Real Life Incident: Pilot Boat Capsize

pilot boat

In order to relieve the pilot who had been on duty, a pilot boat came alongside the bulk carrier while passing the pilot station, shortly before 0100. Two pilots climbed onto the accommodation ladder, but before they could reach the vessel’s deck, the pilot boat plunged into the sea and resurfaced upside down.

The master of the pilot boat was trapped in a compartment, and the deckhand was thrown overboard. The Coast Guard Ship, which was dispatched to the scene, recovered the deckhand, who had climbed onto the overturned hull, and the master, who had swum to the surface.

The Coast Guard boat took the survivors to the Coast Guard base, where an ambulance was waiting to transport them to the hospital. Both crew members were suffering from hypothermia and nervous shock, but they were released from the hospital a few hours later. The pilot boat drifted before sinking, in about 30 metres of water. The pollution caused by the pilot boat was deemed minor.

The Board determined that the pilot boat overturned because, when she came alongside the bulk carrier, she overtook a wave generated by the ship, pitched onto the wave crest, then surged down into the trough of the next wave before plunging into the sea. The submerged bow slowed down the pilot boat, but due to her momentum, she continued to pitch until the vessel turned over. The decision to use the accommodation ladder instead of the vessel’s pilot ladder contributed to the sequence of events.

Findings

The Marine Communications and Traffic Services centre instructed the bulk carrier to prepare the starboard accommodation ladder to embark the pilot.
Under international regulations, the vessel was required to use a pilot ladder to transfer pilots.
Instructing MCTS traffic regulating officers to tell foreign crews to use the accommodation ladder is a request made by the pilots, but is contrary to international regulations.
The Pilot Ladder Regulations do not apply to foreign vessels.
The vessel is equipped with a pilot embarkation/disembarkation facility amidships, but the crew prepared the accommodation ladder on the vessel’s quarter.
Because of the location of the accommodation ladder on the vessel’s quarter, the ladder’s bottom platform juts out more than a metre from the shell plating.
The same accommodation ladder was used at the pilot station, and neither the pilots nor the master of the pilot boat objected to that practice.
Most River pilots use the accommodation ladder to board vessels.
The pilot aboard the bulk carrier and the master of the pilot boat did not come to an agreement by radio communication on the time and position for the transfer.
In Canada, there is no standard or code of practice for pilot transfer arrangements and pilotage duties.
The ship bulk carrier was making way at a speed through the water of about 10 knots at the time of the transfer. That speed is greater than usual. The pilot overestimated the vessel’s deceleration.
Because of the guardrails on the after deck of the pilot boat, she had to be moved further away from the bulk carrier’s side.
The pilot boat was manoeuvred onto the crest of a wave generated by the bulk carrier.
The speed of the waves generated by the vessel was less than the speed of the pilot boat.
While trying to keep the after deck of the pilot boat lined up under the accommodation ladder and at the same time maintaining an angle with respect to the vessel, the pilot boat descended into the trough of the next wave and the bow plunged into the sea.
The addition of concrete ballast did not completely eliminate shortcomings in the pilot boat’s dynamic trimming characteristics.
There is little reference material on pilot boat design and operation in Canada. Their development seems to result from operating experience and trial and error.
The regulations prescribing the criteria for assessing pilot boat stability do not address the dynamic trimming characteristics of small vessels throughout the displacement, transitional and planing speed ranges encountered in normal operation.
Transport Canada regulatory requirements and inspection criteria do not fully meet current pilot boat operational parameters.

Causes

The pilot boat overturned because, when she came alongside the bulk carrier, she overtook a wave generated by the ship, pitched onto the wave crest then surged down into the trough of the next wave before plunging into the sea. The submerged bow slowed down the pilot boat but, due to her momentum, she continued to pitch until the vessel turned over. The decision to use the accommodation ladder instead of the vessel’s pilot ladder contributed to the sequence of events.

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