Recently, the Germany’s Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation (BSU) released an investigation report on a serious maritime accident involving the RoRo cargo vessel “Endurance” in the port of Bremerhaven.
On March 13, 2021, the RoRo cargo vessel Endurance, moored in the Port of Bremen, suddenly lost control due to a broken mooring rope and drifted across the harbor basin, colliding with a dry dock and several facilities at the shipyard Lloyd Werft.
According to investigations, the maximum wind speed of the sea breeze in the area on the day of the incident reached 50 knots. Due to the strong winds, the captain of the Endurance requested assistance from a tugboat, but the mooring rope broke before the tugboat arrived. The vessel then drifted toward the dockyard of Lloyd Werft on the other side of the port.
Although the tugboat arrived at the scene before the vessel’s main engine was started, it was still unable to prevent the Endurance from colliding with a dry dock and two pontoons at the shipyard, ultimately resulting in significant damage to the vessel, berth, and dockyard.
BSU indicated that severe wear and tear on the mooring lines of the Endurance was the primary cause of the lines breaking. Due to an inadequate safety management system, these lines had not been replaced in a timely manner.
On January 1, 2024, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) latest “Guidelines for the Inspection and Maintenance of Mooring Equipment (including Mooring Lines)” came into effect. These guidelines are legally binding internationally, so BSU does not need to provide further safety recommendations to ship operators.
As part of its accident investigation, the BSU examined a number of incidents involving mooring lines in Bremerhaven with a view to developing measures to prevent such incidents from happening again in the port in the future.
According to the interim investigation report published on March 16, 2022, the Bremerhaven Harbour Master has taken a number of measures which, if implemented on a permanent basis, the BSU believes will be able to further reduce future incidents of cable breaks for port users.