The large container ship grounded while navigating the Suez canal with the assistance of the Canal Pilots who are usually well experienced and mostly ex-Egyptian naval officers. If an accident occurs when a Pilot is guiding the ship, the responsibility continues to rest on the Captain. That is the maritime law.
It is true that the Pilots and officials in Suez Canal and elsewhere demand a lot of 'gifts' (varying from cigarettes, booze, provisions.....In the old days, in Russia, Nescafe was much sought after!) from ships passing through the canal, though not a contributory cause in this incident. In each port, the ship may have to shell out gifts worth Rs.50,000/-, but companies just bear it as daily ship hire charges could be upwards of 20 lakhs and don't want some petty official throwing the book at them, finally costing crores.
In this incident, if the wind was not that strong, she would have passed through quite easily as many, many ships of similar size have done. With her huge size, large wind gathering area due to containers stacked on deck, the drift must have been significant.. In the narrow canal, the only option available would be to increase speed but it can create consequent hydrodynamic effects, which can cause loss of control, as it appears to have happened in this case. The recording from the ship's electronic chart indicates that it was not in control soon after entering the canal when wind effects became more pronounced.
Tugs were provided but they weren't meant to do anything but follow the ship. If an emergency occurs they would have assisted the ship and helped to keep her to the bank, where she can be secured. This happens if there is a sudden sand storm which can reduce visibility to zero or mechanical failure on a ship in convoy.
In the Ever Given incident, the ship was doing over 13 knots! The Ever Given is a Golden-class container ship, among the largest container ships in the world. It's owned by Shoei Kisen Kaisha and is time chartered and operated by the Taiwanese Container Transportation and Shipping Company, Evergreen Marine.
It would be worthwhile to watch the remedial/refloating actions being taken over the next few days.
Tailpiece.
Got up at our usual time, the chores and were ready by 10. Got an early morning call from Bunty and Babli - our helps during our Delhi days - wishing us a happy Holi.
We'd taken off for Seematty for today's shopping serial, soon after 10. The entire sequence was well co-ordinated and executed, with us securing for lunch by about a half past 1. After a half an hour's break, we continued with our work and finally, left for home by a half past 3.
Reached home by about a half past 4. The remaining time was used to take stock of the purchases and yakkitiyak!
No comments:
Post a Comment