Coast Guard Issues ‘Final Action Memo’ on El Faro Investigation

[Capt_Phoenix]

I’m not sure what it it’s called, but it mounts on the top of the wheelhouse and has a hydrostatic release. There’s basically no way the ship can go down without it deploying safely.

[ombugge]

The original enclosed lifeboat is over 115 years old and was tested on a voyage across the Atlantic in 1903:

Ole Brude's Lifeboat

The original is still on display outside the Museum in Aalesund:

Only a few were ever produced, but the idea never won recognition.How many could have been saved ony during WWII, IF this invention had won out??

With the success of the trip it would be easy to assume that there would be a demand for such a craft, but only 23 were ever produced. Even after the loss of the Titanic in 1912 the Brude Lifeboat Company failed to convince the White Star Line of the value of covered lifeboats.
It wasn’t until 1977 that the Norwegian government made the use of covered lifeboats mandatory on larger vessels.
Now covered lifeboats are standard. But the obvious question remains. How many lives could have been saved over the years if Ole Brude’s invention had been adopted all those years ago?

From this link: Auld Rasmie: Uræd, the first covered lifeboat.

[tugsailor]

@ombugge

If you are referring to the Whittaker Capsules that was all the rage on American owned rigs and fixed platforms back in the 1970’s and 80’s I disagree:

Have you tried to operate these things, even in a duck pond?

No. That’s not what I had in mind. Not a lifeboat.

I was thinking of a hardshell egg shape liferaft substitute, like the “Ovatek 7”. Ovatek.com. No worries about failure to inflate, fire resistent, insulated, warm, watertight, abrasion resistant, and reliable. Hydrostatic release.

If EL FARO had had a few Ovatek 7s, and some of the crew had gotten into them before she rolled over, there would have been some survivors.

[Chief_Seadog]

@tugsailor

There is no clearer confirmation of USCG incompetence than its pseudo-professional “judgment” that enclosed lifeboats are unnecessary.

No other responsible maritime expert or maritime authority anywhere else in the world shares the USCG’s antiquated pre-WW II opinion.

What could possibly be the argument against requiring enclosed lifeboats? Saving the owners of a handful of old obsolete ships in no better condition than the EL FARO that still have open lifeboats a few pennies?

Any competent USCG inspector should realize instantly that when he boards a ship that has owners that are too cheap to provide enclosed lifeboats, that the owners are also too cheap to properly maintain anything else, and the ship is the next EL FARO or MARINE ELECTRIC waiting to happen.

Open lifeboats should ring alarm bells in any inspector’s head that the ship needs a very intensive inspection.

Many years ago I ran across a vendor that had a couple of enclosed lifeboats for sale. The price was very low. I tried to convince our vessel manager and port engineer to change out the ships open lifeboats. I knew some work would be required to see if the davits could be adapted and all the necessary approvals done. I was up for the effort but got shot down…All was not completely lost as I was able to get a motor lifeboat to replace the one with the near useless Fleming gear. At least the ship became outfitted with 2 motor lifeboats.

In retrospect I clearly underestimated the amount of work that would have been required to get the old lifeboats replaced. I will say that our vessel manager and P/E were both sympathetic but a can of worms neither wanted to open. If the proposed plans of re-engining the ship had gone through, they would have been replaced.

[Capt_Phoenix]

The cost of a new lifeboat is so high that I know of a ship that lost her free-fall lifeboat in a storm at sea and the company sold the ship instead of buy a new lifeboat and davit.

[Capt_Phoenix]

@tugsailor

I was thinking of a hardshell egg shape liferaft substitute, like the “Ovatek 7”. Ovatek.com. No worries about failure to inflate, fire resistent, insulated, warm, watertight, abrasion resistant, and reliable. Hydrostatic release.

If EL FARO had had a few Ovatek 7s, and some of the crew had gotten into them before she rolled over, there would have been some survivors.

Yes, this.

[Chief_Seadog]

@Capt_Phoenix

The cost of a new lifeboat is so high that I know of a ship that lost her free-fall lifeboat in a storm at sea and the company sold the ship instead of buy a new lifeboat and davit.

A replacement lifeboat and davit will run in the neighborhood of $70,000 F.O.B. China.