An investigation into the sinking of a Palau-registered container ship in 2023 laid the blame mainly on a failure to properly maintain its hull, while the Palauan shipping authority knew that the vessel was not seaworthy, but failed to notify the Taiwanese government in advance.
The Taiwan Transportation Safety Board report was published before the Lunar New Year holiday.
The ship Angel, which carried 19 Azerbaijani crew members and had a capacity of 1,349 twenty-foot equivalent units, arrived at the Port of Kaohsiung on July 20, 2023, before sinking the next day.
Photo: CNA
All crew members were safely evacuated, but the government had to remove empty containers floating in the sea.
The shipwreck occurred because the hull had not been properly maintained for five years, and the cargo hold floor structure was damaged, the investigation found.
After the cargo ship sailed from Colombo, Sri Lanka, the bottom plate of the third cargo hold on the starboard side cracked, causing the ballast water in the right side of the third ballast tank to seep into the third cargo hold, it found.
After the cargo was loaded at the port of Dalian, China, the severely corroded floor cracked due to the weight of the containers, causing the water in the ballast water tanks to seep into the fourth and fifth cargo holds, the investigation showed.
After the ship sailed from Dalian, crew members were unable to enter the hold to deal with the water accumulation and seepage because it was full.
On the day of the shipwreck, oil sludge and residue in the ship’s fuel pipeline blocked the fuel filter, causing the generator to stop running and resulting in a loss of power to the entire ship.
Meanwhile, the ballast water pump stopped operating.
After the ship tilted 45 degrees to the left, a large amount of seawater surged in. It entered the stern cargo hold and engine room, causing the ship to sink, the board said.
The investigation showed there were several risks involved leading to the shipwreck.
The crew lacked the ability to address the water seepage problem in the cargo hold after the ship was fully loaded, it said.
Aside from the lack of maintenance, the board also found that the ship’s owner and management firm Zulu Shipping failed to follow the International Register of Shipping’s rules requiring underwater hull inspections and additional international safety management audits to be carried out at the first convenient port or anchorage.
They also did not complete the 17 improvement suggestions and four improvement suggestion memorandums proposed by the International Register of Shipping within the deadline, the board said.
The Palau shipping authority knew 10 days before the shipwreck that the Angel was not seaworthy, but it did not notify Taiwan’s Maritime and Port Bureau, leaving it with no time to offer emergency assistance before the shipwreck, the board said.
S5 Asia (Hong Kong) Ltd Taiwan Branch — the ship’s agent — failed to inform the bureau and Taiwan International Port Corp about the ship’s water accumulation problem four days before the shipwreck, while Zulu failed to implement handover training for new and old crew members, and provide timely resources to solve the problem of water accumulation, the board said.
The board found crew members had been replaced before the wreck, and the chief officer, who faced a threat to his life, sent an emergency e-mail to the International Transport Workers’ Federation and Singapore’s Maritime and Port Authority.
When the incident occurred, the Post of Kaohsiung Vessel Traffic Service System did not require the ship’s owner to provide liability insurance information when the ship was anchored in the port, it said.
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