Pigeon (ship)

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Dove
Sailing yacht Taube in calm
Sailing yacht Taube in calm
Ship data
flag GermanyGermany Germany
other ship names

Thun until 2007

Ship type Keel swords
Callsign DD2319
home port Kappeln
Owner Migrobirdo, Association for International Understanding eV
Shipyard Banange Shipyard
Launch 1971
Whereabouts Sunk on January 20, 2009
Ship dimensions and crew
length
8.25 m ( Lüa )
width 2.45 m
Draft Max. 1.6 m
displacement about 3–3.5 t
 
crew 7th
Machine system
machine Farymann , type 18 ES Q135
Machine
performance 		6 HP (4 kW)
Rigging and rigging
Rigging Sloop
Number of masts 1
Number of sails 2

The sailing yacht Taube was a German pleasure craft that capsized on January 20, 2009 in heavy waves off the west coast of Morocco and sank when the crew wanted to enter the port of Mehdia . Of the seven crew members aged between 17 and 28, only one 19-year-old German survived.

Unprofessional ship management and a lack of seamanship are suspected to be the main cause of this very serious marine casualty .

The boat

The slup-rigged sailing yacht from the Banange Shipyard was launched for the first time in 1971 and subsequently served as a leisure boat for an unknown number of recreational skippers. The overall length was 8.25 meters, the width 2.45 meters. The steel hull was designed as a center sword . With the sword raised the draft was about 1.0 meters, with the sword lowered 1.6 meters. By 2007, the 3.0 to 3.5-ton boat carried the ship's name Thun . The yacht was powered by a single-cylinder diesel engine from Farymann Diesel , which developed 4.4 kW (6 hp). The sport boat last ran under the German flag, its home port was Kappeln .

Conversion to a club boat

The then 36-year-old boat was bought in August 2007 by the Tübingen- based Association for International Understanding Migrobirdo ( Esperanto ; in German "Wandervogel") on Ebay for significantly less than 2000  euros . According to the sales contract, the number of previous owners was unknown and the boat was sold as a non-roadworthy craft object. Within six weeks, renovation work was carried out on the boat by members of the association. In the course of this work, which is said to have been judged as amateur by witnesses , the boat was renamed Taube .

With respect to a seaworthiness of the boat, there was obvious from the outset doubt. What is certain is that the engine regularly caused problems during the subsequent trip.

equipment

At the time of the accident, the boat was equipped with an electric and a manual bilge pump . There were two GPS devices and a marine VHF radio . Due to a lack of money, there were only copies of sea ​​charts and port manuals , the topicality and completeness of which can no longer be traced. There were seven automatic life jackets including safety lines , pyrotechnic distress signals and an emergency transmitter ( EPIRB ) that could be triggered both manually and automatically. There was no life raft , but a dinghy that would have been enough for two people.

Due to the non-commercial use as a club boat, no official inspection and monitoring of the boat and equipment was required.

The trip

The first attempt at a longer voyage was made in autumn 2007. This was, however, canceled before reaching the North Sea after the sailing club members had determined that they did not have sufficient sailing experience.

The actual sailing trip began in May 2008. Already at that time the plan was to sail to the Canary Islands and then to cross the Atlantic Ocean to reach South America . Contrary to the original plan, the crew changed relatively often, so that only a small part of the fellow sailors had sailing experience. The ship reached southern Spain after six months. The boat and crew showed quite good sailing skills on the way, such as sailing in wind force 8 as well as the passage through the English Channel and the crossing of the Biscay . This possibly gave the skipper and new fellow sailors the feeling of being able to deal with all challenges at sea.

Wherever the boat surfaced, it attracted attention with its paintwork, its mostly barefoot, cheerful crew, and the equipment and supplies spread out on the quay. Life on the little boat was extremely tight, but it obviously had its charms. It was one of the main goals of the club, which is more closely related to the hippie scene, that no hierarchies were lived, but that all decisions had to be coordinated by a majority. The 25-year-old skipper did not see himself as the skipper of the boat. But since he was the main initiator of the voyage, knew the boat best and was able to acquire the greatest nautical experience during the voyage, his word had the most weight. He was the holder of the sport boat license for the lake , which corresponds to the minimum legal requirement for driving a sport boat in coastal waters. In all reports he is undisputedly seen as the “ship's captain”.

On January 11, 2009 the boat entered Asilah , Morocco . There five out of ten crew members disembarked and two got on. In conversations with other sailors, the risk of calling at certain Atlantic ports in Morocco in high swells was raised. The skipper saw no problem in this; the other crew members apparently trusted him because of the experience he had gained during the voyage.

Film recordings made on January 16, 2009 when the pigeon departed indicate a low freeboard and thus an obvious overloading of the sailing yacht. Already at the port exit the bow tended to undercut the relatively light waves.

Downfall

The pigeon entered the port of Larache at around 3 a.m. on January 17, 2009 . The crew consisted of seven people: the skipper and initiator of the trip, another member of the association and five guests. Two of the guests came from Germany, a young woman from Austria, one from Slovenia and one from Denmark. Most of the guests had only been on board for a few days or weeks. The ship was in Larache until late on January 19th.

The Moroccan weather service issued a storm warning about wind strengths up to 8  Beaufort from the west and high waves. An internet portal only predicted a wind force 5 Beaufort. The skipper obtained information on the Internet, but it is no longer possible to determine with certainty which forecasts had actually reached him. He then discussed with the crew whether they should extend their stay in Larache or continue sailing in uncomfortable conditions. The decision was made to continue sailing towards Rabat . With regard to the ports on the route, the skipper had copies of a port manual. These must also have been viewed by him.

On the night of January 20, 2009 the pigeon left the port of Larache. At sea, several crew members had difficulties with the seasickness that they endured below deck. In the early afternoon the boat was hit by an overcoming wave, with parts of the equipment stowed on deck under the rubber dinghy, including probably parts of the photocopies of the harbor manual, went overboard. The remaining equipment from the deck was then stowed back in the cabin. The three crew members in the cockpit were staying, put life jackets on and pecked their life belts one.

Sailing on the Atlantic off West Africa has a significantly different dimension than sailing on European waters. There, the predominant swell against the wind sea . The effects are particularly noticeable near land: when the waves hit shallower water, highly dangerous cross and ground lakes develop . The port of Mehdia, like many other ports on the West African coast, is therefore closed at certain wave heights and wind strengths and is not allowed to be entered. This is indicated on site by means of a signal system and communicated via various nautical information services, including the port manual. Furthermore, relevant information can be obtained from the harbor master via marine radio .

Mehdia (Morocco)
Mehdia
Mehdia
Location of the accident site in Morocco
Port entrance of Mehdia
Taube (ship) (port entrance Mehdia)
Scene of the accident
Scene of the accident
approximate position in front of the entrance
approximate position in front of the entrance
Top fire
Top fire
Scene of the pigeon accident

When the ship was at the level of the Sebou estuary , a brief discussion was held as to whether to sail on to Rabat or to visit the port of Mehdia in the estuary. The fact that the port of Mehdia was closed due to dangerous ground lakes in such wind conditions was obviously not known on board. The majority of the crew voted to enter the port. Majority decisions of this kind are rather unusual at sea. This voting result, which was fatal in retrospect, was probably caused primarily by the seasickness of three sailors. There was no attempt to establish a radio link with the port and the port's locking signals were either not seen or interpreted incorrectly.

The skipper noticed that he was missing parts of the copies of the port manual, but he still remembered the bar in the estuary and the correct approach to the entrance. The crew prepared to enter the port. To do this, the sword was first drawn. This significantly increased the risk of the boat capsizing. However, since one had touched the ground once in the previous weeks with the sword lowered, it had become a habit to pull up the sword at port entrances. The moment the sword was drawn in, the boat began to roll much more violently.

At the same time the engine was started. At first it did not start. Several attempts to get it to work were unsuccessful. The boat was now lying between the two pier heads at the port entrance, which are 415 meters apart. Only a few seconds after the engine started, the boat was hit by the first ground sea . One of the cabin windows broke and large amounts of water seeped into the boat through both the window and the companionway . The crew below deck managed to get into the cockpit when the next high wave hit the boat and washed several crew members overboard. The pigeon had finally capsized by the next wave at the latest .

The only survivor managed to grab a sleeping mat in the water . It was hit several times by other ground lakes and washed under water. The accident had been observed from land, but there was no chance of getting to the scene of the accident with watercraft in this swell. By lucky coincidence, the Germans managed to reach the northern pier, where they were received by fishermen. At that time she was only dressed in an undershirt. The rest of her clothes had been torn from her body by the force of the waves, she said. She was taken to a hospital but was largely uninjured.

Search and rescue operations

The witnesses ashore had alerted the local emergency services at around 5:15 p.m. Initially, three crew members could still be seen swimming in the water without a life jacket. The water temperature was around 12 ° C. At first, witnesses tried to use a surfboard to reach the swimmers, which did not succeed. When the first rescue workers reached the jetties at around 5:25 p.m., two boats were deployed, but they did not make it against the surf.

The emergency transmitter (EPIRB) automatically gave an alarm immediately after the accident. The alarm was received by the MRCC Bremen emergency management at 17:27 , but the position could only be roughly narrowed down at first. At 5:44 p.m., the location of the accident site, as determined by satellite bearings, was also learned. At that time, the sun went down on site. At least one person swimming, probably the Slovenian, was spotted. When a helicopter arrived at around 6 p.m., this sighting was also lost.

After a brief interruption of the search during the night, it was resumed at around 6 a.m. The use of a boat was still not possible due to the surf waves, which is why it was only possible to search on the beach and by helicopter.

The bodies of the Slovenian and Dane were washed up on the beach several kilometers north and south of the river mouth over the next eleven days. The remaining three male Germans and the Austrian were never found. The pigeon was also not found again while her rubber dinghy was driven in the port of Mehdia on the evening of the accident.

Accident investigation

Marine casualties in which a ship sailing under the German flag is affected are always investigated by the Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation (BSU). For the BSU it was the most serious accident of the year. The aim of these investigations is not to clarify questions of guilt, but to prevent future accidents and make the seafaring system safer. A hindrance to the investigation was that the wreck was not found and only a single survivor was able to provide information about what happened on board on the day of the accident. The investigation report can be accessed on the BSU website.

In an expert report by the German Meteorological Service requested by the BSU , the wave height off the Moroccan coast for the day of the accident was calculated retrospectively to be 6 to 7 meters, the possible ground lakes in the port entrance to be up to 10 meters.

The investigation report found the following serious errors in the ship's command:

  • A safety briefing for the team did not take place.
  • In the accident, the life jackets were only put on by part of the crew; wearing the vests was obviously not taken seriously on board.
  • There were inadequate sea charts on board and only copies of the port manuals. It remains unclear whether the information on the port closure was available. There was no knowledge of the area. Adequate warnings are given in the relevant literature against the dangerous ground lakes on the west coast of Morocco, which are mainly created by the swell .
  • With the existing crew and loading, the boat was not sufficiently seaworthy for the west coast of Morocco. It was overloaded so that the freeboard was only 50 cm.
  • There was no on-board hierarchy, although most sailors were inexperienced.
  • The boat should not have entered the port of Mehdia when the port was closed. After one was already at sea, all that was left was actually to weather at sea or to continue. The harbor was definitely not accessible in the weather. That is why it was also closed to shipping. Much larger, better equipped boats would almost certainly have failed at this port entrance that day.

aftermath

Several years later, the sinking of the pigeon was a topic in various daily newspapers and sailing forums. In 2014, Yacht magazine included this shipwreck in a list of the eleven most outstanding sailing accidents.

The Migrobirdo Association for International Understanding e. V. was removed from the Stuttgart register of associations on September 21, 2011 . The website / blog is to be kept for documentation until further notice.

Web links

literature

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation: Capsizing of the SY TAUBE with six dead off the Atlantic coast of Morocco on January 20, 2009. Investigation report 015/09, February 15, 2010, p. 56.
  2. ↑ Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation: The SY TAUBE capsized with six dead off the Atlantic coast of Morocco on January 20, 2009. Investigation report 015/09, February 15, 2010, p. 9.
  3. ↑ Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation: The SY TAUBE capsized with six dead off the Atlantic coast of Morocco on January 20, 2009. Investigation report 015/09, February 15, 2010, p. 47.
  4. ↑ : Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty capsizing of SY PIGEON six dead off the Atlantic coast of Morocco on 20 January 2009. ff Investigation Report 015/09, February 15th 2010, p. 18
  5. ↑ Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation: Capsizing of the SY TAUBE with six dead off the Atlantic coast of Morocco on January 20, 2009. Investigation report 015/09, February 15, 2010, p. 25 u. 50.
  6. ↑ Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation: The SY TAUBE capsized with six dead off the Atlantic coast of Morocco on January 20, 2009. Investigation report 015/09, February 15, 2010, p. 30.
  7. ↑ a b Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation: Capsizing of the SY TAUBE with six dead off the Atlantic coast of Morocco on January 20, 2009. Investigation report 015/09, February 15, 2010, p. 24.
  8. ↑ a b c Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation: Capsizing of the SY TAUBE with six dead off the Atlantic coast of Morocco on January 20, 2009. Investigation report 015/09, February 15, 2010, p. 49.
  9. ↑ a b c d Anke Luebbert: You looked happy and free. In: Now . November 15, 2009. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
  10. ↑ Holger Fröhlich: And had death on board. In: bdzv.de. April 10, 2011, accessed November 11, 2018.
  11. ↑ Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty: capsizing of SY PIGEON six dead off the Atlantic coast of Morocco on 20 January 2009. Investigation Report 015/09, February 15th 2010, p. 33
  12. ↑ Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation: The SY TAUBE capsized with six dead off the Atlantic coast of Morocco on January 20, 2009. Investigation report 015/09, February 15, 2010, p. 34 f.
  13. ↑ a b Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation: Capsizing of the SY TAUBE with six dead off the Atlantic coast of Morocco on January 20, 2009. Investigation report 015/09, February 15, 2010, p. 12.
  14. ↑ a b Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation: The SY TAUBE capsized with six dead off the Atlantic coast of Morocco on January 20, 2009. Investigation report 015/09, February 15, 2010, p. 13.
  15. ↑ Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty: capsizing of SY PIGEON six dead off the Atlantic coast of Morocco on 20 January 2009. Investigation Report 015/09, February 15th 2010, p. 37
  16. ↑ a b Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation: Capsizing of the SY TAUBE with six dead off the Atlantic coast of Morocco on January 20, 2009. Investigation report 015/09, February 15, 2010, p. 14.
  17. ↑ Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty: capsizing of SY PIGEON six dead off the Atlantic coast of Morocco on 20 January 2009. Investigation Report 015/09, February 15th 2010, p. 51
  18. ↑ a b Carsten Kemmling: The motto: "Sailing in / for another world". In: Segelreporter. April 13, 2011, accessed November 11, 2018.
  19. ↑ Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty: capsizing of SY PIGEON six dead off the Atlantic coast of Morocco on 20 January 2009. f Investigation Report 015/09, February 15th 2010, p. 14
  20. ↑ a b c Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation: Capsizing of the SY TAUBE with six dead off the Atlantic coast of Morocco on January 20, 2009. Investigation report 015/09, February 15, 2010, p. 15.
  21. ↑ Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation: The SY TAUBE capsized with six dead off the Atlantic coast of Morocco on January 20, 2009. Investigation report 015/09, February 15, 2010, p. 16.
  22. ↑ Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation: Annual Report 2009. June 2010, p. 3 ( Online [PDF, 5.3 MB]).
  23. ↑ Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation (BSU): The SY TAUBE capsized with six dead off the Atlantic coast of Morocco on January 20, 2009. Investigation report 015/09, February 15, 2010 ( online [PDF, 2.5 MB]).
  24. ↑ Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation: The SY TAUBE capsized with six dead off the Atlantic coast of Morocco on January 20, 2009. Investigation report 015/09, February 15, 2010, p. 11.
  25. ↑ Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty: capsizing of SY PIGEON six dead off the Atlantic coast of Morocco on 20 January 2009. Investigation Report 015/09, February 15, 2010, p 49 u. 54.
  26. ↑ Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty: capsizing of SY PIGEON six dead off the Atlantic coast of Morocco on 20 January 2009. Investigation Report 015/09, February 15, 2010, p 45th
  27. ↑ Stefan Schorr: 11 ship accidents (in chronological order). In: Yacht . Anniversary edition, issue 16/2014. Delius Klasing Verlag, Bielefeld.
  28. ↑ Extract from the association register , accessed on February 5, 2015.
  29. ↑ Contact page of the Migrobirdo eV association , accessed on November 27, 2018.

Coordinates: 34 ° 16 ′ 0 ″  N , 6 ° 41 ′ 4 ″  W.

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on December 1, 2018 .