I have a question on what can be construed as criminal activity. For example, we know they had ‘issues’ with ‘breakers’. No details on which breaker or breakers or what the issue is/was. Based on the 2nd and 3rd blackout (3rd blackout a few seconds after the impact) and the timing of both about a minute after power is restored is quite remarkable. Is this coincidental? It looks to me it is one of the reefer breakers (6600V) that blacks out the HV switchboard. Is it the same breaker on both blackouts or one before/after in the sequence of breaker closure after power is restored? Don’t know. The reefer power loss reports in port does support the theory of defective reefer breakers.
Now it is not normal for the vessel to not have power on the HV board and thus on the main and the emergency (MSB and ESB). Was there a shore power provided to the vessel that probably requires blackout (no synchro facility) from the vessel and then power from shore switched on? Possible. Was this breaker or breakers causing similar outages? Don’t know. Again the report of multiple power interruptions in port cannot be discounted. Also possible the shore power if it was provided was not stable resulting in the multiple blackouts. (Damage to these large breakers on/off multiple times also cannot be discounted)
Assuming this was not the first time they had trouble with all breakers on the HV board closing with no blackouts, would the crew be considered culpable or negligent? Would this condition of reefer breakers be considered ‘unseaworthy to depart’? After all, these are reefer breakers and nothing to do with vessel safety.
I agree if they requested for a shore side assistance or spare parts requests had been turned down, it would certainly point to the management company. I would think on the vessel, the crew would continue their trouble shooting to determine the cause to either take action onboard or request help with a detailed repair request (rather than a request of ‘fix ship’)
Now on the first blackout, some activity on the HV board caused the blackout. In steady state operations there has to be some disturbance to cause the blackout. My (pure) speculation is that the BT breaker or starter panel caused this first blackout. Was this the first time or does happen intermittently or once in awhile? Again if the crew knew and continued their troubleshooting including informing the company, would this be considered criminal or crew negligence or crew competency or just plain bad luck?
Guess I am trying to wrap my head around how the crew can be held culpable in any criminal activity. Thought anyone?