Container lashing: taking the strain for a bigger problem

On 28 May, API England, a 5,510TEU container ship, was detained by inspectors for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) at the port of Brisbane. The vessel's previous few days had been eventful ones; en route from Ningbo to Sydney on 24 May it had suffered a temporary loss of propulsion during heavy seas and the resultant rolling caused several stacks to collapse and somewhere in the region of 40 to 50 containers to be lost overboard. Lashing failures are regularly cited in container ship incidents and ship insurers send out regular reminders to members to ensure that cargo, be it containers or other equipment, are well secured while at sea. But are they really the cause? Not directly, according to John Southam, a former master mariner and now loss prevention executive for P&l club North.