Lost Overboard

[John Arton]

Quite amazing how many containers are lost overboard from these mega container ships.
Maersk have been told to find 500 of em in the Bay of Biscay alone
http://p.feedblitz.com/r3.asp?l=9159...5001&c=4772152
rgds
JA

[Keith Tindell]

Whilst i was in the fire service, we frequently had containers washed ashore here, one, some 30 yeaqrs ago was full of bright yellow crop spray backpacks, our beaches were just smothered in these yellow backpacks, and still to this day are still coming ashore. The worst one i saw was full of typing paper, and when afloat had a freeboard of about 9inches, dread to think of something doing about 15knts and hitting it, KT

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi John.
Similar to what happen to me in 52, deck cargo of logs from St Johns shifted and we had a similar list, the mate wanted us to go up and let the stenhous slips go, in his dreams, whoever went on top of those logs to let them go would have gone with them, ended up with that list all the way to Garston.
On the way over to Canada we hit a hurricane and I was swept over the bulwarks only by holding onto a brass door handle attached to the door of course saved my life.
Cheers Des

redc.gif

[happy daze john in oz]

With all the container ships now on the worlds oceans makes me wonder just how many have gone over the side over the years. Many will sink to the bottom, but some will flost just under the surface and it is a wonder more ships do not collide with them.

[Captain Kong]

When I had to attend the Inquest and Court of Inquiry on the loss of the Pool Fisher on 5 November 1979 it was suggested that she may have hit containers that had come off a ship a couple of days before in the Channel.
Brian

[John Arton]

Deck cargo Bills of Ladings were always claused with "shipped on deck at shippers risk" in order that the ship owners insurance would not have to pay out if the cargo suffered damage or loss. I'm trying to remember if when containers came in this clause was still added to the containers B/L.
If it is then all those goods in the containers that get washed over board are not covered by the ships P and I insurance.
Also if one of these containers wash up on your local beach if you decide to help yourself to any of its contents then you can be arrested for piracy, I think that's the correct term. When the MSC container ship broke up in the Channel a few years back one of its containers washed up on the beach somewhere near Ivans residence. It contained BMW motorbikes and before the police could get there to guard it a number of them went "missing"...IVAN?
If my memory serves me correctly then those found in possession of said bikes were charged.
On a different note, the contract for salvaging the "Baltic Ace" car carrier that sank after a collision with another ship in the North Sea, has been awarded. Wonder if any of its cars are still salvageable? When the "Tricolor" car carrier sunk in the North Sea it was cut up using special chains and its pieces towed for scrap. As parts of it were visible at low water and even at high water it was only a few metres below the surface, until it was salvaged it had warning buoys and guard boats stationed all around it giving out constant Nav. warnings until it was eventually removed. It was lying inside the main N.E. bound shipping lane just where you turn right for Antwerp. There was a story going round that a Belgium guy had brought the salvage rights for all the cars on board it as he reckoned that the high value BMW's and Mercedes on board could either be restored to working order or used for spare parts.
rgds
JA

[Ivan Cloherty]

Sorry John, not me! I don't ride a motorbike, anyway it was too far away for me to reach before the police closed all the roads to the beach, anyway there were more sanitary towels and toilet rolls than motorbikes. Some personal belongings were also breached by no do gooders, but some local towns people recovered them from the miscreants and forwarded them on to the owners in Australia, I believe.

On the previous lost overboard on this coast was a deck load of timber off Shoreham, the Underwriters/Receiver of wrecks advised the police that they did not want to prosecute as the timber to all intents and purposes was unsaleable by being immersed in seawater, which begs the question 'Did the underwriters think that those thousands of board feet of timber that we carried down the Pacific Coast and across the Atlantic on deck were never immersed in seawater at any time, even when tarped to the best of our ability ?? The Shoreham timber not rescued by domestic fence and shed builders was burnt on the beaches all along that coast by the local Councils at public expense, whether any contribution was made by Underwriters was not known at the time

As far as I can ascertain 'Shipped on deck at shippers risk' does not apply now to containers shipped on specialist container vessels, which would make sense. Maersk have been tasked with recovering the lost 500 containers at their expense as Underwriters are not covering the cost, there are going to be some lawyers becoming very rich in the next couple of years as this is not going to be resolved quickly, if the lawyers can help it. Whatever the result it's going to set a precedent so will be fought tooth and nail by both sides and freights will increase whichever side wins to cover such eventualities and there will be more without a doubt.

[Les Woodard]

All this brings back to me what was said about containers stopping pilfering from the holds or docks. Now it seems that they are loosing more cargo than ever before from ships at sea plus containers going missing in port makes that story we where told a complete lie but then again it is one of many told to us. Take for example the amount of preventative maintenance that we did on board which reduced the down time that ships spent in repairs makes one wonder if the bean counters have really stuffed it up big time. Just imagine with the modern paints and equipment around today and the size of the ships today I still think that a full crew would save the companies heaps in maintenance costs as well as more safety at sea.

[happy daze john in oz]

Back in the 80's a UK professor came to Oz to work at the uni I was in. He had put all his possesions into a container taking a half share in one. He had tp pay insurance and just as well, the container was lost over the side. the shipping company would not pay him compensation claiming he sent it at his own risk.

A couple of years ago a ship was wrecked off the coast of NZ, just outside of Tauranga I believe. Apparently much of the cargo washed ashore, lot of dairy foods amongst it and it was coming ashore for a number of weeks after the wreck.