NOL’s 14,000 TEU container ship APL Vanda executed a controlled grounding at Bramble Bank in the U.K. after losing power on Saturday night.
Port of Southampton Vessel Traffic Services sent eight tugs to the vessel. No damage or pollution has been reported. APL Vanda was pulled into deeper water shortly after midnight and has now returned to port safely.
The Singapore-registered container ship is more than twice the size of the car carrier Hoegh Osaka which was deliberately grounded in the same location in January last year.
Saturday’s incident comes less than two weeks after the mega-container ship CSCL Indian Ocean, ran aground in the Elbe River as it headed towards the Port of Hamburg.
Another ‘Megaship’ Grounds in Europe
An ultra large containership had to make a controlled grounding in the Solent Saturday night while on its way to the port of Southampton, the second incident this month involving a so-called ‘megaship’ running into trouble in European waters.
The UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency said it responded to the incident and reported that a large container ship executed a controlled grounding on the Bramble Bank after experiencing a loss of power Saturday night in Southampton Water. At time of update the vessel was already under tow and making its way to the Port of Southampton.
The ship is the 365 meter APL Vanda, a 2013-built ultra large container vessel (ULCV) with the capacity to carry 13,892 twenty foot equivalent units (teu). The incident occurred as the ship was sailing from Le Havre to Southampton.
The Coastguard reported that eight tugs were sent to assist the containership by Port of Southampton Vessel Traffic Services (VTS). No damage or pollution was reported, the Coastguard said.
The incident is the second grounding involving a so-called ‘megaship’ in European inland waterways in the past two weeks.
On February 3rd, the 19,100 teu vessel CSCL Indian Ocean ran aground on the River Elbe leading to the port of Hamburg. The Hong Kong-flagged ship spent six days hard aground before it was refloated with the help of 12 tugs early Tuesday morning. The cause of that incident is under investigation.
The 150,951 APL Vanda is one of ten highly efficient, 14,000 teu containerships ordered by APL in 2011 from Hyundai Heavy Industries. At the time the ships were touted as some of a the most fuel efficient in the world, with a new hull design optimized for slow steaming. At 369 meters long, the containerships are only slightly smaller than the 400 meter, 18,000 teu ships that are currently considered the world’s biggest.
APL is part of the container shipping arm of Singapore’s Neptune Orient Lines, which was taken over by CMA CGM in December.
You may recall, the Bramble Bank is the same place where the MV Hoegh Osaka car carrier was intentionally grounded in January 2015 after the ship lost stability leaving the port of Southampton.
Tugs manage to refloat grounded APL Vanda, but there are fears over ULCV salvage
By Mike Wackett
The 13,892 teu APL Vanda was refloated from Bramble Bank in the early hours of yesterday after being deliberately grounded following a loss of power.
The vessel was on its way into the UK south coast port of Southampton on Saturday evening, when, said the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), the ultra-large container vessel (ULCV) had “executed a controlled grounding”.
Local reports said that the ship had been grounded by its stern with half of its rudder remaining out of the water.
Eight tugs successfully pulled the ULCV off the sand bar shortly after midnight and towed it into the port for inspection.
The 150,000dwt vessel was en route from Le Havre with a pilot aboard when an “engine blackout” occurred, putting the ship at the mercy of strong currents and high winds – making a grounding the only option.
Bramble Bank is an arrowhead-shaped piece of sand off Cowes, Isle of Wight, that is uncovered at low tide and can also be affected by prolonged easterly winds. It is a well known hazard for shipping in the Solent.
However, in extreme cases grounding on the sand bar can prevent a disabled ship from drifting and the car-carrier Hoegh Osaka beached itself there last year when it began listing dangerously after shortly after departing Southampton.
The big danger for ships on the Bramble Bank is that they will sink deeper into the sand with each tide. Further complications for the APL Vanda were prevented by the swift action of the port in sending tugs to the scene.
The APL Vanda grounding is the second casualty within a week involving an ULCV in North Europe. The 19,100 teu CSCL Indian Ocean was deliberately grounded in the River Elbe after losing power on its approach into the port of Hamburg.
Investigations are continuing as to why the CSCL ship lost propulsion, and a contact at the carrier’s Hamburg office remained tight-lipped when The Loadstar spoke to him last week.
Suffice to say, these state-of-the-art ships should not be breaking down. Indeed, if the circumstances had been different – for example, if there had been a loss of power while the ship was in heavy weather – it could have been catastrophic.
Moreover, if an ULCV becomes grounded there are no facilities immediately available that can discharge containers from these behemoths in order to lighten them. According to a Loadstar source, the CSCL Indian Ocean salvors had ascertained that the nearest floating crane with sufficient height and reach to offload its containers was in Canada.
It is a concern that the general shortage of salvage facilities to tackle marine disasters is compounded by the absence of suitable equipment that can deal with the new breed of megaships.
Comments
Post a Comment