200004 Room to Manoeuvre

Room to Manoeuvre
Report No. 200004

We were on a westerly course at the western end of the Malacca Strait when the following events took place. I had overtaken two vessels steaming on parallel courses both doing 14 knots compared to my speed of 19 knots. When the vessels were approximately two miles astern of me on my port quarter, three other vessels were observed steaming eastward towards the two which I had just overtaken. The situation looked roughly as follows:

The radar indicated that a close quarters situation was developing between the five vessels. Vessel "2" altered to starboard. Vessel "1" and the three eastbound vessels all maintained their courses. A few minutes later, vessel "3" altered to starboard by about 50, presumably to give vessel "1" a wider berth.

When the distance decreased further, it was fairly evident that vessel "1" was attempting to pass between vessels "3" and "4" even though he now had plenty of sea room to starboard. The situation now looked as follows:

When the range between vessel "1" and vessel "4" was down to roughly 3 miles, the OOW on vessel "1" realised that he was now in a rather tight situation. This was when things started to get interesting. An extremely panicked voice was heard on the VHF saying, "I am not under command, keep out of my way" Moments after that, two "all round" lights and deck lights appeared on vessel "1" (incorrect signal). This caused a great deal of confusion and many choice words were heard over the VHF directed towards the vessel that was "not under command". To make matters worse, at a distance of about 1.5 miles from vessel "4", vessel "1" (NUC) altered hard to port and narrowly missed colliding with vessel "3". When asked by another vessel a few minutes later why he was "not under command", there was no response. After further questioning on the VHF why the vessel was "NUC", a voice simply said, "engines", although the vessel was still steaming at full ahead! A few minutes later another voice was heard on the VHF, presumably the Master of vessel "1" saying, "my vessel is now under command, ignore all earlier transmissions". With that, the NUC lights and deck lights were switched off and the vessel continued happily on her way. I found the situation very interesting, if not a little frightening and pass it on as a lesson in how not to do things.