Record container loss from ONE Apus

[Timsen]

https://theloadstar.com/one-apus-stack-collapse-could-be-the-largest-container-loss-since-the-mol-comfort/
https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/1-900-containers-lost-or-damaged-on-one-boxship-causes-return-to-japan

[Timsen]

What a mess...
https://container-news.com/one-apus-may-have-lost-a-quarter-of-its-cargo/

[Timsen]

Ship in port now:
https://www.seatrade-maritime.com/casualty/fireworks-batteries-and-liquid-ethanol-among-cargoes-lost-one-apus

[Steven Collingwood]

I am showing my ignorance here, and I am sure it probably varies from situation to situation...
But what kind of liability does the container ship company have with this?  Will insurance cover it?  Ship at your own risk?  And if the containers damage another ship or contaminate an area, are they liable? 
I haven't seen any mention of people hurt or killed, so glad for that.
Just want to know, really doesn't affect me one or the other.

[csaba]

It has been decades since I last studied anything about maritime law so I'll hazard a guess here. The cargo can be insured against all risks so I think in this situation insurance will pay, unless there was some sort of gross negligence on the part of the ship. Whether there was a negligence will be established by the investigators. One might argue that the ship could have altered its course to avoid the storm. Or blame it on whoever fastened the containers. Or whoever made the fasteners. Plenty of people and organizations to investigate and they will all blame somebody else.
If the container damages another ship, first we need to know how did the damage happen? Did it fall from the crane? Did it fall from the ship? Did it float in the sea and another ship hit it?
For contamination, I would guess: Who packed the the hazardous goods that were in the container? Were they properly stored inside it? Etc etc
Good money for the lawyers .

[lappino]

Good thing nobody got hurt in this mess.

I think that technology is (at least partially) to blame, overreliance on weather routing systems to be precise.

Nowadays, lashing computer systems are connected to weather routing systems - and there's even a special class notation for that, incorporating "changing evaluation methods to allow for the effect of sea routes on stowage, as well as new class notation for vessels with lashing calculation programs" - quote from Class NK.

So, container cargo is taken on board and lashed as per the requirements of the *expected* conditions along the route, and probably not so well suited for any sudden change for the worse.

My .02 $.

Cheers

Vlad

[Timsen]

I  may contribute an interesting report from splash 247 in this regard:
"Captain  Colin  Smith  was horrified last week on seeing the collapsed boxes strewn across the Japanese boxship ONE APUS. For him, the sight of the destruction was illustrative  of  
many woes facing the shipping industry as a whole. Regarding the calamitous state of the containership ONE APUS, the practice of loading containers far forward, and so high across the deck, is simply a matter of greed.
The various elements in the industry set up to arbitrate losses proceeding from that greed, insurers and lawyers, can be left to clean up the legal and financial mess themselves. But shipowners don