N. Sea Collision

Not being a tanker man at heart Johnny, but during my year or so being crash coursed by j.i.jacobs learned from others that the most vulnerable time on a tanker was between cargoes when tank cleaning the whole exercise was to gas free every tank after carriage of a cargo. The two tankers I was on had 26 tanks plus 4 paraffin tanks in a seperate pump room forward . Between cargoes and before being declared gas free a tanker was the next thing to a floating bomb. Jet A1 and Jet A2 were quite common to carry or aero fuel to the layman were quite common to carry on a products carrier, Naptha which I carried twice both times a full load to Japan from Banger Mashur I think was again a more risky cargo. These were the days however where inverted ships were rare , today usually the risk is much less than it used to be. if I was on a tanker today however and had the choice , I would rather be on the loaded one. My choice only. JS

She is a light oils and chemicals tanker with maybe up to thirty 'parcels' tanks. She was only partially loaded. I was a junior/4/e on 'Chemical Explorer' for six months away back in 1973. At that time she was the largest parcels tanker in service and had thirty three separate tanks. Carried ethyl alcohol, styrene, vinyl monomers, liquid caustic, naptha, etc.etc. A loading nightmare as adjoining tanks had to be compatible. Double hull? No chance.

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Originally Posted by j.sabourn

Not being a tanker man at heart Johnny, but during my year or so being crash coursed by j.i.jacobs learned from others that the most vulnerable time on a tanker was between cargoes when tank cleaning the whole exercise was to gas free every tank after carriage of a cargo. The two tankers I was on had 26 tanks plus 4 paraffin tanks in a seperate pump room forward . Between cargoes and before being declared gas free a tanker was the next thing to a floating bomb. Jet A1 and Jet A2 were quite common to carry or aero fuel to the layman were quite common to carry on a products carrier, Naptha which I carried twice both times a full load to Japan from Banger Mashur I think was again a more risky cargo. These were the days however where inverted ships were rare , today usually the risk is much less than it used to be. if I was on a tanker today however and had the choice , I would rather be on the loaded one. My choice only. JS

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I got a stark reminder of what an explosion can do in 1968, I saw the remnants of the British Crown which had blown up two years earlier when loading cargo. I heard it was caused by a spark from a cabin fan up midships but dont know how true that was, but do recall the miships accommodation was destroyed, just a rusty hulk sitting there.

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Originally Posted by James Curry

Sadly yes looks as one crew member has lost his life, they have called off the search. North Sea still pretty cold this time of year.

The container ship was carrying 12/15 containers containing Sodium Cyanide. It is toxic but not as bad as being mentioned in the media. Nasty stuff but the media always likes to be doom and gloom.

The Solong was registered in Maderia another FOC state a lot of EU countries use this flag. Think it is Dutch or German owned.

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I have noticed a lot more Portugese flagged vessels up and down the coast in recent years. I was talking to a guy from Pritchards recently who have British flag vessels and I believe one Maltese flag to satisfy the charter requirements for the cargo to be carried in EU rgistered vessel.

If you look on the likes of vessel finder or any marine traffic website it patently obvious that the container ship ran full tilt into the anchored tanker. The question has to be how come a vessel that was a regular runner up and down the u.K coast failed to alter course given all the modern navigation aids, radar, A.I.S, ECDIS etc plus there is a bridge alarm system which works on motion sensors to sound a loud alarm should it detect lack of movement in the wheelhouse, indicating either watch keeper is absent or asleep. The voyage data recorder will give the investigation team a full account of the lead up to the collision.
Rgds
J.A

Skipper of the container boat's been nicked according to news reports, I suppose that was on the cards anyway.
Different statements coming out too, one about nobody seen on the bridge, why would there be nobody on the bridge?

Hi Johnny.
My have been siesta time.
But seriously was there no one on the bridge? was that confirmed? I did think at first that maybe the tanker hadn't raised the anchor balls, and the Portuguese thought she was moving, just a thought, as that looks unlikely with the way she hit her at full speed.
I spent a lot of time on tankers and had a few scares, but most of the crews where very careful, but some were not, like the steward smoking in his cabin drunk. when discharging crude in Swansea and he burned to death in his cabin, the fire was put out with no damage to the ship/ When cleaning tanks I always volunteered to do the steering, 9 or ten hours at the wheel except for meal times.
Des

Got caught short Johnny ? As John says if the underway vessel was one of these super modern ships with a black box like an aircraft , all should be revealed. I have never sailed on such modern ships ,every thing had to be done the hard way , I was and still am Not an advocate of reduced manning , reduced manning to me has to assume a vessel in prime working order ,and how Many shipowners did you sail with that would comply with this ? Most of my time when undergoing surveys with a ministry inspector was spent apologising for jobs not done by the shipowner and that was British ships I wouldn’t bore you with the foreign ones who failed to comply. I was 12 years as mate 6 British and 6 foreign so have a very good idea of the difference in attitudes between the two. A ship can pass a survey with flying colours but the next survey maybe a year away and a lot can happen in between. Cheers JS……..

#17. The closest I came to AI ( artificial intelligence) on a ship Des ,was a jury rigged alarm in the masters cabin telling, where if the OOW didn’t push a button every half hour would wake up the skipper. Suppose it kept the skipper awake most times in any case just waiting and hoping it didn’t go off and he had to go and wake the watch keeper up. Cheers JS.

According to the latest news there was no Cyanide on board.
But looking at the chart of where the two ships were, the tanker at anchor and the cargo ship on the move one has to ask the question, who was on look out.
Blind Freddy could have surely seen the tanker at that distance even at night.