MSC Napoli Sinking

[irrelevant]

Just wanted to put in a small bit of news that's not bad. The company I work for has a container on MSC Napoli in transit to a customer. It is one of the containers of 'hazardous chemicals'. It is not toxic. It is 3000 kilos of liquid tobacco flavouring (licorice, IIRC). It is classified as a HazMat because it is flammable. It is flammable because the major component of the compound is ethanol (grain alcohol). The flavouring is in 30 kilo carboys (individually tightly-sealed) that are shrinkwrapped onto pallets in groups of 14. The void space in the container would contain airbags.

I would have to assume that ours is not the only relatively benign HazMat among her cargo....

[Bearsie]

A lot of harmless items become legally "Hazmat" if there is more then a certain quantity in one pile, its great fun in trucking....
And it allows the news casters to scare the beejesus out of the public at almost no expense  :-o

[weta]

These are three of the best photos I've seen so far covering the disaster.

Photo 1 - Photo 2 - Photo 3

[Morten]

Hey everybody... Just thought I'd give my two cents on this:

First off, there must be a chief mate out there who will have some serious explaining to do!
I have sailed on one of Maersks S-class vessels (Columbine M

[maz_atenza]

Guys theres something really wrong here.
I'm a sailor and also a containership planner,
look at the picture 9 on the following link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/6284377.stm

Theres no way that the ship would lose whole Deck stacks like that if the twistlocks and the lashing bars are properly done.

I personally think that the base lock on the hatch cover were not lock properly and most probably the lashing done wrong as well.

Reports today are stating that the vessel lost already more than 150 units!!! unbelievable !!!

Some will say ,yah but you know that was real bad weather... look at the pictures here  

http://www.horta.uac.pt/projectos/cp_valour/index.html

This is weeks and month of bad weather and the Valour has lost only a small amount of units overboard.

MSC are also know to load their vessel to critical stress and stability without to much of a second taught for the crew and vessel.

Anyway like Morten said,
A lot of explaining to do for the Chief officer and the Captain of this vessel...
and in the end they will be blame no matter what they will find in the investigation.

The only real concerned is over now, THE CREW IS SAFE!!
Pollution will probably be minimal. A lot of ppw ahead for the insurers.

Have a good one.
M@z

[neillt]

Was this ship heading to Liverpool?

[portagent]

... no, she was on the way to Sines, Portugal.

[neillt]

Thanks,

Just look at a web site which said she was due in Liverpool

http://www.aisliverpool.org.uk/currentmap.php?map=livbay

[Kelvin Davies]

I think you are wrong about the container lashings etc.
I have been to the beach today to see the scene and most of the containers have washed up on the beach in complete stacks (3 or 4 containers high). They are mostly still locked together.
However, I saw one stack which had a piece of ship still fixed to it. What I mean by this is the steel frame that the first container is fixed to.
Also, the weather has literally ripped many containers to pieces; there is one container with a lump of steel torn out of the steel beam at the bottom of the container. It looks as if a big dog took a bite out of it.
Also on the beach are pieces of thin or sheet steel that look as if a giant had picked up some steel sheets and torn them into pieces.
As I drove away, I was intrigued to hear the BBC news talk about "salvage efforts; oil and sea birds covered in oil being washed up on the beach etc". Not when I was there!
There were some containers floating 400 to 500 metres off shore and 5 or 6 tugs sitting around and some of them were a mile or so from the wreck.
I saw a couple of coastguard people heading off along the beach but this was the beach where I had been taking photographs 5 minutes earlier and there was no oil or sea birds.
At the other, eastern, end of the beach, I guess one container must have carried food of some sort as the sea birds there were having a great time diving and eating something!
By the way; if anyone owns a shipment in container number MSCU7820820, I know where it is! I shall post a phot of it later.
Kelvin

[FWE]

In summary these are similar conditions to earlier break up of the MSC Carla in heavy weather, noting also that the MSC Napoli had hull stress from a previous hard grounding.

[marapito]

77+ hi-res pics of MSC Napoli disaster

http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=rec&w=all&q=Napoli+ship&m=text

[Adrian Buchan]

The French tug Abeille Bourbon has now left the scene and has just cleared Start Point and appears to be heading towards France at 11.3 Knots. The Anglian Princess is just entering Portland harbour. The is no sign yet of any salvage vessels arriving to remove the containers.

[sailorT]

neillt wrote:
Thanks,

Just look at a web site which said she was due in Liverpool

http://www.aisliverpool.org.uk/currentmap.php?map=livbay

no, she was heading to Sines, Portugal. The ship that is alive and well in Liverpool is the CSCL Napoli.

[weta]

Is it true that the ship ran aground before, got repaired in Vietnam, and renamed the MSC Napoli?

[FWE]

Yes that incident also involved engine room flooding as now indicating cracking in same area.