Mary weston

[Roland Grard]

Good day all,

I am new on this forum, have been fond of ships for decades and started my career at sea before switching to the shore side of the maritime industry. Fact that part of my family is from Ushant is the most obvious reason for my interest in shipping matters.

I recently found out that Wreck Reports are available on the internet for British ships, however I have not been able to find the one covering the tragic loss of coaster MARY WESTON on the river Seine on 24th August 1978. This vessel capsized while being overtaken by another larger ship, the five crew members were all lost, the river pilot survived. On the newspaper articles dating that period I have the hull of the vessel is intact.

The vessel was later salvaged and taken over by a Finish owner, the former MARY WESTON was scrapped at Gadani in 2010.

I would appreciate to know the cause(s) of this terrible accident, copy of the investigation report would be much welcome together with any information available from the forum members.

Roland

[Doc Vernon]

Hello Roland
Thanks for joining and hope you will enjoy out site! Lots to read and see herte just browse away!

I hope these will assist in some way?
Cheers

Capture M W.JPG
Capture M W 1.JPG
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Capture M W 3.JPGCapture MW 4.JPG

[Doc Vernon]

Continued

Capture MW22.JPG

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MARY WESTON (2).jpg

later owned by Finish Company

Bror Husells Rederier

as Marygard 1981

[Roland Grard]

Hello Doc,

Many thanks for your feedback, the weekly French maritime newspaper "Le Marin" provides similar information. What I cannot figure out is the cause for the capsize, Mary Weston loaded a full cargo of wheat at Rouen, she was not overloaded and I suspect cargo was loaded up or near to the hatch coaming (correct me if I am wrong). Her hull upon salvage shows no damage meaning water ingress through her plating is not an option. When I was doing my nautical studies later at Le Havre, I recall being told the capesizing was a consequence of a "suction" effect when a larger ship is overtaking another one in limited water dephts like in a river. I do appreciate that this suction effect can lead to collision but I really fail to understand that it could cause such a loss of stability leading to capsizing ...

Roland

[Roland Grard]

Thank you Josh, we do also have same in France, attached are a few photos from a Ropner vessel which run aground at Ushant in 1916, she was named Ashby, two members of her crew were lost including her Master Captain Green.

Roland

[j.sabourn]

#4... not knowing how she was loaded, most would say her loss of stability was due to the free surface affect of the grain. Any ship loaded with grain does not have a large GM therefore today the grain regulations are so tight we are talking about GMs in inches. For a ship today to go with slack holds is a no no , unless the surface of the grain is bagged off to a certain height. Does aonyme know if this was done in this case ? JWS.