MV Arvin breaks in two while at anchor.

Wow :oops:

And that's by no means the first of such accidents. Looks like an old vessel to me and as far as I know similar vessels have suffered similar fates in the Great Lakes.

Kukri and Frank Holden will no doubt be along to explain.

Hopefully all crew were safe
 
OK, not my ideal sea state for crossing the Channel, but I've been out in worse. I'm going to speculate on age, poor design and metal fatigue - probably a bit of all three, but I don't see how 1 & 3 make that happen without a bit of 2, plus, finally, just the wrong wavelength to build up an oscillation in the ship.
 
Nice clear radio protocol too...
'Mayday mayday, my vessel is broken!'
I understand that some of the crew lost their lives, RIP.

We once took on delivery of a 1970's Russian ship, which at some point had broken in the middle, and been crudely welded together again. The galley/mess was right aft in the counter, and when the bows hit a wave, the counter would bounce up and fling our plates off the table. There are some dodgy ships around! Stemar is right with his 1,2 and 3, plus owners and agents with nice insurance policies, who don't care if you drown..
 
Too much watching youtube in lockdown has given me a somewhat Pavlovian response to hearing Russian and anticipating an imminent disaster. Pavlov would be proud.
For me it's "Allahu Akbar" being repeated louder and louder..
 
A bit more information. This is the Arvin and belonged to the Ukranian company Arvin Shipping Ltd. She sank off Turkey's Black Sea coast whilst at anchor sheltering from a storm. This was a river-sea cargo vessel and its structrual strength is not strong enough to be fully seaworthy as it is too long and narrow. Reports vary but up to 4 crew members died and at least 6 were saved.
 
Not knowing anything about the ship, I wonder if it was one of these they have increased the capacity by cutting and fitting an extra section in.
I know the North Sea Ferries operating from Hull did this. But retained their integrity.
 
A bit more information. This is the Arvin and belonged to the Ukranian company Arvin Shipping Ltd. She sank off Turkey's Black Sea coast whilst at anchor sheltering from a storm. This was a river-sea cargo vessel and its structrual strength is not strong enough to be fully seaworthy as it is too long and narrow. Reports vary but up to 4 crew members died and at least 6 were saved.

That footage was when at anchor!!??
 
Some more info and photos of Arvin on her Marinetraffic page.
ARVIN (General Cargo) Registered in Palau - Vessel details, Current position and Voyage information - IMO 8874316, MMSI 511315000, Call Sign T8A2278:

Bear in mind that this vessel was 46 years old - and what are the odds that during this time she has suffered considerable wastage of her steel structure, especially in the double bottom tanks?
When was the last time (if ever) a thorough hull survey was carried out, with full ultrasound thickness determinations on the structure?
She was probably strong enough to cope with the sea conditions shown in the video when she was built, but 46 years is a long time in the life of a ship, especially if maintenance has been sub-standard along the way..

@Kukri posted on his Facebook page about this - I tagged him in case he didn't see this thread.
 
My elder son (day job, watchkeeping deck officer on bulk carriers) found a longer version of the video and some video taken by other ships in the anchorage.

The general alarm can be heard for the first time 3 minutes and 30 seconds after the break. He notes that the men on the bridge can be seen to be wearing immersion suits. He also notes that in one of the videos taken from a ship to starboard of the “Arvin” as she sinks one can just glimpse their MOB boat pulling away from their side - good response.

The noise on board as the double bottom tanks began to collapse must have been pretty loud.

What would “normally” happen on a ship in a serious predicament is that the general alarm would be sounded and the crew mustered in the wheelhouse. It’s easy to count people that way.

This may have been done here, before the video clip starts. It may be that the whole crew had been mustered and had put on their immersion suits, and that lives were lost in abandoning the ship. Or they may not have been mustered and they drowned below decks. We don’t know. But I prefer to think they were mustered and they died trying to abandon ship.

Cargo was 2,800 tons of urea. So she was well within her load line and with quite a “good” (in terms of stresses on the ship’s structure) cargo.

There is nothing inherently wrong with river sea ships in the coasting trades. We see them all the time in Britain’s small ports. But 46 years old....
 
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Or they may not have been mustered and they drowned below decks. We don’t know. But I prefer to think they were mustered and they died trying to abandon ship.
I'd prefer to think that too. But, given the quality of the mayday, I ha' me doots. It doesn't seem as though the sea state is so bad that, if any can get into the lifeboat and get away, the others shouldn't.
 
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