Excelsior accident

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The German inland container ship Excelsior received on 25 March 2007 on the Rhine in Cologne-Zündorf list to starboard and lost 32 containers , the shipping channel blocked and the complete blockage of the Rhine for shipping led for five days. The Excelsior accident is one of the ship accidents that caused the most attention in the history of navigation on the Rhine and was a dominant topic in the German media for weeks.

The wrecked container ship "Excelsior" in the Rhine near Cologne-Zündorf

Inland container ship Excelsior

The Excelsior is an inland container ship built in 1987 as Jean Bossler III at the Ebert & Söhne shipyard in Neckarsteinach , which was registered in Neckarsteinach with the ENI number 04607680 and has been in service for the Ludwig and Jakob Götz KG shipping company since 1998 . The length of the ship is 105.10 meters, the width 11.40 meters and the carrying capacity is 2,878 tons. It is powered by a Deutz - turbo-diesel engine with a maximum power of 1,180  kW driven at 1.000 / min.

On the voyage of March 25, 2007, the ship's crew consisted of four men, the first skipper , the second skipper as well as a helmsman and a sailor .

the accident

Loading and departure in Mannheim

The Excelsior arrived at the Mannheim port loaded at around 6 p.m. on March 24, 2007 , where it was partially unloaded and then reloaded. The cargo consisted of 103 containers in four layers. At around 0.30 a.m., the ship began its journey down the Rhine with the destination Rotterdam . Before the start of the voyage, the first skipper was convinced by driving tests that the ship was sufficiently stable.

Descent on the Rhine

The journey on the Rhine went without any special incidents until shortly before Cologne. There were also no problems on the section of the river in the Rhenish Slate Mountains (from Bingen to Bonn ), which is considered difficult for shipping . Witness reports, according to which a conspicuous leaning ( heeling ) of the ship was already to be noticed in this voyage section, contradict observations of the water police in the area, which only the normal heeling due to the strong wind at the time and no other abnormalities and this officially as well has documented.

Average near Cologne-Zündorf

At about 2.30 p.m. on March 25 at Cologne-Zündorf at Rhine kilometer 677.4 there was a strong incline to starboard. The first skipper then carried out a turn to starboard in the expectation that the centrifugal forces that occurred would counteract this and that the ship would straighten up towards port. However, this thought, which was correct in itself, turned out to be counterproductive because an unexpectedly strong squat effect occurred during the turn , which increased the lean angle to starboard and part of the cargo (32 containers in total) went overboard.

Salvage; Blocking and reopening of navigation on the Rhine

Since the lost container exaggerated in power, the Rhine had both the pleasure craft as well as for recreational boating are completely blocked. The block lasted five days and could not be lifted until Friday, March 30, 2007, at 8.15 p.m. At this point, three containers were still missing; another was located but not yet recovered.

An estimated 500 ships that were stowed up the Rhine and downstream between Mainz and Duisburg were affected by the lock .

The containers that went overboard included three dangerous goods containers. A considerable part of the loaded tannic acid had leaked from one of these containers, although it was classified as only slightly hazardous to water.

Damage

The Excelsior accident did not result in any personal injury . Property damage occurred to the cargo that had gone overboard and, to a lesser extent, to the ship itself. However, there were considerable recovery and assistance costs as well as failure damage to the shipping traffic affected by the closure of the Rhine. The rescue and assistance costs of the public sector and private service providers amounted to over € 1,000,000.

The owners of the ships affected by the closure of the Rhine are estimated to have suffered losses of around € 2,000 per day and ship.

Causes of accidents

After initial suspicions that the ship could run aground or that there was a technical defect in the rudder or engine system quickly turned out to be incorrect, a loading error emerged as the cause of the accident at an early stage. Inadequate load securing could also be ruled out as a cause, as was the assumption that the ship was overloaded. The maximum loading capacity was 2,867 tons, the actual total weight of the cargo was only 2,377 tons, so that there was still a reserve capacity of around 490 tons.

The problem was finally recognized in the unfortunate distribution of the cargo, which initially had not yet impaired the safe handling of the ship, but led to instability at Cologne and thus to the accident. Suddenly there was a steep incline to starboard. This could have been the result of the unfavorable wind conditions that then occurred, which were added to the unfavorable load distribution. In addition, water had penetrated the ship through a crack caused by a previous accident and ran into the forepeak , which further impaired stability . In this situation the skipper took two countermeasures which were theoretically reasonable, but which had fatal effects under the given special circumstances. He first flooded the ballast water tank on the port side in order to bring the ship back into equilibrium by increasing the weight on port side. Thereupon the skipper decided to undertake an immediate turning maneuver over starboard with the theoretically correct consideration that the centrifugal forces occurring to port counteract the heel.

In the course of further investigations it emerged that the skipper had not drawn up a stowage plan for correct load distribution and that the containers were incorrectly loaded, some with heavy containers at the top and light ones at the bottom. In addition, a number of containers were up to five tons heavier than stated in the loading papers. The difference in weight (deviation between the specified and actual weights) totaled 236 tonnes. The prescribed stability calculations, which were also carried out on the Excelsior's voyage, cannot be used under such circumstances. In addition, the manual stability calculation method is limited to a rough calculation that only establishes a connection between the height at which the containers are loaded and the weight, while the weight distribution within the same height (position) is not taken into account and thus any imbalances between the starboard - and port side of the one part or the rear side and bow side , on the other hand completely neglected. The more precise computer programs for calculating the stability were not available on the Excelsior and at the time of the accident were not the general standard in inland shipping either. The ship was already listing to starboard on departure, which was supposed to be compensated by flooding the port ballast tanks. The skipper ignored references from oncoming ships to the strong list.

According to the Weight Designation Act ( GewBezG ) of June 28, 1933, the sender would have to indicate the exact weight on all containers. Compliance with this regulation would have enabled a meaningful stability calculation. It was only through the accident that it became known that the Weight Designation Act had not been observed at all in inland navigation for decades and that the responsible authorities no longer worked to ensure that it was observed, but completely ignored and largely forgotten. Basically, therefore, the stability could only be determined by driving tests, which the skipper in Mannheim had also undertaken without having found any signs of instability.

Consequences from the Excelsior accident

As a consequence of the Excelsior accident, increasing efforts are being made to comply with the Weight Designation Act. In the meantime, several fine proceedings have been initiated for violating the Weight Designation Act. The effort for the sender associated with this law has also led to considerations to abolish the law; In view of the fact that compliance with this law would have been suitable to prevent the Excelsior accident, this is not an unproblematic requirement.

The Duisburg public prosecutor brought charges against the two skippers at the Duisburg-Ruhrort shipping court. She demanded imprisonment for both defendants. After a three-day negotiation period, the first skipper was sentenced to a fine of 160 daily rates of 20 euros each (i.e. a total of 3,200 euros) in a judgment of November 16, 2009, the second skipper was acquitted. To justify the judgment, it was said that the first skipper should have calculated the stability of the cargo before casting off. The public prosecutor appealed the verdict regarding both defendants; likewise the first skipper against his conviction. The Higher Regional Court of Cologne, as the higher shipping court, changed the judgment against the first skipper slightly with its appeal judgment of November 27, 2012 (to a fine of 130 daily rates of 30 euros each, i.e. a total of 3,900 euros) and rejected the appeal of the public prosecutor's office against the acquittal for the second Skipper. Since revision in shipping matters is excluded ( § 10 of the law on judicial proceedings in inland shipping matters (BinSchGerG)), the judgment is final.

In June 2010 the city of Cologne demanded the reimbursement of 155,000 euros, the cost of the rescue operation. But since the sum of all claims - for the salvage of the containers alone, a further 730,000 euros - exceeds the coverage of the liability insurance of the "Excelsior" in the amount of 740,000 euros, the claims that are not covered would have to be borne by the ship owner, so that bankruptcy is threatened. The Mannheim District Court has initiated distribution proceedings under shipping law with the aim of setting up a fund from which the claims can be settled.

Web links

 Wikinews: After a cargo ship is damaged, the Rhine remains closed for several days  - news

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Freighter accident in the Rhine: tannic acid leaked from container. In: stern.de of March 29, 2007.
  2. ↑ Fine in the "Excelsior" trial on ntv.de, November 16, 2009
  3. ↑ Schifffahrtsobergericht Cologne, 3 Ns 8/10 BSch: judgment. November 27, 2012, accessed April 9, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Thorsten Moeck, Tim Stinauer: Havarie on the Rhine. City demands money for salvage. In: ksta.de Kölner Stadtanzeiger from June 18, 2010