Narrative

After 4½ days of none too successful fishing around wrecks, a steel-hulled 15 m gill netter was returning to harbour ahead of schedule. The sea was calm with a slight swell, and visibility was poor due to mist. The vessel was steaming at reduced speed with the skipper alone on watch.

About 3 miles from the harbour entrance, the skipper sat down and promptly fell asleep. The next thing he remembered was being woken when his vessel ran aground. By the time he realised what had happened, the rest of the crew had arrived in the wheelhouse. The engine was reversed and she came free of the ground. The crew meanwhile had donned lifejackets and were preparing the liferaft. Two went forward and found that the fish hold was flooding. Pumping had little effect, and the skipper decided to make for shallower water so that he could beach his vessel before she foundered. An RNLI lifeboat transferred salvage pumps to her, and these successfully contained the flooding sufficiently for her to make harbour. Since the accident, the skipper has fitted a new autopilot with a watch alarm. It sounds both in the wheelhouse and in the cabin. He has also equipped the vessel with two more salvage pumps, and has taken on additional crew to reduce workloads and increase rest periods.

II. Discussion

Study the situation on board and find the main cause of the accident. Draw some lessons from it.

Turn to page … for lessons made by MAIB.

Supplementary Reading

Text 1. One of the versions of the causes of the accident

On the very first days after the collision the tragedy gave rise to numerous rumors. One interesting version suggests that the tragedy occurred for some electromagnetic reasons. During the last days of August 1986 (August 27 – September 1) the solar data provided by the Crimean observatory turned out to be unusually high.

Many Novorossiysk citizens say that they saw the unnaturally red sky in the evening of August 31. The supporters of the electromagnetic version state that too high data could be accounted for by some electromagnetic impact exerted upon communication facilities of the vessels in order to cause strong interference on the screens of their radars. This idea is supported by the statement of Captain Tkachenko who said there was some third vessel in the area of the wreckage which was registered by the devices on board the Pyotr Vasev bulk carrier.

Until the very collision, Captain Tkachenko stayed almost always near the automated course plotter. Even though Tkachenko's assistant who watched Admiral Nakhimov warned that it was necessary to reduce speed to let the motor ship pass, the captain still didn't reduce the speed or change the course; the man was concentrated on the screen of the automated system. The device showed that there were two miles between the vessels and the bearing angle was increasing. Accordingly, the position of the unknown vessel created an illusion that the situation was absolutely safe. As it turned out later, the bearing angle checked from board of the Admiral Nakhimov motor ship at the same very period disagreed with the showing registered by the bulk carrier. So, it proves there was some third vessel which position misled Captain Tkachenko.

However, it is not quite clear whether the third vessel actually existed, or she was a ghost vessel or this third vessel was created on the screen of the onboard system.