Oceans are synonymous with great depths. There are oceans with depths, double the height of Mt. Everest. Similarly, there are some parts of oceans which are so shallow that you can easily walk through them. So what happens to a ship when it sails through such areas. Let's find out.
Ship Grounding
A marine accident has various types and one such type is ship grounding. The depth of sea varies from port to port. Not all the ports can allow ships of all sizes to enter. Bigger a ship, higher the difficulty in docking it to a port. For e.g. take New York , one of the busiest port has such a low draft that VLCCs and ships with higher tonnage cannot enter the port. Sometimes even if the port is capable of receiving large vessels with higher draft, unnoticeable silt and mud gets accumulated near the ports, reducing the draft. Thus a ship with higher draft when enters such port gets stranded due to the chocked draft.Grounding is also caused due to rotational tides. There are many ports around the world that allow ships to enter only during high tides due to the problem of draft. An unpredictable change in tides,when the ship is docked at a port, can lead to grounding of the ship.