Baltic Ace
.jpg) |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
The Baltic Ace was a car carrier sailing under the flag of the Bahamas (PCTC: Pure Car / Truck Carrier). The ship, which was put into service in 2007, sank on December 5, 2012 after a collision in the North Sea .
history
The end of 2005 ordered ship was in 2007 under the hull No. 8245/5 on the shipyard Stocznia Gdynia in Poland Gdynia built. The keel was laid on February 26th, the launch on June 3rd, 2007. The ship was completed on July 11, 2007. The ship was the fifth in a series of six units: Elbe Highway , Thames Highway , Danube Highway , Seine Highway , all of which are operated by the “K” Line , and Nordic Ace , the was built between 2005 and 2007 at the Polish shipyard.
This ship was owned by Baltic Highway Limited and managed by Stamco Ship Management Company in Piraeus . It was operated by Euro Marine Logistics (EML), a joint venture between the Japanese Mitsui OSK Lines and the Norwegian Höegh Autoliners . Euro Marine Logistics used the ship for the transport of vehicles and other Ro / Ro loads in Europe. At the time of the collision, the ship was chartered by the Norwegian company United European Car Carriers (UECC).
Sinking after collision
On December 5, 2012, at around 7.15 p.m., the Baltic Ace collided with the feeder ship Corvus J, which was registered in Cyprus , about 65 nautical miles from the Dutch province of Zeeland . The ship was on the way from Zeebrugge in Belgium to Kotka in Finland with 1,417 brand-new Mitsubishi vehicles . After the collision, the Baltic Ace reported water ingress and sank within a very short time. The container ship was damaged but not threatened with sinking and was still helping with the rescue operation.
Rescue operation
Eleven of the 24-person crew were able to be rescued from life rafts with helicopters , which were only found around 10 p.m. Two people were picked up by ships. Eleven crew members of the ship were killed in the accident.
The rescue workers used infrared cameras to find survivors. While the helicopters had difficulties with the strong wind at the scene of the accident, two ships of the Dutch Navy initially continued their search. The search for survivors was stopped at the end of the week.
Salvage
In March 2014, the Dutch authority Rijkswaterstaat awarded the contract to salvage the wreck to the Dutch companies Boskalis Nederland and Mammoet Salvage. After emptying the fuel tanks and removing the vehicles on board, the wreck should be cut up and lifted. The wreck has now been cut into eight sections. During the salvage work it turned out that the ship's formations had been severely weakened by the accident and the cutting up. The first thing to do was to salvage the bow and to be scrapped in the Waalhaven in Rotterdam at the end of June 2015. The salvage of the wreck was completed on November 24, 2015.
examination
The marine casualty was investigated by the flag states of the ships involved. In both investigations it was established that the officers on watch on both ships disregarded several individual provisions of the collision avoidance rules, communicated in an ambiguous manner via VHF and agreed on a non-compliant passage. Both officers did not adhere in part to the previous course change agreements. The sinking of the Baltic Ace was attributed to both the Corvus J's deep penetration and its construction.
Technical data and equipment
The ship was propelled by a slow-running seven-cylinder two-stroke crosshead diesel engine of the type MAN-B & W 46MC-C with an output of 9170 kW. It had a transverse thruster control system in the bow and in the stern .
Three generators from the manufacturer Daihatsu Diesel and an emergency generator were available for the power supply.
There were two stern ramps for cargo handling . One of the ramps opened directly aft . It was 19 meters long and 6 meters wide. The other ramp opened sideways towards the starboard side . It was 27.5 meters long and 6 meters wide. The ramps could be loaded with a maximum of 70 t.
The maximum height of the loading deck was 4.8 meters.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Technical and administrative data of the "Baltic Ace", register entry, Det Norske Veritas.
- ↑ a b Baltic Ace ( Memento from January 1, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) (English)
- ↑ Baltic Ace , Stamco Ship Management Co. Ltd.
- ↑ a b Incident involving Baltic Ace - Dec 5th 2012 ( Memento of the original from December 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , United European Car Carriers (UECC)
- ↑ Car carrier "Baltic Ace" sank in 15 minutes . In: Daily port report , December 7, 2012, p. 1 and 13
- ↑ a b "Baltic Ace" accident insured with up to 60 million dollars ( memento from December 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), THB - Deutsche Schiffahrts-Zeitung, December 8, 2012.
- ↑ 4 dead, 7 missing after Dutch cargo ship sinks , CBS News , December 5, 2012
- ↑ Berging Baltic Ace dit jaar van start ( Memento from October 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), Rijkswaterstaat, March 24, 2014.
- ^ Baltic Ace Salvage Contract Awarded , World Maritime News, March 27, 2014, accessed October 23, 2014
- ↑ Berging Baltic Ace afgerond, vrij baan voor scheepvaartverkeer near Rijkswaterstaat from November 24, 2015 (Dutch)
- ^ Report of the investigation into the loss of mv Baltic Ace following a collision with mv Corvus J at the North Hinder Precautionary Area on the 5th December 2012 , The Bahamas Maritime Authority , London, May 27, 2016.
- ↑ Marine Accident Report - Collision between "Corvus J" and "Baltic Ace" in the North Sea on December 5, 2012 , Department of Merchant Shipping, Republic of Cyprus, 2013.
Coordinates: 51 ° 50 ′ 15.4 " N , 2 ° 53 ′ 11.8" E