Real Life Incident: VLOC Does Down In 5 minutes With 22 Of 24 Crew

A Very Large Ore Carrier (VLOC) loaded with iron ore fines was underway with a combined wave (wind and swell) of about 3.7m on the starboard side. The vessel was built as a VLCC but was modified and converted into a very large ore carrier after sixteen years of tanker operations.

After the conversion, the vessel’s length, beam, and depth remained the same (311.89m L, 58.00m B, and 29.50m D respectively). However, the gross tonnage and the deadweight tonnage had increased due to structural changes to the cargo hold hatches and an increase in the load line. Following the conversion, the ship had been operating as a VLOC for eight years.

At about 13:20 local time, the vessel’s superintendent ashore received a social media message from the ship that said, ‘Emergency. The ship’s No. 2 Port is leaking. The ship is rapidly inclining to port.’ The superintendent asked the ship to call via satellite phone but heard no response from the ship. About one minute after the message was received, a distress signal from the vessel was received v…

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