THE still unidentified Southampton pilot who grounded the Singaporean flagged car carrier Hoegh Osaka has won high praise from Don Cockrill, chairman of the UK Maritime Pilots¡¦ Association (UKMPA).
To non-professionals, it looked like a disaster with the 51,000-ton car carrier lying lopsided in the shallows off the Port of Southampton, but the decision to run her aground was master stroke of piloting and ship handling, said Capt Cockrill.
"Things could have been much worse," he said. "The quick thinking, decisions and actions of the pilot on board resulted not only in the prevention of a major catastrophic event."
The ship’s company said in a statement that the captain and the pilot of the Hoegh Osaka noticed that the ship was dangerously listing to one side, and decided to strand her deliberately in order to prevent further damage.
"Ships grow bigger and bigger, but the ports have remained the same as decades ago," Capt Cockrill said. It is like having the same garage, but buying a larger car - it might fit, but it’s harder to drive in.
He reconstructed what happened, reported Australia's Business Insider. The operators would have rapidly realised that something was going wrong and the ship was listing dangerously.
Before losing control of the vessel, the pilot and the captain decided to run aground on shallow waters, where the bottom of the sea is higher and the Hoegh Osaka could easily be stranded safely. The ship left port at 8.20pm and beached by 9.30pm - meaning the pilot and captain took only 70 minutes to realize the ship was in jeopardy, decide they had to beach the vessel, give orders to the crew, plot a course to the bank.
The move kept the narrow navigation channel open. If the ship had capsized, the crew’s lives would have been at serious risk; the cargo likely lost; and Southampton port would have been clogged for days.
"'The sound of safety is silence' yet in some quarters of the UK ports industry there is a misconception that because everything is going right then there must be no need to operate pilotage services at such high levels of expertise and training," said Capt Cockrill, reported New York's Maritime Advocate.
"The manner in which the Hoegh Osaka situation as it evolved was handled by her pilot is testament to the rewards that are inevitably reaped from proper investment in the training and operation of port pilotage services and the professionalism and dedication of UK pilots," he said.
WORLD SHIPPING
12 January 2015 - 20:49
Southampton pilot who beached Singaporean ro-ro ship wins high praise
THE still unidentified Southampton pilot who grounded the Singaporean flagged car carrier Hoegh Osaka has won high praise from Don Cockrill, chairman of the UK Maritime Pilots¡¦ Association (UKMPA).
WORLD SHIPPING
12 January 2015 - 20:49
Southampton pilot who beached Singaporean ro-ro ship wins high praise
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