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Journalism of Courage
MUMBAI, June 20: The M V Arcadia Pride which sank off the Mumbai coast on Thursday was put up for scrap by the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) two years ago.
Built as the `M V Vishwa Madhuri’ by the Hindustan Shipyard Limited, Vishakhapatnam for the SCI in 1974, it was revived after it was sold to a private company.
A certificate of classification in 1995 which extended the ship’s life by four more years, could have led to Thursday morning’s disaster in which 20 seafarers are feared dead.
The general cargo ship was bought by the Mumbai-based Arcadia Shipping, renamed `M V Arcadia Pride’ and reflagged in St Vincent.
“If the SCI feels a ship is unfit for sailing, how could it expect another company to safely sail it. The government should haul up the shipping corporation for allowing a vessel that was up for scrap, to be reused,” a merchant naval captain told Express Newsline.
The ship’s surveyors `Bureau Veritas’, certified the vessel as seaworthy in August 1995 and registered it as a deep sea cargo ship. The ship was last dry-docked for the second time in August 1995. However, SC Shah, director,Arcadia Shipping, denied the ship was to be scrapped. "The ship was drydocked for a month after we purchased it. It was extensively repaired and refurbished during its dry docking,” he emphasised.
Merchant naval sources strongly believe shifting of the ship’s sulphur cargo was responsible for Thursday’s disaster.
The loose cargo of 12,700 tonnes of sulphur powder in the vessel’s five holds was not `trimmed’ or levelled when it was loaded in the UAE. The sulphur was allowed to remain in heaps which could easily shift to fill the free spaces on either side, causing the ship to topple over in rough sea.
“If the ship is subject to sudden swells, the sulphur cargo could have shifted causing the ship to tilt and roll over,” a merchant naval captain and former crew member of the Arcadia Pride told Express Newsline.
“Sulphur is a highly corrosive cargo. If a ship has been frequently loading this cargo, the hull could have thinned down,” said the captain.
“Cracks develop as a result of this. Under severe stress from wave action, cracks can appear and travel at fantastic speed of several metres per second,” he added.
The M V Al Hadi carrying a cargo of 10,000 tonnes of sulphur sank off Malabar hill in August last year after developing such a crack which rapidly grew in size, splitting its hull. The ship continues to remain on the shallow seabed barely two kilometres off the city coast.
However, the National Union of Seafarers of India (NUSI) believes the mishap could be due to structural failure.
According to Abdulgani Serang, an inspector of the International Transport Federation (ITF), major repairs and refitting could lead to structural failures which in turn could affect the stability of a ship. "The other possibility could be water entering the first hold of the carrier, and into the bulk head. The force of the water could snap the second hold leading to flooding of the ship.”
According to International Association of Classification Societies, there have been more than 50 serious casualties in which structural failure may have been a factor in 1991 alone. In 1990 , 12 bulk carriers sank compared to a year before and in 1991, another 13 were lost.
Indian National Shipowners Association Chief Executive B V Nilkund feels that the age of ship was not the sole criteria with respect to its seaworthiness.
