Steam Packet boss Brian Thomson on the damage sustained by the Manxman

Tindle News

Managing Director of the Steam Packet, Brian Thomson, details the incident at Heysham Port in the early hours of Wednesday morning in which its vessel Manxman suffered damage

Transcript

00:00I'm here with Brian Sobson, Managing Director of Steampacket Company and we're here to talk

00:08about the incident that happened with a manksman at Heasham last night. Brian, can you tell

00:14me exactly what happened?

00:16So last night at the early hours of the morning, Heasham had an elision with a quayside in

00:22Heasham due to the prevailing weather conditions, high winds, rough sea state. There was some

00:31what would be classed as minor damage, however that damage was enough to make the vessel

00:37unable to sail today. We assessed the situation. We've had the Classification Society, Lloyd's

00:44Register attend with our engineers. We've come up with a repair plan so we will instigate

00:51a temporary repair and I expect the manksman to be in service by tomorrow evening. She

00:59was due to go to dry dock in a few weeks time so that's when the repair will be fully carried

01:05out.

01:06Can you just outline the circumstances of the actual collision? Was it coming into berth

01:12or was it leaving?

01:13It's classed as an elision so it came into contact with the quayside.

01:16It came into contact with the quayside, what part of the quayside?

01:20Just the harbour entrance.

01:21Right, and was it coming into berth?

01:24It was entering the harbour to berth last night in high winds, high sea conditions and

01:31clouded the aft end of the vessel.

01:33Was there anything unusual about the movements that it had to make because of the conditions?

01:37No, I think it's just the sort of bread and butter what it always does. It was just really

01:44bad luck, there was a gust of wind caught it at the wrong time.

01:48Was it turning at the time?

01:49No, it was entering the harbour. It's a manoeuvre that the ship's done loads of times. It's

01:58just unfortunate that the weather conditions on this occasion have caught it out. I think

02:03when you've got the weather's been really changeable. I think we've seen that over the

02:07last couple of days. We've had bad weather during the night but actually in the daytime

02:10it's been fine. That sort of changeability, it's really difficult to get an accurate forecast

02:17and accurately judge it for yourself while you're in the situation. I don't think there's

02:22any blame to be apportioned, I think it's just one of those situations where it's bad

02:28luck, it's an accident. Luckily the damage was minor enough that we can put a temporary

02:34repair on it pending the dry dock and we'll get back in service as soon as possible. Luckily

02:40we had the Ben Macree doing a freight service who was already alongside in Heasham, so she

02:46was able to bring passengers back last night. So what exactly is the damage? The shell plating

02:54is breached above the waterline so there is a hole. How big is the hole? It's relatively

03:00small. Give me an idea. I wouldn't even want to put a figure on it because I've not seen

03:04it. I've not put a tape measure on it myself but it's a small hole just above the waterline

03:09and a safe space where it's not going to affect anything. But that'll be fixed, repaired this

03:17afternoon. Right, and is that a fairly straightforward fix? It is, unfortunately. Ships get damaged

03:23all the time and it isn't big news. I think we are suffering from the Manksman effect

03:27if you like. We're putting it out there in this beautiful vessel so when something happens

03:31there's great interest in it. But ship repair and collisions and elisions in the maritime

03:37industry are common so there is a solution for it and that's what we'll do. We'll put

03:42this temporary solution in place pending the full repair come dry dock. And the dry dock

03:48is when? It's in five weeks time. That's Camel Aird is it? Camel Airds, yes. So we'll assess

03:57it then. Meantime, Manksman should be back in service tomorrow evening? Tomorrow evening

04:04we expect Manksman to resume at 17.15 tomorrow evening. It's important to point out that

04:10nobody was injured at all during this incident. How are the crew? Are they gutted? A lovely

04:19ship a year old has had a prang. I think that's always, unfortunately, the case. It was always

04:26going to happen. I don't think there's a steam packet or another ferry or any vessel in history

04:31that hasn't had a prang, especially when you're operating in and out of such tight

04:36ports as East Sherman Douglas. So the crew were very professional. I spoke to some of

04:40them this morning because they transferred across to the bend to help with the passenger

04:45service on there. This company has a lot of really good people working for them, whether

04:52that's in management and planning in the office, the ferry travel shop staff, the guys in the

04:57yard that do the freight, the crews on board, the officers, the captains. So everybody's

05:02pulled together and been able to move people around at really short notice. The contingencies

05:07have really kicked in and worked really well. It's fortunate, isn't it, that the bend was

05:11there? Well, that's really for truth. So really, in normal circumstances, if it wasn't for

05:17Mike's Grand Prix, the bend would have been here. So we would have had that delay of getting

05:22across there to bring people back. So that was the sort of piece of luck that we got,

05:27but we'd much rather not have damaged the Magsman. Does it raise the question about

05:31whether the bend should continue to be retained as a backup vessel? Well, I think that's the

05:37debate, isn't it? There's reasons for and against. Some of them are business reasons,

05:42some of them are operational reasons. So it's one of those things that I think is under

05:46consideration. So the company have asked permission to sail the bend because there

05:52is financial implications of keeping a 25-year-old ship. It worked great last night, but that

05:59needs to be maintained as well. So there'll be a bigger investment in that if we are going

06:04to keep it long term. And finally, I suppose people may ask, should the sailing have sailed

06:09at all last night, given the weather forecast? That's not really a question for the general

06:14public, it's a question for maritime experts and captains, and that's the decision the

06:18captain made. So that will always be the case. Brian, thanks very much. Thank you.

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