Waldhof (ship)
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Waldhof was the name of a double- hulled motor tanker (TMS) operated by the Mannheim shipping company Lehnkering Rhein-Güter, a subsidiary of the Duisburg-based company Lehnkering . The Waldhof became famousafter itcapsizedon January 13, 2011, not far from the Loreley near Sankt Goarshausen ,ladenwith sulfuric acid and got stuck at the keel at the edge of the fairway. Two of the four crew members died in this accident. After a repair, the ship has beenback inservice since April 2012 under the name Auriga .
details
The ship was built in 1993 at the Damen shipyard in Hardinxveld for Euromar BV in Zwijndrecht . The superstructures and the propulsion system are arranged aft, the ship has inserted stainless steel center tanks without a central longitudinal bulkhead and is classified as a type C acid tanker.
In 2005 the ship was lengthened by 24 meters and two additional tanks were installed. After the conversion, the ship had seven tanks. The maximum draft was calibrated from 2.80 m to 3.15 m after the reconstruction, the load capacity increased from 1517 to 2426 tons. In the new approval certificate, the permissible density of the loaded substance when the tanks are completely filled was set at 1.3 tonnes per cubic meter. At higher densities, the filling of the tanks had to be reduced accordingly, but the influence of free surfaces had to be kept as low as possible. The guided stability verification limited because of the decreased with decreasing degree of filling of the tanks longitudinal stability of the vessel, the density of the load to a maximum of 1.62 t / m³, corresponding to a filling level of 80.2% in five tanks and two empty tanks. The cargo volume in this case is 2200 t compared to 2426 t load capacity. With an even lower utilization of the carrying capacity, other sufficiently stable loads might also be possible, for which Germanischer Lloyd made the use of an approved load computer on board the ship a requirement in its approval.
Disaster 2011
Average
On January 13, 2011 at 4:42 wrecked that with 2,377 tons of sulfuric acid (density 1.84 t / m³) loaded motor tanker on its way from Ludwigshafen to Belgian Antwerp in the Rhine near St. Goarshausen near Loreley (Rhine-km 554). The loading carried out did not correspond to the approval of the ship and did not meet the necessary criteria for longitudinal stability. Due to the filling of all seven tanks between 49% and 58% of their filling height , the dynamic stability reserve was inadequate while the initial stability was still sufficient, ie with only slight heeling and little rolling . An expert opinion later revealed that only four of the tanks, each with a 71% filling height, corresponding to a cargo weight of 1747 tons, could have been filled in order to comply with the prescribed stability criteria. At the time of the accident, the Rhine was flooding; at the nearby Kaub gauge, measurements were 3.44 meters above the mean value. The Rhine therefore had a higher flow velocity than usual.
Because of the immediately preceding encounter with the motor ship Acropolis , the Waldhof circumnavigated the narrow Betteck current curve in the less favorable outer radius, where additional cross currents acted due to the flood. The heeling moments from lateral acceleration as a result of cornering, the dynamic effects from the movement of the cargo and the local flow around the hull exceeded the poor stability of the ship caused by improper loading, which consequently turned 180 at the exit of the current curve at Rhine km 553.75 Capsized degrees over starboard. In the dark, the wrecked ship drifted 1.6 km downstream, keel up past four ships and push convoys, of which he rammed the second, a tanker. After the collision, his bow hit the bank because of the current curve around the Loreley, turned across the current and finally got stuck in the shallow water at the beginning of the next current curve at 04:52 a.m. at Rhine km 555.33 at the edge of the fairway .
As a result of the accident, the Rhine at the height of the damaged ship had to be temporarily closed completely. In the descent, the last of 420 pent-up ships were only allowed to pass the site of the accident three and a half weeks after the accident in a controlled manner.
Salvage
The first measure before the rescue was to secure the damaged vessel in the current until suitable floating cranes arrived , two of which were initially unable to pass a bridge over the Ruhr due to flooding. When the ship was examined on January 27, 2011, it was found that hydrogen had formed and that there was a risk of explosion. During the investigations, the right stretch of the Rhine and the B 42 and B 9 had to be closed for safety reasons. After the resultant by corrosion due to water seeping Rhein hydrogen by nitrogen was purged out of the tanks, the concentrated acid was from the accessible on leichtesten tank 7 on February 5, in a tanker lightened be. It was planned to pump the acid from the other tanks into the now empty tank 7 to dilute it down. Due to the current, however, a four-meter deep scour formed in the bow area , so that a safe position of the ship no longer seemed to be guaranteed. The uneven discharge also caused the hull to be deformed, so that a breakup could not be ruled out. It was therefore decided to pump the acid into the Rhine in a controlled manner. By correctly calculating the controlled pumped-out quantities of sulfuric acid, potential fish deaths could be prevented; there was no danger for the drinking water extraction systems located downstream, thanks to the rapid dilution of the pumped-out quantities in the river. While the normal pH value of the Rhine is 8.0 to 8.1, measurements 200 meters downstream of the Waldhof showed a pH value of 6.2 and 400 meters downstream a pH value of 7.2.
After the sulfuric acid had been pumped out of the tanks, the overturned ship was lifted on the morning of February 13, 2011 by piling the two front tanks and using the three floating cranes from the Dutch company Mammoet and turned around its longitudinal axis at around 10 a.m. The body of one of the two missing crew members was found in the living room. Since the second missing person was, according to the statements of the two rescued crew members, in the demolished steering position, it is assumed that he was washed away with the current. The damaged vessel was hauled out of the fairway towards the bank in the late afternoon and towed to the Loreley harbor for further investigations the next morning. Shipping was fully opened again on February 14 at 4 p.m.
Investigation of the accident
The Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development set up an investigation commission after the accident. At the beginning of 2012 the Waterways and Shipping Directorate Southwest published an interim report . The course of the accident could be determined without a doubt. The construction of the ship, its equipment and the descent with increased water levels as well as the transport of 96% sulfuric acid were found to be in order for the time of the accident, as were the number and qualifications of the crew. The requirements of the stability verification, which for a cargo with a maximum density of 1.62 t / m³ was only provided up to a draft of 3.11 meters, were clearly not fulfilled. Even with a precise calculation of the present cargo case, the criteria for the stability of the European Agreement on the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods on the Rhine or on Inland Waterways (ADNR / ADN) were not met. Nevertheless, according to static calculations and after tests on the ship handling simulator, the existing stability deficiencies have not yet led to capsizing. Therefore, further investigations into dynamic stability were carried out. It was not until the Commission's final accident report was published on February 14, 2013 that the dynamic conditions at the time of the accident were confirmed as the trigger on the basis of simulations.
Processes, consequences, miscellaneous
The St. Goar District Court ruled that the captain of the oncoming ship "Acropolis" was not to blame. The Cologne Higher Regional Court ruled the same on March 20, 2018 in the second instance.
The total damage was stated by the "Waldhof" shipping company at 3.5 million euros.
As a consequence of the Waldhof accident, the responsible institutions have created some new regulations. The traffic control technology in the relevant section of the route has been improved and the ADN dangerous goods regulations have been adapted. As of December 1, 2014, commercial shipping is required to be equipped with the Automatic Identification System .
Salvage of the capsized motor tanker Waldhof on January 23, 2011
Salvage work on February 8, 2011
The Waldhof , which was recovered on February 13, 2011 , after being pumped out
The Waldhof on the way to the Triton shipyard in Meiderich
Waldhof below Neuwied to the valley
Web links
- Accident Investigation Commission TMS "Waldhof" at the Waterways and Shipping Directorate Southwest (Ed.): Report on the course and causes of the accident of the tanker "Waldhof" on January 13, 2011 on the Middle Rhine (Rhine km 553.75)
- Accident investigation report (high resolution, 56 MB; PDF)
- Accident investigation report (low resolution, 8 MB; PDF)
- Summary of the accident investigation report (PDF; 5.9 MB)
- Annex 4 to the accident investigation report: Radar recording of the Oberwesel Revierzentrale from January 13, 2011 (04:40:18 a.m. to 04:43:15 a.m.) (AVI file, 178 MB)
- Annex 5 to the accident investigation report: Radar recording (time lapse) of the Oberwesel Revierzentrale from January 13, 2011 (04:40:50 a.m. to 04:52:20 a.m.) (AVI file, 185 MB)
- Press office Verbandsgemeinde Loreley: Ship accident on the Rhine: A chronicle of the events ( Memento from February 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (January 30, 2011) - focus on salvage work
- Federal Institute for Hydraulic Engineering: Video and photo material (including simulation visualizations) on the Waldhof accident
- Video: TMS Waldhof accident - radar recording from the Oberwesel district center . Federal Institute for Hydraulic Engineering (BAW) 2013, made available by the Technical Information Library (TIB), doi : 10.5446 / 14666 .
Footnotes
- ↑ Information about the ship , accessed on January 13, 2011
- ^ Lehnkering Logistics & Services ( Memento from February 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) , accessed on January 14, 2011
- ↑ data at debinnenvaart.nl (Dutch)
- ↑ a b Accident Investigation Commission TMS "Waldhof" (ed.): Report on the course and causes of the accident of the tank motor ship "Waldhof" on January 13, 2011 on the Middle Rhine (Rhine ‐ km 553.75) ( Memento from October 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF, 57 MB)
- ↑ a b c TMS "Waldhof" of the Lehnkering Reederei capsized with 2,377 tons of sulfuric acid (PDF; 9.3 MB), in Schifffahrt-online, ISSN 1867-8831 / no. 1, Jan 2011, p. 8 ff
- ↑ Press release of the Koblenz public prosecutor's office of August 22, 2011 on the result of the commissioned report ( Memento of January 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), cf. also proof of stability and "maximum fill level" in the Commission's investigation report
- ↑ Risk of explosion on the Loreley: Work on the unlucky tanker continues in: Rhein-Zeitung , January 27, 2010
- ↑ Deutschlandfunk: "Tickende Bombe" on the Rhine , accessed on November 17, 2019
- ↑ Press release no .: 45 (PDF; 128 kB), February 7, 2011
- ↑ Acid tanker stands upright again in the Rhine - body recovered from wreck in: Rhein-Zeitung , February 13, 2011
- ↑ Der Tagesspiegel: Body found in a damaged tanker in the Rhine , accessed on February 13, 2011
- ↑ Electronic waterway information service: Interim report on the investigation of the accident of the tank motor ship "Waldhof" on January 13, 2011 on the Middle Rhine ( Memento from April 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Average TMS "Waldhof" 2010 - collision not a contributory cause in inland navigation 2–3 / 2012, p. 4
- ^ Investigation report: Wrong cargo capsizes acid tanker "Waldhof" in: Rhein-Zeitung , February 14, 2013
- ↑ a b FAZ.net March 21, 2018: Second ship is not to blame for the "Waldhof" accident
- ↑ New Wahrschau regulations for the mountain range in: Bonapart.de , April 17, 2013
- ↑ Waldhof accident leads to stricter ADN guidelines in: Bonapart.de , October 12, 2012
- ↑ Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine November 2014: Explanations on the obligation to equip with Inland AIS devices and Inland ECDIS devices or comparable chart display devices (PDF)