1. Answer the questions:

1. Where did the fire break out?

2. Why did the Chief engineer’s clothing ignite?

3. How did the crew members extinguish the fire?

4. Why did the fire reflash and rage out of control?

5. How was the crew rescued?

2. Choose the correct variant:

1. There were …. exists from the engine room

a) several b) less than two c)no

2. The crew ….

a) closed the engine room’s doors to prevent fresh air to enter the interior

b) opened the doors to leave the engine room

c) opened the doors to the vessel’s superstructure to de-smoke the engine room

3. The chief engineer …..

a) died b) suffered minor injuries c) suffered serious injuries

4. The fire was caused by ….

a) smoking b) oil spill c) oil that sprayed onto hot surface of the main engine’s exhaust manifold

5. Once the fire area has been closed and the CO2 released….

a) it is advisable to open it in 12 hours

b) it is strictly prohibited to open it until SAR resources render any assistance

c) it is advisable not to open it up until absolutely certain that all sources of heat have been eliminated.

20

Unreported Incidents ( mars reports)

I was OOW on a loaded bulk carrier with a draft of 9.9 metres making 8 knots at Half Ahead. We were under pilotage in a harbour at night proceeding to the berth on the rising tide and the Master was on the Bridge. We detected a small vessel at close range, inside the channel, coming down and passing safely, green to green. However, at about 3 cables distance she suddenly altered course to starboard (we could see her red side light only now). A collision seemed inevitable!! We sounded 5 short & rapid blasts on the whistle and put the engines on Stop but were still making headway. The blast of the whistle probably shook her up and she considerably increased speed, crossed our bow and came down our port side at just about half a cable. We could now clearly see that she was a fishing vessel but lucky for her, owing to the dark, we could not read her name.

The width of this particular channel was only 148 metres and our U.K.C. was 1.5-2.0 metres. The depth outside the channel was around 7.0 to 7.5 metres plus the height of tide at that time around 1.3 metres. With such narrow restricted waters, there was nothing much we could have done to avoid the collision. However, the fishing vessel certainly had reasonable sea room outside the channel and was not complying with Rule 9. Had there been a collision, I am sure the local fisheries department, the fisherman's union, etc. would have all been putting the blame mostly on our vessel. Later, as the Pilot was disembarking, I asked him whether he would be reporting this incident to the authorities. His reply was, that he would do so verbally but not make any official report as it would incur a lot of paperwork on his behalf and the legalities might continue for a long time.

Do you think such kind of near misses should go unreported???

This report is similar to MARS 200446 (October 2004) suggesting that mariners should be able to report these type of incidents to an Authority who would be able to contact the managers and see that action was taken to avoid a recurrence. Many countries have reporting systems but are they effective in curbing COLREG abuse?