Oil Tanker on fire after collision with cargo ship (East Yorkshire Coast)

arknor

arknor

arknor

Caporegime
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22 Nov 2005
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looks crazy and only 10 miles off the coast, possibly carrying jet fuel


www.bbc.co.uk

Oil tanker and cargo vessel collide in North Sea

A major rescue operation is under way after the ships collided off the Humber Estuary.
www.bbc.co.uk

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Something to do with Russians I reckon.....

Not sure with all the warning systems available to ships how this was possible. We'll find out in due course I'm sure
 
sx_turbo said:
Something to do with Russians I reckon.....

Not sure with all the warning systems available to ships how this was possible. We'll find out in due course I'm sure
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MV Sena Immaculate - US flagged tanker and MV Solong - Portugal flagged cargo ship. Dunno much about them but the recent history doesn't seem to suggest Russian operation involved.
 
Rroff said:
MV Sena Immaculate - US flagged tanker and MV Solong - Portugal flagged cargo ship. Dunno much about them but the recent history doesn't seem to suggest Russian operation involved.
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Dunno like. The Trump seems to be a definite Russian shill!
 
According to the BBC:

However, unusually, this is one of just 10 oil tankers enlisted in a US government programme which is designed to supply the armed forces with fuel during times of armed conflict or national emergency.

It means they can be called upon by the US military at short notice but there's no indication that it was being used for these purposes when this accident happened.
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Before we jump too far down the foul play rabbit hole have a watch of the "What's going on with Shipping" summary on YT.

He shows the previous 7 days movements of both vessels. The Solong is going backwards and forwards between Rotterdam and somewhere in the Firth of Forth. It follows exactly the same course on each transit. It appears most likely they set autopilot and then weren't manning any kind of proper watch. They made no speed changes and took zero evasive manoeuvres. It just so happened Sena Immaculate anchored on the course Solong had been using.

 
At least the Stena Immaculate is relatively small (maximum capacity 46,572 cubic metres apparently, vs 235,000 cubic metresalon the Exxon Valdez) and guessing that jet fuel is less polluting than crude oil, but still imagine there will be a large environmental impact...

With the Stena apparently at anchor and not moving this surely must be a case of gross negligence by the Solong, even if the crew don't turn out to be Russian.

If they were just sailing on a set route and not even looking where they were going that's crazy :eek:
 
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GreatAuk said:
If they were just sailing on a set route and not even looking where they were going that's crazy :eek:
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I see a lot of this kind of complacent laziness these days - seems to be on a massive rise in the last few years, it is scary how people can divest themselves of responsibility somehow even when there is a easily foreseeable serious consequence.
 
GreatAuk said:
If they were just sailing on a set route and not even looking where they were going that's crazy :eek:
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how many people are even onboard these cargo ships though? even the massive ones seem to have like a crew of 5-10 people.

it's crazy how much companies penny pinch


chatgpt claims

  • Large container ships (e.g., 20,000+ TEU): Usually have 22–30 crew members.
  • Bulk carriers and tankers: Typically have 20–25 crew members.
  • Highly automated ships: Can operate with as few as 13–20 crew members.
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some of those crew members are security, cooks , janitors etc? I bet it leaves like 5-10 people who do the actual running of the ship
 
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arknor said:
how many people are even onboard these cargo ships though? even the massive ones seem to have like a crew of 5-10 people.

it's crazy how much companies penny pinch


chatgpt claims


some of those crew members are security, cooks , janitors etc? I bet it leaves like 5-10 people who do the actual running of the ship
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Yeah wouldn't be surprised to find that there was a very barebones crew on board and that the company might have been operating with unsafe staffing levels, just seems to me that having one guy at the helm with a vague awareness of what's happening in the direct path of the ship would be a role that should be prioritised! Especially when they're relatively close to a port and there's a high likelihood of other ships being around.
 
Fatigue would be my guess. Coastal cargo and container feeder ships’s like Solong run frequent, short passages in busy waters, with constant pilotage, mooring and cargo ops. The crews often work 6 hours on, 6 hours off shifts, which makes it impossible to get 6 hours of continuous sleep, especially when companies also expect you to do unpaid “overtime” as part of your contract. A few weeks of that and you’re absolutely hollowed out.

Never did it myself, as I did 10 years as an engineering officer deep sea on tankers and LNG, but a friend of mine from college did his 1st trip qualified around Europe as a deck officer on small coastal bulk carriers, and it sounded absolutely horrendous.
 
Don't most ships/boats have AIS tracking onboard, certainly commercial i would thought something like that is mandatory, what did they do sleep through that kind of alarm going off giving warning they were on track for a collision with a stationary ship ......
 
I reckon this is a case of **** poor watchkeeping (or none at all) on the cargo ship as it's the only way something like this can happen. She was doing 16 knots with no course change when she hit the anchored tanker (even though she was anchored there should still be a watch maintained and there should have been radio messages sent from the tanker). The skipper of the cargo ship will be crucified anyway because at the end of the day it's his command and his duty to ensure that a good watch is maintained. Many ships these days have multinational crew, many of which cannot speak English so that may have been a factor as well.
 
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