96005 Near Miss Overtaking MAL

Deep Draft Problem
Malacca Strait

REPORT No. 96005

We passed One Fathom Bank Racon 'M' at 2300. I had held a conversation withvessel "B" during the evening and so I knew that she was comingafter us and heading east. Vessel "C" was also coming after usand both "B" and "C" were expected overtake us later.
By 0200 the following morning, we were approaching Pyramid Shoal andI kept a lookout astern to make the situation clear of any ships closingup on us. As we are a deep draft vessel, we have to alter course at thebuoy SE of Pyramid Shoal in order to go South (180 degrees). I had to makesure that no ships were coming up on my starboard side. I used the VHF tocall attention and made contact with vessel "B" and we agreedthat he would not come on my starboard side. We then had one ship comingup fast from astern and I tried to get in contact on the VHF. I informedabout my position and my intention but got no reply. I repeated my messageseveral times as we came closer to the point of alteration to our new course.I could now see that the other vessel would come on our starboard side andin this way prevent us from altering to starboard. I tried many times tocall attention with the big searchlight which we have on the bridge wing.There was still no reply and I realised that we were now in a bad situation.At 0234 we had to stop the engine immediately (cancel program) and hopeto get rid of the other ship before it was too late to come to starboardto our next course. I finally managed to contact this vessel and told himthat he had put us in a very dangerous situation. He answered that he didnot know about any deep draft vessel transiting the Strait that night.

After stopping the engine, we soon lost steering but we were lucky thatit was not crowded in that position. At that moment there were only thethree ships. We were also lucky and managed to get rid of him quickly andwe started the engine again at 0248. By 0250 we went full ahead and stillhad room to alter to starboard but had to come to 190 degrees. We continuedour passage without any more problems. The ICS/OCIMF Guide to the Straitsof Malacca and Singapore recommend this track and detailed passage planningshould indicate that this is a possible danger spot, particularly with regardto overtaking traffic. Any deep draft vessel can be expected to turn suddenlyto starboard to follow the recommended track. After talking with other Masters,it would appear that this incident is quite a common occurrence.

It was reported to the owners that the signal lights (three red lights)which were being shown could not be seen from certain angles astern. Theyhad been fitted to the port side of the radar mast after delivery of thevessel and so were partly covered by the funnel. The Master requested thatthe owners do something about the situation and make sure that the lightswere of the correct size. As the displaying of the deep draft signal isvoluntary (Colreg 28), it was suggested that it should be made mandatory.

The suggestion to make the deep draft signal mandatorywould not be welcomed by all sectors of the industry. Some reporters considerthat this signal is used inappropriately, see MARS 94038, plus Feedbackin September and November 1995.