Wet damage - Bulk & General cargo
First case study
The bulk carrier was carrying coal. While at the discharge port the vessel had to ballast cargo hold 2 to stay within the quay’s air draft requirements. The water in cargo hold 2 was drained into one of the ballast tanks and then washed down. The vessel had two pumps, which were used when cargo hold 2 was washed down. Shortly afterwards the stevedores noticed patches of water in cargo hold 1 and informed the Master immediately. One hour later the Master stopped the cargo operation, by which time the water level had risen to five metres.
Causes
The crew started to search for the origin of the leak and the bilge system was pressurised, all valves were closed and it became obvious that several valves were leaking, because water had entered the cargo hold through the bilge wells. Some valves, indicated as closed on the ballast console panel, were in fact open, which was caused by a faulty switch. No previous testing or maintenance had been carried out on the bilge system. The malfunction of the valves was likely caused by corrosion, which could have been aggravated by cargo residue as the vessel had been carrying coal on its three previous trips. The company’s internal investigation concluded that the incident was caused by the deteriorated condition of the valves in combination with a faulty switch.