Trade and Transport Bulletin - Pasha Bulker grounding - bad seamanship the key element

A recent Australian Transport and Safety Bureau (ATSB) report provides a useful analysis of what led to the infamous grounding of the Pasha Bulker in Newcastle in 2007. The report provides some insight into what ship masters, port authorities and advisory services need to do to avoid a similar grounding.

Background

On 23 May 2007, the Panamanian registered bulk carrier, Pasha Bulker anchored about two miles off the coast of Newcastle and joined 57 other ships waiting to enter the Newcastle Port to load coal.

On 7 June, the Bureau of Meteorology issued a gale warning for the area and the weather continued to deteriorate with high seas and swells of up to 13 metres.  Following the warning, a number of ships headed out to sea to clear the coast, but the Pasha Bulker and some other ships remained in the Newcastle anchorage.

On 8 June 2007, the Pasha Bulker ran aground on Nobby’s Beach, Newcastle and remained there until it was successfully refloated on 2 July 2007 and redelivered to its owners for substantial repair works.

The ATSB findings

On 23 May 2008, ATSB issued its report on its investigations into the grounding of the Pasha Bulker.  It should be noted that the ATSB’s role is to investigate transport safety matters and make recommendations to enhance safety in the future.  Its role is not to determine blame or liability. 

The ATSB found that the grounding of the Pasha Bulker occurred in extreme weather conditions.  However, there were a number of bad decisions made by the Pasha Bulker’s master and a number of unfortunate circumstances that contributed significantly to the grounding.

In particular, the ATSB report focused heavily on the Pasha Bulker’s master's actions surrounding the grounding which the ATSB advised were contrary to the principles and practice of good seamanship, including the following:

• Failure to appreciate the severity of the weather.
• Failure to consider local weather warnings.
• Failure to appropriately ballast the ship for severe weather.
• Failure to weigh anchor and attempt to head to sea at an appropriately early stage.
• Failure to act in response to signs of a dangerous situation developing.
• Not preparing appropriately for the emergency deployment of the anchors and not deploying the anchors.
• Inappropriate control of the ship at critical times.
• Attempting the final turn to starboard towards the lee shore that was less than a mile away.

The ATSB noted that:

'The master had had little sleep in the previous 24 hours as he had been up monitoring the weather…he became increasingly overloaded by fatigue, uncertainty and anxiety and he had little effective assistance from other members of the crew.' 

Other factors the ATSB identified as having contributed to the grounding were:

• The area off Newcastle was affected by an East Coast Low, which is an intense low-pressure system occurring an average of only several times per year.
• The Newcastle Vessel Traffic Information Centre (VTIC)’s advisory role was not properly understood by the masters of a number of the ships in the Newcastle anchorage.  The masters believed that the VTIC would have instructed ships to head to sea, if necessary.
• The Newcastle Ports Authority’s incident control system was not activated until 8 June 2007 and therefore was not ‘sufficiently responsive to the increasing seriousness of the situation’.  As a result, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority was not notified until after the grounding on 8 June.
• The Newcastle VTIC did not provide weather alerts to ships off the Newcastle port until after the weather conditions had already become extreme.
• The Newcastle VTIC did not offer assistance to the Pasha Bulker until weather had become so extreme that it was unlikely that any practical assistance could be provided.
• The Newcastle VTIC’s advice was limited to the masters whose ships were dragging their anchors. Because of this, some masters assumed incorrectly that the appropriate time to weigh anchor was when the VTIC advised them that their anchor was dragging.
• The Newcastle VTIC did not cancel berthing of any ship even after the weather conditions had become severe. This added to the masters' confusion about the appropriate time to leave the anchorage.

Other relevant factors- the Newcastle anchorage

The port of Newcastle is the world’s largest loading port for coal and in recent years, the demand for Hunter Valley coal has exceeded the amount that can be exported.  This has resulted in a large number of ships waiting off the port of Newcastle, at anchor.

Newcastle anchorage is noted by the ATSB as being particularly susceptible to rapid deterioration of sea and swell conditions in adverse weather.  This is said to add to problems in an increased risk of anchors dragging, difficulties in weighing anchor, and manoeuvring safely out of the anchorage.

The ATSB reviewed the grounding of the Sygna in 1974 in Newcastle and found that that grounding occurred under similar circumstances to Pasha Bulker’s. The notable difference between the two groundings was that the grounding of the Sygna resulted in the Sygna breaking in two and the vessel was not successfully salvaged. In both groundings, investigations found that the masters should have weighed anchor in the deteriorating weather conditions and headed to sea.

General comments

The ATSB considers that despite the bad seamanship of the Pasha Bulker’s master, the masters of other ships experiencing that storm were fortunate not to have found themselves in a similar situation.

One area of contention that the ATSB report reviewed was that none of the masters surveyed for the investigation indicated that their place in the queue to enter the Newcastle port was a factor that influenced any of their decisions. The ATSB report noted that although the operational and commercial aspects of a ship’s voyage are necessary and valid considerations, masters must never undermine the safety of their ships and crew, or fail to act to prevent damage to the environment.

The report commends the good seamanship shown by those masters of other ships who made the early decision to head to sea soon after receiving the report about the deteriorating weather.

Recommendations

Recommendations made by the ATSB included:

• The Pasha Bulker’s owners take action to include in the safety management system on board the ship specific guidance about putting to sea in adverse weather.
• The Newcastle VTIC take action to ensure that the ships in Newcastle’s anchorage understand the VTIC advisory role and provide clear communication to those ships in the area.
• The Newcastle VTIC should act more quickly in response to severe weather conditions, including offer of assistance and notifying the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.
• Those responsible for the queue of vessels at anchor at Newcastle should continue to explore ways of reducing the congestion in the port to reduce safety concerns created by the congestion in the port.

Summary

The report provides a thorough and useful review of the incident and provides practical recommendations to address the problems which led to the grounding, with safety foremost at all times.  While on-board decisions made by the master were fundamental to the casualty there are also lessons to be learnt by port authorities and the report raises issues regarding ship owners' obligations in giving specific guidance to masters. 

Whether litigation by those affected by the incident follows remains to be seen.  It is understood that prosecution of the master has been ruled out previously. 

The complete report is available from the ATSB's website.

For more information, please contact:

Andrew Tulloch, Partner
Tel +61 3 9274 5825
andrew.tulloch@dlaphillipsfox.com