Severe Hogging: Tanker splits in two
Ships are breakable – just another reminder. It appears they really screwed up during tank washing, by not calculating stresses. This results in a condition called “hogging” in which two ends of the ship are loaded, creating extreme stresses at the center of the ship. This appears to be what happened in the case of the T/V Elli.
Here is how it unfolded according to Lloyd’s:
London, Aug 28 — Following received from JRCC Cairo, timed 1609, UTC: Crude oil tanker Elli (54880 gt, built 1986) broke in two in lat 29 49.9N, long 32 31.9E, at 1015, local time, Aug 28 and began sinking. All 24 crew members were safely rescued. Suez Canal Authority vessels are presently on scene, to check for possible pollution.
London, Aug 28 — A press report, dated today, states: Empty crude oil tanker Elli sank near the southern entrance of the Suez canal today as it headed to dry dock for maintenance, maritime sources said. The sources added that the vessel had not disrupted normal shipping through the busy trade route.
London, Aug 28 — A press report, dated today, states: Empty crude oil tanker Elli sank near the southern entrance of the Suez Canal today as it headed to dry docks for maintenance, maritime sources said. The vessel, with a capacity of 59,000 tonnes, was only carrying its own fuel supply of around 60 tonnes which is leaking, however, port workers have contained the spill. The vessel had travelled from Yemen for repairs in Suez port and had split in half while waiting to dock 15 nautical miles from port Taufiq. Egyptian authorities plan to use heavy machinery to recover the vessel and investigate the reason for its sinking.
London, Aug 29 — Following received from JRCC Cairo, timed 0612, UTC: Crude oil tanker Elli is still afloat. No oil spillage has been reported.
London, Aug 29 — A press report, dated today, states: The master and crew of crude oil tanker Elli, which broke in two and sank in the Red Sea, spilling 60 tonnes of its own fuel, were responsible for the accident, a Suez Canal Co official said today. The Filipino master of the vessel had been quoted as saying crew members were cleaning the cargo tanks yesterday when the vessel suddenly “split in two for reasons yet unknown.” A Suez Canal official said today: “The crew of the vessel and its master are responsible for the sinking because they did not consider the vessel’s equilibrium when they were cleaning the tanks.”" The Elli was on its way from Yemen to Suez for maintenance work and some repairs, the official said, adding that it was not transporting any cargo at the time. The 24-member crew were rescued. An Egyptian maintenance gang was working today to clean up the spill, which was said not to be of major environmental significance because of the low density of the fuel.
It has also reported that Five Oceans Salvage has been hired to salvage the vessel and contain further oil release from the ship.
Previous cases of tanker splits:
The ENERGY CONCENTRATION in 1980
Energy Concentration - 1980
The five catastrophic hull failures that have occurred since 1992 and whichhave resulted in the tankers breaking in two have all involved product tankers carrying heavy fuel oil ascargo (see below).
TANKER NAME/YEAR/LOCATION/SPILL SIZE (tonnes)
KATINA P/1992/Mozambique/72,000
THANASSIS A/1994/South China Sea/37,000
NAKHODKA/1997/Japan/16,500
ERIKA/1999/France/15,000
VOLGONEFT/248 1999/Turkey/1,290
Erika - FRANCE (1999)
