Bourbon Rhode (2019)

Classification

• Incident Type: Sinking
• Severity: High

Vessel Details

Incident Details

Key facts

• Bourbon Rhode departed Las Palmas on 17 September 2019 for Georgetown, Guyana, after six weeks of service and maintenance work.
• FUELTRAX data recorded loss of steering and propulsion capability at 07:34 UTC on 26 September as the vessel encountered hurricane conditions.
• The last position received by SAT-AIS at 12:43 UTC was 15°35.383′ N, 040°12.783′ W; survivors reported seeing the vessel sink shortly after abandonment.
• Three of the 14 people aboard were rescued, four bodies were recovered, and seven people remained missing and presumed lost at sea when the interim report was published.
• The 16-day search involved 20 vessels and 15 aircraft overflights.

Narrative

The Luxembourg-flagged offshore anchor-handling tug supply vessel Bourbon Rhode departed Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, at 22:36 UTC on 17 September 2019. It was bound for Georgetown, Guyana, after spending six weeks in a local shipyard for service and maintenance. The Atlantic crossing was uneventful until the afternoon of 25 September, when the vessel entered tropical-storm-force winds associated with Hurricane Lorenzo. By 12:00 UTC on 26 September, the interim report recorded Beaufort Force 12 winds, waves of 9 to 14 metres and very poor visibility.

The report's casualty sequence relies partly on statements from the three surviving crewmembers. They reported that, at about 06:00 UTC on 26 September, the chief engineer alerted the bridge to a problem in the aft Z-Drive compartment. A crewmember sent to inspect saw water being removed with a portable pump and buckets. According to the survivor accounts, water was entering through inspection covers in the Shark Jaws housing frame, and watertight doors connecting the Z-Drive compartment, hold and engine room were open. Water reached the door coaming and entered the hold, while seas washing over the work deck also sent water through openings into the engine room.

FUELTRAX data recorded loss of steering and propulsion capability at 07:34 UTC, although both engines were then still running. Survivors associated this loss with increased rolling and a starboard list. Distress alerts followed, and at 08:45 the master advised the ship manager by Inmarsat-C that the vessel was sinking and that water was in the engine room.

The crew continued trying to control the flooding. A survivor reported that one leaking inspection cover was closed but another could not be secured with the equipment available. By 09:57, the vessel reported that its engines were unavailable, the crew had mustered, and the sea state prevented launching the life rafts. Subsequent messages reported loss of pumping capability and progressive flooding. The last Inmarsat-C message received ashore, at 12:28, stated that the Z-Drive compartment and engine room had been isolated but that water levels continued to rise.

The final FUELTRAX data at 12:38 showed all engines and generators stopped. The last SAT-AIS position, received at 12:43, was 15°35.383′ N, 040°12.783′ W, approximately 963 nautical miles east of French Guiana and 896 nautical miles west of Cape Verde. Survivors reported that the vessel sank shortly after they abandoned it. Five crewmembers initially held onto the external lifeline of an overturned life raft; two were later washed away. The bulk carrier Piet rescued the remaining three survivors from a life raft on 28 September.

MRCC Fort-de-France coordinated a 16-day search involving 20 vessels and 15 aircraft overflights. Four bodies were recovered. When active search operations were suspended on 12 October, seven people remained unaccounted for and were presumed lost at sea. The AET report is interim: its analysis and conclusions were explicitly incomplete, so the reported ingress paths, watertight-door condition, voyage decisions and maintenance history are evidence under investigation rather than final causal findings.

Sequence of events

Contributing factors

Investigation

Luxembourg's Administration of Technical Investigations (AET) led the safety investigation and issued Interim Report: Sinking of the vessel Bourbon Rhode on 26 September 2019 (AET/TM-2021/01) on 15 April 2021. The report assembled vessel data, communications, FUELTRAX records, survivor accounts and search-and-rescue information. Its analysis and conclusions chapters were expressly reserved for completion during the ongoing investigation. AET identified voyage planning, fleet monitoring, crewing, safety-management implementation, vessel design and maintenance, certification and emergency management as areas for further examination. It also issued a safety recommendation requiring procedures for opening, sealing, testing and maintaining Shark Jaw inspection covers. These investigation areas and the recommendation do not constitute a final determination of cause.

References

• AET Interim Report: Sinking of the vessel Bourbon Rhode on 26 September 2019
• AET safety recommendation LU-MA-SR/2020-003

Related

• Bourbon Rhode
• Atlantic Ocean
• Sinking
• Progressive Flooding
• Loss of Propulsion and Steering
• Administration of Technical Investigations (AET)

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