[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by ruzbehxyz

11.Jul.2023.

Panama Flag state Issues Report Critical of SCA Pilots in Ever Given Grounding.


More than two years after the grounding of the Ever Given containership in the Suez Canal, the Panama Maritime Authority’s Marine Safety Investigation Report has been filed with the International Maritime Organization and become public. As the flag state for the vessel, Panama’s investigative team had access not only to the crew but also to the bridge data recorders and was able to give the most comprehensive analysis of the events.

Captain, thank you for sharing this. Even though I am not a mariner it is an issue of great importance as the Suez touches all our lives. Two of my cousins who served as Masters for many years with Maersk and Anglo Eastern did not have nice things to say about these Egyptian pilots, their skills, attitudes and communication. I hope the Captain of Ever Green has not been tossed into some dungeon or had his career destroyed - likely it has. Can you throw some light on what fate befell him.

[sagarpadaki]

Thank you for the report. Gives clarity on what happened.


Can someone kindly explain for a ship noob like me, in layman terms what squat, bank suction, and bank cushion effects means in terms of what happened in suez canal incident. Tried googling but did not understand much. If you can point me to relevant google searches that would be helpful too! Thanks

[pedrolourenco]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

To summarize, the doco talks about a tiff between the Captain and the Pilots,

Originally Posted by dragracer567

I think the tiff was between the two pilots rather than the captain who tried to mediate between the two pilots.

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

I have two cousins both who became Master Mariners who told me that the Egyptian pilots are a hit and miss lot. As a sea-going Master can you toss in your views. Thanks.

I've transited the Suez Canal several times. Trust me, it's not a pleasant experience. The first thing the Pilot does is demand at least 10 Cartons of Marlboro. The pilot's also make sure that they board in a position where it impossible to turn around. Beyond the abort point in the passage plan. So there is very little a master can do here.

Originally Posted by ruzbehxyz

The only thing best the Master could have done is refused the transit. He could have only done this if he had solid evidence for the weather predictions which anyway may not be so accurate. The results of this action would be serious as other ships big and small were doing the transit, although the windage area of the subject vessel was maximum and hence most affected. This would anyway not be a prime option as the weather was not continuously bad.

Master's overriding authority is only on paper. The moment you exercise it, the company makes sure you don't sleep for the next one month answering all their emails. And God forbid, if you are unable to prove that you have averted a disaster by using your overriding authority, you are a dead man.

Everybody knows it’s the Master in command and the pilot is just advising, however consideration has to be given to the pilots orders. There is very less the Master could have done as the vessel had already entered the canal and she can’t turn around.

+1

Although not in this case, what is saddening to see is that ships crew especially Masters are criminalised for things which are unreasonable and some not under their control.

The only people who can initiate a change in this are the ship managers and owners who can pressurise IMO. Can be done but they are just not bothered. All they care about is business. For the owners, managers and other concerned organisations, seafarers are just cattle.

[ruzbehxyz]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Captain, thank you for sharing this. Can you throw some light on what fate befell him.

No idea of what happened to the Captain.

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

Thank you for the report. Gives clarity on what happened.

Exactly. This is what happened. In maritime disasters or for that matter in any other industry like the Airline industry, it's very easy to speculate, who did what and who did wrong. The reality is much different and there are various technical issues which are directly or indirectly involved.

Can someone kindly explain for a ship noob like me, in layman terms what squat, bank suction, and bank cushion effects means in terms of what happened in suez canal incident. Tried googling but did not understand much. If you can point me to relevant google searches that would be helpful too! Thanks

These are vast subjects with deep meaning and difficult to explain. To keep it simple - For any ship, one of the most important things for navigation is the depth of water available under the keel of the ship. The lesser water means more danger for the ship to touch bottom and run aground. Major running aground means, losses in terms of millions or billions, loss of time, loss of reputation etc., something like what happened to the Ever Given. The last buck finally comes on the Master, no matter who is at fault.
Terms such as squat, bank suction, and bank cushion are things which reduce the underwater clearance for the ship and affect the maneuverability of the ship. This is the simplest form to understand the terms.

Originally Posted by pedrolourenco

I've transited the Suez Canal several times. Trust me, it's not a pleasant experience. The first thing the Pilot does is demand at least 10 Cartons of Marlboro. For the owners, managers and other concerned organisations, seafarers are just cattle.

+1. I too have transited the Suez canal several times. Your observations are to the point. With such a big incident, have the things changed as of now? I think the answer is NO.

[pedrolourenco]

Originally Posted by ruzbehxyz

The last buck finally comes on the Master, no matter who is at fault.

Exactly. It's high time other people are made accountable too.

With such a big incident, have the things changed as of now? I think the answer is NO.

Correct. Nothing has changed. And that's because the major stakeholders in the shipping industry don't want anything to change.

[arijitkanrar]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

Thank you for the report. Gives clarity on what happened.


Can someone kindly explain for a ship noob like me, in layman terms what squat, bank suction, and bank cushion effects means in terms of what happened in suez canal incident. Tried googling but did not understand much. If you can point me to relevant google searches that would be helpful too! Thanks

Originally Posted by ruzbehxyz

No idea of what happened to the Captain.


These are vast subjects with deep meaning and difficult to explain. To keep it simple - For any ship, one of the most important things for navigation is the depth of water available under the keel of the ship. The lesser water means more danger for the ship to touch bottom and run aground. Major running aground means, losses in terms of millions or billions, loss of time, loss of reputation etc., something like what happened to the Ever Given. The last buck finally comes on the Master, no matter who is at fault.
Terms such as squat, bank suction, and bank cushion are things which reduce the underwater clearance for the ship and affect the maneuverability of the ship. This is the simplest form to understand the terms.

These videos give a good understanding of Bank effects.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGJa2dAlhDg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al6-RSxY09o

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

Can someone kindly explain for a ship noob like me, in layman terms what squat, bank suction, and bank cushion effects means in terms of what happened in suez canal incident.

I was not a mariner, was an accountant, so I am shooting in the dark here. But the manufacturing company I was working for owned and operated two chemical and one gas tanker vessels for about fifteen years. I was doing the payroll of floating personnel. During the '80s and '90s mfg companies had a tax shelter if they owned ships, so quite a few such companies owned a couple or three each. The tax shelter disappeared around y2k and all of them promptly sold the vessels.

During the mid nineties some of us from the office visited U.P. to attend the wedding of one of our mariners and went on a sight seeing trip. There was a boat ride in the Ganges by a biggish row boat, we went for a couple of km down river and then returned back. During the down river part the boatmen chose mid river, but while returning up river the boat came close to the bank.

A captain who was serving on our vessels was also on the boat with us (he is a member here as well!), and he explained the logic. He said going down river is a no brainer, the river's current will make rowing easy. But while returning up river the current will be against the row boat. He said there will be counter currents closer to the banks moving in the opposite direction, and the boatmen were trying to catch it and reduce their effort. Hence they took the boat closer to the bank.

Applying the same logic to the Suez canal, if the ship (a very large and very long ship) turned sideways beyond a point, the same current/counter current, depending on the direction of it's movement, might catch the bow or rear and might turn the vessel sideways and probably that is what the jargon refers to. The Suez canal is nowhere as wide as the Ganges, we all saw in the photos the length of the vessel had completely blocked the width of the canal.

May be my understanding is wrong, the mariners here can clarify.

And yes, I have heard plenty of stories from our onboard personnel about the Suez pilots, even during the '90s!

[dragracer567]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

I hope the Captain of Ever Green has not been tossed into some dungeon or had his career destroyed - likely it has. Can you throw some light on what fate befell him.

Going by general media reports, the captain seems to have been spared the wrath!

[rst89]

Originally Posted by pedrolourenco

I've transited the Suez Canal several times. Trust me, it's not a pleasant experience. The first thing the Pilot does is demand at least 10 Cartons of Marlboro. The pilot's also make sure that they board in a position where it impossible to turn around. Beyond the abort point in the passage plan. So there is very little a master can do here.

How are pilots of Panama Canal? Do they also demand this type of favour/bribe?

And any other passages that are notorious like Bosphorus strait or the ones in Greece?

[ruzbehxyz]

Originally Posted by rst89

How are pilots of Panama Canal? Do they also demand this type of favour/bribe?

Panama pilots are totally professional.

Panama canal is one of the only places in the world where the pilot takes over the full control of the Navigation from the Master. The pilot is not in advisory capacity here like other canals / ports.

Pilot is compulsory in Panama Canal waters based on the Regulation on Navigation in Panama Canal Waters, Article 90, Section One, Chapter V, Pilotage. Additionally, Article 92 states that the pilot assigned to a vessel shall have control of the navigation and movement of such a vessel.

[pedrolourenco]

Originally Posted by rst89

How are pilots of Panama Canal? Do they also demand this type of favour/bribe?

No. They don't ask for anything.

And any other passages that are notorious like Bosphorus strait or the ones in Greece?

Bosphorus and the Dardanelles are also ok.

Originally Posted by ruzbehxyz

Panama pilots are totally professional.

Yea the pilots are good but of late the Panama Canal Authority has been imposing huge fines on ships for things like AC not working properly. Recently a ship was fined 270K USD for the AC not working properly.

[BlackBeard]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

Can someone kindly explain for a ship noob like me, in layman terms what squat, bank suction, and bank cushion effects means in terms of what happened in suez canal incident. Tried googling but did not understand much. If you can point me to relevant google searches that would be helpful too! Thanks

To briefly explain the above phenomenon:
When a vessel moves through water a high pressure area develops around the bow and consequently a low pressure area develops around the stern. In open seas with sufficient depth this is not an issue as the volume of water around is sufficient to replace the displaced water.

However, in narrow channels, canals, etc with much lower depths there is in-sufficient water to replace this low pressure area around the stern and as a result the stern "interacts" with the river/canal bank & gets sucked towards the bank (bank suction) and the bow pushed away from it (bank cushion), to counter this counter helm on the rudder is initiated. These movements are pretty dramatic and rapid and thereby cause loss of steering control of the ship and can happen in minutes/seconds depending on the ships speed, basically the ship will keep zig-zagging along its path and the canal banks being very close may come into contact with the hull.

The above is what happened to the Evergiven & she rammed into the canal bank.
Remember Force = Mass X acceleration and 200,00 Tons force even at 20 kmph is phenomenal.

As regards the professionalism of the Suez canal pilots, the less said the better & apparently most are ex-Egyptian navy.

For those interested I have attached the original accident investigation report of this terrible incident.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by BlackBeard

To briefly explain the above phenomenon:
When a vessel moves through water a high pressure area develops around the bow and consequently a low pressure area develops around the stern. In open seas with sufficient depth this is not an issue as the volume of water around is sufficient to replace the displaced water.

....

Thanks for the explanation!

Will read the investigation report at leisure!

[BlackBeard]

Originally Posted by pedrolourenco

No. They don't ask for anything.

Bosphorus and the Dardanelles are also ok.

Yea the pilots are good but of late the Panama Canal Authority has been imposing huge fines on ships for things like AC not working properly. Recently a ship was fined 270K USD for the AC not working properly.

My favourite is the Kiel canal, the pilot boards with 2 helmsmen who steer the ship in turns (Approx. 4 hours each) throughout the canal transit from Brunsbuttel to Kiel or vice versa! Beautiful scenery all around especially during the winters and if one is lucky enough might spot a few unimogs along the canal banks.