# Loss of Maersk Shipper and Searcher



## 5036 (Jan 23, 2006)

http://gcaptain.com/denmark-issues-investigation-report-loss-maersk-supply-ships-off-france/

I am amazed that this side by side tow ever got approved and that the tow continued after the fenders failed and the ships started battering lumps out of each other on the 20th leading to the carnage of the 21st and the initial capsize on the 22nd. It seems a lot of opportunities were either missed, lost or ignored.


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## Biggles Wader (Jul 18, 2013)

I thought the same.Would this method of towing be normal practice?To me it looks like an accident waiting to happen especially given the route across open seas like Biscay.


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## woodend (Nov 23, 2009)

Fully agree with Nav!!!!, Whoever issued the towage certificate for them to be towed in this manner committed the two ships to a watery end.(Pint)


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## jimthehat (Aug 5, 2006)

From beginning to end it was the beancounters,


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## Andrew Craig-Bennett (Mar 13, 2007)

There never WAS a towage approval! There was no warranty survey. 

It's an eye opening story. It made me very, very angry.


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## roddy (Mar 5, 2006)

This report together with the MAIB report on the Transocean Winner incident, highlight lots of areas where policies and procedures were either ignored or were seriously lacking. Those directly involved are, we would sincerely, hope taking action to remedy all these shortcomings, but what about the rest of us is the industry in general looking at itself, has the lesson been learnt?


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## david freeman (Jan 26, 2006)

It is all a scream, if it were not true. No Lives lost, vessels going for scrap: Voyage Baltic= Black Sea, the appropriate words written in the report, a wrap over the knuckles with a wet hanky, who, where the vessels insured with for the voyage? was there a Constructive Total Loss payout? Did the shipping company insure their own ships, or was it the scrap yard- Follow the money? who benefitted, was it ''davy jones'' and his deep locker? I wonder?


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## David McG (Jun 29, 2012)

No professional warranty surveyor would have even considered this method of towing two vessels. Dual or tandem tows are enough of a challenge, especially if one towline parts, but to consider this at all is not sensible, in winter it was a baffling decision. Maybe Maersk self insure and maybe scrap values were low ??? Third party underwriters would have been foolhardy to insure this tow, whatever the size of the premium would have been.


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## ART6 (Sep 14, 2010)

From my position of pure ignorance I too wonder whoever in his right mind tried this exercise? What sort of fenders would be necessary to keep the two ships apart in heavy weather, when their close proximity and the passage of water between them would surely tend to pull them together? It would not be difficult to calculate the forces that would have been involved when one of the ships rolled against the other -- that is simply physics, so didn't anyone do that? I thought that sort of thing was fundamental to salvage and towing operations.

Personally, taking a pragmatic engineer's approach, I would have welded them both together so that they became a single hull -- even if a catamaran one. That would have the advantage that (a) they could ride the storms, and (b) that the steel used to fix them together would itself have scrap value. (Jester)

Of course it could not be that the insured value of the ships exceeded the scrap value could it? After all, scrap values go up and down all the time while insurance values stay fixed. Whatever, there are thousands of happy fish who now have refuges while they consume plastic wastes so, ecologically, this is not a significant event. (*))


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

ART6 said:


> Personally, taking a pragmatic engineer's approach, I would have welded them both together so that they became a single hull -- even if a catamaran one. That would have the advantage that (a) they could ride the storms, and (b) that the steel used to fix them together would itself have scrap value. (Jester)
> 
> (*))


I wonder if it might have worked? Probably but would have need a heck of a lot of bracing and welding too costly.

How about another possibility. Put them side to side but bow to stern. Then the high bow would not it the other high bow. Of course one of them would be towing backward... WTF!!! Could have not been worse than what they did. 

The correct method would have been by tandem tow on two wires. That is not new, that is the 'normal' for deep sea towing, well that is what was done with a lot of ships in the 50s and 60s.

My idea of the end ship be connected with cables to the stern of the middle I think would work too. It is thought the forces acting on the bow and the stern of the middle would be considering. Well, if the last two are connecting with a good long cable and make a good spring, I think would be OK. Smits some time would tow with two tugs. One of them towing the bow of the second tug, to increase bollard pull. Interesting.

Stephen

Stephen


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## 5036 (Jan 23, 2006)

Stephen J. Card said:


> I wonder if it might have worked? Probably but would have need a heck of a lot of bracing and welding too costly.
> 
> How about another possibility. Put them side to side but bow to stern. Then the high bow would not it the other high bow. Of course one of them would be towing backward... WTF!!! Could have not been worse than what they did.
> 
> ...


I read the report again yesterday on a long journey and the bow/stern approach seemed a very simple, logical solution.

I do not think the DMAIB really got it. This was either a complete FU or an insurance job. The incompetence bordered on the supernatural including this, the most daming of all:

RELEVANT SHIP CREW ON MÆRSK BATTLER (The tow ship)

Master: STCW II/2 Master unlimited
60 years old, had served the company for 40 years and had been at
sea for 44 years. Served as a master in the company since 1997, 10
weeks of which on MÆRSK BATTLER.

Chief officer: STCW II/2 Master unlimited
34 years old and had been at sea for a total of 7 years, all of which
with the company. Had served as a chief officer on MÆRSK BATTLER
for 2 years.

Able seaman: 43 years old. Had served the company since 2009, approx. 7 months
of which on MÆRSK BATTLER.

Who:

"The crew on MÆRSK BATTLER did not perceive
the direct contact between MÆRSK SEARCHER
and MÆRSK SHIPPER as an emergency situation.
The crew expected that the fenders of the side-by-side
towing setup could fail during the tow and that
the ships would suffer some damage to the accommodation
on each of the ships under tow, but as they
were to be recycled, damage above the waterline
was accepted. This perception blurred the line between
a successful operation and a critical situation
and therefore the emergency situation was not evident
to the crew until 10 minutes before the capsizing
of MÆRSK SEARCHER though both ships
under tow had shown signs of significant structural
damage 24 hours earlier"

WTF!


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## jimthehat (Aug 5, 2006)

Relevant crew?They also had 2 watch keeping officers, one of which was my grandson due to come on watch at midnight.I think that why the AB was mentioned was that he was the 8-12 watch keeper with the old man as backup when the sinking started to happen,


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## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

Certainly looks like an accident waiting to happen. 
I have been involved with two marine tows , one unsuccessful but when the Union co "Kaitoa" towed the redundant Devonport Vehicular ferry toward Hobart we had to fender the tow alongside with the tow line stowed on the ships after deck and ready to feed out as the ferry was fed astern once we were clear of Auckland harbour limits. 
It towed like a dream until it took on water and sunk about six days out as I tell in an old post?
The second event was tha Navua towing a big Belgian suction dredge from Bluff aharbour to Lyttelton after the dredge finished the Bluff harbour reconstruction and reclaimation work. Again we had to tow the dredge fendered alongside until we were out to sea . No problems with this except that the Dredge chief engineer bunked down on my daybed while I was on the 12 to 4 and it took a long time to get the settee free of a strong garlic smell!!

Bob


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## NoR (Mar 24, 2008)

You can tow side by side on rivers and inland waterways ( they push 6+ abreast on US waterways) but not on the open sea. 10 seconds consideration will tell you that.
I reckon if in years past you'd made the 'side by side's proposal to an examiner for masters and mates you would have been shown the door.


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## 216289 (Jan 4, 2018)

Stephen J. Card said:


> I wonder if it might have worked? Probably but would have need a heck of a lot of bracing and welding too costly.
> 
> How about another possibility. Put them side to side but bow to stern. Then the high bow would not it the other high bow. Of course one of them would be towing backward... WTF!!! Could have not been worse than what they did.
> 
> ...


 http://www.dmaib.com/Ulykkesrapporter/Marine accident report - Loss of tow - MAERSK BATTLER.pdf Diagram in report shows the tandem tow. 

https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs..._converter&hspart=pty&hsimp=yhs-pty_converter


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## 216289 (Jan 4, 2018)

spongebob said:


> Certainly looks like an accident waiting to happen.
> I have been involved with two marine tows , one unsuccessful but when the Union co "Kaitoa" towed the redundant Devonport Vehicular ferry toward Hobart we had to fender the tow alongside with the tow line stowed on the ships after deck and ready to feed out as the ferry was fed astern once we were clear of Auckland harbour limits.
> It towed like a dream until it took on water and sunk about six days out as I tell in an old post?
> The second event was tha Navua towing a big Belgian suction dredge from Bluff aharbour to Lyttelton after the dredge finished the Bluff harbour reconstruction and reclaimation work. Again we had to tow the dredge fendered alongside until we were out to sea . No problems with this except that the Dredge chief engineer bunked down on my daybed while I was on the 12 to 4 and it took a long time to get the settee free of a strong garlic smell!!
> ...


 settee free of a strong garlic smell!! (==D) did you use your sponge Bob?


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## John Rogers (May 11, 2004)

The question is Bob, do farts come in lumps..


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