Collision, Grounding, Flooding and Machinery Failure

The pattern behind every emergency

In short: Read alarms, musters and drills first. Steering failure, engine failure, collision, grounding and flooding all follow the same shape: stop the situation getting worse, tell people, assess, then tell the outside world.

• Make safe: take way off or manoeuvre clear of danger, stop engines when the hull is damaged, close watertight and fire doors.
• Tell the ship: call the master (see calling the master), inform the engine room, sound the general alarm when people are at risk, muster and count heads.
• Assess: position on the chart, damage, soundings, stability, pollution, risk of fire.
• Tell the outside world: correct lights and shapes, sound signals in restricted visibility, AIS navigational status, VTS or port authority, an urgency (PAN PAN) or distress (MAYDAY) message when help is needed, and later the accident report.
• On the bridge: the first few steps happen at once and in seconds. The ship’s own emergency checklists give the exact order for your ship.

Steering gear failure

In short: Ten steps: check every steering mode → check the steering pumps → master → engine room → take the way off → emergency steering → consider NUC → update AIS → sound signal “D” (in or near restricted visibility) → VTS or port authority.

1. Check all steering modes: change from autopilot to hand steering, try follow-up and non-follow-up, try the other steering position. Often the fault is in one mode only.
2. Check the steering pumps: start the second pump or motor; one pump may have tripped.
3. Inform the master.
4. Inform the engine room: engineers go to the steering gear compartment.
5. Take the way off the ship: reduce speed, so a jammed rudder cannot carry you far into danger.
6. Engage emergency steering: local control in the steering gear compartment, with a reliable communication link to the bridge and a compass or rudder angle indicator there. Emergency steering drills take place at least every 3 months (SOLAS V/26.4) and are recorded in the Official Log Book.
7. Consider showing NUC lights or shapes — you are “unable to manoeuvre as required” (COLREG Rule 27(a)).
8. Update AIS: navigational status “Not under command”.
9. Sound signal “D”: one prolonged + two short (— · ·, Morse D), at intervals of not more than 2 min — the restricted-visibility signal of a vessel not under command (COLREG Rule 35(c)). In clear weather, your lights/shapes, AIS and VHF warn others instead.
10. Inform VTS or the port authority, and nearby traffic on VHF.

Main engine failure

In short: Eight steps: master → chart assessment → manoeuvre away from danger → prepare to anchor in shallow water → NUC lights/shapes → urgency message if appropriate → AIS → VTS.

1. Inform the master.
2. Chart assessment: where are you, how much sea room, depth, traffic, which way will wind and current set you?
3. Manoeuvre the ship away from danger while she still carries way — you still have steerage way for a while.
4. Prepare to anchor if in shallow water: anchor party forward, anchor cleared away, before the ship drifts into danger.
5. Show NUC lights and shapes (COLREG Rule 27(a)).
6. Urgency message (PAN PAN) if appropriate — for example drifting towards a coast or into a traffic lane (see distress and urgency signals).
7. Update AIS: “Not under command”.
8. Inform VTS, the coastguard and ships nearby.

NUC: what you show

• Two all-round red lights in a vertical line, where best seen (COLREG Rule 27(a)).
• By day: two balls (or similar shapes) in a vertical line.
• Making way through the water: add sidelights and sternlight; masthead lights are not shown.
• More in lights and shapes of special vessels.

Collision

In short: Master → general alarm → stop engines (in most cases) → close watertight and fire doors → bilge and fire pumps → muster and count → assess damage → fire risk → position and port of refuge → assist the other ship → stability → SOPEP → abandon? → radio → lights/shapes → report to the MAIB.

1. Call the master.
2. Sound the general alarm (7 short + 1 long).
3. Stop engines — in most cases. If your bow is inside the other ship, going astern may pull it out and open a hole that floods her faster. Your bow may be plugging it.
4. Close all watertight and fire doors. This is the step that keeps a damaged ship afloat.
5. Start bilge and fire pumps.
6. Muster all crew and passengers; check for casualties and missing persons.
7. Assess the damage: sound tanks and bilges, look for water, list and trim.
8. Consider other dangers, especially the risk of fire (see fighting a fire on board).
9. Fix the position on the chart and look at safe port options.
10. Offer assistance to the other ship.
11. Ensure stability: flooded compartments mean lost buoyancy and free surface.
12. Start the SOPEP if oil is escaping.
13. Depending on the damage, the master may decide to abandon ship.
14. Send the right radio message: MAYDAY (grave and imminent danger) or PAN PAN (urgent, no immediate danger to life).
15. Show the right lights or shapes (NUC, or aground/at anchor if that applies).
16. Report to the MAIB (UK ships) or your flag State investigator (Malta: MSIU).

Your legal duties to the other ship

• After a collision, the master of each ship must, without danger to own ship, crew and passengers, give the other ship whatever help is practical and necessary, and stand by until no further help is needed (Merchant Shipping Act 1995, s.92).
• Each master must also give the other the name of his ship and the ports she came from and is bound for (same section).
• The UK rule applies to UK ships everywhere and to foreign ships in UK waters.

SOPEP and reporting

• SOPEP = Shipboard Oil Pollution Emergency Plan: required on every oil tanker of 150 GT and above and every other ship of 400 GT and above (MARPOL Annex I, Reg. 37). It holds the action plan, ship information, how to contain a discharge and who to report to.
• MAIB: report by the quickest means possible — first by phone on the 24 h accident line, then the accident report form (MAIB, “Report a marine accident”). Early reporting saves evidence.
• Keep the evidence: VDR data saved, logbook entries, ECDIS and radar records, statements.

Grounding

In short: Stop engines → watertight doors → master → general alarm → muster and count → hull damage → pollution/SOPEP → aground lights and shapes → soundings round the ship → position → nature of the bottom → is wind/sea pushing you harder aground? → tide → temporary repairs and pumps → MAYDAY or PAN PAN if help is needed.

1. Stop engines.
2. Close watertight doors.
3. Inform the master.
4. Sound the general alarm.
5. Muster crew and passengers; check for casualties.
6. Check for hull damage; inspect inside by eye where possible (tanks, void spaces, engine room).
7. Look for pollution and start the SOPEP.
8. Show the lights and shapes for a vessel aground (below).
9. Take soundings all round the ship, especially round the stern and propeller.
10. Check the grounding position on the chart.
11. Find the nature of the bottom (rock, sand, mud) and the expected depth of water.
12. Decide whether wind and sea are driving her harder aground.
13. Find the state of the tide at the grounding, with the times and heights of the next high and low waters.
14. Temporary repairs to cut the water coming in; pumps on in the affected spaces.
15. If you need help, send a MAYDAY or PAN PAN.

• Why not just go astern? You may damage the propeller and rudder, tear the hull further, or pull a holed ship off into deep water where she sinks. Assess first; the master decides.

Aground: lights, shapes and sound

• Lights: anchor lights (≥ 50 m: all-round white forward and a lower one aft; < 50 m: one all-round white) plus two all-round red in a vertical line (COLREG Rule 30(d)).
• Shapes by day: three balls in a vertical line (COLREG Rule 30(d)).
• Restricted visibility: the anchor signal (rapid ringing of the bell for about 5 s, at intervals of not more than 1 min; gong aft too if ≥ 100 m) plus three separate and distinct strokes on the bell before and after the rapid ringing (COLREG Rule 35(g)–(h)). See sound signals.
• AIS: navigational status “Aground”.

You see another vessel aground

• Advise the master.
• Chart assessment: your own position and the position of the grounded vessel.
• Switch on the echo sounder and watch your under-keel clearance.
• Post look-outs and change from autopilot to manual steering.
• Call the grounded vessel (with station identification): ask her draught and the time of grounding.
• Assess how far the shoal extends — she found it, so keep clear of it.

Initial action following flooding

In short: Same opening moves as a collision: alarm, master, watertight doors, pumps. Then find where the water comes from and how fast, and watch stability all the time.

1. Raise the general alarm and inform the master and the engine room.
2. Close watertight doors and any openings between compartments.
3. Start the bilge pumps (and other pumps that can serve the space).
4. Find the source: hull breach, burst pipe, open valve, failed sea chest or stern seal. Close the valves that feed it.
5. Measure the rate of inflow: sound the space at fixed intervals and compare the rise with your pumping capacity.
6. Stop or slow the ingress: plugs, wedges, shoring, a collision mat over the hole outside.
7. Monitor stability: list, trim, freeboard. Flooded spaces add weight and free surface; take the master’s/stability advice before moving ballast.
8. Reduce speed and, if possible, turn the damaged side away from the sea to cut water pressure on the hole.
9. Muster crew and passengers and prepare the survival craft.
10. Send PAN PAN or MAYDAY with your position, and keep updating it.

• If the inflow beats the pumps, the master may look for a safe place to beach the ship, or decide to abandon her.

Signals at a glance

In short: Know which lights, shapes, sound signals and AIS status go with each casualty. Examiners check this alongside the checklist.

• Radio: PAN PAN = urgent, no grave and imminent danger to life; MAYDAY = grave and imminent danger, immediate help needed, sent on the authority of the master.
• In fog, these signals sit alongside the rest of conduct in restricted visibility.