Explorer investigation begins

By David Osler - Saturday 24 November 2007

Explorer: passengers evacuated to lifeboats. Explorer: passengers evacuated to lifeboats.
THE cruiseship that apparently hit an iceberg in the Antartic Ocean on Friday, near the South Shetland Islands has sunk.

All 100 passengers and 54 crew were rescued from the 1969-built Explorer registered to Gap Shipping, a subsidiary of Gap Adventures.

The vessel began sinking early Friday morning after hitting an object. 

Lloyd’s List has discovered that the vessel had five deficiencies at its last inspection, including missing search and rescue plans and lifeboat maintenance problems. 

Watertight doors were described as “not as required”, and the fire safety measures also attracted criticism.

The port state control checks were undertaken by Britain’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency at Greenock in May this year.

Chilean port state control inspectors also found six deficiencies during an inspection in Puerto Natales in March. 

This includes two related to safety of navigation matters.There is no record of the ship having been detained in recent years.

Classification society Det Norske Veritas issued a passenger safety certificate for the vessel on October 21, according to the MCA.

DNV representative Aage Enghaug said this morning that he was unable to confirm the date, but added: “The ship has been in DNV class for many years as a passengership, and that [a passenger safety certificate] is part of normal class notation.”

International Safety Management code documentation was issued by Lloyd’s Register, he said.

A spokesman for the UK Hydrographic Office said: “Chart BA 3205 is the best scale for the position of the incident. It was published in 1949, with the latest edition published in 2003.

“Notices to Mariners have been published up to and including this year. We do not know whether the vessel was carrying and using our charts.”

Andy Cattrell, of the Falmouth Coastguard, said about 100 passengers and 54 crew members have been evacuated and are in lifeboats.

The captain and the chief officer are understood to have remained on board the vessel.

Gap Shipping said in a statement the vessel sustained damage to its hull at approximately 0300hrs GMT and the ingress of water caused a starboard list.

US Coastguard reported at 0700hrs that Argentina has sent two vessels to assist, which are due on the scene in two hours.

V.Ships president Roberto Giorgi said the vessel was managed by V.Ships Leisure until November 2006, when Gap Shipping took management in-house. 

Although V.Ships Leisure still handles crewing for the vessel, and has around 60 crew members attached to it, mostly from the Phillipines. The captain is believed to be a Swedish national.

Managers at Steamship Mutual P&I, the owner’s liability insurer for the Explorer, were co-ordinating the club’s response to the incident, writes James Brewer.

* Concerns over Antartica charting.

* Click here to read the newsroom blog - Textbook evacuation
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