What should you pay attention to when mooring multiple cables?

2023-11-30 11:01:07

The inboard coxswain ran to port to help. Even so, the two helmsmen could not control the two tail cables, and the tail cables fell out of his hands. At this time, one of the helmsmen accidentally stepped into a cable, and his feet were immediately tightened by the ship's cable. He followed the cable running outboard and fell towards the fairlead. Seeing this, the other helmsman caught the cable and managed to free his feet before it slid faster through the fairlead. Fortunately, the helmsman only had bruises on his feet, and the ship was re-moored to the shore without further incident.

1. When mooring with multiple cables, untying multiple cables at the same time is asking for trouble. Unless otherwise justified, it is good practice to untie one of the ship's mooring lines first. Another practical tip is to consider the practicalities of departure when entering port and negotiate departure expectations and methods during departure declaration and pre-departure security meetings.

2. Not everyone can read minds and predict other people’s intentions. Don't assume that others will act on your behalf, and don't loosen two boat lines when you want to.

3. In an emergency, quick thinking is key, but taking a moment to weigh the pros and cons of alternative courses of action is extremely important. In this case, if the propeller is stopped without taking other measures, the ship will be out of control, but the captain will only have a few seconds to realize this.

An offshore support vessel is moored starboard. The mooring device at the stern includes two inward reverse cables and two outer stern cables, both of which are tied to bitts. The ship's departure crew and pilots conducted a pre-mission insurance rally in preparation for departure.

When leaving port, the current flows to the stern of the ship at a speed of about 1.5 knots, and the outer (port side) azimuth thruster is used to keep the ship from drifting away from the shore. The ship's owner, chief mate and port pilot were on the bridge. The captain and the pilot discussed the departure plan, and the departure operation plan was to operate the inboard (starboard) azimuth thruster to counteract the current. But it was limited to steering, and no mention was made of unmooring. Bridge and unmooring crews previously communicated via hand-held UHF radiotelephones. The pilot communicated with the shore departure personnel using a VHF wireless telephone.

The stern departure crew consists of two people, each standing next to a set of bitts. Workers on shore untied the down cable from the dock bitts. A wave of water on the starboard side brought the stern cable back to the deck and tied it to the bitt. Then, a wave of water on the port side released the two stern cables at the same time. Immediately afterwards, workers on the shore untied both the bow and stern cables from the shore and threw the tail ends of the ship's cables into the water. However, the two ship's cables are too heavy for one body of water, so it is difficult to send them out at the same time. As he tried to retract one of the cables, the other was sucked into the suction port of an azimuth thruster. To make matters worse, the ship's cable he sent out quickly became entangled with the cable twisted into the propeller.

Immediately alert the bridge and inform him of his predicament, and at the same time require the two thrusters to stop. However, the master realized that stopping the whip would no longer control the ship. I didn’t know which thruster sucked the cable, so I adjusted the azimuth angle of the port side thruster to zero and adjusted the azimuth angle of the starboard thruster to keep the ship from drifting away from the shore and at the same time offset the tide.