In a year when container ships have never been far from the headlines, 2013 ended with another such incident. On 29th December the 50,963gt/2007 built MSC Monterey evacuated by air four passengers who opted to leave the ship around 60 kilometres south of Portugal Cove South, Newfoundland, Canada.

The ship reported issues with her hull in heavy seas so two Cormorant helicopters from Gander, N.L., were sent to the scene. A regular visitor to Felixstowe, the 4,870teu capacity ship was en route from Antwerp to Boston when she came to a halt after crew discovered a crack in her main deck as the vessel sailed past the coast of Newfoundland. The crack on the main deck was approximately 1.5 metres long and it extended 30cm to the outer hull. The ship anchored in the bay of Cape Pine and later moved to St Mary’s Bay.

The ship was inspected and vessel operator NSB Reederei said the repair plans involved welding stiffeners, once manufactured, to the vessel’s main deck. The work was undertaken by a Canadian company with experience in this field with a duration of around seven days. A representative of Germanischer Lloyd supervised the works on-site, and once completed the MSC Monterey continued her voyage as part of her charter to MSC. NSB is also the operator of the now infamous MSC Flaminia, which caught fire and suffered an explosion in July.

The bad weather gave other container ships a hard time including the 92,293gt/2008 built Maersk Stepnica, which made an emergency call at Felixstowe on 8th January after a row of her containers situated on the stern had toppled in the tempestuous sea conditions. The 65,730gt/2004 built CMA CGM Rossini also lost 14 containers overboard and the 39,174gt/1998 built OOCL Belgium was checked over in Liverpool after enduring 40 degree rolls.