Lack of a proper lookout and maintenance on critical equipment while underway led to the collision of a containership and fishing vessel, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
On October 28, 2022, while the 1,066-foot-long containership MSC Rita was transiting southbound in the Atlantic Ocean, the fishing vessel Tremont was transiting north-northeast in the same area. Tremont passed ahead of the MSC Rita, but then made a sudden turn back toward the containership.
Shortly after, the vessels collided resulting a severe hull damage to the fishing vessel, which eventually sank.
The 13 people aboard Tremont, including a child, abandoned the vessel and were rescued by a Coast Guard Jayhawk helicopter and several Good Samaritan vessels, one of which transferred the people it saved to the Coast Guard cutter Chincoteague.
Tremont’s mate told investigators he was attempting to fix the vessel’s gyrocompass while the vessel’s autopilot was engaged. The vessel’s autopilot required heading feedback from the its gyrocompass and needed a user to input the desired course. As the mate adjusted the gyrocompass to troubleshoot the error, the autopilot processed the heading feedback, causing the vessel to turn toward the MSC Rita.
“In this collision, maintenance of a gyrocompass was being conducted while the vessel was underway with its autopilot – which was receiving heading information from the gyrocompass – engaged,” the NTSB report said.
“Simultaneous operations, often referred to in safety management systems, is a situation where two or more operations occur in the same place at the same time and may interfere with each other.”
Managing simultaneous operations “is an essential element of safety management and safe vessel operation. Before beginning work, mariners should identify hazards associated with working on one piece of equipment that may affect another, such as sensors feeding information to other equipment, and manage those risks to avoid unsafe conditions.”
The NTSB report also emphasized using digital selective calling on modern VHF radios to communicate distress. Tremont’s captain used VHF to signal distress, but because of the distance between the vessel and the nearest Coast Guard station ashore, the distress call was very weak.
“Modern VHF radios are equipped with digital selective calling (DSC),” the report said. “Pressing the VHF-DSC button alerts search and rescue authorities and nearby vessels, and automatically provides the vessel’s position. Time permitting, mariners can also select the nature of distress on the radio and verbally communicate with nearby responders.”
When a vessel is in distress, it stressed, “mariners should use all available means to signal emergency responders, including VHF-DSC.”
Tremont’s dry hold held nearly 500,000 pounds of product at the time of the casualty. The vessel was valued at $4.75 million and the load of fish at $750,000.
MSC Rita suffered an estimated $1.5 million in damage, including buckled sideshell plating, distorted longitudinal framing, and a 1.3-foot-by-2.0-foot hole in the shell plating of the No. 2 water ballast tank.
The 115-foot-long Tremont was a trawler-style commercial fishing vessel constructed of welded steel and built by Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay, Wi., in 1970. Tremont Fisheries, LLC, owned by the vessel’s mate and his father, acquired the vessel in 2017.
The Panamanian-flagged containership MSC Rita was built in 2005 in Korea by Hanjin Heavy Industries and was operated by Mediterranean Shipping Company, based in Sorrento, Italy.