200961 Improper lookout and bridge procedures damages seismic cable

Improper lookout and bridge procedures damages seismic cable
MARS Report 200961

A cargo ship that ploughed into a more than four-mile long seismic streamer array being towed by an offshore survey vessel has been judged to be two thirds responsible for the US25 million of damage caused.

Evidence indicated that loud music was playing on the bridge of the cargo ship at the time of the incident. The judge recounted other instances of improper bridge procedures on the vessel, including the failure to incorporate a navigation warning regarding the seismic survey into the vessel's passage plan, failure to mark the survey area on the chart, and a dangerous close-quarter situation with another vessel during the same passage. It was also surmised that the loud music prevented the bridge team from hearing the frequent VHF broadcasts by the support craft accompanying the seismic survey vessel.

Additionally, when the strobe lights of the streamer array were sighted at very close range, the cargo ship made an improper alteration to course to go across the array and failed to appreciate the significance of the strobe lights.

But it was also argued that the survey vessel used non-standard methods of warning shipping of the survey, failed to alert the cargo ship that she was running into danger and also failed to 'dive' the streamers to minimise damage when the rogue ship passed over them.