Real Life Incident: Can An Anchor Fluke Break?
A two-year-old Panamax tanker was at anchor awaiting berth space to discharge a last parcel of cargo. The anchorage area was clear of obstructions and far from shore, the sea bed consisting of mud. During the night the weather conditions were good with a NE’ly winds force 3 and currents were not very strong. These conditions led us to believe that the anchor would hold well.
However, during watch handover the 2/O informed the relief that the vessel had dragged about half a cable to the SW. Subsequent monitoring of the vessel’s position confirmed a slow drag but luckily the pilot was due on shortly. As the anchor was lifted the bosun informed us that one fluke was missing. Everyone was amazed that a fluke from an anchor weighing 10,500kg had been broken in such benign conditions.
Once the anchor was on board everyone was very surprised to see the condition of the steel. Incredibly, we even found small pieces of rags trapped by some cement or plaster within the cast metal.
A few weeks later, after the suspect metal had been analysed in a laboratory and a follow-up investigation done, we were informed that some anchors produced for the shipyard where our vessel was built had casting delivery to the shipyard failures so bad that they were ‘corrected’ prior to final inspection and delivery to the shipyard.
Reference & Image Credits:Â nautinst
Do you have info to share with us ? Suggest a correction
- Real Life Incident: Vessel Collision in Good Visibility
- Real Life Incident: Severe Injury To Deck Crew While Leaving Berth
- Real Life Incident: Departure Damage in Very Restricted Waterway
- Real Life Incident: Low Situational Awareness Has High Impact Consequence
- Real Life Incident: Fouled Anchor in a Designated Anchorage
- Real Life Incident: Fire On Barge Carrying Scrap Metal Causes $7 Million Worth Of Damage
Latest Case studies Articles You Would Like:
Subscribe To Our Newsletters
By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime.