Sea Elegance
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The Sea Elegance was a container ship that caught fire in 2003 off Durban , South Africa .
history
The ship was built in 1980 as one of two sister ships at Smith's Dock Co. in Middlesbrough under construction number 1345 for the Bank Line . It was put into service as Willowbank and used with 33 crew members in the liner service of the Bank Line between the US Gulf and Australia and New Zealand and from 1984 in the liner service between California and Australia.
In July 1988 the ship was sold to Austasia Maritime and renamed Mandowi . In February 1989 it was renamed California Star and used by Blue Star Line. As California Star , the ship arrived in July 1990 under the flag of the Bahamas , home port was Nassau . In January 1996 the ship was sold again and now sailed as Sea Elegance under the flag of Singapore in the liner service of the shipping company Pacific International Lines .
Explosion and fire
On the morning of October 11, 2003, the ship, which was in the roadstead with around 650 containers on board , caught fire a few nautical miles from the port of Durban. The fire broke out after an explosion in the rear of the ship in one of the containers and affected the superstructure and the engine room. Due to the proximity to the port of Durban, rescue workers were quickly on site. The fire was fought with the help of harbor tugs from the National Ports Authority and rescue workers on board.
Several of the 24 crew members were injured in the accident and taken away for treatment in a hospital. 13 crew members stayed on board to support the fire fighting. A seaman was missing and later found dead.
The fire on board was extinguished after two days. A few days later, the ship was towed to the port of Durban, where all the containers were first unloaded and later the cause of the fire was to be determined. Calcium hypochlorite in one of the containers on board, which was stowed in the space directly behind the engine room, was a possible cause of the explosion . By thermal runaway , the explosion could have been triggered that led to the fire. Calcium needs for sea transport as dangerous goods of class declared 5.1 and be kept away from heat sources.
Whereabouts of the ship
After investigating the cause of the accident, the ship was towed to Singapore, where it arrived on November 27, 2003. In December 2003 it was sold to Four Seasons Maritime, repaired and used as the Golden Gate under the flag of South Korea . It was later sold to Alang for demolition and scrapped there in 2009.
Data
The ship was by a six-cylinder - Diesel engine manufacturer's Burmeister Wain and driven of a propeller worked. The engine, which was built under license by the mechanical engineering company John G. Kincaid & Company, had an output of around 15,285 kW (20,500 BHP ).
Four generators with an output of 900 kW each (Allens 8 S12F) and an emergency generator with an output of 432 kW (Allens 4 S12F) were installed for the power supply.
The ship had seven hatches , five of which were in front of and two behind the deckhouse in the rear third of the ship. At the stern of the ship there were additional spaces for 20-foot containers on deck. The ship was equipped with four on-board, hydraulically operated cranes with a lifting capacity of 36 t ( SWL ) for cargo handling . Three of the cranes were located in front of the deckhouse between hatches 1 and 2, 3 and 4 and behind hatch 5 directly in front of the deckhouse, the fourth crane was located between hatches 6 and 7 on the stern.
The ship's container capacity was 768 TEU. There was space for 426 TEU below deck and 342 TEU on deck. This includes 358 TEU for refrigerated containers, of which 308 TEU porthole containers below deck could be connected to the ship's own cargo refrigeration system . Connections on deck were available for a further 50 TEU integral containers (with their own refrigeration system).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Blue Star's MV “California Star” , Blue Star Line, The History of Blue Star Line & Associated Companies. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
- ↑ a b c d Alistair Macnab: Bank Line , Ships Nostalgia. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
- ↑ a b c d e Fire extinguished on Sea Elegance , Ports & Ships, October 13, 2003. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
- ↑ a b Sea Elegance smoulders off Durban , Ports & Ships, October 12, 2003. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
- ↑ Sea Elegance still burning , Ports & Ships, October 11, 2003. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
- ^ Sea Elegance to enter port , Ports & Ships, October 17, 2003. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
- ^ Government condemns non-declaration of hazardous cargo , Ports & Ships, October 14, 2003. Accessed March 6, 2018.
- ↑ What's Inside Those Shipping Containers? , The Marine Firefighting Institute, Newsletter # 15. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
- ↑ Melanie Gosling: Hazardous cargo may have sparked ship's blaze , IOL News, October 25, 2003. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
- ^ A b Golden Gate , New Zealand Maritime Index. Retrieved March 6, 2018.