How does a tanker run aground on a reef

[Frogmogman]

There are various types of dedicated oil skimmer boats such as this -
Oil Spill Response | Vessels | Filterbelt Skimmer | Elastec

And a range of skimmers -
Different Types Of Oil Skimmers | Oil Skimming Equipment

What baffles me is the apparent apathy here - the ship went up on the reef on the 25th July - ample time to get even basic supplies like oil containment booms sent in. If a boom had been laid in the lagoon behind the reef it would have hopefully caught most of the oil seeping from the vessel.
Equally they have had ample time to get a boat with skimmers sent in (maybe from South Africa?).

Even our tiny island (which is smaller than Mauritius) has a dedicated oil spill response vessel, built by Alnmaritec in Northumberland 10 years ago -
ALN 096 ‘Responder 1’
Apart from a very long floating boom on a huge reel, she also has outrigger type arms for spraying dispersant.

View attachment 96706

That's a mighty fine looking vessel.

I wonder who designed that ?

 

[Bajansailor]

so why are we not seeing any of those there trying to recover as much as the floating oil as possible as quick as possible?

Exactly - this is what baffles me.. There was ample time to get boats, booms, skimmers, dispersants and technical know how sent in.
I think the ship was up on the reef for almost 2 weeks before her tank(s) ruptured.

That's a mighty fine looking vessel.

I wonder who designed that ?

She was designed in-house by the lads at Alnmaritec, and I had a bit of input in the design - it gradually evolved into what is shown in the photo above (I think that this was the Mark V version). She does remind me of a large Tonka toy (remember those Tonka toy cars? A beach buggy type was the classic that I remember), and she is very versatile.
Our National Oil Company decided 11 years ago that they needed an oil spill response vessel to be available immediately if they had a spill at the Oistins anchorage (at the southern end of the island) when they were 'back-loading' crude oil (we produce a small amount of oil here) on to a tanker, after first discharging refined product like petrol, diesel and aviation fuel.
If they did have a spill, the main tourism beaches are immediately to the west (ie to leeward) of the tanker anchorage, and an oil spill
would be catastrophic for our tourism business.
I think it would be very prudent if other small island states followed our example - especially so when you have pristine coral reefs and shorelines that are very vulnerable to even a small oil spill.

 

[LittleSister]

Grounded carrier off Mauritius breaks apart risking ecological disaster

 

[Frogmogman]

She was designed in-house by the lads at Alnmaritec, and I had a bit of input in the design - it gradually evolved into what is shown in the photo above (I think that this was the Mark V version).

Aha. I thought that was your work

Still looks the business.

 

[ProMariner]

The global shipping race to the bottom continues. Keep making the crews cheaper / worse / smaller, gravitate towards the worst flags, and keep cutting corners, till it's only sensible to replace them with computers. Poor planet, it doesn't stand a chance.

 

[westhinder]

Wakashio Deviated From Shipping Lane Before Mauritius Grounding

 

[Kukri]

“It was not immediately clear why the ship appeared to deviate from its course. Tracking data for other cargo vessels passing close to Mauritius recently show them all sticking to the shipping lane.”

Well, I will offer a guess. She closed Mauritius so that those on board could get a cellphone connection to call their families.

WHAT NONE OF YOU ARMCHAIR EXPERTS HAVE BOTHERED TO THINK ABOUT BEFORE WITTERING ON ABOUT CHEAP INCOMPETENT CREWS (this is Mitsui OSK Line - the ship has an excellent Port State Control record and Pilots who know the ship speak highly of her - but you wouldn’t bother to check, would you?) IS THAT HER CREW, LIKE MOST DEEP SEA MERCHANT SEAMEN, ARE OVERDUE FOR LEAVE AND THANKS TO PEOPLE LIKE YOU THEY ARE TRAPPED ON BOARD.

If I used any of the terms which come to my mind to describe you spoiled selfish entitled little ...... I would be banned.

But frankly, given the company, do I want to be here anyway ????????

 

[Frogmogman]

I have every sympathy for professional seafarers.

It's still not a great excuse for running a ship onto a reef and causing an environmental disaster.

 

[cherod]

AIS did not show a deviation from course , local authorities are said to have been trying to contact without success , two officers reported arrested ,, mmmmm

 

[LittleSister]

Good aerial pic of the wreck here -

20 photographs of the week

 

[Buck Turgidson]

“It was not immediately clear why the ship appeared to deviate from its course. Tracking data for other cargo vessels passing close to Mauritius recently show them all sticking to the shipping lane.”

Well, I will offer a guess. She closed Mauritius so that those on board could get a cellphone connection to call their families.

WHAT NONE OF YOU ARMCHAIR EXPERTS HAVE BOTHERED TO THINK ABOUT BEFORE WITTERING ON ABOUT CHEAP INCOMPETENT CREWS (this is Mitsui OSK Line - the ship has an excellent Port State Control record and Pilots who know the ship speak highly of her - but you wouldn’t bother to check, would you?) IS THAT HER CREW, LIKE MOST DEEP SEA MERCHANT SEAMEN, ARE OVERDUE FOR LEAVE AND THANKS TO PEOPLE LIKE YOU THEY ARE TRAPPED ON BOARD.

If I used any of the terms which come to my mind to describe you spoiled selfish entitled little ...... I would be banned.

But frankly, given the company, do I want to be here anyway ????????

Horse shit!

Many of us are isolated in various places unable to see our friends or family. Your cellphone reception theory is GROSS INCOMPETENCE as by failing to navigate safely while attempting to get the signal a ship has been lost and an environmental disaster caused.

I can only guess you have some skin in the game.

 

[Zing]

“It was not immediately clear why the ship appeared to deviate from its course. Tracking data for other cargo vessels passing close to Mauritius recently show them all sticking to the shipping lane.”

Well, I will offer a guess. She closed Mauritius so that those on board could get a cellphone connection to call their families.

WHAT NONE OF YOU ARMCHAIR EXPERTS HAVE BOTHERED TO THINK ABOUT BEFORE WITTERING ON ABOUT CHEAP INCOMPETENT CREWS (this is Mitsui OSK Line - the ship has an excellent Port State Control record and Pilots who know the ship speak highly of her - but you wouldn’t bother to check, would you?) IS THAT HER CREW, LIKE MOST DEEP SEA MERCHANT SEAMEN, ARE OVERDUE FOR LEAVE AND THANKS TO PEOPLE LIKE YOU THEY ARE TRAPPED ON BOARD.

If I used any of the terms which come to my mind to describe you spoiled selfish entitled little ...... I would be banned.

But frankly, given the company, do I want to be here anyway ????????

You are defending the indefensible.

 

[Stemar]

In the absence of an equipment failure, Kukri's hypothesis is reasonable, perhaps the most likely. However, while it may explain, it certainly doesn't justify, any more than the reasons for Costa Concordia's deviation from a safe course justified it. I have every sympathy for crews stuck on ships a long way from home, but it behoves the officers to take special care if they deviate from normal shipping lanes for any reason. "I didn't have the right charts" OK, so why did you venture off the known safe route? "My plotter didn't show the reef" Why didn't you zoom in to a suitable scale? In either case, your P45 will be waiting when you come out of jail, though the latter case does beg the question why something dangerous isn't shown, and some hard questions should be asked about zooming algorithms. So what if the reef can't be shown accurately at small scale, at least you should be able to see that something's there. Not to be used for navigation on the startup screen is a cop-out and should be allowed to absolve the producers of, maybe not quite nothing, but very little.

In any case, nothing here is any more than speculation. We may find out what happened and why when the report comes out, or we may not. I have a tad less faith in the Panamanian and Mauritian authorities than I do in MAIB.

 

[tillergirl]

This week's notices:

4277(P)/2020 INDIAN OCEAN - Mauritius - Depths.
Source: ENC IN52530A
(SEP: 2020000168505 - 234531).
1. Extensive changes to depths have taken place off the east coast of Mauritius between position 20° 14´·00S., 57° 52´·50E.
and position 20° 30´·00S., 57° 41´·50E. .
2. In certain areas, specifically in the approaches to Grand Port Northern Entrance, the 10m, 20m and 30m contours extend
up to 1NM further seaward than charted.
3. The most significant depths are as follows:
Depth (m) Position
15·8 20° 15´·11S., 57° 49´·71E.
7·9 20° 16´·27S., 57° 50´·02E.
12 20° 16´·80S., 57° 50´·55E.
15·9 20° 17´·85S., 57° 51´·24E.
27 20° 18´·25S., 57° 52´·29E.
12·1 20° 18´·23S., 57° 50´·95E.
10 20° 19´·13S., 57° 50´·60E.
23·5 20° 19´·83S., 57° 51´·45E.
14·6 20° 20´·06S., 57° 50´·67E.
15·1 20° 20´·71S., 57° 50´·46E.
16·2 20° 21´·70S., 57° 49´·57E.
25 20° 26´·78S., 57° 45´·09E.
2. Mariners are advised to navigate with caution in the area.
3. These and other changes will be included in the next New Edition of Charts IN203 and 1470.
(WGS84 DATUM)
Charts affected - 1470 (INT 7325) - IN 203 (INT 7319)

 

[Stemar]

I wonder when the last survey for the area was. There are plenty of places where it was with a lead line and a sailing ship.

 

[tillergirl]

I would reckon almost never surveyed. No shipping goes round that side, indeed little leisure traffic goes outside the lagoon that side. It would be the last place to spend money there. The Coastguard priority would be to find the fuel for their aircraft to protect the EEZ (i.e. Tuna fishing) and the survey the harbour area (Port Louis).

 

[Pirx]

When I was attempting to learn to fly one of the more memorable and useful sayings was:

"Aviate, navigate, communicate ..... " those come first, in that order, everything else is secondary.

The nautical equivalent is obvious, and this crew didn't manage to do any of it ...........

 

[Frogmogman]

I wonder when the last survey for the area was. There are plenty of places where it was with a lead line and a sailing ship.

There's something rather lovely about reading on a chart (such as I recall on a chart of St Lucia) "From the original survey by HMS Sparrowhawk 1888", or indeed one I noticed when sailing in Southern Turkey which had been surveyed by none other than Sir Francis Beaufort on HMS Frederickstein in 1811-12.

 

[Kukri]

When I was attempting to learn to fly one of the more memorable and useful sayings was:

"Aviate, navigate, communicate ..... " those come first, in that order, everything else is secondary.

The nautical equivalent is obvious, and this crew didn't manage to do any of it ...........

Do please explain the obvious nautical equivalent.

 

[Pirx]

For Kukri only:

Aviate = Seamanship, operate boat, sail safely, use wheel and engine room telegraph sensibly ( or poke buttons if modern ).
Navigate = Navigate. Make a passage plan, look at chart, look out of window, watch radar and/or plotter.
Communicate = Communicate. Turn the radio on, listen to what it says, tell people what you are doing.