A collision at high speed in busy waters will result in the ship sinking

In good visibility and darkness, a chemical tanker was traveling at a speed of about 13 knots and had a lookout on the bridge. They had been sailing for several hours in waters heavily crowded with fishing boats, during which time the captain was also on the bridge to make decisions if necessary. At one point, over 100 AIS targets were registered on the radar's 3-mile scale, a mix of moving and stationary targets. By 11 p.m. they had cleared the dense fishing fleet, so the captain left the bridge.

At 23:19 the lookout reported what he believed to be a fishing vessel, and the OOW soon picked it up as an ARPA target on the X-band radar.

The captain of the other ship later reported sighting the tanker around 11:30 p.m. As it turned out, this vessel was not a fishing vessel, but a fish transport vessel (FTV) that was en route to the port to unload a cargo of fish loaded in the fishing grounds.

About three minutes before the CPA, which was essentially zero, the chemical tanker's bridge team attempted to attract the other ship's attention using an Aldis lamp. The two ships maintained their course and speed in constant bearing and approach until they were less than 0.5 nautical miles apart.

Although the FTV was the evading vessel at the time, the chemical tanker's OOW took control of the manual steering and changed course to port by steering the helm 15 degrees to port. At about the same time, the FTV made a bold course change to starboard. Neither ship used acoustic signals before the change, but the tanker made two short blasts when it became apparent that the FTV was also taking action.

Nevertheless, the ships collided at a closing speed of around 15 knots. The bow of the tanker struck the FTV on the port side at an angle of 45 degrees. The tanker's captain and chief officer quickly arrived on the bridge, the engines were switched off, the deck lights were switched on and an announcement was made over the loudspeaker system. The tanker's crew prepared life-saving equipment, made boarding arrangements and launched the lifeboat to assist in the rescue of the crew of the stricken FTV, who were in the process of abandoning the ship.

Twelve FTV crew members were rescued from a life raft by the tanker. The remaining five crew members were unable to launch the FTV's second life raft and were recovered by a nearby fishing vessel. The damaged FTV sank about an hour after the collision.

The investigation found, among other things, that there were no navigation restrictions that prevented the tanker from reducing its speed or changing its course to starboard in a timely manner. Additionally, while the tanker attempted to attract the FTV's attention using an Aldis lamp, no appropriate sound signals were used until five seconds before the collision, when the tanker made two short tones.

The report found that there had been many similar incidents in the same region with significant loss of life. A study from 2006 to 2011 found 268 incidents involving fishing vessels in the surrounding waters, resulting in 562 deaths. Common navigation problems in these cases include failure to adjust passage plans to avoid areas of high fishing density, failure to reduce speed in areas of high traffic density, and collision avoidance measures that are unreasonable, taken too late, and have an error rate that is too low or a combination of the three.

Lessons learned

• Passage plans should be adjusted as much as possible to avoid fishing grounds that are known to be highly congested.
• In busy waters, it is advisable to reduce speed.
• Are you trying to get the attention of another ship? Rule 34(d) is clear. If ships within sight do not understand each other's intentions or actions, or if a ship has doubts as to whether the other ship is taking sufficient measures to avoid a collision, the doubting ship must immediately express these doubts by means of a communication at least five short, quick blasts on the ship's whistle.