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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | January 2006 
Frantic Efforts to Halt Errant Ship Recalled
 Sandra Dibble - signonsandiego.com
| | Agustin Jimenez (right) and other salvage workers pulled a line ashore from the stranded container ship APL Panama yesterday. A port pilot spoke publicly about the grounding for the first time yesterday. | 
| Hector Jose Gomez Rodriguez (right), director general for Baja California of Mexico's Transport and Communications Ministry, was ferried around the stranded ship yesterday by Juan Jimenez. (Photos: John Gibbins/Union-Tribune)
For a photo gallery of the beached ship, go to www.signonsandiego.com |
Ensenada – As six tugboats and hydraulic pullers heaved yesterday at the bow of the stranded container vessel APL Panama, a port pilot spoke publicly for the first time about the desperate last-minute efforts to keep it from running aground more than a month ago.
Capt. Fernando Ramírez Martínez said he and a co-pilot were leaving the port to meet the vessel about 6 p.m. Dec. 25 when they spotted the 880-foot vessel heading across the harbor's entrance channel and aiming straight for the shore.
“I saw the lights and I couldn't believe it, I just couldn't believe it,” said Ramírez in an interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune. “I told the tugboats, 'Leave the port, because the ship is about to run aground.' ”
The vessel has been stuck since Christmas along a sandy beach south of the port. Salvage crews reported moderate success in freeing it yesterday and were scheduled to continue work today and tomorrow, taking advantage of high tides.
The ship has been parallel to the shore for weeks, but when it ran aground it was nearly perpendicular to land, and it might have been towed away then, Ramírez said. Precious moments might have been lost because the ship's captain initially refused assistance.
“I suggested to him that we get the tugboat Coral and send it a line so that it could try to keep (the APL Panama) at that position” perpendicular to shore, Ramírez said. A second tugboat was to push from the starboard side.
“The captain said he didn't want to give the line, that he couldn't because that would mean it was salvage” and would prompt a host of legal problems, Ramírez said. Close to half an hour had passed before Capt. Zupan Branko agreed to give a line so the tugboat could pull, but by then it was too late, Ramírez said.
The waves and currents were pushing the ship into the shore, and by the next morning, it was parallel to the beach and much more difficult to move.
From the beginning, there has been little information about the grounding made public. Port officials have said they cannot discuss it until a formal report is issued, but transcripts of sworn testimony by the vessel's captain and first officer obtained last week by the Union Tribune and the Ensenada newspaper El Vigía point to human error.
Teo Motusic, the first officer, said the vessel was going too fast and Branko had arrived late to the ship's bridge to take command as it prepared to enter Ensenada's harbor.
Branko testified that according to his schedule, he was to meet the port pilot at 6 p.m., in order to be inside the port by 7 p.m. However, port officials have said their records show orders to meet the APL Panama at 7 p.m.
Ramírez, the port pilot, said his office had received a notice Dec. 24 from the shipping company's agent to meet the APL Panama at 6:30 p.m. Just after 6 p.m., he made radio contact with the vessel. “I said, 'I will meet you at the pilot boarding station as usual,' ” Ramírez said.
However, the vessel's records show it had already passed the pilot station and was moving into restricted waters where ships are required to have a pilot aboard, Ramírez said.
By Ramírez's calculations, the vessel was moving at an average of 7 knots as it approached shore – far too fast. A month later, Ramírez said he cannot forget the sight of the vessel's lights crossing in front of him a mile away.
Because the grounding has been ruled an accident, Branko and Motusic have been allowed to leave Mexico. The ship's German owners initially blamed the grounding on strong currents. Jens Meier-Hedde, managing director for the company, Mare Britannicum Schiffahrtsgesellschaft MBH & Co., later said Branko was irritated because the pilot was not there to meet him at what he believed was the appointed time.
“The cause of the grounding was neither the wind, nor the current nor the visibility, nor the tide,” Ramírez said. “All of the conditions for entering the port were normal.”
The owners have hired Titan Maritime LLC to float the ship. Efforts in the middle of January using six tugboats succeeded in moving the bow 20 degrees toward open water.
A second major push is taking place this weekend, as a barge fitted with hydraulic pullers has doubled the capacity of the tugboats. The company has also installed a giant hose that will be used to blow away sand accumulating around the keel of the vessel like a wall.
Titan reported moderate success yesterday – the blower was not yet working – with the hull moving an additional three to four degrees.
“Perhaps if Monday there is no result with the current plans, we'll have to go to a new phase and remove the containers,” said Capt. José Luis Rios Hernández, Ensenada's harbor master.
For a photo gallery of the beached ship, go to www.signonsandiego.com
Sandra Dibble: (619) 293-1716; sandra.dibble@uniontrib.com |
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