Watching the press conference, I think Hoegh chairman said there was a ballast or fuel transfer in hand when the list developed. The similar vessel Cougar Ace developed a 60 degree list when transferring ballast off the Aleutian Islands about 8 year ago, so it is a matter of record how tender these top heavy looking car carriers are, although it is hard to imagine how a crew member would continue a transfer operation when it was clearly all turning to ratsxxx. But it has happened before. If that was the cause of the imbalance on Hoegh Osaka, it would be exacerbated by the sharp turn to port to round the end of Bramble Bank, and this would depend on the speed at the time. Has anyone got a plot of the ships speed? Sewol capsized and sank with heavy loss of life due to the third mate executing a sharp turn with an unstable vessel. Can't think of any other act of man that would have caused the list. Would the ship leave the dock with little water ballast to minimise draught with the intention of taking more on as soon as in clear water, does this happen?
Alternatively, could something mechanical have caused the list, hard to imagine a hole suddenly developing or an open valve having sufficient effect on stability? A factor that mitigates against poor stability is that the ship was only on third loaded with cars, presumably on the lower decks. But perhaps not, they could have been all up top for the short sea crossing to Germany.
Turning to the cargo, there was an excellent TV programme recently of the largest car carrier operating out of Southampton to the Far East with a cargo of Rolls Royces etc, and they went to enormous lengths to tie each one down. On Cougar Ace, despite a 60 degree list, only a few hundred out of 4713 broke free and were damaged, despite which Mazda scrapped the lot. I wonder if HC's cars have all slid down to the lower side? If so, this will make re-righting much more difficult.
Holedriller
