Real Life Incident: Collision With Lighthouse

lighthouse

A coaster was on a journey in a fjord. Early in the morning, when the ship was to change course, she collided with a small lighthouse. The reason why the collision took place is unknown but the ship must have turned too late or too slowly.

The foundation of the lighthouse was circular with a flat top just underneath the water surface. Its diameter was bigger than the diameter of the lighthouse itself, situated right on top of the foundation. This construction causes a rather sharp outer edge, which could easily rip a ship’s hull.

This was what happened – the ship’s hull was ripped open and she sank within minutes. Two persons on the bridge died. Two other crew members survived although they could not reach the survival suits which were kept under port bridge wing as the ship immediately listed to port and put them out of reach. One of the survivors managed to launch the starboard liferaft. Another crew member was down in the mess room and threw out a couple of life jackets. He did not manage to get out of the mess room.

The investigation found that the hydrostatic releases to the rafts had not been properly mounted. If the starboard side raft had not been launched manually, no raft would have been released.

Hydrostatic releases are often wrongly mounted. Every ship is recommended to check their releases.

The storage space of survival suits and life jackets can be discussed. In this case, they were almost immediately unreachable.

The placing of the jackets caused one of the crew members to die while reaching for the jackets.
The construction of lighthouses and their foundations is a potential danger if a ship should come too close.

Several times ships have got damaged under the waterline when coming too close to a lighthouse. It is essential that navigators know that this extra risk is to be calculated when rounding a lighthouse.

The sketch and the diagram show the extent that the base of these type of lighthouses extends from to superstructure. Good seamanship dictates that all fixed structures should be given a wide berth.

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