# Svendborg Maersk -Loss of Containers “Worse than Feared”



## Geoff Gower

The containership Svendborg Maersk faced particularly nasty weather last week as she sailed through the Bay of Biscay on her way to Colombo, Sri Lanka resulting in disastrous consequences. Limping into the port of Malaga, Spain on Monday, 520 containers had been lost from the deck of the ship. 

The total number of lost containers turned out to be even worse than we feared,” commented Palle Laursen, Vice President of Operations, Maersk Line. ”We will now carefully examine our procedures to see if they need correction in order to avoid similar incidents in the future.
As of now we remain focused on supporting our vessel crew and are dedicated to getting correct information about lost or delayed cargo to our customers and ultimately get the ship back in service as soon as possible”
Maersk Line notes that 85 percent of the containers were empty and that none of the filled containers carried hazardous materials. For those who had cargo on board that ship, Maersk Line is currently reaching out to inform their customers of the status of their shipment as soon as an accurate assessment can be made. According to the World Shipping Council, whos members represent 90 percent of the world’s container ship capacity, the number of containers lost from the Svendborg Maersk on Friday surpasses the entire number of containers lost globally, on average, around the world. They note that on average, 350 containers are lost annually. Source : gCaptain


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## kypros

Treat the sea with contempt and this is the result,sailed on ships with deck cargo half way up the deck housing fore and aft in bad seas never recall losing a parcel good designed sea boats they tempt fate with these box boats.KYPROS


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## Mad Landsman

They might not _contain_ anything hazardous but 520 loose containers bobbing around the ocean is a significant hazard in itself surely.


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## R58484956

A container washed up on south coast of England containing 1m cigs. Police standing by to stop pilfering.


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## brooksy

Were the lashings not checked before she left port.In my experiance the forman rigger had to get his lashing sheets signed by the Mate before he and his gang left the ship.


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## John Cassels

brooksy said:


> Were the lashings not checked before she left port.In my experiance the forman rigger had to get his lashing sheets signed by the Mate before he and his gang left the ship.


No , nothing to do with the riggers. Ship's responsibility to 
check the riggers have done their jobs and that all lashings are
correct and hardened up.


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## China hand

You can just imagine the 16 crew checking all 12000 TEU, can't you?(Hippy)


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## John Cassels

Imagine it or not but that's the way it is . Anyhow , lashing is by container
and not by TEU.


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## China hand

Only in jest, John, honest.(Jester)


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## Neil McInnes

John is correct I managed container terminals for several years it was requirement that the C.O. signed off prior to the lashing gang leaving. The cargo on all ships including Ro Ro must be secured to the ships satisfaction.


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## John Cassels

Like Neil , also managed a container terminal but remember when I was ch.mate on a container ship 40 years ago the trials and tribulations we
used to have when loading at a certain clydeport terminal. It was a continual fight with loading and lashing foremen. One time even found they had replaced one of the pontoons with a lashing wire still hung over the coaming.
That was the same trip they missed out one of the bottom twistlocks.
We did an Atlantic crossing with this unstable deck stow. Only noticed sll this after we had left so too late to remedy .


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## wharferat

These days there is a lot of commercial pressure on getting ships off the berth as soon as possible after cargo work has finished. With the best will in the world, no one person can check that all lashings are tight immediately before sailing. The last hour or so before sailing the duty mate is probably testing gear in conjunction with the duty engineer, dealing with the agent & departure paperwork, calling people prior to departure, plus 101 other myriad things. Coupled with this, ISPS, Hours of Rest/Work, ISM Checklists, & dealing with the lashing gangs, is it surprising that the word of the lashing gang foreman is believed when he says, "Job done.". When something like the loss of containers from the Svendborg happens, everybody with a part in the chain starts scrambling around to show bits of paper to prove that they did their little bit, & in the end the report will probably apportion some of the blame onto the ship for not checking everything is secure. Why should the ships staff be blamed for somebody else not doing the job they are being paid for?


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## Neil McInnes

The ship is responsible as they are the ones taking the vessel to sea, not some shore person who has never seen a green one coming over the bow or worse still, pooping one in a bad night on the Nth Atlantic. If there is problem ask if they are prepared to accept full responsibility for ship crew and cargo should it turn to ****. I think not. We have all at one time been out there re lashing cargo that was not property done in port.Thats why its the ships job to check. All lashing.


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## James_C

Neil McInnes said:


> The ship is responsible as they are the ones taking the vessel to sea, not some shore person who has never seen a green one coming over the bow or worse still, pooping one in a bad night on the Nth Atlantic. If there is problem ask if they are prepared to accept full responsibility for ship crew and cargo should it turn to ****. I think not. We have all at one time been out there re lashing cargo that was not property done in port.Thats why its the ships job to check. All lashing.


Try working for a company like Maersk and explaining to head office why you've delayed sailing for 4 hours in every port to allow a decent check of the _*thousands*_ of container lashings, then see just how long it takes them to cast you adrift.
The problem with the modern maritime world is that only those aboard ship shoulder any responsibility, often over things which in reality they have little or no control and when it does go wrong they're hung out to dry whilst those responsible on the wharfs or in the offices carry on regardless, satisfied that they've found someone else to blame.


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## ninabaker

Bring back Samuel Plimsoll, I say.


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## Mike S

As I read this thread I wonder how on earth Maersk management and bean counters can really be serious when they man these monster EE and EEE class vessels with 13 crew. 
That is crazy. No other word covers it. 
Surely the time has come for a vessel to be allowed time to carry out lashing checks before she departs the port using the shore staff under the supervision of a responsible person in the ships crew to harden up all the lashings. 
Little bits pf paper are a joke. Can you imagine the Capt of an A380 taking off without a completion of all final checks?
Nor can I.........


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## wharferat

James_C said:


> Try working for a company like Maersk and explaining to head office why you've delayed sailing for 4 hours in every port to allow a decent check of the _*thousands*_ of container lashings, then see just how long it takes them to cast you adrift.
> The problem with the modern maritime world is that only those aboard ship shoulder any responsibility, often over things which in reality they have little or no control and when it does go wrong they're hung out to dry whilst those responsible on the wharfs or in the offices carry on regardless, satisfied that they've found someone else to blame.


(Thumb)
Well said James. On more than one occasion I have seen messages from agents, or whoever, asking the ship to explain why when cargo work finished at xxh.20m, the ship did not depart the berth until xx+1h.50m. Usually the delay is down to waiting on the pilot, or another ship arriving or departing ahead of you.


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## Chris Field

A lot of talk about "lashing" the boxes - have the good old twistlocks gone out of fashion? It only took the duty mate a few minutes to check that all the boxes were locked in any completed bay of containers - what the heck is going on in these modern-day ships?


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## John Cassels

Chris Field said:


> A lot of talk about "lashing" the boxes - have the good old twistlocks gone out of fashion? It only took the duty mate a few minutes to check that all the boxes were locked in any completed bay of containers - what the heck is going on in these modern-day ships?


Lashings on any container ship - modern or not - consisted of a lot
more than just twistlocks.


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## Geoff Gower

*amount of containers in stack*



John Cassels said:


> Lashings on any container ship - modern or not - consisted of a lot
> more than just twistlocks.


Thinking about the original design of a twist lock I do not think that they ever considered the large number of containers in one stack especially on/above deck. Used to be 5 but now there seems to be no limit-hence the tower like bridge to see over them!


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## James_C

Chris Field said:


> A lot of talk about "lashing" the boxes - have the good old twistlocks gone out of fashion? It only took the duty mate a few minutes to check that all the boxes were locked in any completed bay of containers - what the heck is going on in these modern-day ships?


And when you're working 7 hatches at the same time, with 40 odd containers per hour potentially going into each hatch (20 footers are loaded two or even four at a time now), reefers to be plugged/unplugged, initial log taken, moorings/gangway to be checked, ballasting to be done, stability to monitor, dangerous goods segregations to check, meet and greet the constant stream of port officials/customs/immigration/port state control etc. not to forget checking ALL the twistlocks and tie bars. 
Oh and how many men are available to do all this at any one time; *one* officer of the watch and *one* AB!
CMA CGM set a record recently in Fujairah where over _*nine thousand*_ container moves were carried out on a single vessel in 24 hours. How can a duty mate hope to keep track of that?
Large containerships - like large cruise ships - are one horrific accident waiting to happen, simple as that.


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## Geoff Gower

*Durability of twist locks*



James_C said:


> And when you're working 7 hatches at the same time, with 40 odd containers per hour potentially going into each hatch (20 footers are loaded two or even four at a time now), reefers to be plugged/unplugged, initial log taken, moorings/gangway to be checked, ballasting to be done, stability to monitor, dangerous goods segregations to check, meet and greet the constant stream of port officials/customs/immigration/port state control etc. not to forget checking ALL the twistlocks and tie bars.
> Oh and how many men are available to do all this at any one time; *one* officer of the watch and *one* AB!
> CMA CGM set a record recently in Fujairah where over _*nine thousand*_ container moves were carried out on a single vessel in 24 hours. How can a duty mate hope to keep track of that?
> Large containerships - like large cruise ships - are one horrific accident waiting to happen, simple as that.


I agree that it appears that scant regard is given to the old safety practises which in our time at sea ,were always paramount and were given the detailed attention. However my own thought is that the specification for a twist lock was formulated back in the 1960's, at the same time as the spec for container corner posts. These agreements were made at ISO level to be applied world wide. Have they ever been redesigned and stress tested when the container on deck might have 8-10 linked above it?


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## Geoff Gower

*Maersk find by the French Govnmt*

Maersk sued after losing 517 containers off French coast
French environmentalists are to sue Danish shipping company Maersk for failing to tell officials of the loss of over 500 containers at sea during Storm Ulla, which hit western France earlier this month. Maersk only owned up on Wednesday to losing 517 containers from one of his boats on 14 February. The shipping giant initially reported 70 containers had slipped into the sea off Brittany when the storm lashed the west of the country, causing giant waves offshore but on Wednesday it said that, in fact, the figure was 517.
Environment campaigners Robin des Bois on Friday announced that it was making a legal complaint against the company in the Brittany port of Brest, accusing it of “endangering lives” and pollution and “abandoning waste”. Source : Longshore $ Shippingnews
_____________________________________________________________________________________


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## John Cassels

Jim , your # 21 , however true , the problem is a very old one as I remember 
complaining about this nearly 35 years ago on the 2nd.generation container
ships. But the fact remains - the ship is always responsible and the mate had
to sign off on that.
Checking lashings as each bay was completed was one way to try and keep
ahead and I used to have at least 3 responsible AB's also out.
Checking lashings was only one point , the complete loading and lashing had
to be watched and checked. Stevedores and the lashing gang do make some
stupid mistakes some times - see # 11.


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## stan mayes

Since I retired as a rigger container ships have been fitted with guides on deck for two high containers.My question is -are the containers still secured with lashings above these or do they only use twist locks?
During the early days of containerisation there were no twist locks only 'spuds and almost every container had lashings on them which crossed.
Also there were bridge fittings which locked all containers across the tops.
Stan


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