Search for phone signal caused oil spill, say Japanese investigators Japan’s Transport Safety Board on Thursday judged that a cargo ship that spilled 1,000 tons of fuel oil into a pristine marine environment off the coast of Mauritius in 2020 was travelling off course in search of a cell phone signal. The MV Wakashio was en route from Lianyungang, China to a Brazilian port when, on July 25 2020 …
I've heard of people walking off cliffs while holding up their phone (why do people do that when trying to get a signal, as if an extra two feet of elevation is going to matter?) trying to get a signal, but never heard of someone taking a vehicle along for the ride. Not even a bicycle or a car, let alone a 100,000 ton cargo ship!
Trust me.. A few feet does make a difference. I've got a cubic metre where I can get a signal in 40 acres. (apologies for the archaic measurement). Mind you, ships' captains seem to have form for coast hugging for dubious reason.. Remember that cruise ship off Italy that went crunch and rolled over.
I don't think that anybody even remotely concerned about an environmental disaster would be piloting a ship full of oil and then get distracted by the need for a phone signal, and then ignore charts to order several days of travel to come closer to coral reefs in order to talk to their girlfriend (or whoever).
Unless you follow the links and do a bit more reading it isn't apparent from the Reg article that the ship itself broke up, so in addition to the environmental damage there was a multi-million dollar clean up and salvage bill, the loss of three lives during the salvage work, and the hull loss claim itelf.
In terms of real consequences, as far as I can tell (from respected source Wikipedia) the captain and first officer served about two and half years in clink - and as the captain was 58 his career was all but over anyway. It could also be argued that being held in a cell for a few months isn't too different to normal working conditions for the merchant navy. Adequate punishment? You decide.
The ship's owners Mitsui OSK are reported to have said at the time that the incident wasn't expected to affect their earnings. So rest assured peeps, no shareholders were harmed, no lessons were learned, and no flags of convenience were impaired.
"The report noted that the captain of the vessel changed the voyage plan for the purpose of coming within range of signal for his smartphone"
Me: "Wait why don't they have a satellite phone on board? How would they stay in contact with shipping company and such?"
the fleet had access to free unlimited satellite internet onboard the ship.
.....
You're the captain of a 100,000 ton cargo ship and your only focus is getting a signal for your smartphone. So, without knowing the waters you are in or going to, without the slightest inkling that maybe you should check, you just change course straight into catastrophe.
At this point, the whisky is an anecdote. It is literally irrelevant. The big issue is changing course without checking anything. That's like driving along a road, closing your eyes and then deciding when to take a left turn. I would have thought that naval school would have taught him the necessity of knowing where you're going when captaining a vessel of any kind, let alone an enormous cargo ship.
Who decided to give him command and how much experience did he have beforehand ? Was this his first command ? I cannot believe he was a seasoned captain. I would think that cargo companies prefer having their ships commanded by someone with experience, but this dude acted like a frat boy on party night.
Well, in any case, that'll be his last command. I don't feel sorry for him.
I believe your questions were answered by the quote "Flag of convenience". This translates as minimal legislation, staff training, minimum wages, because we are using a country that allows us to do so,
If they were sailing under our own countries flag we would have far too many rules to follow, environmental consideration, staff welfare, minimum responsibilities etc, how can you possibly make a profit when you have to comply with all those rules?
When you are dealing with the lowest cost operation you can possibly get away with don't expect the most diligent / responsible people
/Rattus
"This translates as minimal legislation, staff training, minimum wages, because we are using a country that allows us to do so," The Master in question obtained his qualifications under STCW via the Indian system which is just about identical in all respects to the UK's system. Minimum wages? Indian crews are amongst the highest paid.
"minimal legislation" Liberia, Panama, Bahamas etc; have the same standards, or higher than the UK. Yes, there are some cowboy flags, but they comprise a very small %age.
Yep. Most drunk drivers have driven drunk hundreds of times, and complacency rather than the actual drunkenness is what gets them - they don't pay any more attention than they do at other times. It may be that the extra bit of delayed reaction time makes the difference between accident and close call, or their number is just up for an accident and they wouldn't have avoided it sober.
Same with distracted drivers. The people who get in a crash because they are fiddling with their phone and don't notice someone has slowed/stopped in front of them have probably driven while fiddling with their phone for years without a problem so they assume the cautions/laws against are just nanny state worryings that apply to others but not themselves.
The longer someone "gets away" with doing something they know or should know they shouldn't be doing without consequences, the more they will believe they are an exception to the rule. I remember back in college a guy I know who raced cars at a local track would give me rides home sometimes from the bar when we'd both been drinking and he said "I'm such a good driver that driving drunk just lowers me to the level of the average driver". Lost track of him after college but I suspect if he kept that up long enough he probably got pulled over eventually and I imagine having your license suspended for drunk driving is not good for being allowed on racetracks!
"I imagine having your license suspended for drunk driving is not good for being allowed on racetracks!"
Depends on whether they ask. I know people who started race driving before being old enough to legally take to the roads and therefore didn't even have a driving licence so it's not a requirement.
All well and good.
But it does ignore the prime responsibility of being captain of a sea going vessel:
STEER THE BLOODY SHIP AND DON'T RUN INTO ANYTHING.
What was so important on his mobile that it took priority over that?
It is not too different from this:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-59951710
Reminiscent of the yacht which ran aground, terminally, on a well charted reef off South Africa during the 2017 Clipper Round the World Race (aka Death Race 2017, since they killed two paying participants). The navigator hadn't bothered to zoom in to check whether there was anything worth worrying about ahead of them.
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