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Drunk Russian Sailor Causes Grounding Of 7,000-Ton Lysblink Seaways Vessel

By Christian Savoy
Published on: 15:37 PST, Nov 22, 2015

A Lysblink Seaways cargo ship was carrying tons of paper and was going to Skogn, Norway, when the ship ran aground in clear weather on the night of February 18 this year. At first, many were confused as to why the vessel ran aground at full speed and remained struck for two days against the rocks. Now, an official report regarding the incident has been released and it leaves little doubt as to what the cause of the grounding was.

According to the Independent, the Russian officer on watch when the 423-foot ship ran aground at full speed in Scotland had drunk a substantial amount of alcohol before taking up his post, an investigation revealed.

The report regarding the incident was released, and an excerpt from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) statement is listed below.

‘The chief officer had consumed a very large amount of alcohol before going on watch. However, the investigation found that the owner’s zero alcohol policy on board was often flouted by crew members,” the report explained. “The inventory of the vessel’s bonded store records that it was regularly replenished with spirits, wine and beer, and evidence of significant alcohol consumption by the crew should have alerted the owner to the likelihood that its alcohol policy was not being observed.”

The drunk watch-keeper was an unnamed 36-year-old Russian officer who fell asleep on the bridge of the ship after downing half a liter of rum before he ran it into the Scottish coast at 13 knots in the dark of night.

The vessel was declared a total loss after spending almost two days aground during adverse weather, GCaptain reports. The grounding resulted in material damage to its hull and the double bottom was breached, including some fuel tanks, resulting in nearly 25 tons of marine gas oil entering the water, the MAIB said. The was scrapped a few months after the incident.

Regarding the incident, a spokesman for DFDS, which is Northern Europe’s largest shipping and logistics company, issued the following statement

“What happened on the ship was completely irresponsible. We have a very clear and very clearly communicated zero-tolerance alcohol policy which cannot be misunderstood. We have never seen an officer having violated the policy before and we have never before seen such negligence of our safety procedures.”

MAIB’s investigation found the bridge navigational watch alarm system had not been switched on and an off-track alarm on the electronic chart system had been silenced, thus having the effect of a snooze button on a bedside alarm clock. Despite the fact that a radar watch alarm had sounded every six minutes, the OOW (Officer Of the Watch) was able to reset the alarm without leaving his chair.

The investigation also revealed that the steering mode was changed from autopilot to manual at 02:32 hours and the helm was placed hard-a-port. The vessel was 0.1 nautical miles from the shoreline and was traveling at a speed of 13.3 knots at the time before it ran aground moments later.

The ship’s inventory records showed that a constant supply of beer, wine and liquor was keep aboard, and it was apparent that crew members frequently drank while performing their duties.

“The effective administration of the owner’s zero-alcohol policy might have prevented the development of a culture in which the chief officer considered it acceptable to consume alcohol before his watch,” MAIB said in the report.

“Had a lookout been on the bridge, he would have been well placed to prevent the accident by alerting the master to the chief officer’s condition and that navigational waypoints had been missed,” the report states.

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