The drama of the Hoegh Osaka grounding

Southampton has for centuries been a safe haven for ships and today it is no different – both cruise liners and cargo vessels making an appearance for hours or weeks depending on their mission. A regular sight in the famous port are the car carriers, huge floating boxes with several decks to literally drive vehicles on board and park up like a monster ferry.

One that was berthed here in January 2015 was the Hoegh Osaka (pronounced Herg), a 590 foot long vessel of 51,770 gross tons which had been built in 2000 in Japan as the Maersk Wind. She was renamed Hoegh Osaka in 2011 and sported the grey and white colours of the Norwegian company Hoegh Autoliners, destined for the ports of the world with the newest cars ready to drive away by their new owners. 

At 2006 hours on 3^rd January 2015 she slipped her lines and headed down Southampton water bound for Bremerhaven in Germany. On board were a crew of 25 and they were looking after 1450 cars and thousands of tons of construction equipment such as JCB’s.

But as the ship neared the exit into the Solent, problems started to arise. The huge vessel began to list sharply at around 2110 hours, the pilot giving the order to stop engines. The list increased to 40 degrees and the cargo began to shift. A JCB broke loose and plunged into the side of the ship causing a hole which allowed water to flood into the ship. She was now in grave danger and would have to be evacuated.

Incredibly, the ship was saved by the quick actions and she came to rest still at a 40 degree angle on the sand bank known as Bramble Bank. A rescue operation was now under way as one crew member had sustained injuries as the ship listed and the rest required to be taken off. This was done by lifeboat and helicopter which included pulling one crew member out of the sea.

Once the successful rescue of personnel had been completed, the next task was to figure out how to get the ship off the sandbank in one piece. Tugs had already attempted to pull the ship off her resting place but she was stuck fast. This now required a salvage team to get the ship back upright and take her back into port. This was easier said that done as over time she found herself to be listing to starboard now at 52 degrees. It was looking less likely that she would be recovered intact.

For 19 days she became a tourist attraction as a team from Svitzer Salvage managed to refloat her on 7^th January and tow her to a nearby anchorage. From then on she was pumped out of all the water, her ballast tanks filled to counteract the list and slowly she was brought back to normal.

On the night of 22^nd January she was towed into Southampton much to the relief of her owners, salvors and the port authorities. This was a triumph in every way as she was brought alongside the port that she had left almost three weeks previously.

What was so incredible in the ending to this story was the fate of her cargo. Many of the vehicles were simply driven off the ship and lined up ready to inspect for damage. Although there were some that had been too smashed up to use, almost 1200 were completely fine.

The cause of the almost-sinking of the Hoegh Osaka was investigated by the Marine Accidents Investigation Branch (MAIB) and it was discovered that weight distribution was a major factor. There was a significant difference between the estimated and actual weight of the cargo and this led to the ship sailing in an unstable condition. Combined with the distribution of ballast, the ship was lucky to get as far as she got.

It is only good seamanship that prevented a tragedy, but with most of the cargo intact, all the crew alive with only one injured as well as the ship being fully recovered (she was back at sea in February) this is a lesson that was learned without a headline hitting sea disaster to accompany the headlines. With so many similar ships sinking with huge loss of life, this time instead we have the miracle of the Hoegh Osaka to look back on and learn from.