Marigold’s Halon gas fixed fire suppression system for the engine room was not fully operational. The multiple failures of the system at the time of the fire were not consistent with proper maintenance and testing.
The maintenance of the opening/closing arrangements for Marigold’s engine room fire dampers, ventilators and other openings was inadequate. A number of these could not be closed, resulting in the inability to seal the engine room to contain and suppress the fire.
A number of Marigold’s engine room fire doors were held open by wire and/or rope. The open doors allowed the smoke to spread across the engine room and into the accommodation spaces.
The smoking policy and associated risk controls on board Ocean Drover were not effectively managed. While use of designated smoking rooms was identified as the preferred option, smoking was permitted in cabins. In addition, approved ashtrays were not always used to extinguish and dispose of cigarettes.
Ocean Drover’s bridge deck stairwell fire door was fitted with a holdback hook in contravention of international regulations. The door was hooked open, which allowed the fire to spread to the bridge deck from the deck below.
The safety culture on board Cape Splendor was not well developed and the ship’s managers had identified it as such. A consequence of this inadequacy was the ineffective implementation of working over the side procedures, including the general belief by its crew that safe work practices applied only when working, and not during recreational activities.
Cape Splendor’s safety management system (SMS) procedures for working over the side of the ship were not effectively implemented. As a result, the ship’s crew routinely did not take all the required safety precautions when working over the side. Further, they did not consider that any such precautions were necessary if going over the side when not working.
While the Fremantle vessel traffic service (VTS) operational procedures were aimed at having precautionary measures in place for adverse weather conditions, the triggers specified in the procedures only referred to BoM-issued severe weather and gale warnings. As no wind speed limits were specified, the gale force winds experienced at Fremantle throughout the early hours of 8 May did not trigger the VTS procedural responses until 0600 – after the receipt of BoM-issued warnings.
The International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) recommendation for having a means of slipping the anchor cable bitter outside the chain locker had not been provided on board Royal Pescadores. Further, the ship’s classification society, ClassNK, does not consider that the IACS recommended slipping arrangement is necessary for reducing safety risk.
The poor condition of Royal Pescadores’ anchoring equipment was indicative of inadequate maintenance. The shipboard management team were not aware of the equipment’s maintenance history nor able to provide relevant documents from the ship’s planned maintenance system.
Kota Wajar’s safety management system procedures with regard to posting a dedicated lookout were not effectively implemented.
Over the past 26 years, investigations into 41 collisions between trading ships and small vessels on the Australian coast have identified that not maintaining a proper lookout and taking early avoiding action, in accordance with the collision regulations, has been a consistent and continuing contributor to such collisions.
Brisbane Marine Pilots’ standard passage plan and master-pilot exchange did not ensure that a ship’s bridge team is provided adequate information with respect to local traffic and areas where attention must be paid to other vessels, including small craft.
The Recognized Organization’s process for the approval of the simulation wires for ‘maintenance and testing’ had not taken into account the shock loading that would be experienced during testing.
While the design of the on-load release system allowed the reset position of the hook to be visually confirmed, it did not allow for visual confirmation that the release segment and mechanism had been correctly reset. Consequently, the hook device could appear to be properly reset when it was not.
An equivalent, alternative arrangement to the safety pin had not been provided to prevent inadvertent tripping of the freefall lifeboat’s on-load release during routine operations, such as inspections and maintenance.
The manufacturer’s calculations did not take into account the shock load imposed on the simulation wires or the lifeboat and launching frame mounting points.
The manufacturer’s instruction manual for Seven Seas Voyager’s waste incinerator contained no specific instructions for ash grate maintenance or replacement. Such instructions would have provided useful information for the ship’s crew to plan and safely complete periodic ash grate maintenance.
Seven Seas Voyager’s planned maintenance system (PMS) contained no information about waste incinerator ash grate replacement, a task that would have been periodically undertaken by different engineering staff since 2003. Therefore, in this respect, the shipboard procedures that documented requirements for the PMS had not been effectively implemented.
The ship’s agent’s information questionnaire did not ask for all of the information required to complete the QSHIPS booking form and ensure that defects were reported.
