# Who will get the blame.



## jnorm59 (Oct 9, 2020)

A Mauritian Court has started to investigate the cir***stances of the grounding of the Japanese flag bulk carrier last year on a reef two miles off Mauritius. 
MOL its Japanese owner has admitted the ship was too close to the coast in order to get a mobile phone signal. The Indian Master is blaming the Sri Lankan Chief Officer while he in turn blames the Master. The ship should have been 22 miles off rather than 2!
The Chief Engineer giving evidence said he was on the Bridge when the ship grounded, sat in the Pilots chair - on his mobile phone!


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## Stephen J. Card (Nov 5, 2006)

Hang all of them! They must have been blind or stupid or both.

I would love the transcipt.


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## John Cassels (Sep 29, 2005)

Stephen J. Card said:


> Hang all of them! They must have been blind or stupid or both.
> 
> I would love the transcipt.



Incompetent complacency .


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## pippin (May 13, 2008)

No - it was complacent incompetency!


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## Stephen J. Card (Nov 5, 2006)

Nearly 100 Safety Flaws With Mauritius Oil Spill Ship Wakashio Identified By EU Database (forbes.com) 

Looks like the owners too! Above is a good link..

Stephen


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## Stephen J. Card (Nov 5, 2006)

Based on the information the shipowner obtained from the crewmembers, two days before the grounding of Wakashio, on July 23, the vessel changed its passage plan-the distance from the coast, when sailing off the island of Mauritius-from 22 nautical miles (Note 1) to 5 nautical miles.



> On the day of grounding (July 25), cremembers tried to further reduce the distance from the coast from 5 nautical miles to 2 nautical miles, to enter an area within the communication range of mobile phones and used a nautical chart without sufficient scale to confirm the accurate distance from the coast and water depth.


...as MOL explained.

In addition, a crewmember neglected appropriate watch-keeping (visually and by radar), even though the ship was trying to sail 2 nautical miles off the coast.

Therefore, it ran aground in shallow water (10m deep) 0.9 nautical miles off the coast of Mauritius.

According to MOL's point of view:

_"Because of not only the above-mentioned background, but also the fact that the vessel had approached to other coasts several times even before the incident, they may have taken unsafe behaviors due to overconfidence that stems from complacency.Such behavior on a large vessel reflects a lack of safety awareness.

What is more, another reason behind the cause is that the crewmembers lacked awareness of the guidelines on performing navigation in a safe manner and their efforts to conform were insufficient, because they did not prepare an appropriate passage plan that would have ensured appropriate performance, did not own and use the correct nautical map, and neglected visual and radar watchkeeping"._


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## Dimples82 (Aug 24, 2014)

John Cassels said:


> Incompetent complacency .


I blame the ships dog . . . it must of had a good meal and gone to sleep.


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## Engine Serang 2 (Nov 24, 2020)

No doubt about blame....,.,........ It's the Chief Engineer.


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## Farmer John (Feb 22, 2012)

Nautical map. Is that like the maps of the ordnance survey that show a sort of blue fringe where the sea is?


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## Stephen J. Card (Nov 5, 2006)

Engine Serang 2 said:


> No doubt about blame....,.,........ It's the Chief Engineer.


He was the one that suggested the b'day party and built the BBQ!


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## lakercapt (Jul 19, 2005)

When on a ship that had been re-flagged and the deck officers were replaced by Indian mates I was scared many times by their lack of skills. When in busy waterways I was of necessity on the bridge constantly. I was so concerned I sent my wife copies of the telex message I had sent to the owners about this problem and advised her to consult a laser should anything happen to me or the vessel. There are y competent Indian officers and then again there are others I am sure had their do***entation bought. This alas is a common occurrence as a friend would is an employment manager in Canada has discovered persons applying or jobs with a reem of papers of qualifications which at their age would have been impossible to obtain.


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## meechingman (Feb 20, 2005)

@lakercapt I know it's probably just a spell check thing, but getting your wife to use a *laser* - that would have been a brilliant and permanent solution to dealing with any incompetent officers!


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## lakercapt (Jul 19, 2005)

Ops it should have been a Lawyer. and I said do***entation which was altered by admin.


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## John Cassels (Sep 29, 2005)

Further to Bill's post , in 1978 was ch.mate on a box shaped bulk carrier that had been sold to a Greek outfit.
Me and the ch.eng had been asked to stay on and do the trip Japan to BC Canada to advise the new owners
for loading paper and pulp round the BC coast. First day out of Japan after the handover went up to the
bridge , dense fog , 3rd.mate ( captains nephew ) on the bridge , fog signals all around , 3rd.mate said
nothing near us , went to the radar and noted completely out of tune , retuned and saw fishing fleet all
around . Retired to cabin for beer taking lifejacket with me.


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## jnorm59 (Oct 9, 2020)

__
http://instagr.am/p/CLcWwzIj8g8/
Bow section of Wakashio being scuttled after being towed into deeper water.
Look on the bright side - after destroying some reef perhaps over time the wreck will form its own reef.


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## John Gowers (Jul 18, 2018)

lakercapt said:


> When on a ship that had been re-flagged and the deck officers were replaced by Indian mates I was scared many times by their lack of skills. When in busy waterways I was of necessity on the bridge constantly. I was so concerned I sent my wife copies of the telex message I had sent to the owners about this problem and advised her to consult a laser should anything happen to me or the vessel. There are y competent Indian officers and then again there are others I am sure had their do***entation bought. This alas is a common occurrence as a friend would is an employment manager in Canada has discovered persons applying or jobs with a reem of papers of qualifications which at their age would have been impossible to obtain.


This can happen in the UK as well I was on a drilling rig in the North Sea, in the 90s, when a relief agency chief engineer was coming out to the rig by chopper. The HR manager had another look at a scan off his ticket as there appeared to be too many numbers in it so he phoned the MCA and it turned out it was a fake ticket that had been photoshopped. When the chopper landed on the deck he was told to stay on it and was returned to Aberdeen. No idea what happened to him.


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## Orbitaman (Oct 5, 2007)

Stephen J. Card said:


> Nearly 100 Safety Flaws With Mauritius Oil Spill Ship Wakashio Identified By EU Database (forbes.com)
> 
> Looks like the owners too! Above is a good link..
> 
> Stephen


The report is a classic case of someone with little or no shipping industry knowledge doing some basic, poor research. Having looked at he Equasis database for the vessel, there are considerably less than 96 'safety flaws' (a very non-nautical phrase), spread over 13 years. What is important to note from Equasis is that none of the issues raised in that period resulted in the ship being detained.

It should also be remembered that a deficiency recorded on Equasis could range from a major problem, e.g. lifeboats unable to launch, down to very minor deficiencies like errors in the completion of SMS do***entation.

The long and the short of it is not to use Equasis as the basis for definitive information on how well or otherwise a vessel is operated.

This in no way defends the actions of the crew - two miles off the coast is unacceptable for an ocean passage in any cir***stances!


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## umtali (Oct 23, 2005)

After the Victorian Premier oversaw a hotel quarantine bungle that resulted in over 800 deaths from Covid, the perfect excuse for anything, disasters at sea or whatever predicament you find yourself in, when others are involved in the decision making process is "it was a creeping assumption that that is what we will do", no individual actually made a decision. It was a "creeping assumption". End of!!


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## Engine Serang 2 (Nov 24, 2020)

Is it a creeping assumption or a racing certainty that Domnica Cemortan was a good friend of Capt Francesco Schettino.


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## John Cassels (Sep 29, 2005)

Engine Serang 2 said:


> Is it a creeping assumption or a racing certainty that Domnica Cemortan was a good friend of Capt Francesco Schettino.


Or she was simply providing navigational advice to him ?.


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## Engine Serang 2 (Nov 24, 2020)

Boy Scouts and Girl Guides.


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## John Cassels (Sep 29, 2005)

Helping him to check out his PPI ?.


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## R651400 (Jun 18, 2005)

Simultaneous keel-hauling along the coral reef under their stricken ship joined by the testicles seems about right for this pair of supposed seafarers..









Wakashio Captain Confirms He Navigated Close to Shore to Pick Up Cell Signal, But Blames Chief Officer for Grounding


By Vel Moonien in Mauritius – The captain of the ill-fated bulk carrier M/V Wakashio told a Mauritius court that he navigated the ship closer to land to allow his...




gcaptain.com


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