2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 FV GEMMA FIDELIS Defendant: Lock Trawlers, holding company of Gemma Fidelis Date of Offence: 23rd October 2001 Offence: Breach of Section 100 and section 58 of the Merchant Shipping Act Details: On 23rd October 2001 F.V. GEMMA FIDELIS was fishing off Whitby. At about 1330 hours she was hauling her nets. The net haul wires lead from the winch to the trawl passing through snatch blocks. The safety check of the block was not shipped and the haul wire came out of the snatch block and crushed a crew member against the bulwark. He was carried overboard unable to help himself due to his injuries. The crew member died on scene from drowning, aggravated by chest injuries. The case was investigated by Cleveland Police and MCA and brought to Teeside Magistrates court on 16th October 2003. Penalty: The holding company of F.V. GEMMA FIDELIS, Locker Trawlers, pleaded guilty to a breach of Section 100 of the Merchant Shipping Act and fined £10,000. The skipper was given a two year Community Rehabilitation Order for breaching section 58 of the Merchant Shipping Act.
________________________________________________________________________________ MARBELLA Collision with Rough Gas Platform on 8th May 2002 Defendant: Trevor Atkinson Date of Offence: 8th May 2002 Offence: Failure to keep a good lookout Details: On 22nd October 2003 at Hull Crown Court,
Trevor Atkinson pleaded guilty to breaching the 500 metre zone around a gas platform and for failing
to keep a good lookout. A joint investigation into the collision was carried out with the Health and
Safety Executive (HSE). The HSE had previously prosecuted the owner and skipper of the trawler ‘Marbella’
for breaching the 500metre zone around the Rough Platform. Penalty: Mr Atkinson was fined a total of £1000
for the offences.
________________________________________________________________________________ PAULAMANDA Defendant: Brian Dunbar Hutchinson, skipper of ‘Paulamanda’ Date of Offence: 12th December 2002 Offence: Being under the influence of alcohol or drugs Details: On Wednesday, October 14th 2003 Brian Dunbar
Hutchison, skipper of the fishing vessel Two MCA officers were also called to the scene where they found Mr Hutchison to be sufficiently impaired as to be unable to fulfill his responsibilities as skipper. Penalty: He was fined £500.00. ________________________________________________________________________________ JOVICA DJURDJEVIC Defendant: JOVICA DJURDJEVIC Penalty: Mr DJURDJEVIC was fined £1,500 plus £974 for non-declaration of dangerous goods. ________________________________________________________________________________ NEVILLE-GEORGE YOUNG Defendant: Neville George Young Offence: 4 Charges of possessing and using forged qualifications and sailing without a valid Certificate of Competence Details: Late September 2002, the MCA Enforcement
Unit were informed that a recent MCA spot check had revealed, Mr. Neville Young, of Aberdeen, was obtaining
work as a First Officer on board a ship trading in the US Gulf, using a forged photocopy of a Chief
Mates Certificate of Competence. The MCA Enforcement Unit sought the co-operation of Sussex Police and
Young was arrested upon his return to the United Kingdom in October last year. ________________________________________________________________________________ JEAN RAMAKERS Defendant: Jean Ramakers Date of Offence: 6th January 2002 Offence: Failure to keep a proper lookout by all available means and failure to conduct his vessel appropriately whilst in restricted visibility.
DIAMANT had left Ostend as normal, but in reduced visibility. The bridge team, Master, Chief Officer, Chief Engineer and lookout was supplemented by an additional lookout. The passage proceeded under normal conditions until the DIAMANT entered the English Inshore Traffic Zone at the CS4 buoy. At that point the visibility had deteriorated further, and the Master, aware that his berth in Dover was occupied, took the opportunity to reduce speed from 38 knots to 33 knots to delay his estimated time of arrival. It was at this time that both Master and Chief Officer acquired the departing NORTHERN MERCHANT on ARPA. The closest point of approach closed to 3 cables on the starboard quarter and a slight alteration to port was made to open the point of approach. At this time the Master believed that the NORTHERN MERHCANT was on a reciprocal course, and allowed the range to close. The DIAMANT bridge team were well aware of the developing situation and were looking and listening for the NORTHERN MERCHANT. At about this point the fog signal from the NORTHERN MERCHANT was heard, apparently to starboard, and both the Master and Chief Officer noted the radar echo slightly distort radially, so that the bearing discrimination became impossible. The master altered course to port to open the range. Some thirty seconds later the NORTHERN MERCHANT appeared right ahead and beam on. An emergency turn to port was initiated, which served to reduce the force of the impact. The
defendant admitted to failing to keep a proper lookout and failure to conduct his vessel appropriately
whilst in restricted visibility, under the following offences; Penalties: £1500 per offence and £1500 costs _________________________________________________________________________________ DUTCH AQUAMARINE Defendant: The second officer of the ‘Dutch Aquamarine’ Date of Offence: 9th October 2001 Offence: Breach of Section 58 of the Merchant Shipping Legislation Details: On the 9th October 2001, the 'Ash' was
en route from Odense in Denmark to Pasajes in Spain and was travelling at 6 knots along the Southwest
lane of the Dover Straits traffic separation scheme. The 'Dutch Aquamarine' was also travelling along
the Southwest lane whilst en route to Swansea. She was behind the 'Ash' and travelling at twice the
speed of the 'Ash'. Some 67 minutes before the collision the 'Dutch Aquamarine' rounded the CS3 buoy
and followed the 'Ash' on exactly the same track. Approximately an hour later the Dutch Aquamarine ran
in to the back of the Ash, initially contacting the starboard quarter in way of the accommodation, then
penetrating the ships hold.
Penalty: The Second Officer of the 4671 Gross ton (GT) Chemical Tanker `Dutch Aquamarine' was found guilty of manslaughter on Thursday, March 6, 2003, and sentenced to 12 months imprisonment, after pleading guilty to Section 58 of the Merchant Shipping Legislation. ________________________________________________________________________________ MSC ARIANE
Date of Offence: 3rd July 2002 Offence: Breach of the Prevention of Oil Pollution Regulations Details: In the evening of 3rd July 2002, a Lynx helicopter of 202 Flight had taken off from HMS ‘Manchester’ to take part in exercises. At approximately 1840 the crew of the helicopter observed a vessel trailing an oil slick. The vessel was identified as the "MSC ARIANE", photographs were taken and a report was made to Brixham Coastguard. At the same time a flight re-fuelling Falcon aircraft, based at Hurn Airport, Bournemouth was exercising with another warship in the area. The crew of three observed a vessel trailing a slick and reported the sighting to Plymouth Military air traffic control who relayed the message to Brixham Coastguard. The Court heard that the vessel was inspected on arrival at its next port of Antwerp. Later investigations into the incident showed that it was possible that a metal insert was not properly installed allowing an inadvertent discharge of oily water overboard beneath the waterline, which went unobserved by the bridge. Penalty: On Thursday 13th March 2003 the MCA prosecuted
Freedom Investments of Panama, owners of cargo vessel "MSC ARIANE" at Southampton Magistrates
Court for a breach of the Prevention of Oil Pollution Regulations. The Court noted that “Sloppy, inadequate working practices on ARIANE and from engineers onboard lead to a lengthy slick”. Mitigating factors that were taken into consideration include the changes to the faulty pipeline since the accident, although these changes were not carried out until December 2002. The discharge was of light oil as opposed to heavy crude oil and there was no risk to health and safety. The court stated that this “seemed to be a matter of good fortune rather than action taken by crewmen on ARIANE".
The fine was decreased to £30,000 and no costs were awarded to Freedom Investments for the appeal. ________________________________________________________________________________ OUR NICHOLAS Defendant: Watch keeper of ‘Our Nicholas’ Date of Offence: 24th July 2001. Offence: Breach of Rule 5 of the Collision Regulations Details: The watch keeper of fishing vessel, ‘Our Nicholas’ admitted to Stornoway Police that on the night of 24th July 2001, he fell asleep whilst in charge at the wheel. Crew were in bed when the watch keeper fell asleep and ran aground on rocks near Stornoway. The vessel rapidly sank and all four crewmen took to the water with no lifejackets or survival suits and without raising the alarm by radio. The local Lifeboat, Coastguard Helicopter and Rescue teams were all tasked to assist although not required due to the immediate rescue by other fishing vessels in the vicinity. Penalty: On 18th November 2002 Stornoway Sheriff’s Court fined the watch-keeper £1000 after he pleaded guilty to breaching Rule 5 of the Collision Regulations.
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