The Hong Kong Marine Department issues Merchant Shipping Information Note regarding Entry into Enclosed Space as follows:

Two similar accidents occurred recently on board two Hong Kong registered chemical tankers causing death of a Chief Officer and a Bosun respectively inside enclosed spaces. This Note draws the attention of the Shipowners, Ship Managers, Ship Operators, Masters, Officers and Crew of Hong Kong registered ships and Classification Societies the important lessons learnt from these accidents.

U.S. Coast Guard Port State Control Officers (PSCOs) are discovering Fuel Oil Quick-Closing Valves (QCVs) intentionally blocked, modified, and poorly maintained preventing them from operating as designed during an emergency.

QCVs are positive shutoff valves on fuel oil systems serving to isolate fuel tanks in the event of a fire and also prevent “fueling” of a fire in circumstances where system piping and components are compromised. In some circumstances they could be the only means of securing the fuel to a flammable liquid fire.

Course of events
The ship was alongside in port when the main engine was started, and the oil mist detector gave a warning alarm. When opening up the crank case a hot crankpin bearing was found. The crankshaft was found to be seriously damaged in way of one crankpin, causing the vessel to be put off hire for more than a month before resuming operation.

Infomarine On-Line Technical Library

File	Description	File size
CASUALTY_INF-NO5DECEMBER_2007[1].pdf	Probable cause : The main medium speed diesel engine is elastically mounted by using rubber mounts. Thus all cooling water, fuel oil and lubricat- Information from DNV to the maritime industry No. 5 December 2007	89 Kb

A number of incidents relating to Main engine failure within Regulated California Waters (24 nautical miles from California baseline) have been reported and one of these is analysed below for
safety awareness. In this example, three incidents occurred on the same vessel within a period of 45 days when the main engine failed to start in the astern position. All three incidents occurred during routine manoeuvring tests in one of the Pilot station areas in California and prior to each event the vessel had changed over to distillate fuel with low sulphur content to comply with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) requirements.

Infomarine On-Line Technical Library

File	Description	File size
Main Engine failure to start on MGO.pdf	Main Engine failure to start on MGO	234 Kb

A wide range of rudder or steerable duct actuating force, cavitation and integrity problems can occur from time to time. In the case of rudders, these may take the form of bearing failures or erosion of the rudder plating, the latter due either to cavitation developed by the rudder itself or from the cavitation entrained in the helical slipstream from the propeller. Steerable ducts can also have accentuated vertical seaway loadings and, in common with fixed ducts, can suffer from erosion on their inner plating.

Propeller root cavitation problems can be among the most complex to solve. In this region, along with tip vortex dynamics, rigorous mathematical analysis is currently of little assistance for design or analysis purposes. In some cases, when scant attention has been paid to the propeller design environment or where ship layout difficulties have arisen and high shaft angles or a poor choice of advance angle have resulted, erosion problems can occur which are difficult to resolve.

The severe action of the conrod caused failure of the bottom end arrangement. Here can be seen that at least one of the cap bolts has failed and that the cap has several hammer blow indentations.

This led to failure of both the effect unit and also through loss of lubrication the adjacent unit mounted on the same pin. Shown below are the two bearing shells. In addition damage is shown to the pin in the form of a deep indentation. This alone would have cuased the crankshaft to be scrapped as too great a reduction in diameter would have been required to restore the running surface. There was also a raised section on the opposite side caused by transfer of material either from the shell or con rod.  Several fractures occured as well as material seperation.