Completed PE Summary
Perth
| Category | Merchant |
| Registered Owner & Manager: | All Ocean Charters 2 Limited, London |
| Port of registry: | London |
| Flag: | British |
| Type: | Container |
| Built: | 09/1999 |
| Classification society: | Lloyds |
| Construction: | Steel |
| Length overall: | 217.1 metres |
| Gross tonnage: | 24,836 |
| Date & Time | 08/11/2006 14:00 |
| Location of incident: | Coastal waters, Izmir, Turkey |
| Incident Type: | Grounding |
| Persons onboard: | 22 |
| Injuries/ fatalities: | None |
| Damage/ Pollution: | None |
Synopsis
In daylight and in good weather conditions, the container vessel Perth grounded whilst entering Izmir Bay, Turkey. The master had conduct of the vessel; the Officer of the Watch (OOW) was plotting the vessel’s position using GPS only, at the chart table. An AB was on the wheel.
The vessel had just steadied on a new course when the OOW plotted the position, which showed the vessel had in fact altered course earlier than planned and was heading for shallow water. The master ordered the wheel hard over and the vessel had just started to swing when it grounded on a bottom of soft mud.
Fortunately, the weather conditions remained favourable throughout the next 24 hours, before the vessel was refloated using salvage tugs. The vessel was fully surveyed and was found to be undamaged and able to continue, unconditionally, in service.
Action taken:
The Chief Inspector of Marine Accidents has written to the ship’s managers strongly advising that they consider the early installation of a simplified voyage data recorder, to ensure that equipment such as ECDIS is maintained in a fully operational condition and ensure that the lessons learnt from this accident are fully promulgated to the bridge teams on all their vessels.
