De Duitse rederij E.H. Harms, die voor rekening van de Japanse autoconstructeur Toyota een vaste roro-verbinding onderhoudt tussen Zeebrugge en het Britse Grimsby (Hull) verdubbelt  haar aanlopen. Totnogtoe werden vanuit Grimsby een keer per week nieuwe Toyota's aangevoerd voor distributie op het Europese vasteland. Sinds begin januari is iedere woensdagnamiddag een bijkomende aanloop gepland. Dat de aanlopen verhogen komt omdat Toyota steeds meer nieuwe wagens via Zeebrugge distribueert.
 

Het Britse Onderzoeksbureau van Maritieme Ongevallen of  “Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB)” heeft meegedeeld dat 5 maanden onderzoek naar aanleiding van de brand die uitbrak tijdens een reis van de P&O ferry Norsea naar Zeebrugge, tot dusver niks heeft opgeleverd.  De reden voor het ontstaan van de brandhaard aan boord van de veerboot kon niet worden achterhaald.  Omdat geen technische oorzaak kon worden vastgesteld, zal het onderzoeksbureau opnieuw consulteren met de rederij en met maritieme experten om een nog vollediger beeld te krijgen omtrent het ontstaan van de vuurhaard.   Daarbij zal nu met nadruk geprobeerd worden na te gaan of menselijk falen de brand kan hebben veroorzaakt.  Een verslag daaromtrent wordt later op het jaar verwacht.   De veerboot Norsea, met 611 opvarenden waaronder 15 landgenoten, was op 2 september vorig jaar op weg van Hull naar Zeebrugge toen één van de vier motoren van het schip vuur vatte. Het vaartuig bleef gedurende 7 uur stuurloos.  Het automatische koolstofdioxidesysteem aan boord bestreed het vuur maar kon de brandhaard niet doven zodat assistentie vanaf land moest worden ingeroepen.  Daarbij werden 11 schepen en 2 helikopters ingezet.  Persoonlijke ongevallen deden zich niet voor.

P&O NORSEA FERRY FIRE PROBE DRAWS BLANK 

Accident investigators are drawing a blank over the fire on a North Sea ferry, which was carrying more than 600 passengers and crew.  Top level inquiries were launched five months ago into the blaze on board the P&O Norsea but the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) said today that the incident was still "under investigation" and its cause not established. It hopes to publish its findings this year but at the moment cannot say when and is consulting the ship's owners and maritime experts to build up a full picture of exactly how the fire happened. The incident happened just 17 days before Suffolk axed its firefighting at sea capability – leaving incidents on the county's coast to be covered by firefighters from Lincolnshire.

A spokesman for the MAIB said investigations into the P&O Norsea were continuing and a report would be made in due course and be a public document.  "Inspectors consider evidence from as many sources as possible. If necessary, they will call in technical experts from outside the branch," he said.  "The MAIB places particular emphasis on identifying the human element in the causes of an accident.  The branch aims to improve safety for all those who work at, or travel by, sea, and its findings almost always lead to recommendations aimed at preventing similar accidents."

The P&O Norsea was eight miles off Great Yarmouth on September 2 – en route from Hull to Zeebrugge – when one of its four engines caught fire, leaving it drifting powerless for seven hours in the North Sea.  While crew members set off the vessel's automatic firefighting system at 2.10am, passengers assembled at muster points on deck.  At first it was thought the ship's automatic system, which closes off the area and pumps carbon dioxide gas in to starve the fire of oxygen, had brought the blaze under control, but then flames flared again and onshore help was sought.  Helicopters from Wattisham and Leconfield, North Yorkshire, picked up a team of nine specialist firefighters from Lowestoft and seven colleagues from Ipswich – officers whose role has since been axed.  Lifeboat crews and 11 support vessels stayed nearby until 9am when the ship restarted its engines.

MAIB statistics for 2001 – the latest year for which they are available – show the branch investigated 133 accidents involving merchant shipping, a steady decline from a decade ago when the figure was twice as high.  However, in 1994 there were 24 fires on ferries, compared with 21 in 2001.

Numast says the risk of fire has not diminished and yet the fire-fighting capacity has been halved since 1995. Both cargo and passenger ships are getting bigger, and more hazardous chemicals are being carried, and action is urgently needed.
 

Uit de Turkse tanker Vicky, die op nieuwjaarsdag op het wrak van het Noorse schip Tricolor botste, is een aanzienlijke hoeveelheid brandstof gelekt. Het gevaar van milieuvervuiling is volgens directeur Willem Van Poucke van de kustwacht in Oostende niet groot omdat het lek tijdelijk was. Franse onderzoekers en de Belgische politie en scheepvaartinspectie zijn aan boord van de Vicky bezig met onderzoek om erachter te komen of het verantwoord is dat de tanker zijn reis naar New York voortzet. Het schip heeft een beetje water gemaakt, maar volgens Van Poucke is de situatie stabiel. ,,De bemanning blijft aan boord en de kapitein heeft nog steeds de controle over het schip.'' 

De Vicky ligt dertig km voor onze kust. In Oostende is er een crisisvergadering geweest met alle bevoegde diensten. Gouverneur Breyne coördineert de gebeurtenissen. Mogelijk wordt de Vicky naar een Europese haven gestuurd voor verder nazicht en reparatie. Een Belgische haven zal dat niet zijn. De weersomstandigheden moeten ook meezitten en de Turkse eigenaar van het schip moet voor de kosten opdraaien. De gouverneur beklemtoonde nog dat er voorlopig geen gevaar voor het milieu is aan onze kust. Als er gevaar dreigt, dan worden alle kustgemeenten daarvan verwittigd.

Een zegsman van de Britse vakbond voor zeevarenden Numast, Andrew Linington, heeft in The Financial Times van donderdag gewaarschuwd dat er eindelijk eens moet worden gekeken naar werkomstandigheden van zeelui, omdat 90 procent van dergelijke ongelukken door menselijke tekortkomingen worden veroorzaakt. De drang om op personeel te bezuinigen, dwingt het krimpend aantal zeelieden om tachtig tot negentig uur per week te werken, ook in drukke zeestraten als deze. Het is volgens Linington een ,,Russische roulette'' met de veiligheid van mens en milieu. 

CHANNEL CRASH INVESTIGATION UNDERWAY 

An investigation has started to find out whether human error was responsible for yesterday's collision of the Turkish oil tanker, the Vicky, with the submerged wreck of the autocarrier Tricolor in de Dover Strait. 

Watch officer Peter Legg, from Dover Coastguard, told the inquiry - headed up by the French authorities - would examine whether human error was involved in Wednesday's collision. But he defended the actions taken to warn other ships about the wreck. "There is a possibility that this could happen again but at the present moment we have done all we can to make this wreck obvious to the mariner," he said.  An half-hourly radio warning is being broadcast from Dover and the French coastguards at Cross Griz-Nez.  There are also announcements being made on the maritime distress calling frequency. Asked if the Vicky would have been monitoring this channel, a spokesman for the UK coastguard said "one would hope so".  The wreck is also marked by five warning buoys, one of which is specially designed to give out a bright reflection on ships' radar screens, and throw up a warning symbol.   A French warship, the Flamand, is patrolling the area.  The Vicky had got in contact with the navy patrol ship the Flamand just before the collision and it is not known why the tanker continued on its route towards the shipwreck.  The investigation into the accident, being carried out by French and Belgian authorities, is likely to focus on the possibility of human error. Given the number of warnings, it seems inconceivable that someone on the ship was not aware of the danger.  Maritime sources say one of the things the investigators will want to know is if the position of the Tricolor was marked on the Vicky's charts for the area.  They will also examine the standard of crew training. 

French coastguards said tonight that those in charge of the Vicky seem to have been unaware of the floating hazard, lying off the Kent coast. Michaud Philippe, a French Coastguard duty officer, said inquires were continuing but revealed: "The captain will be interviewed by the Belgian Maritime Authority but, at the moment, we know the Vicky seems not to have been informed there was a wreck."  Commander Hunter Rouselle, an officer with the French Navy, said the crew had many opportunities to pick up radio warnings.  He said: "We do not understand how it is possible. We say by radio, by written message there is a wreck at that point." 

The ship is managed by Makro Denizcilik, a small company based in Istanbul, which is linked by some shipping sources to a larger Turkish owner.  Makro’s principal, Ersin Ahmet, said that everything was under control, and that the vessel would now proceed either to dry dock or anywhere advised by classification society Det Norske Veritas.  He pointed out that Vicky was the second ship to hit the wreck.  Standing by Capt Yamac, he questioned if the French authorities had done enough to prevent such collisions. “We are investigating if there was enough warning,” he added.  The ship has a good record in recent port state control inspection, although it has suffered two recent casualties. In February 2000, there was a fatal engine room explosion near the West Indies, which killed one person and injured four others. 
In October the same year, it was refused entry into New York, on account of a leak from No 2 hold. Vicky is of 77,677 dwt and built with a single hull and double bottom.

Belgian authorities said the Vicky would stay in Belgian waters, where it is anchored a few miles from the Tricolor, while further checks were carried out and a port to accept the ship could be found.  Willem Van Poucke, the search and rescue coordinator for the Ostend coastguard, said there was evidence of damage and some diesel oil was leaking from the vessel, anchored about 14 miles (22 km) off Belgium.  But he said it did not represent any danger of an oil slick on the Belgian coast: "There have been some signs of pollution but it is not extensive."  Van Poucke explained the Vicky's cargo would have to be partially offloaded before it could move. But he said there was no chance of moving the ship on Thursday evening because gale force winds were forecast, making the operation too risky.  A suitable port must also be found, he added.  "It has a draft of 16.2 metres and no (Belgian) port is able to accept a ship of that draft," Willem Van Poucke, the search and rescue coordinator for the Ostend coastguard, told Reuters.  "The nearest port would be Rotterdam and the owner of the cargo is from Rotterdam so we will see what we can do," he said.   Van Poucke said it was highly unlikely that the ship would resume its course for its final destination, New York.

The vessel is listing slightly at anchor in Belgian waters, 18 miles from the North Sea port of Ostend. Damage to the Turkish ship was limited, but an approaching storm could make it worse, provincial governor Paul Breyne said.  ``If the cracks between the different compartments of the ship, which are there now, would get bigger, then the danger for much worse pollution would not be unrealistic,'' he said in a telephone interview after a crisis meeting in Ostend. Divers and security officials want to examine the damage to Vicky but may not be able to because of the worsening conditions. The poor weather also means ships can't pump off the oil. ``A storm has been announced and it is not easy to get close to the ship,'' Breyne said. Maritime forecasts called for winds up to 63 mph Thursday night and continued strong winds Friday. 

Britain's Times newspaper quoted the Vicky's master, Bulent Yamac, as saying he was not forewarned.   "I had no idea it was there. I saw some light buoys but I didn't understand what it meant or why they were there... I tried to change course and turn to starboard. Visibility was normal and I could see waves breaking, then I knew it must be a wreck because there are no shallows in the area."

A British maritime union has said it is concerned "Russian roulette" is being played with safety in the channel.  Union spokesman Andrew Linington said he was "appalled" to hear about the latest incident.  He said 90% of such incidents were the result of the human factor.  "There is a constant drive to reduce crewing levels and people can be working 80 to 90 hours a week on busy waterways like these".