Flag state authorities in Luxembourg have issued an immediate action safety bulletin following loss of the anchor-handling tug supply vessel ‘Bourbon Rhode’.
It was in September 2019 that Bourbon Rhode foundered after being hit by hurricane Lorenzo in the Atlantic Ocean while on passage from Las Palmas to Guyana. Despite an intensive search involving aircraft and 19 commercial vessels covering 200,000km2 eleven seafarers were lost, thankfully three were rescued.
A safety issue has been identified involving water entering the shark jaws watertight housing frame. Water can enter the housing frame which has three drain fittings at the bottom plate and with the jaws lowered gaps allow water to enter the housing frame itself. The system is installed in the Z-drive compartment
During anchor-handling activities regular maintenance includes removal of inspection covers on the housing side to remove sand etc, the covers are then re-installed with silicone sealant/gaskets. The bulletin states that over time these inspection covers on Bourbon Rhode ‘have lost their watertight properties.’ Water collected at the bottom of the Z-drive compartment is removed by bilge pumping systems.
The investigation has shown that under unfavourable circumstances and in combination with other safety-related factors, the water quantity penetrating the compartment is likely to increase up to a point where, when unnoticed or unattended for a certain period, an unsafe condition may develop and lead to a major flooding with subsequent foundering.
An additional safety barrier through the Safety Management System (SMS) is recommended by implementing a procedural defence to limit risk of flooding from leaking inspection covers while in the long-term design changes on new vessels or modifications to existing vessels should be considered, for example compartment encasing, redesign of inspection covers or modification of housing frame.
The administration advises operators of vessels equipped with the specific system on Bourbon Rhode or of similar design of inspection covers to implement a standard procedure in the vessel operator’s SMS including a standard procedure for tasks requiring the opening of the inspection covers of the anchor-handling system housing frame. A list of maintenance instructions to be addressed by this procedure including the appropriate sealing method and testing of the watertight integrity of the anchor-handling system is provided and the safety bulletin can be viewed at: https://aet.gouvernement.lu/dam-assets/l-administration/transports-maritimes/bourbonrhode/Bourbon-Rhode-SB1-final-2020-08-19.pdf
By Peter Barker
