Precautionary tales

A commercial shipping company reported four grounding incidents within a twelve month period, all with pilots on board. No assistance from pilots to assist in investigations.

Grounded whilst drifting and waiting for a tender to return. Captain and Mate failed to monitor the boat’s drift.

Anchored in a river in South America, in strong wind and current. The Captain decided to ride it out. Unfortunately the wind strengthened further and the anchor started to drag. Decided to weigh anchor and tried to turn head through the wind but was unsuccessful. Grounded heavily and fractured rudder stock.

A Captain suffered burns when he put his foot in an open bucket of hot oil. Engineers had heated the oil for work on a bearing and had placed the open container at the foot of a ladder.

A drinking water bottle was used to keep electro-cleaning solvent. An Engineer mistook it for his bottle of water and drank it suffering internal injuries.  The Company has now banned water bottles from being used for anything other than water.

A rescue boat release wire was reported to be ‘banging’ in wind. A crewmember tied it to the boat spray rail. During the next launch, this was not released and tore the spray rail off the boat.

A Deckhand was using a pressurised air hose. The line became obstructed, and he looked down the nozzle whilst shaking the line to unblock it. This he did successfully and lost his eye.

During anchoring operations, a Deckhand noticed a high-pressure lubricating oil hose leaking and attempted to stop leak with the palm of his hand. Oil jet passed through palm.