MSC Tuscany (Engine problems)

[Steve Geronazzo]

Quebec City, January 8th, 2011 (16h00): The MSC TUSCANY was about to go through with a pilot change and notified the Coast Guard that their enigines went dead. Three tugs are assisting it and they are saying that it will have to come to port.

Update 17h00 : Problem apparently fixed. The water intake was blocked with ice and they had to shut down the engine so as to not overheat the engine. Ship on it's way without assistance towards Montreal.
 

[Captain Ted]

HI STEVE
is that confirmed with the ice? This ship has possible 8m plus draught
with that draught ice in the cooling system sounds somehow remote.
On top, these old ships have usually at least 1 ballast tank assigned
as re-cooling tank for cooling the engine systems.
somehow have the feeling that there is more to the story than ice.

brgds
capt ted

[Steve Geronazzo]

Hi Ted,

It's what I heard on the marine frequencies. I had been listening for a couple of hours and it seems that things were a bit strange. When they called to ask for a new pilot to get on board the pilot station or coast guard said that they would have to wait for the next available tug. An hour later the tug called wondering what was taking so long. There seems to have been mis-communication. At some point the pilot on board the ship said that there were heated arguments between the captan and the crew. When it was time to go through with the pilot change the engine stopped. They mentioned 'water intake' and ice to explain the possible problem. After 15 minutes, the problem was solved and the ship was able to continue its trip to Montreal.

The coast guard asked the pilot to call the inspector to explain what was happening but I wasn't able to hear what was said.

At 19h00, the ship seems to be ok since it is near Donnacona and going at about 13 knots.

[Captain Ted]

hi steve

yes,strange,,ice cooling problems of course can happen, but somehow it is strange
to hear about such matters. Of course for me as a Capt it is even more interesting
to know what may have happened.
thanks again for the infos

brgds
happy new year
capt ted

[Jean Hemond]

The Maersk Patras was down river bound at the same time and the delayed Tuscany was,  I presume, apparently meeting with problems from clogged water intakes. This is rather frequent around freezing point fresh water  but not when the water is very cold. Needle like ice cristals  with vacuum forms hard packs in the water intake boxes.

The pilots on, and for the Tuscany might have had to wait for the next tug or her return to base. The  Ocean Bertrand Jeansonne if I saw correctly.
 
Some times  ships engineers new on this trade are not aware of this rather frequent situation here on the St-Lawrence and Lakes. It takes some time and knowing men to oprate the valves, reverting to ballast water tanks  for engine cooling. That even if they have tought in advance about pumping water in them.  

[Bruno Boissonneault]

Vessel was fitted with recirculation system but it was not in use at the time. After that , absolutely no problem, Down bound last night was a breeze!

[Captain Ted]

one wonders
if a ship with recirclation system plys in winter time in that area it should always
have the system in use. somehow not understandable that it happened the way it did

[Bruno Boissonneault]

On coming upbound in the St-Lawrence at this time of the year ships will encounter ice and frasil ice some 20 miles from Quebec City, having not met any ice prior to that, they sometimes figure there isn't going to be any, by the time they get to Quebec , the sea chest are filled-up and that is where the problems occur. Last week, the river was ice free up until Montreal, a few days later after cold temperatures and north-easterly winds , the river was covered in ice.
Mind you that is not a reason for not using the system installed back in 2006 on the MSC TUSCANY but things have changed a lot since the ship was reflagged from Greece to Hong Kong back in 2007.

[Steve Geronazzo]

Thanks a lot Bruno,

The information you are giving is really interesting. Not being an expert in this subject, I appreciate this type of information.

Steve