Navigation Incident NO.1 - Essay Example

The buoy however was unharmed. DISCUSSION MV “Calamity Jane” was proceeding at a speed of 15 knots along the course of 170o (T). Visibility was determined to be good and with an excess of 10 nautical miles. The tidal stream was estimated to be setting 178o (T) at a rate of 1.4 knots. Even all of the bridge equipments such as the radar were fully functional. With everything working in top form, MV ‘’Calamity Jane’s’’ route was fully planned and she was on schedule, passing her first way point ‘’Mew Island Lighthouse’’ and enroute to the second way point ‘’South Rock Lighthouse’’.

The distance between the previous way points was 18.3 nautical miles. The plan of passage was marked up on the chart (No.2093) and it determined that the ship was to proceed at a course of 170o (T) at 15 knots so that to pass between the South Rock Light Vessel, until South Ridge buoy. On passing the previous way point the ship was scheduled to alter her course to 210o (T) and follow up this course for 7.5 nm so as to reach ‘’Strangford Narrows Leading Lights’’, her third way point. Things began to get out of hand about 18 minutes prior to midnight, which was scheduled to be the time for switching watches between the two navigators.

The 1st navigator fixed the position of the ship at 2342 and 2348 but found that the ship was 2 cables east of track while the South Rock Light Vessel was ahead of the track. This led to him altering 5o to starboard and then following up a new course of 175o (T). Subsequently, the 1st navigator took a third fix right before switching watches at 2354 and found that the ship was back on track. This incident is said to have occurred mainly due to the faults by the first navigator, who first took two fixes in a 6 minutes interval, which is good.

He noticed that the ship was in the port side of the track and so made alterations to the starboard to a course of 175o (T) to regain the track. However, he did not consider the effects of the tidal stream that was estimated to be setting 178o (T) at a rate of 1.4 knots. Considering the course and the direction of the tidal stream together, it is understood that the ship will drift most towards the east because of the lack of resistance between the tidal stream and the ship flow. Thus, this lack of consideration of this aspect could have resulted in a largely misleading from the planned track and beginning to drift off the course.

Then, less than 6 minutes before midnight, the 1st navigator tried to correct things by taking a last fix and found that the ship was right on track while navigating at the same course at 175o (T). Now, the ship was momentarily on track but not following the correct course since it was drifting towards the west. The navigator’s timing for takinf the fix was quite bad and turned out to be unfortunate for the ship. Had the fix been made even a few minutes later, the 1st navigator would have noticed that he was proceeding on the wrong course and that the ship was wrongly drifting towards the west.

This is considered wrong since the east coast plays a better home for ships than the west due to the west having more hazards such as shallow water, wreck and unlit buoy which are almost impossible to notice in the dark. The 1st navigator did not consider all this while making the decision and this accident was caused due to his lack of attention.