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Car Carrier in Trouble in the Bering Sea

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Charles McAllister:
Sadly, Cougar Ace has claimed her first victim.  A member of the salvage assessment team which boarded the vessel has died after falling.

I can appreciate that just moving around the vessel in the circumstances of the extreme list must be tremendously dangerous.  Let's hope there are no more casualties.

Another report mentioned that the captain stated in interviews ashore that the ship went over on her side in less than 10 minutes while the crew was attemting to transfer ballast.  Sounds like either an equipment failure or someone screwed up big time.  I have always felt that those big box car carriers looked like they would be very unstable when loaded, but so many have been in service on long voyages for so many years without incident that it would seem the design is proven.

Probably this will be revealed, like many disasters, to have been the result of a chain of problems.  One question in my mind is why the crew would be adjusting trim so far into a voyage?  Isn't fuel drawn from multiple tanks precisely to prevent any loss of stability?  There are many here who have much more experience with large ships than I who may know the answer.

rgr004:
Charles,

The reason for working on the ballast system is a requirement for avoiding transfering unwanted species contained in the ballast water from one place to another in the world. Vessel are required to comply with such offshore.

rgds / roland

Charles McAllister:
Thanks, Roland, I had forgotten about that requirement.  Bad on my part, since fast growing mussels believed brought in from Asia in ballast water have been blamed for many problems in the waters of Tampa Bay, just to the north of my home.

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