At 0918 on 4 August 2020, the liquefied petroleum gas/ethylene carrier Moritz Schulte suffered an engine room fire while discharging a cargo of ethylene alongside the port of Antwerp, Belgium. The newly promoted third engineer, who was working on an auxiliary engine fuel filter, had not effectively isolated the fuel system and both he and an adjacent auxiliary engine’s hot exhaust were sprayed with fuel under pressure. The fuel spray penetrated the exhaust insulation and ignited.
Prompt actions by the crew closed down the space to limit the spread of fire. The subsequent crew muster identifed that the third engineer was missing and had last been seen in the engine room. Continue reading “Report on engine room fire on Moritz Schulte with loss of one life”
The National Transportation Safety Board (
At about 0300 on 18 February 2021, a deckhand fell overboard from the twin rig stern trawler Copious (LK 985) approximately 30 nautical miles south-east of the Shetland Islands. The deckhand was conscious, wearing a lifejacket and was quickly brought alongside the vessel. However, the crew’s attempts to recover the casualty back on board were unsuccessful. He was unresponsive when recovered from the water by a coastguard helicopter and pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.
Cracks in a muffler coupled with the use of combustible materials in accommodation spaces caused a fire on a towing vessel last year on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway near Freeport, Texas, is the key finding in the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) report.
The marine environment takes a toll on coatings, and to keep up with maintenance, most ships’ crews use oil-based paints and finishes almost every day that the weather allows. These materials come with an inherent fire risk, the National Transportation Safety Board (
In its report on a May 9, 2022, incident that saw a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, Radiance of the Seas, strike a cruise terminal pier causing $2.1 million in damage, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) identifies overreliance on an ECDIS electronic chart, miscommunication and an outdated navigational chart as all factors in causing the strike.
The Cargo Fire & Loss Innovation Initiative is calling for innovators to come forward with solutions for early-stage fire detection, one of the most important issues in the drive to mitigate container loss.
The Norwegian Maritime Authority (NMA) has published some safety recommendations for vessels featuring battery systems in order to protect them against humid, salty air and seawater intrusion.
Welcome to the eighth annual review of CHIRP Maritime reports, covering all the cases we published during 2022 and including some in-depth articles specially commissioned to highlight important safety topics.