MSC Zoe loses 270 containers in North Sea

Until now it is still unknown where the lost containers were originally lashed. It could be in the Far East or in the last port of call prior to its arrival at Bremerhaven which was Sines, Portugal.

Earlier there have been questions about the stowage plan of the 23,000 containers, in particular about the lashing of rows seven, eight and nine from where the boxes fell overboard. As a rule, lashing is done by well-trained men, but not in every port,

As a rule additionally, lashing is checked and tightened by the crew during the voyage. At least on more manageable sized container ships it is.

There is no way of knowing if the stack weights were within limits in many of the worlds ports. It would only take a few overweight containers to exceed the SWL of the lashings and fittings. It is doubtful if the crew size is sufficient to check the lashings and tighten if necessary.
In the past the mate on watch used to sign off each hatch as having been lashed according to the lashing plan. Having observed a 22,000 teu vessel working 9 gantries I’m not sure that this possible now.

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Good article. Wanders off topic a bit here and there. The author seems knowledgeable but is a little to adamant that parametric rolling occurs only container ships, just not true.

Some of the comments were interesting, one raises your point about the possibility that the Zoe might have struck bottom.

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It is in self-limitation that a master first shows himself.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Yes, at certain moments he dwells too much, the article could be at least 30% shorter. For instance he is explaining parametric rolling at some length while a simple link to the subject would have been much shorter and more businesslike.

I have been thinking about the ship striking bottom. If this was the case the impact must have been felt as a hammer blow resonating throughout the ship. It could have been confused with bow slamming. On board we called it ‘pole hitting’ or ‘paaltje pikken’ in Dutch. When we looked over the side after such an event we noticed that the ship was almost stopped. The kinetic energy that had to be absorbed by the ship at these moments is clearly quite enormous.

Slamming and consecutive whipping causes wave-bending moments acting on the hull girders, Large and ultra-large container carriers are the focus of concerns nowadays in view of this phenomenon and their exposure to very high slamming loads. And now I am dwelling…

The SOLAS Verified Gross Mass (VGM) documentation policy is into effect since July 1, 2016. In Europe and the US no container is loaded without this document. I searched the Internet what the situation is in the rest of the world but it is not entirely clear except for countries as Australia, China, Japan and Singapore.

IMG_3985

Excessive compression force on container corner post, leading to failure of post.

From the pictures of the MSC Zoe I could not find signs of failed container posts. It is indeed doubtful if the crew size is sufficient to check the lashings of that huge number of containers and correct it.

IMG_3989

Twistlock failure - This is not the MSC Zoe’s.

Apparently, there is a point in development when it ceases to be a true progress–in trade, in games, in the marvellous handiwork of men, and even in their demands and desires and aspirations of the moral and mental kind. There is a point when progress, to remain a real advance, must change slightly the direction of its line.

Joseph Conrad, Some Reflections on the Loss of the Titanic

Sometimes just doing a bigger version of the same thing doesn’t cut it.

Cheers,

Earl

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It works very well for the financial folks.

When " doesn’t cut it" happens the government covers the losses anyway so the only victims are sailors, the environment, and taxpayers.

Yes, scaling up and scaling down looks logical and easy to do but it is often not that simple!

Thank you for a great piece of research and finding the article.

But the square-cube law says that people will keep on pushing the envelope until it breaks.

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There is confusion about two reports that were allegedly made by the ship about losing containers but which were unreceived by both the Dutch and German Coastguards. The statement was made last week by the Havariekommando (Harbor Command) in Cuxhaven.

This statement said that after the berthing of the MSC Zoe at Bremerhaven on January 3, crew members were interrogated by the Wasserschutzpolizei (Water Police) who testified that the ship’s management had reported the loss of containers for the first time at 23.00 and later again at 01.30 hours.

The Coastguard denies that such reports were received and said that it is impossible that they would have missed such messages. Article 6e of the Territorial Sea Regulations require immediate reporting of lost objects to the authorities.

So far no mention have been made about the presence on the bridge of a North Sea pilot but it is safe to assume that he was on board at the time especially seen the weather conditions and the shortcut shallow water lane, just above the islands, which they chose to take.

I’m not sure if they did take a N Sea pilot. The ship was on a regular loop so should have been familiar.

I am 100% certain she touched bottom during rolling in the shallows hence the reason they went to the DW route. There is a lot in this incident yet to come.

The sudden swerve to port towards the DW route, at the point that they became aware of loosing large number of containers, is a telltaling fact that they had touched ground. On the other hand so far the ship didnot dry dock to inspect for damage that undoubtedly would have been inflicted.

It could well be that there wasn’t a North Sea pilot on board. I suppose that as a professional he would not have be very keen on taking this dinosaur in these weather conditions along the SW route and would have advised against it.

It’s certainly possible they touched bottom, but there could be any number of reasons they turned north.

They may changed course to get away from traffic to sort out things, to get a better course in the wind and seas, to get into deeper water to avoid steep seas etc.

For another if they did hit bottom how likely would the crew recognize that at the time? At night, ship rolling, bad visibility, lots of leeway etc, be hard to sort out exactly what was happening in real time.

Speaking from experience in the same area, I have turned north near here just to heave to until the seas have laid down. High GM and that North Sea swell is no Joke when it’s on the quarter. They very well could have touched bottom but they also could have taken some very deep rolls trying to bring the bow up into the wind and sea. Those transitions can be the worst in certain conditions.

Doodle_2019-02-26T11_59_15Z

The ship turned round twice. Was the second turn made at the pilot station? It is not clear what the reason was to make the first turn at 04.30 am in this kind of weather. It was suggested that this was done to inspect the bays with lost containers but I doubt that. It is better and safer to stay clear of containers which are on the move.

So far only 18 intact containers have been salvaged as well as 110 broken containers and in total 1.1 million kilograms of debris has been cleared from the sea bottom. The two containers with dangerous substances have not yet been found.

A sheer endless stream of waste from the broken containers is brought ashore and sorted: plastics, fridges, freezers, washing machines, car parts, compressors, lots of tools, hundreds of car tires, pots and pans, lawn mowers to name a few. About 20.000 dead common murres have been found in the area. It is unclear whether this was caused by the accident with the containers and is now under investigation.

Salvage operations have been delayed by bad weather and also because of the discovery of second WW explosives but are in full swing now. It will take months to remove the bigger items from the sea bottom and probably an estimated 10 years to get rid of it all and that because the captain probably wanted to take a short cut route to Bremerhaven.

The deputy commander Schmidt of the Havariekommando (Harbor Authority) doesn’t exclude the possibility that the MSC Zoe has touched ground twice and that this was the cause of loosing the 345 containers. He made this statement during a discussion of the accident in the Environmental Commission of the Hanover federal state government.

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The video shows a simulation of the circumstances as they actually were at the time of the accident such as wind force and a wave height of 6 - 7 meters. First a northerly course is steered. All looks well and almost serene, the ship hardly rolls on this course. At about 50 seconds the ship has turned to the normal course towards Bremerhaven with beam waves and the ship begins to roll quite a bit, an estimated 20° - 25°, more then I expected. This simulation is of course not very accurate as a lot of data is unknown, for instance loading conditions and the GM which determines the stiffness of the vessel, but it gives some idea.

The picture shows the MSC Zoe’s wheelhouse.

I’ve got a theory that when the tug boat guys lay their binoculars down they lay them down flat, so as not to fall over in a sea. Looks like no tugboat men on that bridge.

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