Casualties claim the limelight
- Details
- Category: Accidentes
- Published on Sunday, 18 January 2015 02:56
- Written by Administrator2
- Hits: 1602
Casualties claim the limelight
-
Wednesday 14 January 2015, 10:16
-
by Fred Williams
Lloyd´s ListTHE deliberate grounding of Höegh Osaka outside the UK port of Southampton, and subsequent attempts to refloat it, featured in two of the five slots in our weekly list of most-read individual Lloyd's List articles.
Another casualty, Bulk Jupiter, made the list, as did our columnist Michael Grey's reflection on safety concerns.
Perhaps the greatest surprise, though, was that MSC Oscar made the list for yet another week.
1. Höegh Osaka deliberately grounded to avoid possible capsize
Höegh Osaka, the Norwegian-owned car carrier that became wedged on a sandbar outside the UK port of Southampton, was deliberately grounded after the vessel started to list, Janet Porter reported.
Without that decision by the master and pilot of the Singapore-flagged ship, it could have capsized, Southampton port director Nick Rydell acknowledged.
The ship had just left Southampton on the evening of Saturday, June 3, with about 1,400 cars on board and another 70 or 80 pieces of construction equipment when it got into trouble and was subsequently steered onto Bramble Bar in the Solent.
2. MSC Oscar becomes the world's largest boxship
This exclusive story by Janet Porter was last week racking up its fourth week in the list of of the five most-read stories. Moreover, as this column revealed last week, it also ranks as our most-read individual article of 2014.
Porter revealed that a new world record was about to be set by MSC Oscar, Mediterranean Shipping Co’s latest vessel, whose nominal capacity of 19,224 teu makes it the largest containership afloat.
MSC Oscar, due to be handed over in January, is the first of a series to be acquired by the line through a long-term charter agreement.
The ship is just slightly larger than China Shipping’s CSCL Globe, which was officially declared at 19,100 teu a few weeks ago. Until then, Maersk’s 18,270 teu Triple-E ships were the biggest in service.
3. Eighteen crew missing after bulk carrier capsizes off Vietnam
Lloyd's List reported that search and rescue operations were underway off the Vietnamese coast after the Gearbulk-owned bulk carrier Bulk Jupiter capsized in the South China Sea on Friday, January 2.
According to reports via the Den Helder Rescue Centre, the master was found dead. One other crew member had been picked up by a nearby pilot vessel Olng Muttrah, but search and rescue operations were looking for the remaining 17 crew.
According to reports, the 31,256 gt, 2006-built Bulk Jupiter was en route from Malaysia to China carrying 46,400 tonnes of iron ore. The vessel, with a Filipino crew, sent a distress call southeast of Vung Tau, Vietnam, before it sank.
4. First refloat attempt for Hoegh Osaka on Thursday
Janet Porter returned to the grounded car carrier story, reporting that salvors were finalising plans to free Hoegh Osaka on Thursday, January 8, but might postpone the operation if conditions were not right.
Regular Viewpoint columnist Michael Grey noted that the bleak mid-winter freezing weather and storms had brought with them a torrid couple of weeks on the maritime casualty front.
Hoegh Osaka, Cemfjord, Norman Atlantic and Bulk Jupiter served as reminders that traditional safety concerns remain at the top of the industry's agenda for 2015, Grey commented.