Teal Bay (left) moored alongside bulker [Image: U.K. MAIB]

The U.K. Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has published its report on an August 30, 2021 incident in which the chief officer of a general cargo ship, managed by V.Ships Ship Management (India), was fatally injured when he was struck by a tensioned mooring line when it sprang out of an open roller fairlead.

The accident occurred at the Kavkaz anchorage in Russia when the Isle of Man registered open hatch general cargo ship Teal Bay was moored alongside an anchored bulk carrier, which was acting as a grain storage vessel, carrying out ship-to-ship (STS) loading operations.

The mooring arrangement consisted of three head lines, three stern lines, two forward springs and two aft springs; all lines belonged to Teal Bay, which was loading grain from the bulker and it was being moved forward by tensioning the aft spring to allow loading to be completed.

During the loading operation, Teal Bay’s mooring lines had developed an upward lead due to the change in freeboard between the two vessels and, as the line was tensioned to move Teal Bay, its upward lead angle became too great for the open fairlead to contain it.

As ever, the full MAIB report deserves reading, not least because it gives insight into the real life conditions under which seafarers actually work. Its main barebones conclusions are:

The MAIB conducted the investigation on behalf of the Isle of Man Ship Registry in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding between the MAIB and the Red Ensign Group Category 1 registries of Isle of Man, Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Gibraltar.