Two Maersk Supply Vessels Sink En Route to Scrapyard

[QUOTE=ombugge;193944]
They do approve of double tow with two wire, or Honolulu tow, however, which is not a new method: https://m.reddit.com/r/WarshipPorn/comments/4vtxrk/the_smit_tug_elbe_conducting_a_tandemtow_of/

I have never personally been involved in approving side-by-side ocean towage, but I believe it has been successfully performed with near identical scrap ships without overhang.[/QUOTE]

You appear to be basing that comment on the Reddit page you link and an almost identical comment there linking to a photo of the Tug HANSEAT towing two old sealand sisters ships. But they were reportedly only towed Together to clear the harbor with assistance and then towed in line astern.

[QUOTE=Jamesbrown;193948]You appear to be basing that comment on the Reddit page you link and an almost identical comment there linking to a photo of the Tug HANSEAT towing two old sealand sisters ships. But they were reportedly only towed Together to clear the harbor with assistance and then towed in line astern.

http://tugfaxblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2014/10/hanseat-back-to-shoebox.html[/QUOTE]

No I do not. There have been scrap tows outside US waters too.
I do not recall where and when. It was not in northern waters in the winter though.

Side by side tow seems crazy to me, I can’t believe a surveyor would approve that… shallow water depths would not have a impact on a proper tandem tow. Companies have been towing barges tandem into the arctic of Alaska for years at 50-70’ water depths. Those two tugs most likely got out of sync and bashed themselves open, even if it was a shallow water tow you would thing they could couple them in line with a few shots of chain…

[QUOTE=Slick Cam;193941]Perhaps the outcome was exactly as intended.[/QUOTE]

Maybe some remote controlled explosives were involved.

[QUOTE=AHTS Master;193981]Maybe some remote controlled explosives were involved.[/QUOTE]

That might have been necessary if they wanted the insurance money. Maybe they only wanted a capital loss greater than scrap sale value minus sales and importation taxes, or maybe that was a fallback position, if the claim was denied. It’s not like one branch of MAERSK will sue the towing branch of MAERSK, so with that potential liability never in play, it seems likely they could game the whole thing. I’m sure whatever business registry flagged the tows will be dedicated to scrutinize the entire thing.

[QUOTE=Jamesbrown;193982]That might have been necessary if they wanted the insurance money. Maybe they only wanted a capital loss greater than scrap sale value minus sales and importation taxes, or maybe that was a fallback position, if the claim was denied. It’s not like one branch of MAERSK will sue the towing branch of MAERSK, so with that potential liability never in play, it seems likely they could game the whole thing. I’m sure whatever business registry flagged the tows will be dedicated to scrutinize the entire thing.[/QUOTE]

Maersk is not a company that would risk doing something that could backfire so easily.
But we do not know if the vessels were still in Maersk ownership at the time. (Or do we???)

[QUOTE=AHTS Master;193981]Maybe some remote controlled explosives were involved.[/QUOTE]

“Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by stupidity.”

As is so often the case with gcaptain forum these days, I cannot post, or thank or reply to Rshrew, but I have finally managed to reply to an earlier post.

Rshrew has it exactly right.

http://gcaptain.com/sunken-maersk-supply-vessels-located-off-france/

So I guess the French called bullshit.

Let’s see how the Maersk publicity machine try’s to spin this one.

Boats 3

I have nothing against Maersk. It’s a company that I would like to respect Again, but I hope the French really take Maersk to task over this tow that was destined for failure. This type of voluntary insanity should not be repeated.

[QUOTE=tugsailor;194133]I have nothing against Maersk. It’s a company that I would like to respect Again, but I hope the French really take Maersk to task over this tow that was destined for failure. This type of voluntary insanity should not be repeated.[/QUOTE]

The French would like to know more about the case: http://fairplay.ihs.com/safety-regulation/article/4280321/france-calls-on-denmark-to-investigate-maersk-sinkings

After circling for 5 days off the Aliaga ports (Turkey), the tug Maersk Battler beached this afternoon at the ship-breaking yard.

A nice performance, one of three tugs made it. I would be happy if my dog replied to 33% of my calls…

From the above report;

“The risk management system offers to handle risk as an objective value and to provide a structure for handling risk. However, there is no aid or control of what is put into the system . . .The numeric risk value is based solely on how imaginative the involved persons are,” DMAIB wrote. “The assessment of the risk reduction is highly sensitive to one or more individuals’ subjective risk perception, which will be strongly influenced by the desire to make the operation possible. Thereby, the risk management system will rarely limit activities prone to risk. In fact, the risk management system instead tends to facilitate the carrying out of risk prone operations.”

It’s all about how imaginative one is when assessing risks and how imaginative the client is when your assessing risks.

That’s exactly why a lot of clients require third party surveyors to do the risk assessments.

But they all eventually get paid by the client and it’s critical to be able to explain to a client why certain activities should not be done in a certain way or during during a certain time frame.

That was really stupid, side by side ?

CaptDennis • 10 hours ago

Guess Maersk Supply couldn’t afford to keep a single guy who knew anything about ocean towing on the payroll. How hard would it have been to use a towing vessel with a double drum winch or rig an under rider tow wire?

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Now we know where the Aviq tow masters are currently employed.

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The original Boat that was going to be used for this tow did not have the correct equipment but they switched out boats and the Tug that did the tow could have done a tandem tow as it had a double drum winch.

This reminds me of when OSG decided to tow the Constitution / 400 to the Bahamas with the Tug in the Notch Dead Ship. Anyone that ever worked on that rig knew this would never work but the Rocket Scientists in the Office said it would. So the Tug ended adrift off of Cape Hatteras IIRC.

I’m sure both of these companies got paid through their Insurance and the ones in-charge probably got promoted!