A containership collided with a Pilot boat inside taipei harbour

off Taipei, bit choppy seas

According to the International Maritime Pilots Association (IMPA), the ship “Grand Radiant” suffered an incident where the accommodation ladder entire outboard side railing fell away due to a pin becoming loose.

Port operations, whether these are being performed on water or on land, are often not without risk. Pilots boarding a ship while sailing, navigating through narrow passages, collision avoidance with other smaller or larger vessels, discharging and moving cargo on land, walking between container handling equipment and trucks…

AMSA notes with concern that since November 2017 several pilots’ lives have been placed at risk, in six separate incidents where man ropes have parted, or its securing point has failed. In addition, AMSA regularly receives reports and complaints about non-compliant pilot transfer arrangements

The pilot at Nagasaki Port fell into the water at around 0530 Tokyo time on 5 May while boarding the cruise ship DIAMOND PRINCESS, which was about to enter Nagasaki.

A Filipino crew member of a Capesize bulk carrier HELLASSHIP fell into water while trying to assist pilot boarding bulk carrier in rough weather, off Gijon, Spain.

Does the growth of ships ever have limits? Perhaps less in shipbuilding than in the handling of the ships during piloting.

On the 23rd of March 2021 the VLCC Ever Given grounded in the Suez Canal. A strong southerly wind (between 6 and 7 BFT) plus so-called bank shear caused steering issues. This a combined 2D and 3D reconstruction of the incident based on recorded AIS data.

When I was a deck officer back in the early nineties I worked on a ship that used to load grain at different ports along the Mississippi river. The name of the ship was Golden Hope, a 600 feet long dry bulk carrier with a 95 feet in beam. An average size vessel for those days' standards.

This report on incidents involving vessels under pilotage, is an update on that issued in 2006. The IG’s first report examined five years of data between 1999 and 2004.