Balmoral Accident

[Phil English]

From Today's Lloyds List:

SWANSEA Coastguard is coordinating the evacuation of 15 crew from the passenger vessel `Balmoral' which hit an underwater object this afternoon (yesterday) and is taking water.

The vessel is currently alongside by the Superferry in Swansea Harbour and the Maritime Coastguard Agency report that there is two foot of water in the engine room.

Mumbles Coastguard Rescue Team has been sent straight to the area. and the Mumbles inshore lifeboat has also been requested to launch to the vessel and the fire service are requesting all non essential personnel be evacuated.

The Agency's Counter Pollution team has been put on stand by in case their assistance is required.

[grimston]

Partial repairs have been made to the historic ship Balmoral after it started taking on water in Swansea Docks on Wednesday afternoon.
The ship, which runs pleasure trips, is now on its way to Sharpness Dock in Gloucester for further repairs.

Swansea Coastguard believes the damage was caused when its hull scraped along the sea bed.

On Wednesday, crew members were forced to leave the ship, which did not have any passengers onboard.

The vessel carries holidaymakers on day trips in the Bristol Channel over the summer months, but Wednesday's sailing had been cancelled due to the weather conditions.

  Things were pretty grim when we arrived - there was about three metres of water in the engine room at that point

Mark Jones, Mumbles coastguard

Fire crews and lifeboats were called to the Balmoral shortly after 1600 BST to help pump out the engine room, which had started to fill with water.

"Things were pretty grim when we arrived," said Mark Jones from the Mumbles Coastguard. "There was about three metres of water in the engine room at that point.

"There were about 20 crew on board and our first concern was for them, so we asked all non-essential crew to come off apart from the skipper and a couple of engineers to help with the pumping operation."

Once the engine room had been drained divers assessed the damage and a team of marine welders were called in.

The fire service, which lead the rescue operation, said that all agencies involved "worked well together."

"Fortunately the Mumbles lifeboat was launched and one of our crew was the acting coxswain," said officer Craig Thomas from South Wales Fire Service.

"So we were able to work well together to enable us to pump the water out of the hull and let the divers get down there to repair the damage."

 
The Balmoral calls in at several UK ports

In just under two hours, on Wednesday evening, Swansea Coastguard said it had brought the water flow under control and had handed the operation over to the ship's owners, Waverley Excursions Ltd.

The ship left Swansea at around 0500 BST on Thursday and was expected to arrive in Sharpness Dock at around midday.

The Balmoral was built in Southampton in 1949 and can accommodate up to 750 passengers.

Last year, it grounded on Gower with 232 people on board.

The above is the latest news from the BBC Web Site

[John Jones]

That is sad news indeed. She has been an ever present part of our maritime heritage as long as I can remember. Saw her in so many places as a kid but never got to photograph her till the other month going through Tower Bridge (pictures posted here.)
Saw her again the very next weekend when I was swimming in the sea off the Essex coast (no pictures.....my camera isn't waterproof!)
I do hope this will not be the end of the line for her, she is a beautiful ship.
Hoping for the best
John J.

[grimston]

The bottom of the hull has a hole about the size of a football and there is some damage to the Propeller. These should be fixed by tommorrow and due to sail sunday.

[Ship's Cat]

This is reminiscent of the Prince Ivanhoe (ex Shanklin, a former Isle of Wight passenger ship, like Balmoral) accident in 1981, when she ran aground off Mumbles and was wrecked. Fortunately it looks as if the Balmoral accident is not as severe.