The 39,454gt/2012 built and 4,200 capacity car carrier Viking Emerald ran aground on 14th November on the Washington side of the Columbia River, while heading from Tacoma to Portland. The ship is owned by Norway’s gram Car Carriers and managed by OSM Ship Management in Singapore. The incident was caused by a steering failure and the vessel was later refloated.

A few days later the un-laden tanker Zi Yun 1 collided with a sand carrier, the Guo Liang 399, near Zhoushan, China, on 23rd November, leading to the sinking of the sand carrier. The eight crew members aboard the sand carrier had to jump into the water as she sank. Four were rescued but four were missing. The Zi Yun 1 is operated by Zhejiang Longyu Shipping while the Guo Liang 399 is operated by Wuhu Guoliang Shipping. Four days earlier the bulk carrier Hua Chun 19 sank in the Yellow Sea near Lianyungang whilst carrying 4,000 tonnes of steel products from Qingdao to Guangzhou. Five of the eleven crew were rescued but six were missing. 

The next day the 10,519gt/1996 reefer Ship Crown Emma, of Sweden’s Amalia Shipping, ran aground in the Bosporus near Kirecburnu on the western bank. The ship failed to respond to traffic control calls prior to the grounding and came perilously close to ploughing into a petrol station on the shore after what was a rudder failure. The ship was en-route from Varna in Bulgaria to Algeciras in Spain and is just the latest in a string of casualties in the Bosporus.

That same day the 4,462gt/1991 built Skog, with a cargo of paper, was reported as adrift and taking on water off the Orkney Islands. The Maritime and Coastguard agency’s emergency towing vessel, ETV Herakles, was also sent to the scene as well as the UK-flagged emergency response vessel Vos Hera. The ship was eventually taken in tow by the 1,641gt/1980 built ETV Herakles.

Eleven people were feared dead when the 4,852gt/1991 built general cargo vessel Fortune life sank on 27th November after the ship capsized when her cargo of 7,500 tons of feldspar shifted. Eight crew were rescued. The seafarers consisted of 18 Chinese and one Vietnamese and the ship went down 130 nautical miles west of Luzon Island, while en route from Taiwan to Malaysia.

The Russian oil tanker Nadezhda ran aground after hitting a reef near the port city of Nevelsk on Russia’s Sakhalin Island on 29th November. The 709gt/1986 built vessel, which is owned by Russian company DV Akvatoria, was carrying 786 tons of fuel oil and diesel fuel. The tank on the ship was damaged and spilled oil, with clean-up operations ensuing. Sakhalin Island, located to the north of Japan, is a major producer of oil and natural gas.

Two days later two general cargo vessels, the Dutch-flagged 2,981gt/2009 built Eendracht and the 4,871gt/2000 built Gibraltar-flagged Transcapricorn, collided off Hamburg, in the Oste estuary, Elbe, Germany. The Eendracht was on her way from Hamburg to Harlingen when she changed course due to unknown reasons and approached the stern of the cargo vessel Transcapricorn, which was carrying scrap metal from Rotterdam to Tornio. As a result of the collision, the 2000-built Transcapricorn was pushed ashore and developed a slight list. The vessel was soon refloated with the help of the tug Wulf 7. Both cargo vessels were sea worthy after the incident and proceeded to the port of Cuxhaven, where they were inspected for damage.

The report has been released into the grounding of the Lysblink Seaways (above) on 18th February 2015. The sole Watchkeeper of the UK-flagged ship was drunk (after consuming 5 litres of rum) when the ship ran aground at full speed whilst en passage from Belfast to Skogn, Norway. The vessel was declared a total loss after spending almost 2 days aground during adverse weather. The grounding resulted in material damage to her hull and the double bottom was breached, including some fuel tanks, resulting in 25 tonnes of marine gas oil entering the water. The MAIB also found that the bridge navigational watch alarm system (BNWAS) had not been switched on and an off-track alarm on the Electronic Chart System (ECS) had been silenced. Although a radar watch alarm had sounded every 6 minutes, the officer was able to reset the alarm without leaving his chair. The vessel’s owner, DFDS a/S, has taken action to enhance compliance with the SMS on sister vessels, with particular emphasis on control of alcohol consumption and bridge resource management.

Storms Abigail, Barney, Clodagh and Desmond each caused considerable disruption for shipping and ferry services and on 28th November Storm Clodagh gave the 14,030gt/2006 built reefer Star First a nudge in 4 metre seas off Boulogne-sur-Mer in the English Channel whilst en-route from Almirante, Panama to Sheerness. Over a dozen containers were lost overboard (exact number unconfirmed) with some washed up near Calais the next day and twelve were found by the French tug Abeille Languedoc.

On the evening of 3rd December the 4,563gt/2000 built Emsmoon ploughed through a span of a railway bridge across the river Ems near Weener (above), closing the bridge indefinitely. The bridge had failed to lift for the approaching ship and, once untangled from the wreckage, the ship was moored at Papenburg pending an investigation.

The 1,999gt/1996 built low air draught coaster EMS Majestic issued a Mayday call from her position in the Dover Strait just after 1900 on 6th December. A number of ships in the area responded to the sinking vessel, according to the Maritime and Coastguard agency and two of the ship’s crew of seven were airlifted to land for safety reasons. The 2,089gt/2015 built Thor Frigg, a seismic research vessel bound for Portsmouth, towed the ship to the safety of the eastern Solent where the Itchen Marine tug Wyeforce took over the tow, bound for Southampton assisted by the tug Wyepush. The stricken ship suffered water ingress into the engine room in stormy weather whilst en-route from Rotterdam to St. Malo. The crew was unable to pump out the water so requested assistance. Subsequent reports stated that the ship had not taken on sea water; the water in the engine room was the result of a fresh water leak from the main engine coolant.

On 3rd December the 21,143gt/2011 built vehicle carrier City of Rotterdam collided with the 32,523gt/2004 built ro-ro vessel Primula Seaways in the river Humber. The Primula Seaways was coming from Rotterdam in bad weather. As it approached the Humber, the Primula Seaways collided head-on with the City of Rotterdam. The City of Rotterdam sustained extensive damage to its portside bow. She had a 40 foot long breach over multiple decks and a notable crack in the hull. The Primula Seaways proceeded to Killinghome while the City of Rotterdam berthed in Immingham. Authorities detained both vessels and launched an investigation into the incident.