- Many of the cruise ship allisions have been attributed to getting caught unaware in unexpected wind gusts.
- Allision occurs when a vessel hits a stationary object, such as a pier or another ship that is stationary. They leave scuff marks on the ships’ hulls but there have been far more serious incidents.
- All ships need a classification certificate to meet relevant standards in areas such as safety, seaworthiness, and pollution.
- Ultimately, the captain is still the master and ultimately responsible for what happens on his ship.
According to a report published in Telegraph UK, in 2014, a Princess Cruises’ ship was being held by dynamic positioning (a system that avoids anchoring) off Santorini in Greece when a sunny day with calm seas turned in seconds into lashing rain, high winds, and stormwater.
Caught unaware
Many passengers were onboard and watched in horror from their cabin as they were blown at speed towards another vessel.
In the nick of time, the captain halted the drift. Over the ship’s tannoy, he reassured that he was under control and was leaving the caldera, a lagoon created when a volcano erupted on the island some 3,500 years ago.
As an aside, once the squall had passed the ship was able to return to the caldera to pick up passengers who had watched in alarm – and in the pouring rain – as their vessel sailed away.
Lucky escape
The captain, who was at the helm of a brand new Regal Princess, later confided that he had never experienced anything like it before.
It was a scary moment but we were lucky. The two ships did not collide. Others have not been so fortunate.
High winds cause collision
In February 2017, a Seabourn ship broke its moorings in the New Zealand port of Timaru and collided with a vessel carrying cement; in October 2018, Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Constellation broke free from the quay in La Spezia, hitting the Italian-owned cruise ship Costa Magica.
Similarly to the Princess incident, high winds were to blame for both collisions but all sorts of other things can go wrong.
In January 2018, a ferry pulling away from a terminal in Barcelona lost power and bumped into a docked Viking Cruises’ ship. More recently, onlookers were heard shrieking as a video showing the moment two MSC Cruises’ ships collided in Buenos Aires.
MSC Orchestra was maneuvering when it hit the Poesia in what was reported to be near perfect conditions. Investigators are now looking into the reasons for the strike.
Is it just an allision?
The wind was also blamed in February when Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Epic smashed into two mooring points in San Juan, Puerto Rico, when she was sailing into port. The pontoons sank but Epic escaped with a few scratches.
What is allision?
In maritime speak, this was an allision – a term used when a vessel hits a stationary object, such as a pier or another ship that is stationary.
Most allisions just leave scuff marks on the ships’ hulls but there have been far more serious incidents. Tragically, three crew drowned when Costa Europa, a ship owned by Costa Cruises, slammed into the Red Sea port of Sharm el-Sheikh in the early hours of February 26, 2010, ripping a two-meter gash in the hull and flooding the cabin where they were sleeping. Many passengers were also injured in the smash, everyone was evacuated and flown home, and the ship was out of action for a couple of months.
Passengers on Spirit of Adventure, a cruise ship operated by a now defunct sub-brand of Saga Cruises, were lucky. They feared their cruise was at an end when the vessel slammed into a pier while docking in Canakkale in Turkey.
It ripped a hole in the hull but the gash was above the water line so when they returned that afternoon from their excursions to Troy and Gallipoli, it had been fixed and the ship cleared to continue its Black Sea cruise.
The blame game
Local pilots take control on the bridge when vessels enter and exit ports but the captain is still the master and ultimately responsible for what happens on his ship.
The website maritimelegalhelp.com says the distinction is made between a collision and allision because it’s not always easy to determine the guilty party when ships hit. In an allision, however, passengers could be entitled to compensation for negligence as it’s easier to identify the guilty party.
That’s not always the case. Costa blamed high winds for the Costa Europa accident, while the Egyptian port authorities said the crew were at fault. It was claimed the Spirit of Adventure crash in Canakkale was down to the tug-boat driver manoeuvring the ship towards the quay, pushing when he should have pulled.
When accidents happen
All ships need a classification certificate, which, like a car’s MOT, attests that the vessel meets relevant standards in areas such as safety, seaworthiness and pollution. It is also needed to get maritime insurance. Most countries have their own certification societies such as London’s Lloyd’s Register, France’s Bureau Veritas and the American Bureau of Shipping.
If there is a collision or allision, no matter how small, a class surveyor should be called out to assess the damage and decide if the ship is in class – that is, whether it can continue to sail. That is what would have happened in the case of Spirit of Adventure.
One industry insider observed that a responsible captain would call out a class surveyor to pass the ship no matter how small the incident in case something happened later that could be linked back to the accident.
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Source: TelegraphUK
