STS Leeuwin hit by Maersk Shekou in Fremantle Port

Maritime News Marine Incidents
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At 0615 this morning the Maersk Shekou collided with the STS Leeuwin whilst inbound to the port. The Leeuwin was dismasted; however, the hull appears to have not been breached.

The two night watch crew members onboard the Leeuwin at the time sustained non-life threatening injuries and have been taken to hospital for observation. The cause of the incident is not known at this stage and a full investigation by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) and Fremantle Ports will follow. Fremantle Ports will fully assist and cooperate with this investigation.

The bow of the 332m, Shekou struck the Leeuwin, and the stern of the vessel caused some damage to A Berth and the WA Maritime Museum roof.

Fremantle Ports has stringent operational parameters in place for the movement of ships and in this case the Shekou had two pilots on board and was being accompanied to the berth by four tugs.

We are in close contact with the Leeuwin Ocean Adventure Foundation are providing them every support. Public access is restricted to A Berth and the Maritime Museum whilst we undertake inspections. Gage Roads Brew Co is unaffected and is trading as usual.

The poor old girl is going to take some work to sort this out, good to hear no one was seriously injured or worse, some pics and more in ABC linkā€¦ Two men injured after STS Leeuwin is hit by large shipping container at Fremantle Port - ABC News

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Wow. The rig was completely destroyed. Must be some significant other damage too.

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Gosh darn it, that Climate Change has caused another maritime accident.

From the below article.

ā€œA large container ship, the Maersk Shekou, was pushed into the STS Leeuwin after being struck by a sudden squall as it entered Fremantle Port after 6amā€¦ā€

Seriously, good on the operators of the Leeuwin for keeping 2 night watchmen on board while tied to the pier afterhours. And head scratch to the 2 pilots, Maersk Captain & 4 tugs tieing up during a passing storm. I bet there were a dock full of wet grumpy steveadors & linehandlers saying, ā€œI told you soā€.

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What would you rather they do?

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Not crash into the tall sailing ship tied to the pier.

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Well, yea.

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Geez. How many people are going to post this on their own? Third one so far. @Kennebec_Captain thread merge please?

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@Jughead,

You may have some interest in this. Sailing vessels are not fairing very well at present.

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ā€œA large container ship, the Maersk Shekou, was pushed into the STS Leeuwin after being struck by a sudden squall as it entered Fremantle Port after 6am today.ā€

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The number of vessels damaged in sudden squalls is constant. The opportunities to endlessly comment on them is rapidly increasing.

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It seems my punishment period has been lifted and Iā€™m now able to post on this particular incident.

STS Leeuwin II is the ship I sail aboard as relief master and Iā€™ve been sailing her since 2006 when I left the navy.

This collision was a shocker. The Maersk Shekou just didnā€™t turn as normal from the entry to go to her berth. Leeuwin was berthed as usual at B Berth as indicated on the AIS recordings. That position lines up exactly to the course for entering harbour with the front leading mark (range? in US terms) on a tower a few metres from Leeuwinā€™s berth.

I have no idea why this happened as ships come and go all day in most sorts of weather. Fremantle is noted as a windy place and the winds at the time were not exceptional. With two pilots and a good set of tugs, this would be a relatively routine arrival.

Leeuwin herself is an absolute shambles. Access is restricted. Iā€™m not the current master but was due to sail again on 9 Sep, so I will get aboard when I can.

The two injured shipkeepers are doing ok.

The extent of the rig damage will mean a long period of repairs. Of concern is that our shore based experts eg our rigger, shipwright/spar-maker, and sailmaker, are essentially solo operations and the skills would be hard to find in normal commercial ship maintenance businesses, so hiring similarly skilled people is difficult. Weā€™ll see later.

The essence of the ship is that of a tiny professional crew (five qualified on every voyage - master, mate, bosun, chef and engineer), and ten volunteers, some highly experienced but unqualified and others who have simply sailed once before. We would normally sail with 40 brand new trainees each voyage who embark for an adventure at sea, mostly for a week, sometimes more. Some crusty old-timers do odd jobs ashore making bits and pieces. So the organisation relies on the keen volunteers for the bulk of the workload under crew supervision. That sort of situation canā€™t readily fix this mess.

No doubt someone else will pay, but that may take time. The Leeuwin Ocean Adventure Foundation which runs this scheme was recently in administration after financial difficulties resulting from the disruption of the Covid stupidity shut down operations. A local ā€˜charismaticā€™ billionaire, Andrew (Twiggy) Forest - iron ore mines etc - came to the rescue with his charitable Mindaroo Foundation and the ship and scheme were just getting back up and running.

The ship and scheme are well known here and held in high regard as an iconic maritime asset of Western Australia. Thereā€™s no other scheme like this here. Any prolonged absence of the ship operating will severely damage her visibility in the public eye and make it harder to retract the youngsters to participate and for public support to keep the scheme viable.

I welcome any comments.

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Sorry to hear this happened to your ship. The expected prolonged absence is going to suck but hopefully your group can make use of publicity of the collision & bring additional donations to your organization. I intend to make a small donation after doing a little research this afternoon. Good luck.

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Thank you very much. Iā€™m sure whatever you can do will be appreciated. The ultimate benefit is of giving young people a totally different experience early in life with scary challenges and any number of other different problems and it allows them to realise that they can do much more than they ever expected before their voyage.

Iā€™ve been involved in this type of adventure/sail training for many years and constantly see the benefits repaid many times over.

Thanks again.

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I wonder if thereā€™s any way to get any young people involved in the repair work itself. Make them part of that process too?

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We will certainly involve our volunteers in repair work, but the lower masts are steel and must be manufactured and certified which is a shipyard job. We had only replaced these a few years ago.

Our volunteers can do the traditional seamenā€™s tasks to tar, worm, parcel and serve steel wire rope as that is part of regular maintenance and assist generally.

Weā€™ll see, as we have to do some fairly dangerous disassembly as soon as we can access the ship.

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Sorry to hear about the damage to the ship.

In the States Maersk would have been sued the day after the allision for the cost of repairs. There would be no doubt Maersk would have to pay for everything. Is this not the case in Australia?

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Maersk Shekou has left Fremantle bound for Port Klang:
Fremantle, Australia ATD: Sep 5, 13:12 UTC
Source: MAERSK SHEKOU, Container Ship - Details and current position - IMO 9466984 - VesselFinder

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Thank you. Iā€™m sure it is the same. Iā€™m not involved in day to day deliberations of the board of management which are dealing with this. We have our own insurers who would know how to resolve such things. We have engaged a salvage company to clear the rigging.

At my level we are still unable to get access to make the dangly bits of rigging safe to walk under. We can get aboard but have to stay below decks entering and exiting from the safer forward end and walk internally to check all that.

Progress is frustratingly slow at the moment.

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I hope she landed whatā€™s left of my fore upper topsail shown flapping above the starboard anchor. :slightly_smiling_face:

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