After browsing the Norwegian newspaper sites I have made a brief account of the court hearing in Ålesund Norway 25th April about the capsize of the Bourbon Dolphin.
The court heard from several witnesses including the off duty Master and one of the Officers who was rescued from the scene. Geir Syversen (32) described how the sequence of events started when another vessel the Highland Valour failed to retrieve the heavy anchor cable from the Bourbon Dolphin which was apparently too small for the job. The Highland Valour during seven attempts to take the chain caught it twice but dropped it both times, increasing the strain on the Bourbon Dolphin.
There was also a near collision between the two vessels which meant that the Bourbon Dolphin had to go full ahead on her engines to avoid a collision, calling into question the seamanship and shiphandling of the Highland Valour.
Then the Valour pushed the Dolphin in the wrong direction and the Dolphin was pushed out of position which meant that her bow thruster got overheated and the Chief Engineer asked him to reduce the load on the thruster.
The Domino effect was in full swing and problems stared mounting for the Bourbon Dolphin, when the Master decided that emergency measures were required, he asked the Chief Officer to use the quick release system to get rid of the anchor chain, but it was not so quick and by then the Chief Engineer called up to say that the engines had stopped.
By this stage hope was out for the ship and it had listed over on its side 90 degrees port side down.
Some of the crew managed to get off before she turned completely around. Then the survivors managed to climb into a raft and others were plucked out of the water.
The Master and his 14 year old son were among 8 crew lost in the accident.
The Norwegian Goverment has set up a Committee to investigate further into the accident.
Norwegian Maritime Directorate
Thank you for translating the Norwegian to English, Tim. The focus on Bourbon Dolphin being “too small” for the job of moving the anchor and last minute change from the original designation of assisting tug to primary did not come through the initial UK news reports of the hearing.
It is beginning to seem like a pile of incidents which grew to produce a disaster.
Thanks for the comment Charles and you are welcome.
Another issue which may come out in the wash is the standard of training and experience of crews on these type of ships. I think that the Master of the Bourbon Dolphin made the correct decision to attempt to use the quick release but was doomed by as you say the pile of incidents, I wouldn’t question his professional abilities, but the sector as a whole has been recruiting like mad and there are bound to be some people getting through the safety net.
This could mean that routine jobs can become dangerous.
In all accident scenarios and deaths there are a pyramid of minor incidents and events, there could be a lot more to this than meets the eye.
I will be following the reports and keep posting on Shipspotting as well as my own blog.
Hi Tim
Thanks for your posting.
This is turning out to be very intresting.
I also believe that GulfMark Offshore the owners of the HighLand Valour employes mixed nationallity crews on their vessels and have done for 18 years it has also been againt seamans unions in the UK.
If this turns out that the HighLand Valour has a mixed nationallity based crew and was their was a brake down in communications then this has to stop employing ships with mixed nationallity as cheap labour to stop accidents like this happening again.
I have also heard that the captain of the Highland Valour was asked if he knew the directions of North South East and West from the captain of the Dolphin this has to be the worst case in SeaMan ship I ever heard especially in such dangerous conditions as Anchor Handeling.
It is going to be intresting what comes out the Investigation.
Keep us posted Tim what ever happens.
Hi Stuart, thanks for the comment, the problem of poor communications with mixed nationality crews has plagued the shipping industry for years, and as long as there are unscrupulous manning companies in for a fast buck then this problem won’t go away.
Unfortunately it takes loss of life for any action in any of these stories.
We will see what the reports come out with.
If poor shiphandling and badly trained crews are the cause of these deaths then maybe something will be done about it, I won’t be holding my breath though.
Tim, Many thanks for this blog (and to Stuart and Charles) so far.
I will be following it.
I’ve also set up a Google alert to monitor news/web pages.
I hope the enquiry go right down to the root causes and not stop half way.
Thanks for the comment, I will be monitoring the official investigation also. We will see what it reveals.
In reply to stuart with refernece to mixed nationality crew i think you will find that the only foregin national serving on the Highland Valour at present is a canadian whose first language happens to be English. So no language dificulties there. When I served on the Highland Valour as chief oficer all of the crew were from the UK as is 90% of Gulf Offshores (who own the Highland Valour) present sea going personnel. The Bourbon Dolphins loss has been felt throughout the Offshore oil and gas industry world wide and we should wait for the inquires report before apportioning blame.
Thank you for your comment. A valuable comment under the circumstances. It is inevitable that people will jump to conclusions and perhaps some people have done that in previous comments without meaning to cause hurt.
Waiting for the report of the official enquiry is important, hopefully it’s findings will lead to the implementation of practices that will prevent tragedies like this happening again.
My reason for posting the blog in the first place was to provide some insight into what the Norwegian press was saying about the hearing into the accident.
I print all comments, as long as they are not completely off the wall, and everyone has opinions often controversial, and sometimes interesting, sometimes not. I don’t believe any comments are malicious or blatantly apportioning blame, just people voicing opinions.
As a current crew member of the Highland Valour and eyewitness I am not currently allowed to comment on any events concerning the Bourbon Dolphin capsize, but would like to remind people not to speculate based on the frequently innacurate reporting from the media who quite frankly would not recognize an anchor if it fell on them. The official enquiry will reveal the whole story in time. Until then I suggest any media reports are taken with the large pinch of salt they usually deserve.
From the BBC today
ARENDAL, Norway—Assuranceforeningen Gard will not cover costs to raise the Bourbon Dolphin, a task the protection and indemnity club says is probably not possible and would be insured only if the shipowner is forced by authorities to raise the ship.
Thanks to Sean for the reminder. Very correct. I’m not sure about the difference between speculating and sharing opinions…but there we go.
To all posts
My apologies about the my last post I’m not out to speculate but simply commenting on the findings from the Court case last week in Norway.
15 years ago their was big disscussion’s about British vessel owners employing foriegn labour and replacing british crew memebers and making them unemployed and was under the impression Gulf Offshore was one of those companies along with Star Offshore.
No hard feelings
Once again any apologies
Stuart
No problem Stuart, I don’t mind (and wouldn’t try to stop) people discussing the incident but just remember the press won’t let the facts get in the way of a good headline.
As I say, talk away, but remember the media aren’t usually maritime experts.
I can’t say any more at the moment due to the fingers being pointed at us, but hope to come back in the future and discuss the matter.
Sean
Thank you all for the valuable information - I am the vessel master of a similar vessel operating in the Gulf of Mexico. A rig move in 3500′ of water is common place in that area and to have a tragedy strike to claim the lives of eight people gives rise to many questions. It really brings home the hazards of working in this industry.
I am still very confused as how the Bourbon Dolphin could get in a position where the anchor chain was over the side of the vessel. The other captains that I have talked to were speculating that there might have been a catastrophic pin failure to cause the chain to jump over the side. If they were doing a stern-to-stern transfer then poor seamanship on the other vessel could have caused the tragedy if they had their pins down to pass a J-hook or something like that. That, or possibly, the failure of engines could have caused an uncontrolled vessel movement.
If the emergncy release is anything like on the winch on our vessel it is a long process while the drums are rocked back and forth while trying to disengage.
It will be interesting to see what the official inquiry brings to light.
..also was curious about the flume (passive anti-roll) tanks. I wonder if these were in use and contributed to the instability?
Hi Charles, and welcome along. I have no information about what ballasting was done to try and rectify the list she took on. The only thing we can do is wait for the report of the investigation commission.
Below is a brief translation of a press announcement on the Norwegian Maritime Directorates news page.
On Friday the 4th of May 2007, the Norwegian Maritime Directorate held a meeting along with representatives from the offshore industry, ship designers, the Norwegian Ship Owners organisation and the classification societies. The meeting was to discuss what action should be taken in light of the Bourbon Dolphin accident.
One of the objects of the meeting was to quickly put together a group of experts with experience of such operations to map out the limitations of such ships, this group will report directly to the Maritime Directorate. The results of this groups findings will be presented to industry representatives including the operators and employees on rigs and anchor handlers, so that limitations are known during these operations, and what forces are acting on vessels and equipment during operations.
The Directorate said it was important to point out that this task force would not come into conflict with the work of the special accident investigation commission into Bourbon Dolphins capsize and sinking.
Hi again
I here leave you a link to the latest information from the cout hearing on the 25th may from the witnesses.
http://bourbon-online.com/media/corporate/xs_9376_bourbon_offshore.pdf
Best regards
Stuart
It is high time that the existing OSV Code for Offshore Support Vessel is further developed and strongly introduced as a robust design and construction guidelines like the IMO MODU Code. It would certianly help the industry to focus on a single source rather than going through many other exiting rules as their suitably application with doubts and lack of clarity.
Further, at present there are not much specific requirements (my personal opinion) on the design guidelines for the deck machinery items like AHT Winch, Stern Roller and other deck mounted anchor handling deck machinery..which are part and parcel of the anchor handling operation. There should be specific design rules implying the proper functionality especially control and safety, material selection, fabrication, installation and testing. In short, these important machinery should be brought under Class certified machinery.