Maritime Disasters

"Although containers lost overboard represent less than one-thousandth of 1% (0.001%) of the roughly 241 million packed and empty containers currently shipped each year,...

"An outstanding Easter Sunday rising" is how William Doyle, Executive Director of the Port Baltimore has termed the refloating of the Ever Forward on...

As previously reported, the Ever Forward, a Hong Kong flagged ship stuck near Gibson Island in the Chesapeake Bay channel since the 13th of March 2022...

In recent times, maritime disasters seem to have been dime a dozen.. Some disasters like the infamous Ever Given which got stuck diagonally across...

As reported previously, the Ever Forward, a Hong Kong flagged ship operated by Evergreen, the 7th largest container shipping line in the world, was on its way...

18 days and counting - that's the number of days that the Ever Forward, a 11,850 TEU capacity container ship has been stuck in...

You may have seen cars or other vehicles overshooting traffic lanes and ending up ploughing into the dirt on the side of a highway.....

The APL England, a 5,780 TEU capacity containership lost around 40 containers off the coast of New South Wales in Australia in May 2020...

No more containers have been found. That is the news from the Canadian Coast Guard about the maritime disaster surrounding the ZIM Kingston that lost an estimated 109 containers in rough seas off the coast of British Columbia in Canada and is still anchored while fire fighting efforts continue. Refrigerators, toys and other debris from ZIM Kingston containers have washed up ashore near Cape Scott.

Calm seas allowed firefighters to finally board the ZIM Kingston a 4253 TEU capacity container ship which has been on fire off the coast of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. As per the Canadian Coast Guard six firefighters and seven crew members boarded the ship on Monday night as fires in containers still on board the ship continued to smoulder.

In the meantime, it has now been established that 109 containers have gone overboard the ship in rough weather, more than double of the 40 containers that was estimated to have been initially lost.

Further to the incident of ZIM Kingston losing containers overboard and container fire on board, today’s update is that the fire is reported to have been controlled but the vessel is still smoldering as of Sunday afternoon.

The ZIM Kingston has been anchored at Constance Bank since the night of 22nd October after it lost 40 containers about 12 nautical miles off the west coast of Vancouver Island, near Bamfield, while navigating rough seas.

It is understood that the ship will remain at Constance Bank alongside emergency tow vessels and the Canadian Coast Guard who will be monitoring the vessel due to the storm expected to move through the region.

ZIM Kingston a 4253 TEU capacity container ship built in 2008 flying the Maltese flag is on fire off the coast of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. As per CBC News, 6 containers are on fire on board the ship which is said to be carrying 52,000 kg of Xanthates which are chemicals used in the mining industry. Xanthates fall under Class 4.2 of the IMDG code which is the classification for "Substances liable to spontaneous combustion" and is said to include Potassium Amylxanthate which is considered an environmental hazard.

Crimson Polaris, a dedicated wood-chip carrier operated by NYK, owned by MI-DAS Line S.A and managed Misuga Kaiun Co. Ltd was swept away by strong winds while it was anchored and ran aground off Hachinohe in Aomori prefecture in Japan on August 11 2021.

The hull of the vessel eventually split in two in the early hours of 12th August and oil from the vessel has spilt into the ocean. The oil leak from the ship has reportedly spread around 15 miles but the extent of any environmental impact and quantity is still under investigation and unclear as yet.

The wreckage of the X-Press Pearl may be resting in part at the bottom of the sea peacefully, but the issues surrounding the burning and eventual sinking of the ship has still not come to an end.

The sweet taste of freedom was probably being experienced by all concerned with the Ever Given as it was released by Suez Canal authorities on the 7th of July – a good 106 days after becoming one of the most talked about ships in the world, by even those who were not interested or knew about the business of shipping..

Further to the below, the update as of the 12th July is that the Ever Given is showing that it is sailing en route to Rotterdam which was its original destination before passing through and getting stuck in the Suez Canal..

Dead turtles continue to wash up ashore in Sri Lanka even as the Captain of the X-Press Pearl appears in court and satellites show potential oil pollution 70 kms off the coast..

It has just been reported that a representative for the owners and insurers of the Ever Given has confirmed that they reached an agreement in principle in terms of a compensation dispute with the Suez Canal Authority.

It is understood that work is under way to finalise a signed settlement agreement as soon as possible and arrangements will be made for the release of the Ever Given once the formalities had been dealt with.

As everyone is aware by now, the the X-Press Pearl, a Singapore flagged feeder vessel operated by X-Press Feeders started burning on the 21st of May off the coast of Sri Lanka.

On the 2nd of June, the vessel started sinking despite valiant efforts to fight the fire and as of 12th June is still hanging in there with the fore (bow) of the ship clinging to its last vestiges above the sea level while the aft of the vessel is submerged and resting on the sea bed at a depth of 21 meters.

Despite valiant efforts by the ship salvors, Sri Lankan Navy, Indian Navy and many other entities involved in the firefighting and salvage operations, as expected, it has been announced that the journey of the X-Press Pearl has come to an end.

X-Press Feeders, operators of the container ship X-Press Pearl issued a notice that despite salvors successfully boarding the vessel and attaching a tow wire, efforts to move the ship to deeper waters failed, and the ship’s aft (rear) portion is now at the bottom of the sea bed at a depth of 21 meters and the bow (front) slowly sinking as well.

The news about X-Press Pearl is fast becoming a sensation (next probably only to the Ever Given - which is still stuck in Egypt by the way) as the interest in its happenings is growing day by day.

As of the 31st May 2021, the news was that the flames on board the ship has been contained although the ship was still emitting smoke.

In the meantime, local news media in Sri Lanka is reporting that based on an order the Colombo Additional Magistrate’s Court, the Captain, Chief Engineer, and the Second Chief Engineer of the ship have been banned from leaving Sri Lanka as investigations are continuing.