Wadden container disaster– a quarter of the cargo is still at sea

[Old Harry]

[h=1]Careful as you go lads, MSC should be forced to clear up a mess of their own making, why bother with lashings for such a short trip, after all whats the worst that could happen

[Some 800 tonnes of freight which fell overboard from a container ship in the Wadden Sea during bad weather in January has still not been recovered, infrastructure minister Cora van Nieuwenhuizen has told MPs. The MSC Zoe lost 342 containers of goods, leading to a massive clean-up operation as plastic, toys and machinery were washed up on the shores of the Wadden Islands. In total, 299 containers have been salvaged at a cost of €35m so far, with the ship’s owner picking up the bill. The minister said further efforts to use boats and divers to recover the goods would be pointless because the items have been spread over such a large area. Each search costs 2.5 litres of diesel for every kilo of recovered waste, the minister said in her briefing. The MSC Zoe is one of the biggest freighters in the world and can carry 19,000 containers in total. It was heading from Portugal to Bremerhaven in Germany when the containers came loose in high seas. The beach clean-up operation will last until mid 2020 and beyond if necessary, the minister said. The coastline of the Wadden island of Schiermonnikoog, for example, remains polluted with plastic beading, and new waste continues to wash up every day.][/h]
[FONT=&quot]Read more at DutchNews.nl:[/FONT]

 

[Kukri]

It wasn't MSC's finest hour.

Strictly speaking it isn't MSC who are picking up the bill; it's the West of England Shipowners Protection and Indemnity Association .

MSC did promise to pick up all the cargo but they have understandably changed their mind.

This is quite a good article but it doesn't seem to have been proof read as it made its way from German to English:

https://www.maritime-executive.com/editorials/an-analysis-of-msc-zoe-s-container-loss

 

[pvb]

"The facts I have described, at least in broad terms, show that in the case of MSC Zoe, when cruising with wind and waves abaft beam at low/ medium speed and wave heights of up to eight meters and an angel of encounter from port 0° to 90°, there is a real danger the ship may be exposed to extreme roll angles, which lead to enormous centrifugal forces, especially in the high container tiers on deck. This may lead to container damage or loss of containers caused by broken lashing rods / turnbuckle or twistlocks when the effecting forces exceed many times over the safety force."

Doesn't that suggest that the "safety force", presumably the safe working load of the lashings/twistlocks, is too low?

 

[johnalison]

As well as being appalled that a ship can shed its load in home waters, I am resolved to introduce the phrase 'parametric rolling' into my cruising inventory the next time the going gets rough.

 

[Kukri]

"The facts I have described, at least in broad terms, show that in the case of MSC Zoe, when cruising with wind and waves abaft beam at low/ medium speed and wave heights of up to eight meters and an angel of encounter from port 0° to 90°, there is a real danger the ship may be exposed to extreme roll angles, which lead to enormous centrifugal forces, especially in the high container tiers on deck. This may lead to container damage or loss of containers caused by broken lashing rods / turnbuckle or twistlocks when the effecting forces exceed many times over the safety force."

Doesn't that suggest that the "safety force", presumably the safe working load of the lashings/twistlocks, is too low?

At this point we have to consider if it is practical to increase the strength of the lashing system. Given that the twist locks are fully automatic (no space left to beef them up!) and the lashing rods are already as heavy as a man can safely handle, whilst both depend on the strength of the corner castings, I don’t think we can increase the strength of the lashings.

What we can do is either cut out the two top tiers (in real life because of the way stows are arranged we would be losing more than that) or alter course to avoid taking the seas on the quarter or broad on the bow, maybe.

 

[pvb]

At this point we have to consider if it is practical to increase the strength of the lashing system. Given that the twist locks are fully automatic (no space left to beef them up!) and the lashing rods are already as heavy as a man can safely handle, whilst both depend on the strength of the corner castings, I don’t think we can increase the strength of the lashings.

What we can do is either cut out the two top tiers (in real life because of the way stows are arranged we would be losing more than that) or alter course to avoid taking the seas on the quarter or broad on the bow, maybe.

OK, reducing the height of the stacks would be a starting point, but is altering course a real option? These ships are out on passage for many days and have tightly-scheduled arrival times and berthing windows.

 

[Old Harry]

"The facts I have described, at least in broad terms, show that in the case of MSC Zoe, when cruising with wind and waves abaft beam at low/ medium speed and wave heights of up to eight meters and an angel of encounter from port 0° to 90°, there is a real danger the ship may be exposed to extreme roll angles, which lead to enormous centrifugal forces, especially in the high container tiers on deck. This may lead to container damage or loss of containers caused by broken lashing rods / turnbuckle or twistlocks when the effecting forces exceed many times over the safety force."

Doesn't that suggest that the "safety force", presumably the safe working load of the lashings/twistlocks, is too low?

Its your local area have you ever seen 8m waves

 

[Kukri]

OK, reducing the height of the stacks would be a starting point, but is altering course a real option? These ships are out on passage for many days and have tightly-scheduled arrival times and berthing windows.

The period of encounter can be varied in one or both of two ways - by altering course and / or by changing speed. There is a sort of built in reluctance to do either of these things but either can be done with only a small effect on the ETA. These days we are no longer charging around the place desperately to get the berth as we were between 2004 and 2008. The ships I run are operating between 12 and 14 knots now as opposed to 24.5 knots then. Of course we can still open the taps to make a Suez convoy or outrun a suspected pirate. A 30 degree a/c should do the trick and adds very little to the track.

 

[Kukri]

Its your local area have you ever seen 8m waves

I have sat out a gale on the Broad Fourteens which was said to be F 9 and even in this Yachtsman’s fevered imagination the seas were not 8 metres. But I suppose it might be possible.

 

[bluerm166]

Old as this is it drew attention because of the unliklihood of such a large draught ship passing through the shallow Wadden sea and indeed it didn't as Dutch News should have known.The professional analysis obviously gets it right and confirms that the debris would have landed on the western/outer side of the islands.

 

[johnalison]

Old as this is it drew attention because of the unliklihood of such a large draught ship passing through the shallow Wadden sea and indeed it didn't as Dutch News should have known.The professional analysis obviously gets it right and confirms that the debris would have landed on the western/outer side of the islands.

The thought of a container ship in the Waddensee sea entertained me too, but the flood tide in the gats can be quite strong, around three knots in places, so I can believe that a proportion of flotsam would get inside the islands.

 

[Portland Billy]

I worry about the qualifications and experience of some ship's senior officers, and their decision making. What happened to the practise of good seamanship which was drilled into us during my time at sea?
Altering course or even heaving to was the decision of the Master and not dependent on schedule. Surely it is still the same today!

 

[Old Harry]

I worry about the qualifications and experience of some ship's senior officers, and their decision making. What happened to the practise of good seamanship which was drilled into us during my time at sea?
Altering course or even heaving to was the decision of the Master and not dependent on schedule. Surely it is still the same today!

I think you will find that for the short trip Antwerp > Europoort, lashings were not fully deployed, and containers overboard was the resuly

 

[LittleSister]

How many containers eventually turn up in the Waddensee they'll just have to Waitansee!

(I'll get my coat. . .)

 

[Kukri]

This is good reading on the subject of container stow failures in general - it doesn’t mention this case but it’s applicable.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5e1dc891ed915d7c7c397896/2020-2-CMACGMGWashington.pdf