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Cracked containership to be repaired at anchorage

Written by Nick Blenkey
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MSC Monterey pictured in Bremerhaven in 2010

JANUARY 6, 2013 — Repairs to a crack on the main deck and outer hull of the the 4,860 TEU containership MSC Monterey will now be carried out on board the ship at its current location.

The ship, which was delivered from the Daewoo Mangalia shipyard in Romania in 2008, is anchored in St. Mary’s Bay at a sheltered location in the south of Newfoundland.

The ship proceeded there after discovery of the crack on December 27 caused her abort a voyage to Boston from Antwerp. Four passengers were taken off the ship by helicopter.

Initial plans were to make temporary repairs to the crack, which measures 1.5 meters on the main deck and extends for approximately 30 centimeters into the outer hull, and make the permanent repairs in a shipyard.

Now, though, the shipowner — Buxtehude, Germany, headquartered Reederei NSB — says that after inspection of the crack on the main deck and the outer hull and comprehensive ultrasonic tests all experts consider the cause of the crack to be a defective welding seam.

Classification society Germanischer Lloyd (GL) has decided in cooperation with all involved parties to have the final repair of the damage carried out on-site.

Reederei NSB says that crack detection using ultrasonic tests has continued and has extended beyond the damaged areas.

Analysis of the tests already carried out led GL to reject the initially planned provisional repair. Instead, the final repair can be carried out on-site. A welding procedure has been defined by GL, which has to be followed exactly.

Adverse weather conditions at the coast of Newfoundland of currently well below 0 C° make repair procedures somewhat difficult. Comprehensive preparations have to be made in order to preheat the steel and the ambient temperature as well als to adhere to the cooling rates exactly.

Reederei NSB says the repairs will be carried out by a Canadian expert company with much experience in this field and will probably take seven days to complete. A representative of Germanischer Lloyd will supervise works on-site.

After completion of works MSC Monterey will continue her voyage as part of her charter for MSC, probably on January 11, 2014.

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