UK holds six vessels

The UK's Maritime & Coastguard Agency detained six foreign ships during February 2008 after failing Port State Control (PSC) inspection.

In February 159 Port State Control inspections were carried out in the UK. A total of 41 vessels had no deficiencies raised against them, 70 had between one and five deficiencies, 36 had between six and ten deficiencies 11 had between eleven and twenty deficiencies and there was 1 vessel inspected which had more than twenty deficiencies. Out of the detained vessels three were registered with a flag states listed on the Paris MOU white list, six were registered with flag states on the grey list and two were registered with flag states on the black list and one was not listed. The vessels detained in February included a 499gt St Vincent & Grenadines flagged general cargo vessel, which was detained in Hull following the arrest of the master who had been arrested by the local police as it was suspected he had been drinking. In another case a 20,248gt Panama-flagged vessel was detained in Bristol because the port lifeboat suspension falls blocks - forward & aft were holed and wasted. The fire drill and abandonment drill was substandard and the crew showed a lack of emergency preparedness during these drills. The number and nature of the defects identified on board indicated a major breakdown of the vessels' Safety Management System (SMS).

Read More