Managing Director of the Steam Packet, Brian Thomson, details the incident at Heysham Port in the early hours of Wednesday morning in which its vessel Manxman suffered damage
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00:00I'm here with Brian Sobson, Managing Director of Steampacket Company and we're here to talk
00:08about the incident that happened with a manksman at Heasham last night. Brian, can you tell
00:14me exactly what happened?
00:16So last night at the early hours of the morning, Heasham had an elision with a quayside in
00:22Heasham due to the prevailing weather conditions, high winds, rough sea state. There was some
00:31what would be classed as minor damage, however that damage was enough to make the vessel
00:37unable to sail today. We assessed the situation. We've had the Classification Society, Lloyd's
00:44Register attend with our engineers. We've come up with a repair plan so we will instigate
00:51a temporary repair and I expect the manksman to be in service by tomorrow evening. She
00:59was due to go to dry dock in a few weeks time so that's when the repair will be fully carried
01:05out.
01:06Can you just outline the circumstances of the actual collision? Was it coming into berth
01:12or was it leaving?
01:13It's classed as an elision so it came into contact with the quayside.
01:16It came into contact with the quayside, what part of the quayside?
01:20Just the harbour entrance.
01:21Right, and was it coming into berth?
01:24It was entering the harbour to berth last night in high winds, high sea conditions and
01:31clouded the aft end of the vessel.
01:33Was there anything unusual about the movements that it had to make because of the conditions?
01:37No, I think it's just the sort of bread and butter what it always does. It was just really
01:44bad luck, there was a gust of wind caught it at the wrong time.
01:48Was it turning at the time?
01:49No, it was entering the harbour. It's a manoeuvre that the ship's done loads of times. It's
01:58just unfortunate that the weather conditions on this occasion have caught it out. I think
02:03when you've got the weather's been really changeable. I think we've seen that over the
02:07last couple of days. We've had bad weather during the night but actually in the daytime
02:10it's been fine. That sort of changeability, it's really difficult to get an accurate forecast
02:17and accurately judge it for yourself while you're in the situation. I don't think there's
02:22any blame to be apportioned, I think it's just one of those situations where it's bad
02:28luck, it's an accident. Luckily the damage was minor enough that we can put a temporary
02:34repair on it pending the dry dock and we'll get back in service as soon as possible. Luckily
02:40we had the Ben Macree doing a freight service who was already alongside in Heasham, so she
02:46was able to bring passengers back last night. So what exactly is the damage? The shell plating
02:54is breached above the waterline so there is a hole. How big is the hole? It's relatively
03:00small. Give me an idea. I wouldn't even want to put a figure on it because I've not seen
03:04it. I've not put a tape measure on it myself but it's a small hole just above the waterline
03:09and a safe space where it's not going to affect anything. But that'll be fixed, repaired this
03:17afternoon. Right, and is that a fairly straightforward fix? It is, unfortunately. Ships get damaged
03:23all the time and it isn't big news. I think we are suffering from the Manksman effect
03:27if you like. We're putting it out there in this beautiful vessel so when something happens
03:31there's great interest in it. But ship repair and collisions and elisions in the maritime
03:37industry are common so there is a solution for it and that's what we'll do. We'll put
03:42this temporary solution in place pending the full repair come dry dock. And the dry dock
03:48is when? It's in five weeks time. That's Camel Aird is it? Camel Airds, yes. So we'll assess
03:57it then. Meantime, Manksman should be back in service tomorrow evening? Tomorrow evening
04:04we expect Manksman to resume at 17.15 tomorrow evening. It's important to point out that
04:10nobody was injured at all during this incident. How are the crew? Are they gutted? A lovely
04:19ship a year old has had a prang. I think that's always, unfortunately, the case. It was always
04:26going to happen. I don't think there's a steam packet or another ferry or any vessel in history
04:31that hasn't had a prang, especially when you're operating in and out of such tight
04:36ports as East Sherman Douglas. So the crew were very professional. I spoke to some of
04:40them this morning because they transferred across to the bend to help with the passenger
04:45service on there. This company has a lot of really good people working for them, whether
04:52that's in management and planning in the office, the ferry travel shop staff, the guys in the
04:57yard that do the freight, the crews on board, the officers, the captains. So everybody's
05:02pulled together and been able to move people around at really short notice. The contingencies
05:07have really kicked in and worked really well. It's fortunate, isn't it, that the bend was
05:11there? Well, that's really for truth. So really, in normal circumstances, if it wasn't for
05:17Mike's Grand Prix, the bend would have been here. So we would have had that delay of getting
05:22across there to bring people back. So that was the sort of piece of luck that we got,
05:27but we'd much rather not have damaged the Magsman. Does it raise the question about
05:31whether the bend should continue to be retained as a backup vessel? Well, I think that's the
05:37debate, isn't it? There's reasons for and against. Some of them are business reasons,
05:42some of them are operational reasons. So it's one of those things that I think is under
05:46consideration. So the company have asked permission to sail the bend because there
05:52is financial implications of keeping a 25-year-old ship. It worked great last night, but that
05:59needs to be maintained as well. So there'll be a bigger investment in that if we are going
06:04to keep it long term. And finally, I suppose people may ask, should the sailing have sailed
06:09at all last night, given the weather forecast? That's not really a question for the general
06:14public, it's a question for maritime experts and captains, and that's the decision the
06:18captain made. So that will always be the case. Brian, thanks very much. Thank you.