Having looked at the video and AIS recreation change my opinion. My. guess is engine failure somehow. Either did not answer commands or is it the engines design, not having the ablity to order reverse over certain speeds. Understand too many bells can use up air but does she have enough air for one emergency reverse. I don’t know the answer.
There are an awful lot of questions to answer here.
Pilots need better training on speed control.
Ships Officers need better training on awareness of circumstances.
But let’s not overcomplicate here,
Simple things for simple sailors
Stabilised approach, really?
If you are out of a “stabilised approach” basically really screwed the pooch, then go around, simple things for simple airmen ( and air women BTW). Not so easy when you are still doing 10kts 2 ships lengths from a dead end.
For my port we had fairly complex abort procedures, some of them fairly obvious but for the most part they were tide related so if you were not at a certain place at a certain time and could continue at a certain speed, and the vessel on the berth was not at a certain state in preparation for departure then abort.
Difficult to explain and hard to comprehend particularly for non regular ships.
But if I was 2 ships lengths off the berth doing 10 kts I/we would be screwed, and the least worst scenario is aground.
So rewind to before our newest container terminal opened in 2015 , due to a 60degree bend 2 ships lengths from the berth we would have to put the engine dead slow ahead to make the bend. With some box boats having an 8kt dead slow speed (the worst having 11kts dead slow 
) factor in a 2 to 3 kts flood tide behind you and 10kts 2 ships lengths from the berth was not uncommon. Box boats of that generation could and would pull up quite happily with a Slow astern order which was on rare occasions a half order for a swing. We were doing anything up to a practical limit of 300m , I believe the longest was 330m and draft up to 13.5m.
My point.
Ships crews cannot possibly be expected to fully understand local conditions.
Ships pilots need to be very very competent.
Oh and please do not forget the totally brilliant tugmasters
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The boat is under ISM Seaspan management, which seems quite active building their PR and image. Worth noting ,several of their ship’s participated in recent years in serious accidents including container loss off Australia if I remember correctly.
Nice slogans on this pic but it is about time to : WALK THE TALK
Their crews are from SE Asia mostly Indian and Ukraine.
Surprised they still require covid 19 boosters from job seekers .
Sadly, global Pilotage competencies are far from homogeneous and we can look at recent incidents such as the “Ever Given” as an example.
There are three types of Pilots. Naturally gifted shiphandlers, Pilots who can be trained up to be competent shiphandlers and Pilots who just scrape by following training.
The first iteration, generally, has a healthy ego and as such is inclined to work outside acceptable parameters. They generally get away with it but it is not helpful to the Master and his bridge team.
The second and third iterations are more conservative and slower……some, too slow.
So how do we homogenise Pilotage in order to minimise incidents?…….we effectively need to get the first iteration under control. So, we develop and rigorously enforce Pilotage Safety Operating Procedures which are monitored and audited with the support of DGPS/RTK. This includes speed profiles at defined waypoints, swinging clearances etc etc.
In my port, two first iteration Pilots were dismissed for consistently working outside the SOP’s. They were superb shiphandlers but were effectively an accident waiting to happen.
Shoreside Pilotage Resource Management.
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520, thanks for the welcome. I was never in the Bahamas; is that your term for this comment section? My non-engineer’s surmise is that they couldn’t downshift and just kept going. The black (orange) boxes should reveal a lot of what went on but it will be a while before they release that info.
I’m pretty sure that all of this and much more was included in the Voyage Planning and Pilotage Passage, here is no need to reinvent the wheel. The question is: why were the existing plan and procedures not followed?
Good point, the question is whether you’ve ever encountered such an emergency procedure executed in the real world that allowed stopping such a monster vessel.
Additionally, if the speed information is true, then any discussions about dropping anchors and/or using the bow thrusters are pointless, this is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, of course in my humble opinion.
Youtuber Sal does a great job promoting the maritime business broadly, however, referencing his opinions on a professional forum is perhaps unwarranted.
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i think that comment was intended just as an analogy to aviation.
If the ship is provided with the pilot’s approach plan than the crew is able to compare what’s on the plan to what the ship is doing.
For example if the ship is at 14 kts where the plan calls for 10 or whatever the crew can speak up.
Some ports do in fact do this. I’ve found it helpful.
Aus,
Yes we have to control the arrogant egotistical maniacs that dominated pilotage of a certain era. Namely in the UK from an organisation called Trinity House.
If you didn’t have the right school tie or did not work for the right company your face did not fit.
Some of these guys definitely were great ship handlers but the vast majority were not.
When I came into pilotage there was a changing of the guard, Almost all had never held command rank and were intimidated by Watermen , lighter men ( a strange situation that was as far as I know Thames specific).
My generation mostly all had held Masters rank at an early age, myself at age 31.
We knew how to run ships, hold the ultimate authority of Captain but most of all we knew how to deal with people.
We were and are pleasant enough people in everyday life but our authority would not be questioned.
This produced a sea change at our port where junior pilots were not prepared to be talked down to by anyone.
We and I were confident in our ship handling ability but more importantly in our ability to deal with subordinates and our so called superiors.
So when we got our hands on the levers of control of the port we instigated our ways.
Our way is that we are in control of this port and no one else.
We will train the folk that come after us to be confident and assertive, but we will also install the skills to analyse and change if necessary the procedures that came before us.
I cannot agree wholeheartedly with some of the things that were insagated but I see the value of them. For example, you should be doing 5kts at this point and 4kts at that point.
Pilotage by numbers.
As an instinctive ship handler this screams wrong to me.
But I wound my neck in as I saw it was a great tool to train folks who did not have the extensive ship handling experience that I had ( an AHTS. Master for 7+ years in the north sea).
My generation were all young Masters from all disciplines, Offshore, VLCC S , Box boats, coasters and dredgers.
By the end of my time I saw so many guys ( and a few gals) come through our training scheme, I cannot take credit for it one of my entry colleagues can, and produce some top line pilots , some of whom I have to acknowledge were even better than me, and that is something from someone with an ego as big as mine.
We can only hope to leave our profession better than when we entered it and I can confidently say that the guys ( and gals) who run it now are better than me and my generation, as we did to the previous generation.
Blimey what an admission.
So back on topic.
Blooming ridiculous speed to be coming into a dead end at .
Neck out
Crap pilots
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EX : VLCC 23k TEU , 400mx60m , approaching speed must be below 2 knts , cannot be stopped in one ship’s length otherwise.More ore less for YM . As per anchor dropping , never happen for me on this size of vessels , but I can tell on 6 knots current , I stayed at anchor without any issue , that means the anchor will do part of the job.
Engine can be started many times , no issue with compressed air from bottles, and can be safely started astern , even if is running ahead , if around 20 RPM -no issue at all .
The only impediment , RPMs will not go higher in short time , due to the Load Program and all kinds of safety parameters from Engine ECU . You put 50 , but will be there in 5 minutes , and even more if you are still moving ahead .
I really didn’t want to engage with you anymore but I must say that Indian and Ukrainian mariners are some of the best around outside of Europe and the Aus NZ Canada, Scandinavian areas.
I wrote quite a lot more but deleted it in the hope of a bit more forum harmony.
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244,
Amen to that!
That’s what I should tell the pilot when they tell me they want a boarding speed of 8 kts.
KC
Please keep planning.
And scream and shout to any and all pilots who will not engage with you.
And in the end point blank refuse their orders/advice.
Any pilot worth their salt who cannot engage and explain is not worth risking your ship with.
I have had to explain some very weird plans, but I was always prepared to explain.
In my latter years as a captain offshore north sea I had to work out of an unfamiliar port so I was engaging pilots before I got my exemption.
It was iimujen on the approach to Amsterdam that has3 locks.
Normally we took Middle Sluis but one time on departure I was told to take Suis Sluis which is much smaller and normally used for barge’s.
It looked very narrow for me and I asked the pilot if my beam would fit in there and he said yes .
So I turned my AHTS around and backed into the lock complaining all the time.
After we departed from the lock and after much complaining from me he told me " You at the captain, You can refuse. I am the pilot and if it fits I can’t refuse"
When I got my exemption I refused just once and was never asked again.
Aus.
I think the issue is here that we from enlightened (I could say more but better not) pilotage authorities are trying to defend the indifencable.
I know we have our differences but I do believe we pull in the same direction.
520
Thanks for all your input to this discussion.
I do hope to engage you with more discussion at a later date.
There was a bit too much to engage in tonight
Stayed at anchor during a 6 kn current is not the same as dropping anchor while underway at a speed of 6 kn. We won’t delve into whether the speed are STW or SOG.
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The very reason for stable conditions well ahead of time assuming it wasn’t a mechanical failure.
I get that it might feel restrictive. Some pilots don’t like the formality and some controllers blow a gasket when they won’t deviate but you can’t argue with the safety record.
The ship is required to do a voyage plan berth to berth. So the ship has that plan. What the ship does not have is the pilot’s plan.
Given that the pilot holds a position of authority, it’s more straightforward for the crew to highlight discrepancies between the planned and actual positions and speeds than to directly challenge the pilot’s decisions.
The pilot should also have a plan which should be shared with the bridge crew at the earliest opportunity.
I used to do this in 2 stages, a brief overview as soon as possible when entering the bridge then a more detailed version once the ship was established on a safe course.
Some crews asked if I could email them the plan and as in later years this was electronic this was easy to do. Prior to that they were handed a hard copy.
When I retired there was talk of emailing this plan to the ship prior to arrival. I don’t know if this was ever followed up.
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