The March issue of the Coast Guard’s Proceeding of the Marine Safety Council highlights three major casualties which occurred in the United States in 1984. In the first two below, MARITIME & ENVIRONMENTAL Associates were or are actively engaged in the ensuing litigation.
The passenger vessel M/V SCANDINAVIAN SEA, on a "cruise to nowhere" was returning to Cape Canaveral Florida. Nine miles from port, a fire was detected in the middle of a carpet in a crew’s stateroom. While the crew engaged in firefighting efforts, the ship sped for dock where she was greeted by shoreside firefighters and the Coast Guard. The passengers were disembarked sagely and firefighting efforts continued. The fire spread with the result that the vessel was declared a total constructive loss.
The tankship PUERTO RICAN discharged a cargo of caustic soda in a San Francisco Bay port. It was noted that there was a shortage of cargo but nothing was done to determine the cause. The ship later exploded with loss of life. It was subsequently determined that the probable cause was the leaking of the caustic soda into a void adjacent to the cargo tank in which the caustic soda as carried.
Because of the chemical reaction with the zinc coating of the void, hydrogen was generated and was the cause of thee explosion.
In the third casualty, the Tankship AMERICAN EAGLE, exploded at sea during cleaning of a tank which had carried gasoline. The cause was a electrostatic discharge from a steam driven ungrounded air mover used with a non-conductive plastic sleeve. This casualty was similar to that which occurred on the Tankship CYGNUS in Seattle harbor in 1973. The cause of the latter explosion was identified by Captain Greiner who is now the President of MARITIME & ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANTS. A water driven eductor used in moping out tanks during cleaning generated the static electricity in the slop tank into which it as discharging. The discharge of the accumulated electricity ignited the JP-5 vapors in the slop tank.
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