Thanks to Mark from Cork for the inspiration for this one, a spoof interview about a tanker accident in the 90’s, the accident really happened. It was a Greek tanker called the Kirki. Here is a link to the actual story from AMSA http://www.amsa.gov.au/Marine_Environment_Protection/Major_Oil_Spills_in_Australia/Kirki/index.asp
Archive for the 'Dodgy ships' Category
Job the biblical holder of the eternal patience award would have pulled his beard out and gone doo-lally if he ever had to do the job of VTS operator at Rotterdam. The VTS(Vessel traffic service) people organise the shipping traffic in and out of Rotterdam,one of the worlds busiest ports. There is a ship arriving every couple of minutes and most require a pilot, and all have to be directed to ensure the best possible flow of traffic. The Dutch are also very good at speaking English, it is their second language, even if they have a slight accent, it is perfectly understandable. Most of the operators have a clear calm voice, a bit arrogant at times, blasting away in Dutch to the people who know how to blast away at Dutch. Anyway why shouldn’t they it’s their port.
Now speaking English is of course a pre-requisite for maritime communications, if you can’t speak English it doesn’t reflect on your intelligence oh no, but you sound stupid on the VHF if you can’t speak it in a half decent manner, there is even a book with the correct phrases to use for non-English speakers, a lot of them don’t have it or don’t read it or don’t know how to read it as was apparent the other day when we were just about to anchor off port limits to wait for our berth to become free. The VTS was being hailed by a ship’s officer on the VHF, but it sounded like he was reading from a badly rehearsed script.
Characters; 1. VTS Maas Approach, 2. A ship we shall call Doolally of nation unknown and we will give him the call sign X-ray 2 Yankee India 4.
Doolally: “Maas Approach this is Xway tu rankee dindee faw”
VTS: What is your name?
Doolally: My ETA at 14hundra
VTS: OK X-ray 2 Yankee India 4 ETA 14hundred, what is your name?
Doolally: My dwaft 10 boint 8 meetaahs….
VTS: OK draft 10.8 metres what is your ships name?
Doolally: Pleeeze rephet massage?
VTS:What is your vessels name, please spell your name.
Doolally: sshhhhhhh, aaaaarggh doooooodaaaaah
VTS:OK you are breaking up please spell the ships name
Doolally: My call sign is…….
VTS: What is your name?
Doolally: (silence)……10 minutes goes by
VTS: X-ray 2 Yankee India 4 this is Maas approach do you read?
Doolally: (silence) no reply
VTS: X-ray 2 Yankee India 4 this is Maas approach do you read?
The conversation ended there, the ship stopped communicating, or decided to go somewhere else or God knows what. The VTS operator had other ships to deal with and that was the end of it.
Now I was talking about ships being piloted in by radio in a post not so long ago http://timstimes.net/2008/01/09/pilotage-from-shore/ all very well and good, you can have technology, you can have great radio equipment, but at the end of the day, if the guys on the ship no speaka da language, you won’t be able to do anything let alone pilot them from ashore.
I witnessed a rare event when I saw the boys on the Adrianople from Limassol doing a lifeboat drill while alongside in Foynes, Co. Limerick. The rarity of the event was the state of her lifeboat, from what I can see in the picture it doesn’t have a motor. So in 2008 there are ships going around with sail powered lifeboats. I suppose it might have its advantages, no motor maintenance, no fuel consumption all you need is a bit of a breeze and away you go. I wouldn’t particularly like to have to be involved in a rescue attempt if God forbid they had a man overboard or if they were caught in situation where they has to abandon in bad weather. I didn’t see the boat on the other side, it might have had a motor.
The badly painted name on the stern and the paint over job on the sail of the lifeboat reveals the former name of Golden Farmer, she was discharging grain on the day in Foynes.
The Chief Officer from the Wilson Garston http://timstimes.net/2007/12/30/drunken-sailor/ that ran aground on Christmas Day received a prison sentence of 3 months for “grovsjöfylleri” as they say in Swedish. For being drunk in charge of a ship in other words. The 33 year old Russian officer was alone on the bridge at the time and was asleep due to the influence alcohol and medication. He had 0.89 per mg of alcohol in his blood, the law in Sweden states that 1,0 mg is “grovsjöfylleri” but in this case because he was asleep and the ship grounded he got that sentence.
Swedish links Sydsvenskan with photographs and here also Sydsvenskan which shows how the ship became a tourist attraction.
As reported by Reuters via Youtube.
Last year when leaving the Elbe during Beaufort Force 6 to 7 wind conditions several of the type of tanker “Volgoneft” and other similar cargo ships were at anchor in a row, I asked the pilot about it he said that they have not got the power in their engines for this kind of weather. They didn’t have the stability either, so they had to wait it out for better weather. The ships in the Black Sea the other day had no chance. God rest the poor unfortunate sailors who died, and God help the families left behind.
Back in 1986 the ore carrier Kowloon Bridge sank off the Irish coast, in the vicinity of the Stags Rocks near Baltimore west Cork. The wreck is the biggest by tonnage in the world and is a huge diving tourism magnet to the area. She had gotten into difficulty and needed repairs so stopped at Bantry for repairs, on proceeding from Bantry she got into difficulty again in storms and “lost her rudder”, a bit of a disaster, the crew abandoned ship and the ship hit the rocks and later sank despite salvage attempts.
Built as the English Bridge in 1973 in Newcastle upon Tyne she was renamed Worcestershire, then Sunshine, then Murcurio when owned by Grimaldi, she became Crystal Transporter in 1983 and in 1985 the name welded to the stern was her everlasting and final name Kowloon Bridge.
Anyway some of the firemen on the firecourse were telling me that they were divers also in their spare time, the excitement of fighting fires was not enough for these boys. They had been diving at the wreck of the Kowloon Bridge and were saying that the area was being buoyed and cordonned off for a salvage operation.
I did a bit of investigation and found out that the owners of the wreck paid the minister of the marine €1.135 million in 2005 as a settlement to for damages, a bit more than the £1 paid back in 1986 by the second owner Shaun Kent, but peanuts compared to the value of the iron ore cargo that has being lying there for 20 odd years. There have been challenges form environmentalists and local Cork people reported in the papers from November 2006 against the “environmental catastrophe” that awaits when they start to salvage the ship and cargo. The price of metal these days has made the salvage more profitable, so I think the diving gang are going to be minus a wreck object in the near future, unfortunately for them.
The other interesting thing about this ship is that she is the sister to the ill fated “Derbyshire” which sank in the South China sea in 1980 without so much as a mayday and all hands lost 44 people in all. Nothing was done about the Derbyshire until the Kowloon Bridge sank, the Derbyshire has been the subject of many theories and t.v. programmes she was found in 1994 and a brief history is found here http://www.nautical-heritage.org.uk/derbyshire.html
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