Polar Ship Sir David Attenborough

[Bill Morrison]

I have just seen this in the news today. Lifeboat falls off polar ship Sir David Attenborough in an accident off Mull in 4th March 2021, poor maintenance to blame!!

https://www.bbc.co.uk./news/uk-scotl...-west-67297321

[Tony Taylor]

I have just seen this in the news today. Lifeboat falls off polar ship Sir David Attenborough in an accident off Mull in 4th March 2021, poor maintenance to blame!!

https://www.bbc.co.uk./news/uk-scotl...-west-67297321

"Also, the vessel's operator had suspended maintenance of critical equipment"

Surely the people sailing the vessel should be responsible for safety equipment maintenance? Lifeboat fabric maintenance was usually done by 3rd mate in my outfit, engine looked after by 4th eng.

[Ivan Cloherty]

"Also, the vessel's operator had suspended maintenance of critical equipment"

Surely the people sailing the vessel should be responsible for safety equipment maintenance? Lifeboat fabric maintenance was usually done by 3rd mate in my outfit, engine looked after by 4th eng.

In my outfit usually done by cadets essentially to see if the barley-sugar and connie-onnie were out of date. One of the better tasks we were given, better than bilge diving, strum boxes or under steam winch bedplates

[James Curry]

The ship was handed over by the builders on the 27th November 2020 the accident happened on the 4th of March 2021. So the vessel was in service 3 months 1 week and the outcome of the inquiry was poor maintenance? By who though. Yes the crew will no doubt take the rap.
Perhaps the builder also failed to maintain vital equipment while the vessel was in their charge.
Given the vessel cost £200 million and was £35 million over budget.
She was also nearly two years late on delivery date.

Findings
Investigators said a locking device on a crane holding the lifeboat was badly corroded and did not work properly. Badly corroded ?within 3 months of the vessels delivery.

Sounds like a whitewash , let's make sure the crew take the rap and nothing comes back on the yard.

I would be very surprised if the officers and crew onboard were a bunch of cadets right out of Fleetwood nautical college.
The responsibilty for the Lifeboat boat lauching /recovery gear has become the responsibilty of the Chief Engineer. This came about by the rash of lifeboat accidents in recent years

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Posted this before. While in Sydney sheltering from a storm we had lifeboat drill, one of the davits collapsed; rust inhibited, the boat was dropped into the Harbour the two blokes survived any damage. . But this was an old ship where the Davits had been missed in survey, and certainly not worth 200 million pounds, more like $500
DEs

[Colin Wood]

While master on the mv"Sandys River" owned and operated by Moller of London and Honk Kong, we were doing a refit in Hong Kong and one of the owners, I think was E B Moller was on board supervising repairs. We were on the top of engine room with chief Eng, Technical super and repair manager when my 3 year old son appeared. I tried to tell him to go to his mother and have his bath but he kept saying Daddy, I have found a hole. Owner said, Captain, if he has found a hole show us son. He yhen led us to the starboard life boat and pointed to the pad under the after davut. Sure enough there was a hole, owner just looked up and "fix it'.

[John Arton]

In this day and age most of the routine maintenance tasks and checks on SOLAS equipment are farmed out to specialist outfits after the introduction of ISM.
Rgds
J.A

[J Gowers]

A locking device rusted through in 3 months and blamed on maintenance I spent over 45 years at sea and on rigs and never saw a brand new piece of equipment rust through that quickly. I am supposing that when you take over a ship or rig from the builders it is classed as brand new with the appropriate rust prevention applied (paint). Got to be a fault of the builders.