In its just-published report on a fatal mooring deck
incident on general cargo ship Teal Bay (IMO 9343637) on August 30th 2021, the UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch
(MAIB) said that a number of factors had contributed to the death of the chief
officer.
Teal Bay was loading grain when moored alongside an
anchored bulk carrier, the Kavkaz V (IMO 9104574). The mooring line was being used to pull Teal Bay forward and it
sprang free when its lead angle became too great for the open fairlead to
restrain it.
The accident occurred at the Kavkaz anchorage in Russia
when the Isle of Man registered open hatch general cargo ship Teal Bay was
moored alongside an anchored bulk carrier, which was acting as a grain storage
vessel, carrying out ship-to-ship (STS) loading operations.
Teal Bay was an Isle of Man registered 177.13m general
cargo vessel. Kavkaz V was a Liberian registered 185.74m bulk carrier, operated
by a Russian crew.
Teal Bay’s 20 crew were Ukrainian nationals who all held
appropriate qualifications for their roles. The C/O, Yuriy Maslov, was a
54-year-old experienced seafarer and had been with the company for over 20
years. He was wearing shorts, a T-shirt, safety boots, gloves and a hard hat.
On the day of the accident, his record of work and rest showed that he had
worked from 0600 to 1000 and then from 1700 onwards.
When acting as a storage vessel at anchor, Kavkaz V’s
cargo holds were loaded with grain from river barges. The grain was then
discharged into other vessels moored alongside for onward transport (Figure 3).
Teal Bay’s crew had not loaded cargo in this way before and, until the pilot
boarded and informed him of the loading arrangements, the master was expecting
to load grain directly from barges while at anchor.
The investigation found that the use of an open fairlead
was inappropriate during the transfer of cargo where a freeboard differential
created the hazard of an upward lead on the mooring lines. The chief officer
was struck because he was standing in a hazardous area close to a tensioned
mooring line and the operation to move Teal Bay forward was attempted with
insufficient crew and had not been risk assessed.
The MAIB conducted the investigation on behalf of the
Isle of Man Ship Registry.
2007-built, Isle of Man-flagged, 20,236 gt Teal Bay is
owned by Arsos Shipping SA care of manager Pioneer Marine Advisers Pte Ltd of
Singapore. ISM manager is Pioneer Marine Hellas SA of Athens, Greece. It is
entered with North of England Club on behalf of Arsos Shipping SA.
1995-built, Liberia-flagged, 26,059 gt Kavkaz V is owned
by Kavkaz V Ltd care of manager LLC Aston Enterprise Agency of Rostov-na-Donu,
Russia. It is entered with American Club on behalf of Kavkaz V Ltd.
