Silver Shadow accident

[Salacia]

According to reports, the Silver Shadow collided with a container ship off the coast of Vietnam earlier this morning.

 

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/19/silversea-cruise-crash-cruise-ship-collides-with-container-ship_n_1362387.html?ref=travel

[CanadianKate]

This seems to be in addition to the collision on the weekend, see post four of this thread:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1594696

 

or shoddy reporting.

[H82seaUgo]

eek! i just heard about this!

 

http://mikeyscruiseblog.com/2012/03/19/breaking-news-silversea-shadow-collides-with-container-ship-heavy-damage/

[English Tim]

This incident allegedly happened a couple of days ago, yet there is minimal media coverage, which I find very surprising.

[Salacia]

A report with a photograph of the allegedly damaged container ship can be found on CNN's website: http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-763640?ref=feeds/latest

 

About 30 minutes ago, CNN (in the USA) reported this incident as breaking news, saying there would be updates to follow.

 

Hopefully this is a minor incident and everyone is safe. -S.

 

Edited to add: CNN just repeated the story saying "more information on this developing story" ahead..."

[English Tim]

A report with a photograph of the allegedly damaged container ship can be found on CNN's website: http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-763640?ref=feeds/latest

 

About 30 minutes ago, CNN (in the USA) reported this incident as breaking news, saying there would be updates to follow.

 

Hopefully this is a minor incident and everyone is safe. -S.

 

Edited to add: CNN just repeated the story saying "more information on this developing story" ahead..."

 

I have seen that same report in several places, but nothing elsewhere, so I'm a little suspicious.

[Salacia]

According to CNN, the source of information about the incident is Andrew Lock, a passenger currently on board.

 

CNN is now reporting that the incident happened on Friday morning, after interviewing Andrew Lock via Skype. Lock said no injuries on board the Silver Shadow, but that he saw injured crew members on the container ship.

 

Edited to add: updated story here http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/19/travel/vietnam-ship-collision/index.html

[CanadianKate]

Thanks Salacia for the CNN update.

 

Still no pictures of the major damage to the Shadow.

 

It also says that passengers headed to the muster stations but not that they were ordered to muster stations. Although the comment in the other thread made mention of a Life Boat Drill and I sensed the tongue was firmly in the cheek.

 

I'm just having trouble reconciling that tours went on as usual if there was such damage to the ship. I'd be hesitant to leave my things for a tour if I thought the ship was in danger or plans were going to be changed.

 

At least the 'breaking story' is now identified as something that happened 3 days ago.

[Travelcat2]

It will be interesting to learn if radar was being used prior to the accident. From what we've read, almost all of the damage was to the freighter -- not the Shadow. In any case, it certainly sounds like Silversea was at fault. Very sad for the passengers of both ships.

[CanadianKate]

Entering Hong Kong last year on the Spirit, she nearly collided with a ship in the fog. She was blowing her horn madly, the tugs were in full reverse pulling us to a stop and then, out of the fog, the other ship cut across our bow. We have photos timestamped seconds apart of her appearing and then with her bulching black smoke as the captain guns the engines in order to get out of our way. We could obviously see the other ship using radar or other technology but it couldn't see us and wasn't reacting to our audible warning.

[Salacia]

Thanks Salacia for the CNN update.

 

Still no pictures of the major damage to the Shadow.

 

It also says that passengers headed to the muster stations but not that they were ordered to muster stations. Although the comment in the other thread made mention of a Life Boat Drill and I sensed the tongue was firmly in the cheek.

 

I'm just having trouble reconciling that tours went on as usual if there was such damage to the ship. I'd be hesitant to leave my things for a tour if I thought the ship was in danger or plans were going to be changed.

 

At least the 'breaking story' is now identified as something that happened 3 days ago.

 

Hi CanadianKate. I'm glad CNN updated their story too, though I agree it would have been better if they got the timeline right before they promoted the story as an incident that occured this morning - as you mentioned, it was shoddy reporting. It also might have helped if Silversea put out a press release after the incident last Friday, but unfortunately, not many cruise lines are pro-active and seem to be more willing to remain silent about negative incidents until they get media requests for information.

 

Hopefully, someone on board will post a photo of the alleged damage to the ship as there seems to be conflicting opinions in reports about that too. -S.

[cruzmaven]

Photos of damage from Andrew Lock's facebook page:

[CanadianKate]

Nice to see pictures of the 'hole in the bow'.

 

Could be poor writing but Andrew Lock is reported to have said "and we ripped a large tear in the side too." I read that to be commenting on the Shadow but he might have meant 'their' instead of 'the' (dropping important letters off once I've typed another word is a common mistake I make.)

 

As they say in the auto biz - that'll buff out.

 

What is unclear in all the reporting is if the Shadow is still in Halong Bay or if she's continued on Haiphong and Hong Kong as scheduled. If she is in Hong Kong (Lock is, but is the Shadow?), then I'll guess it can't be much of a hole in the bow or a large tear along the side.

[CASHIPman]

It will be interesting to learn if radar was being used prior to the accident. From what we've read, almost all of the damage was to the freighter -- not the Shadow. In any case, it certainly sounds like Silversea was at fault. Very sad for the passengers of both ships.

 

Hi...Where did you read/infer that Silversea was at fault?

Thanks!

[duct tape]

Our nav rules for pleasure boats give way to the vessel on starboard! It looks like the Shadow was in that position and was the hitee, not the hitter ( or whichever language you choose). Will be interesting to follow.

[CanadianKate]

Here is a link to three photos from our close call in Hong Kong in 2011.

 

In the first, you can barely make out the tug. She is not just alongside us, we have a line to her. Which came in handy because the tugs were pulling us to a dead stop in order to avoid collision.

 

In the second, you see the ship as it comes out of the fog.

 

In the third, you see the smoke from the smokestack as she speeds us to get across our bow.

 

We had all the latest equipment. The other ship didn't and didn't respond to our audible alert.

 

http://s176.photobucket.com/albums/w185/SHEs-on-the-road/Cruise%20Critic%20Photos/

 

Because of our experience I tend to believe that she was using all her equipment to avoid a collision but it was unavoidable.

[oregon50]

Well, do not believe everything you read. And assuming we are all over 20 years old, you should know the truth you read/see in a news report can have little to do with the actual event.

 

Had I wanted the story to make headlines, it would have had a banner thread and 10,000 views.

 

To be clear, there was a call to muster. Things were quite calm. The freighter cruised alongside our cabin and we had full view of bridge and one side of the ship. Visible damage to Shadow is limited to bow section and while not pretty, should not affect operations.

[Aplmac]

It will be interesting to learn if radar was being used prior to the accident.

From what we've read, almost all of the damage was to the freighter -- not the Shadow.

In any case, it certainly sounds like Silversea was at fault. Very sad for the passengers of both ships.

Neither ship had working radar? with someone checking them closely? -in foggy low viz. conditions?

.

[CanadianKate]

Oregon50: did you see that you were quoted in this article?

 

http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/19/10762092-silversea-cruise-ship-collides-with-vessel-in-vietnam

[SomeBeach]

Came across this.

 

http://video.repubblica.it/mondo/vietnam-nave-da-crociera-contro-un-cargo-feriti/90830/89223?ref=HREV-3

[Aplmac]

Came across this.

 

http://video.repubblica.it/mondo/vietnam-nave-da-crociera-contro-un-cargo-feriti/90830/89223?ref=HREV-3

Did I hear 'Italian owners'?

 

 

this from Wikipedia:

 

Silversea Cruises is a luxury cruise line that operates six luxury, all-suite cruise ships

that sail itineraries all around the world throughout the year.

The line maintains branch offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Singapore.

The company's headquarters are based in Monaco and is owned by the Lefebvre Family of Rome, Italy.

.

[rols]

Neither ship had working radar? with someone checking them closely? -in foggy low viz. conditions?

.

 

Of course both ships were using whatever radar and collision avoidance systems they had on them and you can be sure they were being monitored very actively on the bridge. The Silversea ships are all well-equipped with radar which can track primary echos and also receive AIS from ships which are sending it, working out expected tracks and possible collisions. I would expect the other ship to have been sending out AIS, but possible it was not.

 

That bay is busy however, and not that large. The expected track of another ship depends on it keeping course and speed, takes the radar and the operator time to recalculate if either of those things changes, especially if you only have a primary echo to work with. Now imagine one ship takes avoiding action, which makes another change course etc etc, you can quickly end up in a situation where the gap you thought you were sailing through is no longer there and, even if you are going slowly, you can't stop or change course in time.

 

Anyone who's been on a Silversea bridge tour has seen the equipment they have, even on the older ships and knows it's monitored even far out to sea in perfect visibility. Radar isn't magic however and even with experienced officers doing a great job, in 0 visibility you can hit something.

[dusababy]

Thanks for the technical, factual explanation Rols -- so refreshing to read rather than speculation and criticism.

[mortgagemaster]

As long as nobody was injured and the damage did not cause cases of chapagne to spill into the local waters, all is well on Silversea.

[JPR]

I spoke earlier this week with Regent/Oceania President Mark Conroy. The intelligence he's received indicates that the Vietnamese ship had no radar.