# Containership aground on the Bramble bank



## beryte (Jun 14, 2005)

It appears that the large containership APL VANDA is aground on the West Bramble bank with six tugs assisting her. From my window she appears to be in a similar position as the Hoegh Osaka was about a year ago. The tide is on the rise though, so may help her.

Tony W.


----------



## Gulpers (Sep 8, 2005)

You are correct Tony.
Screen shot from SN's Marine Traffic shown below. (Thumb)


----------



## kewl dude (Jun 1, 2008)

http://www.shipspotting.com/ships/ship.php?imo=9631993

Attached: shipspottingAPLVanda.jpg (69.7 KB) 

Greg Hayden
Vista, CA USA


----------



## 5036 (Jan 23, 2006)

She started moving 23:50 utc and whole fleet now moving north at 2 kts.
Good job.


----------



## Mad Landsman (Dec 1, 2005)

Has since arrived alongside at the Container terminal.


----------



## Day Sailor (Nov 9, 2014)

Strange, there is no mention on the charts of a magnetic anomaly on the Bramble Bank but it does seem to have an attraction for vessels of all sizes .


----------



## Mad Landsman (Dec 1, 2005)

From the local press: 

A Maritime and Coastguard Agency spokesman last night said: "A large container ship has executed a controlled grounding this evening at Bramble Bank, in Southampton Water, following a loss of power".


----------



## Varley (Oct 1, 2006)

If we're not careful every Master and pilot will be looking for an opportunity to heroically strand his charge!


----------



## Day Sailor (Nov 9, 2014)

Mad Landsman said:


> From the local press:
> 
> A Maritime and Coastguard Agency spokesman last night said: "A large container ship has executed a controlled grounding this evening at Bramble Bank, in Southampton Water, following a loss of power".


A bit of a contradiction there, how can you have control if you have no power? 

It seems they have got hold of a copy of the Government's book of Excuses.


----------



## Mad Landsman (Dec 1, 2005)

I might be completely wrong but my interpretation of what occurred is:

The ship, under pilotage, may have lost main engine power, or propulsion, as it turned past Bramble bank towards Southampton water. It still had steering, with auxiliary power? 
If it had been permitted to continue then it would have gone on for a while until it lost steering way (5 or 6 knots ?) at which point it would have been subject to wind and tide and possibly drifted across the main shipping lane, blocking the entrance to the port. 
I would guess that the Pilot and or Master decided to use what little way they had left to steer the vessel into a known safe position. 
The tide was not at its highest point and they would be aware that the rising tide would lift them clear, as it did, to give time for the fault to be rectified, which apparently, it was. 
If the vessel had still not been able to proceed under power it also gave time for sufficient tugs to muster in order to tow it up to the berth. The escorting tug would have been unable to do so on its own. 

There was no significant damage and the ship has now left Southampton for Hamburg, with further opportunities for grounding......


----------



## 5036 (Jan 23, 2006)

How does warranty work and do they have Green Flag Get You Home?


----------



## Mad Landsman (Dec 1, 2005)

nav said:


> How does warranty work and do they have Green Flag Get You Home?


Have you seen the size of the jump leads? :sweat:


----------



## ART6 (Sep 14, 2010)

There seem to be a lot of these giants running aground or into each other over the last few years, and engine or steering failure seems to be the common problem. That prompts the dinosaur in me to wonder why? 

Could it be because the crews have been slimmed down by the bean counters to the extent that everyone aboard has become knackered with overwork and are forbidden to partake of the odd can of Tennants to relieve the pressure? So OK bean counters, let's have unmanned ships prowling the oceans. Big savings there -- no more crews to feed and pay -- except what happens when the s**t hits the fan, the main engine has emigrated, the steering is heading for Jamaica when the ship is supposed to be off Osaka? Can you resolve that with your financial analyses in your offices in London or New York? Can you program your computers to replace the experienced master, or the chief engineer who is thoroughly tuned into his machinery to the extent that the slightest odd noise will waken him? 

Could it be that what few engineers they have spend their watches (daywork only) in isolated control rooms from where they can't hear their machinery, and probably couldn't interpret it if they could, instead relying upon a mass of computer-generated data that means nothing to anyone other than an IT specialist or an air crash investigator?

Could it be that in the event of something bad happening to the main engine or steering, the three or four engineers aboard would be powerless to do anything about it even if they knew how?

Could it be that a fuel leak or a break in a sanitary line spraying over a sensor in the engine room might not be identified by the automation systems when a junior engineer on watch would find it in ten minutes in his continual circling and checking?

I can still recall my time at sea, when the engineers were all shipyard trained and half of us as rough as guts, but we knew "the job". We didn't have elevated titles like "second officer engine" and we didn't have degrees. If something went amiss in the engine room on our watch, we would either fix it or call for assistance (only in the most desperate straits) from the other engineers. I can also recall incidents of loss of engine or steering, even blackouts in ships that did not benefit from high levels of automation, and when it happened we got in there and fixed it pronto! We relied upon those guys up on the bridge to get us through the storms, and they relied upon us to give them the power to do so. We went through emergencies that would have half the world fleet up the beach nowadays, and we saw it as no big deal.

This is what is happening: the bean counters have taken over an industry about which they know nothing, and their sole focus is on the bottom line of a balance sheet. One of our ships has run aground on a rock? Claim on the insurance policy and blame the master and the mate as the only two of the three people aboard at the time, and sack the chief engineer.

I am by no means an opponent of modern technology. In fact my company before I retired had built six large process plants in the UK, all of them with increasing degrees of automation that I designed, the last one automated to the extent that the whole process was overseen by one man in a control room, and almost no-one ever ventured into the machinery spaces. There were, however, fundamental differences between those plants and a ship at sea: if it all went pear shaped the crew at sea couldn't simply get in their cars and go home, or call the local fire brigade, or simply press the "stop" button and await the attendance of a bean counter to instruct them.

All of this is of course in the pursuit of competition and in the making of rates of return and savings for investors, where human values of skill and professionalism no longer count. Why does it matter if a few Filipino seafarers lose their lives? Or the few British left? Or the Poles?

I wonder if, sooner or later, the human race will wake up to the reality that money is no more a religion than Islam or Christianity, and it's gods don't need to be adored, and those gods of the "markets" and the speculators who are indifferent to human lives might finally be ejected from the gene pool.

Oh well, dream on!


----------



## Samsette (Sep 3, 2005)

Mad Landsman said:


> I might be completely wrong but my interpretation of what occurred is:
> 
> The ship, under pilotage, may have lost main engine power, or propulsion, as it turned past Bramble bank towards Southampton water. It still had steering, with auxiliary power?
> If it had been permitted to continue then it would have gone on for a while until it lost steering way (5 or 6 knots ?) at which point it would have been subject to wind and tide and possibly drifted across the main shipping lane, blocking the entrance to the port.
> ...


A damned good assessment, I'd say. Landsman? I wonder.


----------



## Wallace Slough (Mar 21, 2009)

Art6

http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=848266&cat=513

In addition to the reduction in crew size that the bean counters have figured out, I would think that consideration should be given with these huge vessels to more redundancy of design. The recent grounding in Germany could have had catastrophic results due to what has been reported as a propulsion/steering failure. Maersk's movement towards twin screw/twin rudder ULCC vessels would seem like an excellent idea that could be cost effective if it avoided a catastrophic incident.


----------

