2011X11 Sinking of a Fishing Vessel

The following is another extract taken from the latest summary of reports issued by the British Marine Accident Investigation Branch.

Case 1

A 13 year old steel fishing boat of 11.5 meters length had been at sea about 2.5 hours when flooding was discovered in the fish hold. The skipper went into the engine room via the fish hold but was unable to close the ship's side inlet valves as the water was about waist deep throughout the boat. The bilge pumps were unable to cope and the flooding continued.

The boat had a bilge alarm fitted but it was the skipper's normal practice to switch the audible function off. The visual alarm was not noticed and therefore he had no early warning that a potential hazard was arising. Fortunately they had a cellnet portable telephone on board, this was used to send an emergency call as the VHF was not working by this time. Several vessels responded to the subsequent Coastguard broadcast and a lifeboat and helicopter were mobilised.The skipper and one of the deck hand had undergone survival training. They put on lifejackets, prepared the liferaft for launching and placed an orange smoke float on the deck to attract attention. All three crew members were subsequently lifted off by the helicopter. The boat finally sank.

Case 2

Another fishing vessel, this time of 23 meters length and with six persons aboard, also started taking in water through a sea suction pipe. In this incident the engine room bilge alarm operated and gave the crew sufficient warning. They quickly traced the cause of the flooding and were able to shut off the sea cock. The flooding had been contained because the vessel had been built with bulkheads at each end of the engine room. The vessel did not sink and returned safely to port for repairs.

Observations Work had recently been carried out on the main engine cooling system in case 1. It is probable that a leak developed in the flexible pipe on the outlet side of the cooling system. Without any subdivision, there was no means to contain the flooding.In case 2, the suction pipe had corroded and failed under pressure. The owners are now making regular checks on the bilge and sea suction pipes to prevent a repetition.

Comment Without watertight subdivision any leak will give rise to extensive flooding throughout the boat. In case 1, there were wooden bulkheads to divide the sections but the doors through them were not watertight.The value of safety training was clearly shown in the first incident. The third member of the crew, who was not trained, had to rely on the others.In both cases bilge alarms were fitted. It was only of real advantage in the latter case, as in the former it had been turned off as a matter of routine. This is bad practice as it can lead to a delay in dealing with any flooding.