Case study

“A’, the vessel involved in this incident, was a small sludge carrier. She collided with “B”, another vessel, in thick fog in the vicinity of a large United Kingdom pilot station (the reader should refer to the attached plots which were produced from evidence provided by the vessels involved in the incident).

At 0920 hours, “A” adjusted her course to 273 degrees true on an outward leg of a run to dump sludge. Between 0930 hours and 0935 hours, an echo was observed on radar 10 degrees on starboard bow distance 2.7 miles just west of BR Lanby Buoy. “A” and the echo both appeared to be heading for LF1 light float at the entrance of the main channel. The echo’s bearing appeared constant during the next few minutes, and the master made a number of small alterations of course to starboard amounting in total to 40 degrees. “B” was first sighted 2.3 points on port bow at which time “A” was heading about 313 degrees true. “B” appeared to be heading at right angles to “A” at a distance of about 3 cables. “A” collided with “B” at about 0945 hours in a position estimated to be 8 cables ESE of BR Lanby.

At 0916 hours “B” was following a course of 112° BR Lanby 097 degrees true distance 4.5 miles reduced to half speed. At 0925, her course was altered to 095 degrees true to counteract set. At about 0940, an echo was observed 5 degrees on port bow distance 3 miles. A few minutes later, after speaking to the pilot on the VHF, the master ordered her course to be adjusted to 102 degrees true to bring LF1 light float right ahead with speed reduced to slow check. The radar echo distance of 2 miles was brought right ahead.

A crew member reported that the echo first moved from right ahead to 40 degrees on starboard bow closing to a distance of 4 cables. Soon after, “A” was seen 50 degrees on starboard bow distance 3 cables. The wheel of “B” was put hard a starboard, and the engines stopped and put full astern.

The collision occurred at 0943 hours according to a clock on “B” as recorded by the chief officer. The master of “B” recorded the collision as taking place at 0944/0945 hours. The master also estimated that at this time the BR Lanby buoy was at 50 degrees true distance 7 cables.

Although there were independent observers in the vicinity who were engaged in damage control exercises, the data provided by them did not appear to relate to this incident but to two other vessels passing close to one another. The evidence from “A” and “B” did not correlate, and the investigators of the collision had difficulty in ascertaining the cause of the incident.

The owners and insurers of “A” were placed at a considerable disadvantage as “A” could not produce certain items of crucial evidence, which included a working chart, a plot of “B” as it approached (“B” also had not plotted “A” as it approached), and a movement book. In addition, there were no automatic recording devices such as course recorders or data loggers, onboard the vessel. As a result of the lack of evidence, “A” was found to be primarily at fault in causing the loss, and her owners were responsible for the damage suffered to “B”.