What Happened
What Happened
On August 8, 2023, about 1859 eastern daylight time, the towing vessel Jacqueline A sank about 3 miles east of North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, after taking on water while transiting in the Atlantic Ocean. The three crewmembers abandoned the vessel and were recovered by local emergency responders. There were no injuries. Most of the estimated 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel on board the vessel leaked into the sea. Following salvage, the vessel was determined to be a constructive total loss valued at $660,000.
What We Found
What We Found
We determined that the probable cause of the flooding and sinking of the towing vessel Jacqueline A was a lack of watertight integrity due to the poor material condition of the vessel’s bulwarks and main deck plating, which allowed water to ingress through wastage holes into the lazarette, and unsealed penetrations in transverse bulkheads, which led to progressive flooding forward into the engine room. Contributing to the sinking was the lack of a high-water bilge sensor in the lazarette, which prevented early detection of flooding into the space.
What We Recommended
Corrosion Hazards in Inaccessible Void Spaces
Inaccessible voids or difficult to reach pockets or crevices that are poorly ventilated and provide no access for maintenance pose a risk to vessels due to the potential for severe rusting/corrosion. Because these spaces are inaccessible, corrosion can grow undetected. Operators and manufacturers should keep these risks in mind when designing, constructing, or modifying a vessel. Ensuring all spaces are accessible enables maintenance personnel to check for and remediate any potential hazards, such as corrosion.
Sealing Watertight Bulkhead Penetrations
For the safety of a vessel and all on board, the integrity of the hull and watertight bulkheads must be maintained, and any deficiencies must be appropriately addressed. Known issues with watertight integrity, including unsealed watertight bulkhead and deck penetrations and deck and hull plate wastage, need to be addressed by permanent means. The Coast Guard advises, “Ensure electrical cables and conduits, piping runs, remote valve actuators, and other components that penetrate watertight bulkheads, decks, and compartments are inspected frequently and properly maintained. Each may have a unique sealing method involving glands with packing assemblies, penetration seals, or other methods. Frequent inspection and proper maintenance of these various fittings and assemblies will assist in minimizing the possibility of progressive flooding.”
Installing Bilge High-Water Level Alarms and Sensors
Automatic high-water bilge alarms are intended to provide crews with an early warning of vessel flooding. Manual detection (e.g., visually) often occurs only after flooding is underway and the crew has detected excessive rolling or listing, leaving little time for mitigating action. In inaccessible spaces, or small spaces that are difficult to inspect underway (such as a towing vessel’s smaller compartments, voids, or lazarette), bilge-level monitoring alarms are often the sole means to alert operators of flooding. Sensors installed in all spaces where flooding may have a significant effect on the vessel’s stability and buoyancy can prevent undetected flooding. The Coast Guard advises that “high level bilge alarms should be set as low as possible to the deck or bilge well and positioned along the centermost area of the compartment or in a location at which the fluids will gravitate to first. In areas where bilge water routinely accumulates, the bilge high-water level alarms should be placed just above the point where under normal working conditions the accumulation would be pumped to a holding tank, overboard, or through an oily water separation system if required.”
