Maritime Safety, including Container-Ships

MSC Flaminia

Press release # 6 and chronology.

The MSC Flaminia’s wandering after its accident has lasted since July 14^th, 2012. Until August 21, the containership in great distress, the tugs, and their crews were pushed away from French and British waters. The convoy remained in a no-man’s land, out of the range of helicopters in case of emergency. The lack of information about the kind of hazardous materials on board was a strenuous challenge to rescuers.

On July 18, after the second explosion, the first tug moved away about 2 km from the MSC Flaminia in order to avoid all risks. Simultaneously, MSC spoke of a “small explosion”.

On August 26, MSC Flaminia was anchored off the Southwestern coast of England ; a team of experts boarded for inspection. They determined falling temperatures in the area destroyed by the fire and measured 50 degrees in hold 3 which has still been smouldering on August 23 ; this hold contains 245 containers among which 2 nitromethane boxes, now considered as no more endangered. There is no more open fire; the ship has now a list of 2.5 degrees.

The classification society of the ship confirms that the superstructure, the stern, the hull and the rudder are intact.

MSC Flaminia

Press release no. 4

Inspection of the damaged container ship before she crosses the English Channel and the North Sea will take place in the coming days.

German experts along with British, Dutch and French specialists shall examine the condition of the vessel, her containers and her cargo.

Robin des Bois wishes this expertise to be completed by a radiological diagnosis of the ship. Hundreds of containers are damaged and the charterer of MSC Flaminia, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), is known to occasionally transport radioactive materials. The company is also known for a lack of transparency when it comes to publishing, when required, an inventory of transported goods. In November 1997, the MSC Carla broke in two off the Azores during a journey from Le Havre to Boston. MSC have remained silent with regards to the nature of the cargo, and it was three days after the accident that the French Nuclear Installations Safety Directorate (DSIN) announced that three sealed radioactive sources for use in American hospitals were aboard MSC Carla; they sank with the fore section, whilst the aft section was towed to the Canary Islands.

MSC Flaminia
Press release no. 3

The MSC Flaminia could find refuge in Bremerhaven, Germany. Bremerhaven not only has docks avalaible for unloading MSC Flaminia, a process that will take several weeks, but also a dry dock for emergency repairs. The normal stopover time for a container ship of this size is a few hours. This remote destination requires the convoy to cross the English Channel and the North Sea. Germany is taking its responsibility as the MSC Flaminia flies the German flag. It is unfortunate that France, the United Kingdom and other countries closer to the current position of the MSC Flaminia were unable or unwilling to take charge of the ship.

MSC Flaminia
Press release n° 2

The container ship MSC Flaminia that suffered an accident on 14th July 2012 is located 450 km to the west of Brest. She is carrying 2,876 containers and thousands of tonnes of propulsion fuel. The towing convoy is awaiting a possible destination other than the depths of the Atlantic. Will the records for wandering the high seas held by the Kharg V and the Castor be beaten?

The Kharg V, an Iranian oil tanker that fell into difficulties on 19th December 1989, had been refused entry to the waters of Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Senegal and Cape Verde. It was not until 6th February 1990 that transfer of the cargo on board Kharg V was completed, on the high seas off Sierra Leone, on to another Iranian tanker.

Urgent message addressed to the French and British governments and to the European Commission.

Mr Jean-Marc Ayrault
Mr David Cameron
Mr Siim Kallas
Mr Janez Potocnik

Dear Sirs,

Since July 14th 2012, following a fire and two explosions the container ship MSC Flaminia is in distress, in the North Atlantic. For the time being no place of refuge has been designated to receive the vessel which in addition to her containers is carrying several thousand tonnes of bunker oil. Robin des Bois is asking the coastal States of the Atlantic and the Channel to cooperate with the aim of facilitating the progression of the MSC Flaminia into Exclusive Economic Zones and territorial waters and to ease the entrance of the convoy into a port or place of refuge. Under these circumstances the practice of ping-pong with the MSC Flaminia from one side of the Channel to the other is only increasing the risk of a shipwreck and marine pollution. For more information on the subject Robin des Bois invites you to read “A Shelter for the MSC Flaminia” published yesterday.

Since July 14th 2012 the container ship MSC Flaminia is in distress in the North Atlantic. Her cargo consists of 2,876 containers of which an unknown percentage contains dangerous materials. The lack of information to the public on the vessel’s loads is all the more surprising as she set sail from Charleston in the United States of America where transit conditions and container loading have the reputation of being the strictest in the world since (9/11) September 11, 2001. One of the containers onboard the MSC Flaminia caught fire which resulted in an explosion in the middle of the vessel. The first explosion was followed by a second four days later. The fire spread to at least another two holds as it raged for 9 days. Two sailors are dead (one is missing and the other died from severe burns) and another three are injured. The container ship was abandoned by the crew. The eventual loss of containers at sea is unknown.

The cutting out of the cargo ship is a provocation regarding every observer endowed with common sense. The photos of the demolition demonstrate that even while the wreckage has its keel in the water, the shearing continues. The images of the polluted scrap metal floating in the sea water are overwhelming. They prove that the idea men and the workers on site disregard the marine environment, underestimating the effects of the contamination of the ecosystem and of the neighbouring marine communities by micro-pollutants from lead paint and operational residue from the ship itself. This shearing phase of the ship in the waves is comparable to rinsing scrap metal in the sea.

Following the Robin des Bois press conference this morning at 10:00 AM at Brest, the prefecture of Morbihan made public on their website at 2:34 PM the prefectural mandate regarding emergency conservation efforts surrounding the worksite for the deconstruction of the cargo ship TK Bremen. The recipient of this prefectural mandate is the ship owner, Blue Atlantic Shipping, ltd. based in Malta.

Robin des Bois estimates that the emergency conditions invoked by the prefecture are intended to precipitate work upon the demolition of the TK Bremen, to know the fragility of the hull, are not one in the same. If there is an emergency, it is to erase as fast as possible the traces of errors made at the time of the casting off of the ship and its navigation in the afternoon of December 15, 2011 and the night of the 16th.

A Demolition Derby
The demolition of the TK Bremen on French territory is a spectacular example of the administrative simplification so dear to the government. The dumping of this industrial waste amounting to 2,000 tons is containing asbestos in several forms, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), hydrocarbon traces, lead paint, mercury and tin are not submitted to French and European control’s temporary authorization for a Classified Facility for the Protection of the Environment. The guidelines of the Bale Convention and the International Maritime Organization on the dismantlement of ships are not being respected. Robin des Bois requests that the prefect of Morbihan, the maritime prefecture, and the labor inspectors publish the map of dangerous waste present on the TK Bremen, if it exists.