Collision in North Sea

[Chris Allman]

There has been a bad collision in the North Sea between a Car Carrier - BALTIC ACE and a Container ship CORVUS J - it would appear that BALTIC ACE has sunk and there is a big attempt being made to rescue her crew in quite bad weather. See HERE Hope everyone is safe.

Chris.

[Tony Morcom]

Latest information is HERE

[Tony Wilding]

very sad, not looking good for the missing crew, hope they find more survivors.

[Russ Kennedy]

Heart felt sympathies to the families and colleagues of those that are lost, and injured. A sad, sad, day.

Russ K

[j.sabourn]

Very sad to hear of the loss of life in the collission in the North Sea. Have not seen in papers here in WA. However is probably not considered newsworthy unless loss of life by passengers or others. No matter what nationality the seamen were it is always sad to hear of the loss of same. The number of deaths by merchant seamen over the years which have never been reported or only in the barest of detail is proof of the seemingly reluctance of the media to report on. There will be a few familys in mourning this holiday period. John Sabourn

[Tony Wilding]

i saw the AIS track of the collision,looks as if the Car Carrier made an incorrect course change, ?

[Tony Morcom]

Courtesy of our friends at

By Mike Schuler On December 6, 2012



The Baltic Ace sank within 15 minutes of colliding with the containership Corvus J Wednesday night approximately 65 kilometers (40 miles) off the southeastern coast of the Netherlands in the North Sea. Five bodies have been recovered and 13 crew members were saved. The search for the remaining six has been called off, the Dutch Coast Guard said.
Dutch police are working with the prosecutor to determine whether they could investigate the incident as the collision happened outside territorial waters.
These photos released by the Dutch coast guard reveal the damage to the Corvus J following the collision.

Photo: KNRM Breskens

The M/V Corvus J is a modern, 8,370 dwt container-feeder-vessel with the capacity for 630 TEU. The vessel has a length of 134m and a breadth of 19.4m and operates in European containerfeeder services. It was built on the “Rolandwerft” in Berne / Germany in 2003.

Photo: KNRM Breskens

Following the collision, the Corvus J assisted with the rescue operation and recovered one of the survivors. The Corvus J had a 12 crew on board at the time, none of which were injured.
The vessel is currently at flushing anchorage awaiting further instructions from Dutch authorities, according to a statement from the ship’s owner, Jüngerhans Maritime Services GmbH & Co. KG of Germany. The statement continued:

All our thoughts and condolences go out to the families of those crew members who have been lost in this tragic accident and to those who are still missing. Juengerhans understands that the search and rescue operation was resumed early this morning and it is our sincere hope that further survivors will be found.

The Bahamian-flagged Baltic Ace was headed to Kotka, Finland, from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, when the collision occurred. The Cyprus-flagged Corvus J was on its way to Antwerp from the Scottish town of Grangemouth, the coast guard said.
Below is a plot of AIS data of the Corvus J containership and Baltic Ace leading up to the collision.

Image courtesy Shipoftheday.blogspot.com. Click for Hi-res

Video below provided by VesselFinder.com




gCaptain’s FULL Coverage: Baltic Ace sinking

[John Pruden]

i still find it hard to believe with all the navigational aids collisions still happen. sad loss of life.jp

[Tony Wilding]

Must have been hard to exit the ship, and little time, modern navigation aids seem to make it very easy to collide, maybe too much reliance on a Nav Aid, small crews mean less lookouts,or none,, both Ships converging quite fast does no give time for second chances, also Nav Aids are OK, if you are competent in reading what they tell you, will have to wait the outcome, just sad it happened, especially at Christmas time, lets hope no more similar incidents

[j.sabourn]

Slightly off the subject, but have most of us considered, what I consider the worse disaster at sea which is fire. How with such small crews can an efficient fire party be mustered, usually we were trained going into a fire there were at least 2 went in with breathing apparatus, there are the person/persons tending their lines, plus the fire hose parties and such. Back up personnel with stretchers etc. with crews of 8 and 9, you would certainly be scratching for men, plus the fact some of crew may actually be in the fire zone and casualitys. I will always maintain that shortage of manpower in a lot of cases is criminal, dont care what the so called experts say. Cheers John Sabourn