest, and whether it becomes apparent that the fault lies with the naval architects, the planners or the officers onboard, some big changes need to be made to prevent accidents like this occurring again.

What is even more worrying is that it doesn’t even make the news other than then with specialist maritime online publications. Nobody cares…

Interestingly I sailed on a particular class of cruise ship (two of a similar class are in operation with a brand starting in the letter C and finishing in the letter D) where within a few months of operation cracks were found running several decks high through the elevator shafts and the distribution of ballast became an issue due to the effect it was having on the steelwork in certain parts of the vessel. We also had a spurious weight added into the stability calculations added at the initial inclining experiment which none of the naval architects could determine the cause of. The ship did two seasons on a 25kt run from New York to the Caribbean in the middle of winter, before it was decided that this particular class of ship should be kept in calmer waters in future. Clearly the naval architects are still making serious errors.

[j.sabourn]

Rick I had a similar experience and still seethe at the thought of it and how lucky we were. The same ship as the master went home from Korea in a recent post. She was a 35,000 deadweight geared bulk carrier. 7 holds one floodable. In the stability plans she could go with 2 holds empty, which even that goes against ones instincts. Anyhow the owners decided that these 2 holds would be fitted out with car decks which they were. Cars as you know have very little weight and as against a cargo of grain or iron ore is neglible. The master who joined was about 5 years already into his retirement and did not take too active a role in the running of the ship. However we received orders to load 2 holds with Zinc concentrate from Esperance in SW Australia and proceed to Durban to load another 2 holds with grain for the states. I said it could not be done so the master says go and work it out, the Chief was a friend of mine and an ex shipyard superintendant. The offices argument was that the ship could go with 2 hatches empty, mine was that you are going with 5 empty. We sat up all night and did the sheering stresses on every frame, the result was that the ship was alright in still water which meant alongside the berth. He sent this off to the owners that it was ok and we sailed like that. It was only that the weather was good on the sea passage that we made it, the cracking and groaning of pipework and steel was a daily nightmare. The fact that the ship was 2 years old was a stroke of luck also. On arriving back in London on flying back from Durban I was called into the office and told how appreciative they were on the success of the charter.They had the piece of paper in their hands with my calculations on, I then told them their fortune and walked out. It must have looked funny at the time, but that ship was nearly lost and when I read similar stories of ships breaking up I always think of that period in my life, another near miss. Regards John Sabourn

[Captain Kong]

Many years ago I joined a tanker as 2nd Mate, in Groningen, Holland, new building, then we did the Inclination tests.
we shifted ballast to Port and away she went and capsized against the quay.
The first man off was the Surveyor followed very quickly by everyone else.
The Surveyor condemned it.
The Harbour Master said `Get that ship of here or we break it up where she lies."
A floating Dry dock was hired and very gingerly we shifted ballast and reballasted her to near upright.
We got her in the dry dock and moved to Rotterdam.
The hull had been made with 8cm steel and the accommodation block with 10cmn steel.
The builders had got mixed up in translation on the plans. The Pump room was up on deck instead of the usual place at the bottom, so with four heavy pumps etc high up also contributed to the capsize.
In Dry dock we spent weeks having billets of steel welded between the frames, on the bottom of all the tanks and up the frames., I drew up plans for the position of Seven thousand steel billets. and the location of each one.
She was finally completed , but had a permanent angle of Lol, about five degrees to port. she was always easily recognised on the horizon, as she appeared.
She worked for another fifteen years without mishap.
Cheers
Brian.

[Rick R]

MOL Comfort - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Tony Wilding]

latest news is both halves still afloat, another MOL Ship and a Patrol Vessel standing by, the amount of drift is less, maybe the weather has eased, Tugs En Route, no ETA for them yet. have no idea of where her Destination will be, maybe Mombai, apparantly the Main Ship Classification Society is keen to know the findings, if her breaking was due to wrong information of Container Weights, maybe big changes to the system are called for, but too early to judge yet,

[happy daze john in oz]

Of all the ships now on the oceans, and some are of an enormous size, how many have suffered this fate? Unfortunately accidents of this sort will always happen no matter how good the ship building. But quality of materials and competence of the builder must have a strong bearing on it.

[j.sabourn]

Most on this site have experienced really bad weather at sea on various ships. Most have felt in their bones that the vessel was seaworthy and would be able to ride it out. To my mind this was always the case with at least 2 exceptions which spring to mind and was sorely experiencing doubts of the capabilities of the vessel. It is not a nice situation to be in when you doubt your own vessel. Cheers John Sabourn

[Tony Wilding]

i have had some bad experiences of heavy Seas, North Atlantic Winter in Ballast, Irish Sea force 12 on a 2000 tonner, and Hurricanes, but never once doubted the Ship, could not believe the size of the waves , North Atlantic, but since seeing a Video of a big Box Boat flexing in Heavy Weather, i would be scared stiff as a Crew Member, no Ship can take that much movement without eventually breaking. a very bad practice just to rely on the Shippers given Weights, and no way to double check, just asking for trouble., the weak link in the Chain. in fact a recipe for disaster.