Proceedings Of The Marine

SPR 2012

Proceedings magazine is a communication tool for the Coast Guard's Marine Safety & Security Council. Each quarterly magazine focuses on a specific theme of interest to the marine industry.

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Lessons Learned Investigations USCG Casualty Their Last Catch The Bering Sea claims another fi shing vessel. by MS. KRISTA REDDINGTON Technical Writer In the morning hours of October 22, 2008, the F/V Kat- mai sank into the icy-cold waters of the Bering Sea, claiming the lives of seven crew members aboard. This tragedy may have been avoided if the captain and crew had practiced sound judgment, communi- cated more clearly with one another, and followed safety protocol. The Incident ☑ ☑ ☑ ☑ ☑ ☑ ☑ ☑ ☑ ☑ ☑ ☑ 'XULQJ WKH HYHQLQJ KRXUV RI 2FWREHU WKH À VKLQJ vessel was making its way to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, WR RIÁ RDG LWV FDWFK RI OEV RI 3DFLÀ F &RG; &UHZ; members were enjoying some much-needed sleep, unaware that a deadly storm was fast approaching. 7KH YHVVHO ZDV WUDQVLWLQJ WKH $PFKLWND 3DVV ORFDWHG between the Rat and Andreanof Islands, in the Aleu- tian Islands. It was the engineer's turn to take watch. 3ULRU WR UHWLULQJ WR KLV EXQN WKH FDSWDLQ LQIRUPHG the engineer that they had to make about 7.5 knots to avoid an oncoming storm. Six hours had passed when the engineer woke the captain to relieve him from his watch. By the time the engineer informed him that they had only been making between 3.5 and 4 knots, winds were blowing at 45 to 50 knots. It was too late to outrun the impend- ing storm. The captain altered the vessel's course and headed for deeper water so they could better handle the worsening weather. Nightmare in Stormy Seas On October 22, at 1201 Zulu (Z) time, (a term often used by emergency personnel and military to coor- dinate mission times across several time zones), the 70 Proceedings Spring 2012 captain sent an email to the F/V Blue Ballard explain- ing he had missed his chance to avoid the storm and his vessel was suffering a beating from the weather. He reported that they were okay, but the weather was deteriorating and the vessel was beginning to list to port. The captain asked the engineer to try to transfer fuel from port to starboard in an attempt to correct the list, but the engineer found the fuel transfer pump was not working properly. According to the captain, although there was a cross-connect between the fuel tanks, a transfer was only possible by using the fuel transfer pump. A later review of the vessel's fuel pip- ing schematic showed that four valves would have had to be manually opened to allow fuel to pass from one tank to the other. Failed Calls for Help Approximately eight hours after the failed fuel trans- fer, the captain realized he had lost steering. He sent the deckhand to investigate the steering system while KH DWWHPSWHG WR QRWLI\ &RDVW; *XDUG &RPPXQLFDWLRQV; 6WDWLRQ &2067$ .RGLDN YLD D VLQJOH VLGH EDQG 66% radio. When the communications attempt yielded no response, the captain used a second SSB and the ves- sel's very high frequency (VHF) radio to try to contact &2067$ .RGLDN³DJDLQ ZLWK QR UHVSRQVH $IWHU WKH IDLOHG DWWHPSWV WR FRQWDFW WKH &RDVW; *XDUG WKH captain used the vessel monitoring system to send a second email to the Blue Ballard to advise he had lost steering capabilities. www.uscg.mil/proceedings fro m

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