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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | January 2006 
Fresh Insight into Ensenada Accident
 Sandra Dibble - Union-Tribune
| | The frayed end of one of the tow ropes used earlier in the week to try and move the stranded 880 foot container ship APL Panama, was a reminder of the challenges that salvors faced earlier in the week while working to free the ship. (John Gibbins/Union-Tribune) |
Ensenada – After nightfall on Dec. 25, the 880-foot container vessel APL Panama was preparing to enter the port of Ensenada. It was dangerously close to shore, and moving too fast. No port pilot was on board to guide it.
Last-minute efforts to avoid disaster came too late. At 6:12 p.m., on a night with good visibility, light breezes, smooth seas and swells over 6 feet, the APL Panama ran aground, 1.5 miles southeast of the port's entrance in the surf off a wide sandy beach. It has been stuck there ever since.
There were no equipment failures – only human error – that led to the grounding, according to sworn testimony by the captain and first mate, obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune.
As salvage crews launch their second major push to refloat the vessel later this week, the statements shed some light on what was happening on the bridge of the APL Panama as it ran aground. "In my view it was too high speed," said Teo Motusic, the vessel's first officer, and second-in-command, in testimony before port officials. "My opinion is that the captain did not come to the bridge on time."
Motusic's declarations and those of the vessel's captain, Zupan Branko, paint a vivid picture of the half hour before the grounding and the desperate last-minute maneuvers that proved futile.
The incident and efforts to float the ship have drawn widespread attention. The ship's sheer size – it is nearly as long as three football fields – overwhelms the landscape, and local residents have been flocking to see it. A taxi driver made television news last week, standing before the vessel as he sang a corrido telling its story.
"It's something extraordinary, that you only see once in a lifetime," said Capt. José Luis Ríos Hernández, Ensenada's harbor master.
The event has provoked curiosity from the marine community far beyond Ensenada. One Calfornia Web site features photos and comments, and London-based maritime insurance companies and shipping journals post regular updates on the salvage efforts.
The players themselves are multinational. The vessel, sailing under an Antigua and Barbuda flag, is owned by a company based in Bremen, Germany, Mare Britannicum Schiffahrtgesellschaft mbH & Co KG, and chartered by a global transportation company, APL, which has corporate offices in Oakland. The 25 men on board were also an international group, with the captain and officers from Croatia, the first engineer from Poland and crew from Myanmar.
The officers' statements for the first time lift the shroud of secrecy that has surrounded the incident. The ship's owners nor and Mexican officials have been unwilling to publicly offer details about the case, under investigation by Mexico's Communications and Transportation Ministry. It is being treated as an accident, and the captain and first mate have been allowed to leave the country.
Carrying some 900 containers weighing 30,000 tons, the vessel was traveling from Oakland, preparing for a regularly scheduled call in Ensenada before making stops down the Mexican coast and then crossing the ocean to Japan, Taiwan and China.
As is the practice in ports worldwide, ships are supposed enter the port of Ensenada only with a pilot on board. The pilot meets the vessel at an offshore location, in this case 2.3 miles west of the port entrance. Port officials say their records show the pilot was scheduled to meet the APL Panama at 7 p.m.
The captain, Branko, said the crew told the ship's agent in Ensenada at noon the ship would arrive at 6 p.m., according to his sworn testimony given in the presence of his British attorney at the Ensenada harbor master's office. Dec. 31.
The first mate, Motusic, in testimony on Jan. 2, said he tried to call the pilot on the radio from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. "but without success."
As they approached the port, Motusic said he called the captain twice from the bridge. But the captain did not show up to take command until 5:42 p.m.
Motusic said the captain was slow to react as he pointed out the buoys marking the channel's entrance, and the arriving pilot vessel.
"The captain was all the time looking ahead, and he said, 'I still cannot see the pilot. Where is the pilot?' I told him and pointed, 'Captain, there is the pilot, there is the pilot!' " Motusic testified.
The captain gave the order "hard to port wheel" – to turn right. Then, the pilot called and warned, "Captain, you are going to the shallow waters," according to Motusic's testimony.
Under questioning from Ensenada's harbor master, Branko said it was his fourth time entering the port of Ensenada, and that all the equipment on board was functioning. It was not until 6:05 p.m. that he realized the vessel was in danger, he said. Seven minutes later it ran aground.
"Why did you not drop any of the anchors?" the harbor master asked. "I did not consider that possibility because it was a very short time span," Branko replied.
Asked what he could have done to prevent the accident the first officer, Motusic, replied: "Everything happened very, very fast, and I was showing the captain the position of the buoys, the channel, pilot boat and breakwater." |
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