Hurricane navigation is an art at which already Columbus was skilled, always observing the sky, wind and waves. No weather reports so he had to…
Columbus read the signs of an approaching storm from the appearance of a southeasterly swell, the direction of the high cirrus clouds, and the hazy appearance of the atmosphere. You had to look backwards to detect the cirrus clouds. On one occasion he directed his vessels to shelter. The commander of another group, who did not heed the signs, lost most of his ships and more than 500 men perished.
It seems that some haven’t learned much during those more than 500 years.
My 1968 edition of the USNI “Heavy Weather Guide” contains an extract from Joseph Conrad’s “Typhoon” as an example of what a ship encounters when sailing into one.
Before the conversion it was a container ship with a traditional hull, unlike the latest generations of vessels with large flared bows and large transoms.
With livestock, who can easily loose their footing and cannot grab and hold on to something when the ship is heeling, the captain must avoid at all cost a bad weather situation even moving away from a small storm center.
The way I see it, when the ship in bad weather makes a sudden large roll, all cattle will probably get on the move, crashing through gates on the way, creating a livestock free surface moment or see it as a sudden shift of weight that could capsize the ship right away. A horrible situation if you think about it.
An average cow weighs 650 kg this times 5800 is a total weight of 3770 tons. Ship’s DWT is 8372 ton.
What is not clear to me is whether the sides are open or covered by for instance plastic. This in relation to the wind pressure.
The sheep carriers I’ve seen in the Middle East weren’t clad on the outside of the cages. I think breathing would be impossible in an enclosed area containing the gases released from the feces of thousands of animals. In the case of sheep, you can smell them from a mile away as it is.
I would expect the spec to call for pens that stay intact in heavy weather, but you never know…
I realize that animal welfare isn’t everybody’s foremost concern in this case, but taking a loaded livestock carrier to the edge of its survival envelope has some unpleasant moral implications.
Photos of the ship clearly show, as expected, open grating type arrangement of sides of pens above main deck level, which is fairly high up. This allows for better airflow. Otherwise, it is suffocating on these ships … even WITH this open air arrangement.
Further, I do not know what the routine practice is/was on this ship in particular. But I have been aboard a few cattle carriers here in Hawaii. All were similar in size and type. All were conversions, as this ship was.
The “standard practice” in live ag animal export that has been explained to me and as I have seen first hand, is to wedge cattle and sheep in to the pens such that there is little room to move around. Many people think this is cruel. The reality is, the more wedged in they are, the less they move around and safer they are. They are somewhat forced to remain standing up and lean on each other. If one lays down and another falls on the reclining animal, they could get hurt, maybe even killed if the ship rolls or moves violently… Also, their hooves are not designed for sliding around on steel decks very well.
There is a LOT of heated debate about this whole live animal export trade and I do NOT want to take a position either way or get distracted from the point of this thread. But suffice to say; this ship had plenty of problems regardless of the bad weather. Clearly to me, only speculating, this was a disaster going someplace to happen. The shipowner and those involved in the live animal export trade from New Zealand and Australia to … anywhere … are under a LOT of scrutiny. Sadly, I don’t think anything will come from this accident. It is NOT the first. Will NOT be the last. And, given the history of horrific accidents in the past, taken with this sinking too, I’m not confident anyone in authority cares enough to do ANYTHING at all about it.
I watched a show a couple years back about increased shark attacks on humans in the Red Sea. Turns out it was sheep carriers en route from Australia to the Middle East that were dumping dead animals in transit and drawing sharks to the swimming areas that were reporting increased attacks.
Water on deck with nowhere to go… what could go wrong? If things were that bad in relatively calm seas, I get that they were “a bit worried about the weather” as per the quote in an earlier article. This thing gets crazier the more we get to know.
According to one rescued crew member, the missing ship stalled when an engine stopped, then capsized and sank after being hit broadside by a powerful wave during stormy weather.
Here’s the Reuters article that the stuff.co.nz article is based on:
I’m torn on what to say. On one hand, the captain was evidently preoccupied with messaging his partner:
Addug, 34, the ship’s captain, sent hours of instant messages to the mother of his four children, typing frantically, telling her the typhoon had intensified and water had caused the engine to fail.
and knew what he was getting into:
He sent maps of the ship’s location in relation to the typhoon.
but forged on while
praying for the typhoon to stop
On the other hand, there are 41 grieving families out there, some of whom are bound to find threads like this in their quest for answers, and they sure don’t need my outrage right now.
This is one of those times when a thorough investigation might provide valuable insight into a baffling decision making process. Specifically, I would like to know what passed between the captain and the office.
The fore and aft damaged lifeboat but still afloat. The damage was probably caused when the ship flipped and she was torn loose by the impact.
This is in fact an indication that in such a hopeless situation you are better off in a lifeboat instead of remaining on board a ship that is bound to founder any minute. I think it is a missed opportunity.
Thanks for the insight. I had no idea about these perilous transports. I agree that this will not stop or that anything might change for the better as a result of this dramatic incident. Business is business, money first.
These livestock carrying ships should in fact be monitored closely. According to the developing weather situation they should be able to order the captain to change course and follow a safer route. Nice idea but I don’t see it happening…
I’m assuming the carrier is contracted to deliver the perishable livestock in good condition and they are not going to be fed once loaded aboard. If the contract specifies that delivery must be made within a specific number of days, is it possible the captain felt he did not have the option of taking the time to avoid the storm?
Why/how do you think livestock being shipped across the ocean/globe will not be fed? Of course they are, they’d never survive. It’s why this little ship had a crew of 42 people.
Every livestock carrier typically has a supplemental deck department of men (like AB’s on deck) that stand watch and continuously feed and water the animals 24/7. It involves moving large bales of hay or bags of feed around the ship from wherever it’s stored to each pen where the animals are kept.
These “livestock tenderers” must also clean out each pen to ensure the tons of manure and urine are removed from the pens and ultimately, off the ship every day. You can imagine what a task that is for animals packed together in a small ship with 3000 cattle aboard.
You should go look at Splash24/7 (an online maritime magazine, foreign publication) that has an excellent series on these ships. Many were written by a Australian woman who is a trained Vet and experienced in this trade. She is advocating to stop this trade or at least have gov’ts be more involved to protect the welfare of the thousands of livestock shipped every year. Some of her stories are stunning in their review of the horrors of life for animals aboard these ships.
I’m not familiar at all with this trade; thanks for the info. Just trying to make sense of the captain’s decision to head into a typhoon. Shades of Conrad’s novel.
Thats a link to just one random story from Splash24/7, from there you can read more. Again, I’m not taking a position on the debate. But as a seafarer, I think others would be amazed by the operation.
The story definitely has undertones of a dark Joseph Conrad novel, as only he could write. But my wish for all this is that this specific trade gets far more scrutiny that it simultaneously deserves (for the animals) and needs (for the crews).
