CalMac ferry runs aground in Lochmaddy

[Chris Allman]

Bit of an incident in Lochmaddy the CalMac Ferry ran into the pontoons and aground, looks like engine control problems. Thats the trouble with automation and computer controls, no control if there is a technical failure. See HERE

[vic mcclymont]

It happened to us on the Clan Ranald, we were calling into the Cape Verde Islands for bunkers. The main engine did not respond to the telegraph command. The M.E. remained at full speed although telegraph signalled a reduction. We sailed onto the bay at 17.5knots, heeled over as we did a 360 degree turn.
Transpired the mechanical link from the electronic governor had slipped. the shaft and couplings were not splined.
Fixed day at sea, no major problems.
Watched our sister ship the Clan Ross, do exactly the same at Cape Town, sailed at full speed, heeled over as a 360degree turn was implemented.
Regards
Vic

[Shaun Gander]

A note in the Am Paipear's Facebook page said Monday's sheep sale at Lochmaddy had been cancelled as a result of the crash and would be rescheduled as soon as possible.

Oh, SO many inappropriate comments could be made about this part of the report!

SDG

[Shaun Gander]

On a more serious note...

One of our jet drive boats had a disconnect last week, at low speed so only paint damage and a dented dockside fence. However to resolve the issue, you have to transfer command to the helm, leave the wing station, take command at the helm, de-clutch the drive, centre the bucket both horizontal and vertical, re-engage drive and then transfer command back to the wing and accept it there before being able to continue. Seemed like a lifetime for the (experienced captain).

SDG

[happy daze john in oz]

Oh, SO many inappropriate comments could be made about this part of the report!

SDG

It would of course depend on the breed of sheep and where they came from. If they were from NZ they would be the most sort after as they are considered to be the best looking.

[John Arton]

On my first trip to sea on a less than one year old Japanese built tanker that had bridge control (much vaunted by the Captain to any pilot we used), we were berthing at Tranmere, where previously one of the jetties had been put out of commission by being belted by a Greek Tanker. We had two tugs assisting had were swinging round to stbd. off the berth with engines going full astern to assist the swing. As we got at right angles to the jetty the pilot requested stop engines. I was on the helm and the 2nd mate turned the engine control telegraph to stop but nothing happened. The engine kept thundering full astern and we started gaining sternway heading straight for the opposite side of the river, fully laden. The 2nd mate was frantically trying to turn the engine control knob to the stop position again and again but still the engine was not responding. By this time the pilot and Captain were getting rather concerned as with astern speed picking up we were starting to get dangerously close to the opposite bank. The 2nd Mate phoned the engine control room, the Chief Engineer answered him asking him what he wanted. The 2nd mate told the Chief that the engine control was not responding to the stop engine command, to which the Chief Engineer replied "well what do you want me to do", "stop the bloody thing" was the 2nd Mates reply. The Chief Engineer quickly took over control of the engines from the bridge to the engine control room and stopped the engine. By this time things were getting very scary with the opposite side of the river approaching quite rapidly, so it was emergency full ahead to stop the sternway and pilot calling for extra tugs. The sternway was halted before we grounded and the bloody ship then started rapidly gaining headway. Hard a starboard was the order given to me on the wheel as we started to get a bit to close for comfort to the jetty. By this time we had 4 tugs on us all pushing like crazy to get us round and clear the jetty, which we managed to do by some 20/30 metres (the focsle crew were making ready to evacuate the focsle at this time). Eventually got everything under control and safely berthed but there were a lot of brown trouser moments and we never used the bridge control again when berthing.
rgds
JA

[vic mcclymont]

Hi John, that's when you find that adrenalin is coloured brown.
Regards
Vic

[John Arton]

Vic
I can remember that incident as if it was yesterday. As cadet I always did the steering under pilotage as the Captain thought that the Spanish A.B.'s would not understand helm orders spoken in English. The Captain in the incident was vertically challenged and his normal voice was a high, squeaky thing and when he got stressed (which he often did) his words became mangled. The 2nd Mate was a pretty laid back guy who rarely swore but when the Chief Engineer asked him what he wanted him to do about the not responding engine order, his reply contained a number of words I had not heard before. During all this commotion we had the Liverpool pilot constantly demanding what was going on then he was shouting into the VHF demanding any and all tugs to immediately attend.
A very frantic time, seems like it took ages as, apart from the shouting, everything seemed to be happening in slow motion but probably only lasted about a max. of 10.
rgds
JA