Making a By Neil Gardiner
lashing hash
Neil Gardiner is a Master Mariner with a combined Honours degree in Marine Technology and Maritime Law. He joined Brookes Bell in April 2012 as a Managing Master Mariner. Prior to that Neil worked for a leading P&I Club, inspecting their own vessels and investigated casualties for another UK-based marine consultancy. He has over 20 years of seagoing experience, sailing as Master latterly on ice-classed panamax container ships trading between North Europe and Montreal. Neil has investigated and advised on a wide range of matters including collision, grounding, fire/explosion, personal injury, port safety disputes, pollution, speed and performance, hull damage, aspects of the ISM Code and various cargo related matters. He has acted as expert witness in court and arbitration in the UK and abroad.
“Container losses – why do they keep happening asks?” asks Neil Gardiner, Managing Master Mariner, one of the accident investigation team at Brookes Bell. Neil argues that while there are not as many container losses as is sometimes thought, those that do occur are often due to poor weight distribution, amongst other things.
Every year container ships lose containers, but it’s not as many as people think. The World Shipping Council which includes the big shipping lines, accounting for more than 80% of the global container shipping capacity, reports that only around 2,000 containers carried were lost in 2019.
That’s less than 0.001% of the estimated 226 million containers carried every year. But, they tend to be highly visible and high profile.
With 24 years of seagoing experience including considerable time on container ships and a degree in maritime technology and maritime law, I am in a position to
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give the scientific and technical insight into the transportation of all kinds of commodities carried in containers at sea.
Containers fall off ships for a number of reasons, but poor distribution of weight is one of the most common factors. In recent years, the IMO’s SOLAS regulations concerning the mis-declaration of container weights have tightened control in ports considerably. Mis-declaration of contents and weights does, however, still occur and when it does it poses a significant safety risk to the vessel and crew carrying the cargo.
Brookes Bell continues to be appointed by insurers and owners to investigate container losses. On arrival at the vessel, the appointed surveyor will conduct a thorough inspection of the vessel and paperwork. They will, thereafter, investigate and record the condition of the lashings, including twistlocks and the condition of the containers. They will, thereafter, assess the condition of the adjacent container bays, the arrangement of the remaining containers, the base locks, the configuration of the lashings to
The Report • December 2020 • Issue 94 | 81
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