Waverley has done it again.

[RunAgroundHard]

MCA MAIB "Report on the investigation of the contact made by the paddle steamer Waverley with Brodick pier, Isle of Arran, Scotland on 3 September 2020"

Engine stalled at TDC and could not be reversed in sufficient time to slow the vessel down. There is a steam line to kick it over if that happens but crew training, competency and procedures were not in place to do that.

Contact with pier by paddle steamer Waverley

 

[Thistle]

MCA MAIB "Report on the investigation of the contact made by the paddle steamer Waverley with Brodick pier, Isle of Arran, Scotland on 3 September 2020"

Engine stalled at TDC and could not be reversed in sufficient time to slow the vessel down. There is a steam line to kick it over if that happens but crew training, competency and procedures were not in place to do that.

Contact with pier by paddle steamer Waverley

Over 4 years to produce a report???!!!!

 

[ylop]

Over 4 years to produce a report???!!!!

Crazy - especially since on a skim read the substance of the report was established before the had even reached dry dock for repair!

 

[dunedin]

Over 4 years to produce a report???!!!!

MAIB issues with staff training, competency and procedures?

 

[RivalRedwing]

Over 4 years to produce a report???!!!!

consultant gravy train in full working order....

 

[oldmanofthehills]

All UK gov departments are chronically understaffed - and the number of problems and incident needing investigating at least by us citizens claim is increasing

As the primary function of MAIB is to enable reduction of risk and the cause was well known 4 years ago it was hardly worth bumping so more vital report such as fisherman death just to get it officially closed out

 

[ylop]

All UK gov departments are chronically understaffed - and the number of problems and incident needing investigating at least by us citizens claim is increasing

Are they? I've no idea of MAIB's workload is increasing or not. It would seem a bit surprising if it was - are there more accidents now than when it was set up? Does that imply that the findings aren't having a positive future preventative outcome? In which case - do we actually need the MAIB at all? Just send in police/MCA to prosecute - if we aren't gaining from the "learn lessons not assign blame" approach.

As the primary function of MAIB is to enable reduction of risk and the cause was well known 4 years ago it was hardly worth bumping so more vital report such as fisherman death just to get it officially closed out

Why bother producing a report at all. The "mechanical cause" could have been a flyer which might have been relevant to other steam vessels, but surely there are lessons to learn around "cultural cause" which are about training and understanding of risk as personnel change, especially during periods of downtime etc. 20 yrs ago they used to do preliminary investigations, I'm not sure if they've stopped doing those.

I did wonder if there were civil proceedings by some of the injured still outstanding and they wanted them resolved first?

 

[oldmanofthehills]

Are they? I've no idea of MAIB's workload is increasing or not. It would seem a bit surprising if it was - are there more accidents now than when it was set up? Does that imply that the findings aren't having a positive future preventative outcome? In which case - do we actually need the MAIB at all? Just send in police/MCA to prosecute - if we aren't gaining from the "learn lessons not assign blame" approach.

Why bother producing a report at all. The "mechanical cause" could have been a flyer which might have been relevant to other steam vessels, but surely there are lessons to learn around "cultural cause" which are about training and understanding of risk as personnel change, especially during periods of downtime etc. 20 yrs ago they used to do preliminary investigations, I'm not sure if they've stopped doing those.

I did wonder if there were civil proceedings by some of the injured still outstanding and they wanted them resolved first?

Perhaps MAIB were just dotting the i and crossing the T in case accident was actually due to some intricate unknown? More likely the official report reminds Waverley operators that they must better train their staff because if it happens ever again the Courts will dump them in deep doo doo. I used to work in safety and its amazing how some folk think that a given situation could never happen again, and never on their watch

 

[Snowgoose-1]

consultant gravy train in full working order....

It needs a Trump to sort that lot out.

 

[Mark-1]

Perhaps MAIB were just dotting the i and crossing the T in case accident was actually due to some intricate unknown?

23 injured passengers and crew makes it quite a significant accident. Even if the cause was obvious it would rightly or wrongly be pretty difficult for the MAIB to ignore.

Waverley, in a perfectly a normal docking operation can randomly lose all power in a way that takes time to sort out. So the real lesson is that Waverley is a bad design. But since nobody will be making another Waverley it probably doesn't matter.

 

[DreadShips]

I'm surprised it took quite so long to publish, although having read the report a few times to produce a summary of it I get the impression the MAIB didn't really know what to make of Waverley. To take just one example, usually they'd want to talk to the engine builders about a large number of matters to do with this incident - good luck doing that without holding a séance! At another point they mention that most of the relevant reference material was published in the 19th century.

The unique handling of Waverley also seems to have bewildered them. Whilst it's clearly nuts to charge up to a pier or jetty at seven knots and then slam the brakes on, it's also apparently the safest. You can virtually pinpoint the paragraph where they throw their hands up in the air and go "just tell everybody to sit down, for heavens sake".

The whole report teeters on the edge of whimsy at times - it's well worth reading for an insight into how weird Waverley is compared to modern ships.

 

[seeSimon]

MAIB issues with staff training, competency and procedures?

This is perhaps more accurate than you might think?

 

[Bilgediver]

The thing is a nightmare.
It seems to need to be going fast for the rudder to work?
The paddles only do straight ahead.
Surely it cannot have been like this back when it was a shiny new commercial boat?
Has something changed with the boat, or did they have much better ways of working it in those days?
But built in 1946, perhaps it was always a crackpot design?
When did paddle steamers cease to be mainstream?
I believe some of the IoW service boats had bow rudders?

These paddle boats were popular in the south many moons ago operating in the Severn Estuary. It was amazing watching the skippers docking them.

They would aim for a point beyond the pier end at msnoeverimg speed and within heaving line distance and then rapidly stop with the paddles abreast the pier end.
I do remember on one occasion a recently employed mate cut off a few metres from the end of Penarth pier.

The crew would soon have lines to the shore and the ship winched alongside.

They actually do have large rudders but even these are ineffective at slower speeds.

Wind in the wrong direction can even be a problem for the more experienced.

 

[oldharry]

Clearly one of the issues is there was/is no marine equivalent of 'Brace, brace, brace'. Fewer injuries if the passengers and crew had been warned? Who Knows... Ships ramming docks seems to be a regular occurence - look it up on You Tube! and they dont have the excuse of a steam engine stalled at TDC.