The container vessel LT Cortesia (click on the name for more info about the ship)went aground on the Varne bank in the English Channel about 9 nautical miles from Dover Harbour yesterday. The British news was full of stories about a giant container ship aground, and that later it had been refloated, and there are plenty links on the net about the when and the where of the whole story. The big questions are the how and the why of the grounding, the Varne bank is not a concealed navigation hazard, anyone who has been up and down the English channel a few times knows about it and even if you had never been there before it is well charted and there is a great big red light on top of it that can be seen for miles around. It is possible to make all sorts of assumptions about what could have happened to cause the ship to steam onto a sand bank, like was the echo sounder on and the alarm set? was there sufficient position fixing? who had the conn and did everyone know this? was there a passage plan with parallel indexing and no go areas, did they know what the draught was in relation to the available depth of water? and so on and so on. The MAIB will in due course publish a report, until then it will be speculation all over the shop.
From the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/kent/7167666.stm
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