A converted tanker carrying iron ore broke apart in the South Atlantic. Two men survived.
On 31 March 2017 the very large ore carrier Stellar Daisy, converted from an oil tanker, flooded and sank in the South Atlantic with 260,000 tonnes of iron ore. 22 of the 24 crew died.
Words in this case
- structural failure
- The steel of the hull breaking or cracking.
- ballast tank
- A tank filled with sea water for stability and trim.
- reserve buoyancy
- The part of the hull above the waterline that keeps the ship afloat if a space floods.
- converted ship
- A ship rebuilt for a different trade, here a tanker turned ore carrier.
- abandon ship
- The order to leave the vessel in survival craft.
More words like these in the glossary and in listening practice.
What happened
Stellar Daisy had been built as a supertanker in 1993 and converted to an ore carrier in 2008, one of a fleet of such conversions. On her last voyage from Brazil to China, in heavy weather off Uruguay, the crew heard a loud noise and found water flooding a ballast tank. The list came fast. The master sent a distress message and ordered abandon ship.
The ship sank within minutes of the first alarm. Two crew members were found on a liferaft by a passing ship; the other 22 were never found. A later deep-sea search located the wreck in more than 3,000 metres of water and recovered the voyage data recorder.
The Republic of the Marshall Islands, the flag state, published its investigation in 2019. It found that the ship's structure had failed, most likely starting in a ballast tank, and that the rapid flooding of large spaces in a heavily loaded ore carrier left the crew almost no time. The report raised questions about the condition and inspection of converted ships and about the loading of very dense cargoes.
Why it happened
- Structural failure of the hull, most likely starting in a ballast tank of an aged, converted ship.
- Iron ore is dense: a loaded ore carrier has little reserve buoyancy and floods and sinks fast when a large space is breached.
- Heavy weather loads on a long hull with a history of cracks and repairs.
- Abandon ship in minutes, in the dark and in heavy seas, with almost no time to launch the boats.
What to remember on board
- Ballast tank inspections and the reporting of cracks and leaks are the front line of structural safety on old ships.
- On a loaded ore carrier a flooding alarm in one hold or tank is a call to muster, not to investigate for an hour.
- Know how to launch a liferaft in the dark and in a seaway; the two survivors lived because a raft was launched and boarded fast.
- Water ingress alarms and the loading computer exist for exactly this kind of ship. Use them every day.
What changed afterwards
Flag states and class societies tightened inspections of converted very large ore carriers; several sister ships were withdrawn from service, and the case renewed attention to SOLAS chapter XII protections for bulk carriers.
Three questions
The kind of questions a knowledge test asks about this case. Keys 1 to 4 answer, Enter goes on.
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Source: Report of the investigation into the loss of the MV Stellar Daisy, Republic of the Marshall Islands Maritime Administrator, 2019.
On this site: Bulk carriers ยท Liferaft.
Plain-English summary of an official investigation report. Facts and findings are the investigators'; the wording is ours. Nothing here is legal advice or a substitute for the report itself.