Cargo ship overturned in Hudson..

[Donn]

.."Updated: 12/9/2003 5:15 PM
By: Capital News 9 web staff



A cargo ship overturned at the Federal Marine Terminal in Albany at 3 p.m. today.

Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings said 18 crew members were on the
ship and three remain unaccounted for. He said they're believed to be inside the ship.

Jennings said the Dutch ship had loaded 600 metric tons of steel turbines bound for Italy when the load apparently shifted, causing the ship to turn partly on its side.

The ship remains tethered to the dock and Jennings said it appears to be stable.

A crane was brought in to rescue the remaining crew on board the ship.

The Coast Guard is sending a 49 foot boat from the Coast Guard station in Saugerties to assist in the search and rescue efforts.

Officials are now concerned that the rescue may be hampered by the loss of daylight and the freezing cold temperatures of the water.

None of the rescued crew members appear to have life threatening injuries. Albany Medical Center has two patients that are under evaluation. St Peter's Hospital has four patients under evaluation with complaints that they are wet and cold.

Albany Memorial had one patient brought into the ER to be treated for hypothermia. Doctors have since treated him, and he is expected to be released shortly."

The ship is named something like Stella Mar Willemsted (sp?). There are divers working now, looking for the cargo hold, where the missing men are believed to be. She's taking on water.

[Mike Field]

.
:(

Still, better now than if she'd got half-way to Italy first.
.

[Ken Hutchins]

"the load apparently shifted" sounds like somebody's quick statement of a cover-up to the fact that somebody actually screwed up.

[Jack Heinlen]

"the load apparently shifted" sounds like somebody's quick statement of a cover-up to the fact that somebody actually screwed up. Ain't that the truth. How does a load just shift at a pier in Albany? Someone didn't make the foundation firm.

It's amazed me since I was little, this shipping business. Men going to sea in winter, in steel ships. Brrr.

My thoughts are with those three still missing. It was bloody cold here this morning, five degrees F, though a warm front is due today so hopefully it wasn't so frigid in Albany last night. I hope they are alright.

[George Roberts]

The load shifts when ...

The boat tips for what ever reason (too much load on one side) and then the load slides on the deck.

I don't think there is ever a calculation of stability/leaning during loading.

[mmd]

It is the First Officer's responsibilty to ensure that loading is done safely, and he should (and usually does) prepare a loading plan based on information given to him on the size, mass, and C of G of the materiel to be onloaded. There are several computer programs designed for just this task, and they run continuously updated stability scenarios during the loading process.

Without specific data from the accident inquiry investigators it is foolhearty to speculate, but usually these types of accidents are caused by an unfortunate sequence of seemingly un-related human errors, such as the case of the large containership that rolled to a frightening angle whilst at dock in Oregon (?) that we all commented on here last year. In that one I think it was a lack of communications between engineering while engaged in loading fresh water and the bridge while loading containers.

[gary porter]

Any word on the remaining crew? Hoping they made it.
Gary

[Mark T]

Just watched the local news update. The State police divers quit looking for the three missing crew around 5 o'clock today. They have not been found.
One generator was in the hold, another being lowered into the hold by 2 cranes when the accident happened. Really no official reason for the capsize yet. Rumor has two spotters on deck waving off to the crane operators just prior to the accident. Vessel currently rests in 30 feet of water, partly submerged. The divers said the generator is under the vessel proping it up. Operations to remove the fuel are going on some fuel has leaked but not very much yet. Heavy rains forecast for tonight could be a problem..
Vessel is about 300 feet long. Heavy lift ,2 cranes.Reportdely the Company that operates the ship is top notch with updated equipment on their vessels. This is one of their smaller ships.

[Donn]

"1:21 PM EST Wednesday
Overturned vessel continues to block Port of Albany access
Eric Durr
The Business Review
The Port of Albany remained closed Wednesday in the wake of the rollover of the Dutch vessel Stellamare, which overturned on Dec. 9 as two mammoth pieces of generator equipment were being loaded.

Rescue workers were also continuing to search for the remaining three workers who were on board when the ship overturned. The other 15 crew members were accounted for.

The 289-foot-Stellamare capsized on Tuesday afternoon while a 240-ton generator made by General Electric Co., and a 300-ton component to an electric turbine were being loaded on to the ship. The ship is owned by the Jumbo Shipping Co. SA of Switzerland, and was to transport the cargo to Italy and Romania.

The Hudson River was closed to boats upriver and downriver from the port as recovery operations continued. The intention of the Coast Guard was to open the port to traffic on a case-by-case basis, said Commander John Cameron, the chief of the Coast Guard's Marine Safety Operations Division for New York.

"We are working with Hudson River pilots and port officials around the Port of Albany to determine what cargoes are the most essential to pass this area, and what the specific parameters of each vessel bearing each load are so we can make a case-by-case analysis and restore as much commerce activity as possible," Cameron said.

On Dec. 10 it was too early to determine how long restrictions on movement in and out of the port area would be in place, Cameron said. Priority was being given to fuel oil barges due into the port from New York City. Another cargo ship was due to arrive on Thursday, and efforts were being made to allow it to dock, according to the Coast Guard.

In an early afternoon press conference at the scene, Gov. George Pataki said that efforts to contain spilled diesel fuel had been successful, and the ship had been stabilized. He said that officials anticipated opening the river to small boats by the afternoon. Because the accident occurred at a bend in the river, larger ships that would require a turning area would have a harder time accessing the port, he said.

Allowing certain, less maneuverable vessels to move up and down the river past the site where the 290-foot Stellamare sits on the river bottom could disrupt recovery, salvage and environmental containment operations, Cameron said.

"The pilots, the port officials and the Coast Guard will impose whatever mitigation strategies we can on a case-by-case basis," Cameron said.

City of Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings said it was too early to determine what the economic impact of the accident would be. The first priority is to recover the missing crewmembers, Jennings said.

Salvage Masters, a Swedish company, has already been called to begin the operation of righting the Stellamare. Salvage experts from around the world are on their way to Albany to assist, Cameron said.

There's no estimate on how long it will take to right the ship.

"Righting the ship will be the end result of a long and technical salvage operation," Cameron said.

There's no price tag yet on how much a recovery operation will cost. Jennings said the question of who will be paying to salvage the ship hasn't been addressed yet.

The Coast Guard has already launched a "casualty investigation" to determine the cause of the accident. At this point there's nothing to indicate that the load, equal to 500 tons, was too much for the ship, Cameron told reporters.

"The combined weight of the cargo on board, and what was being loaded was within 20 percent of the capacity of the vessel," he said. "We do not believe, at this time, that any parameters of the vessel were grossly exceeded in regards to the load itself," Cameron said.

The Port of Albany has long served as a shipping hub for GE Power Systems. The port has specialized in bulk cargo but is now seeking to attract container traffic. A state-subsidized weekly container barge service from New York City to Albany was launched earlier this year. "

© 2003 American City Business Journals Inc.

[gary porter]

Thanks Mark and Donn, sorry to hear they haven't found them.
Gary

[ 12-10-2003, 05:51 PM: Message edited by: gary porter ]

[Meerkat]

As I understand it, the list that developed in the cargo ship here in Seattle last fall was due to a software error which caused a computer to incorrectly flood ballast trim tanks.

[Ralph M Bohm]

This is truly a shame. If anyone knows where there is more info on this, I would like to print it out to bring to class tomorrow morning

[Keith Wilson]

Here's a picture:

http://www.tulsaworld.com/images/2003/031210_missing_ship2.jpg

http://www.tulsaworld.com/images/2003/031210_missing_ship.jpg

[ 12-10-2003, 05:56 PM: Message edited by: Keith Wilson ]

[mmd]

The Stellamare in better trim:

http://www.jumboship.nl/website_groot/fleet/jw31.jpg

[Phil Young]

WOW, 600 T of turbine has to be an expensive cargo to drop in the water. Hate to be the insurer on that one.

[Concordia..41]

Vessel is about 300 feet long Even without the loss of lives, that is a very bad day.

[brian.cunningham]

:(

[Alan D. Hyde]

Whatever happened appears to have happened very quickly.

Surely vessel operators have SOPs that are designed to prevent such surprises, and the loss of life and property that may result.

What, then, went wrong???

Alan

[mmd]

Yes, Alan, they have very detailed SOP's, buttressed by sophisticated computer systems to aid the humans doing the lift. But heavy lifts are very tricky operations. Once the lift is "on the hook", the effective centre of gravity of the lift is at the jibhead of the crane, and transverse stability becomes a bit tenuous. One small problem, such as a small gust of wind, can set in motion a sequence of events that happens so quickly that neither the ships' equipment nor the human operators can compensate quickly enough to avert disaster. Jumbo Shipping is a pretty experienced operator in a field (30 years in business) which doesn't tolerate slipshod work very well. I wouldn't doubt that human error played a small part in the accident, but I'd be very suprised if human negligence or inexperience was causative in any way.

To get a grasp of the moments of force involved in a heavy lift, consider this backyard experiment:

Fill a bucket with water and place it on the patio. With a boat gaff in hand, balance on a short plank on a 6" diameter pipe section. You're a bit wobbly, right? You are the ship rolling gently on it's metacentre. Place the bucket on the plank between your feet - the cargo is now in the hold, your total centre of gravity has lowered, and you are even more stable than without the bucket. Now put the water bucket on the gaff hook and carefully lift the bucket to the level of your head, holding the gaff with two hands, but only at the last 18 inches of the gaff handle. Pretty wobbly, right? Now have a friend give the bucket a push so that it sways slightly from side to side ...

Got wet, didn't you?

[Donn]

Alan...would you please photograph this test? :D

[Alan D. Hyde]

Sure, Donn.

When are you going to perform it??

:D :D

Alan

[George Roberts]

While I like mmd's outdoors experiment, I am not certain how relavent it is. Try it with a cup of water and things work out much better.

I don't know much about the ohysics of things this size, but ...

It seems that if things can happen too fast for the personal and equipment to react (as mmd indicates may happen), then the equipment is overloaded and a different solution should be sought.

My initial post above assumed that the loading was done by dock based cranes.

There are so many things an engineer would need to know before approving a lift like this. Most of them involve how much power is required to compensate for changes in trim and how much control is in the equipment and how much needs to be supplied by the personal.

In any case, someone had insurance and all will be made whole.

[mmd]

... 'cept for the three poor souls who met an icy demise. :(

Oh, and George? I suggested a bucket rather than a cup so the experimenter can grasp the concept of a heavy lift! ;)

[ 12-11-2003, 05:24 PM: Message edited by: mmd ]

[JimD]

Whenever I get cynical and begin to presume that bad things happen because someone carefully plans them to happen sad stories like this remind me of just how incompetent humans can be.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Plus ca change.....

I handled the wreck removal of the Dutch heavy lift ship "Happy Runner" in New Orleans in 1983.

These ships are ballasted to handle the lifts and the whole exercise is run through a computer.

This depends on the shipper of the heavy lift not telling a porky pie and understating the weight of the lift so as to pay less freight.

Of course, I don't know what happened here.

[Rogue Sailor]

Divers pulled a second body from the cargo hold of the capsized Stellamare on Saturday as authorities identified the dead man recovered less than 20 hours earlier as 48-year-old engineer Yuri Akofin.

The Smit Salvage divers re-entered the ship's hold Saturday afternoon to continue their work. They must remove the Stellamare's eight bulkhead floors, seal the hold and pump the water out of it before the vessel can be righted, Miller said.

[mmd]

Thanks for the update, RS. We are too far away to hear of any news on the salvage operation. It is very sad that the accident took lives, but I wish I were closer to observe the salvage work. The engineering challenges and guts to do the work are fascinating stuff to me.

[George Roberts]

mmd ---

It was not my intent to comment on the deaths only on the loss of the boat.

I appologize if I appearsed to be insensitive.

[mmd]

George, I did not take your comments as insensitive. I only wanted to make sure that others who would view our conversations about the technical bits of the capsizing of a ship were sure that we were not being callous to the seamans' deaths. Sometimes our zeal for the engineering aspects of an accident hides the fact that we are compassionate about the human losses as well.