Grounded

Ship on the reef raises renewed concerns over fatigue & crew negligence

The owner, master and second officer of the Greek flag Doric Chariot have been charged with damaging the Great Barrier Reef in the Cairns Magistrates Court and now face a maximum penalty of $1.1 million.

A team from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority identified a 50 metre by 30 metre gash in the coral as well as contamination by tributal tin (TBT) anti-fouling paint caused when the ship ran aground on July 29.

The Maritime Union and environmentalists were first to sound the alarm when all early efforts to free the vessel failed.

Fears surfaced that the ship could break up and cause an ecological disaster surfaced as it groaned under its immense weight.

"If the ship splits open or has a broken back she'll spill thousands of tonnes of coking coal onto the reef, creating an environmental disaster," said Mick Carr, Southern Queensland Branch Secretary.

BID TO AVERT GREEK TRAGEDY ON THE REEF, the Gold Coast Bulletin reported on July 30.

The Doric Chariot flew the Greek flag, but employed a crew of convenience.

The fully-laden 73,000-tonne coal freighter was stuck fast on the reef 600 kilometres north-east of Cairns for the best part of a week, while debate raged in the media.

The union called for tighter maritime regulations and restrictions on foreign vessels.

Also at issue was fatigue. The pilot had been on board for 50 hours and Carr said such incidents could be avoided if more Australian-owned and crewed ships were used to transport cargo off the Australian coastline.

Meanwhile MUA tug crews were dispatched to rescue the situation. Around a dozen members, three crews on Queensland tugs joined a Papua New Guinea tug and salvage experts to free the vessel from the reef.

MUA delegate Peter Lamound was on the scene:

"She was as clean as a whistle, nothing you could fault" he said. "Whatever went wrong must have been down to negligence. Piper Reef has a light on both port and starboard side and a channel between them, but the vessel ran straight onto Reef. The area is so well charted obviously someone wasn't paying attention. On long journeys the pilot has to get some sleep. The master and chief officer should have the navigational experience to avoid disaster."

Once the tugs arrived, the Redcliffe from Brisbane, Ottoassman from south of Cairns, the Werra, from Townsville and the PNG tug, work got under way.

MUA tug crew put a line and strap up alongside the vessel while salvage experts flew crews in by helicopter.

"We were five days on the job with most of the time preparing to pull the vessel free and waiting for the tides to build up," said Lamound.

They had to drop 35 tonne anchors out the stern of the ship's stern and weld plates onto the deck to beef up the pulley blocks.

The salvage experts then filled the ballast tanks up the bow end to try to crush the ship down into the coral where it was aground. They then reversed the ballast so the stern went down, lifting the bow off the reef.

"On the day we got her free we started pulling at 1pm and by 3.30 they were up to full power," said Lamound. "At 5pm the vessel came off."