Chapter 11

STRANDING AND BEACHING

Introduction
When a vessel is grounded intentionally, she is said to be beached. If
she is grounded accidentally she is stranded.
Running aground and stranding are synonym terms. It can be well
appreciated that this is one of those emergencies that cannot be
anticipated after all, if you know that the ship is to run aground you
would take avoiding action!
Grounding in Port
The most common and frequent incident of grounding occurs while a
ship is in port. This happens when sufficient attention has not been paid
to the available depth alongside a berth and to the ships draft especially
at different stages of the loading sequence. You may calculate the final
draft to be well within the available depth, but there may be a certain
stage of the loading where your trim causes the draft (usually the aft
draft) touches bottom.
The other most likely grounding accidents take place when the vessel is
approaching a port or when navigating in its channel. These take place
on account of insufficient local knowledge of tides and currents in the
approaches. Such groundings do happen under the pilots advice also
but then a lot of other causes may be attributed to it including
inadequate power or the failure of steering etc. However all of these
occur on account of some aspects of human error and can therefore be
avoided.
Grounding at Sea
What happens when a ship runs aground at sea? Those that have
experienced this traumatic experience would not want to go through it
again! There are certain characteristic signs that have been observed in
such incidences, such as:

A sudden shuddering all over the vessel,

No response from the helm,

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Sudden increase in engine load or reduction of RPM as reported by the

duty engineer

In the daytime mud churning up may be seen around the propeller.

If any of these occurs, call master and notify engine room. If in any
doubt check past positions, soundings and see if engineers have
noticed any unusual happenings in the engine room. In any case, after
grounding or stranding takes place, there are actions that need to be
taken to minimize damage to property / loss of life or injuries.
You should be familiar with the emergency checklist / contingency
plan that is on board for grounding. The plan identifies ship specific
actions that are formulated for each ship and should be strictly followed
in case of grounding.
Listed below are actions that should be taken after a ship runs aground.
These are more general in nature and cover a wide range of activities
that should be looked into in an emergency of this kind. These should
not be confused with what is written in the emergency plan on your ship
but may supplement the same where not covered

Action to be taken on being confirmed as aground

Immediate actions

Stop engines.

Call master and the watch-keeping officers.

Inform the Engineers that the ship is aground and ask them to
switch over to high-level suction. (Continuing with low-level
suction may choke the circulating system with mud and debris).

Alerting actions

Alert the crew for by sounding emergency stations signal on the

ships alarm. The crew and officers thereafter should be detailed
to take the following actions.

Anchors to be let gone to arrest the drift of ship further in. The
anchors should be dropped underfoot and further action on the
anchors may be decided after a full appraisal of the situation.

Close all Water tight doors,

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Damage prevention

When crew is mustered at his or her stations a head count

should be taken to ensure that no crew member is missing.

Sound all tanks, bilges and cofferdams and check the levels
against the last available figures to determine if there is any
damage and ingress of water.

Soundings should be taken all around the ship to assess which

part of the ship is in contact with the bottom.

Determine the nature of the seabed. Arming the lead is one

way. However since availability of the deep-sea lead and tallow
is a doubtful you would have to devise some methods to
ascertain the same. The nature of the bottom tells you the ease
in which you may be able to pull the ship off

The draft should be read and compared with the original draft.
An estimate of the lost buoyancy can be determined by
comparing the difference in mean drafts with the mean draft
estimated.

The local tides should be studies to find the times of high and
low water and the range. This is not as easy as referring to the
Tide Tables in all positions is not possible. If a ships position is
close to a Primary or Secondary port then the tables may be
considered reliable enough to estimate only as the tides change
with distance and other parameters.

The above points are essential for determining the future

course of action and will be instrumental in deciding the method
of approach for subsequent refloating.

Maintenance of records
All actions prior to and after the stranding should be recorded in the
relevant Logs. The Deck Log, movement book, charts with the ships
positions etc are all to be preserved for future reference and
investigation etc. The information recorded is of importance to the
master also as his decision depends on the records that are ready
Taking soundings all around vessel

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In all cases of stranding, one of the principle methods of establishing

that the ship has indeed touched the bottom is by taking soundings all
around the ship using the hand lead line that is available on all ships.
These soundings must be taken starting from the bow to the stern; all
along the ships side at intervals of say 10m on both port and starboard
sides. Draw a rough sketch (outline of vessel- plan view) to indicate the
various points where the sounding is taken and write the sounding
alongside the sketch along with the time of the sounding. Wherever the
sounding is less than the draft, the ship is touching the bottom at that
point. (Do note the trim estimated as it changes the draft at these
positions)

Factors affecting refloating

Part of the vessel which is in contact with the ground

Area of the hull in contact.

Nature of the bottom sand, rock, clay, coral etc

Dangers to navigation in the vicinity

Weather and currents

Refloating
There are various methods and combinations of methods used for
refloating a ship aground. This is essentially the work of experts in the
field. However, a brief listing of the various methods used are as
follows1.

Refloating on high tide essentially this means that the buoyancy

provided by the rise in tide is by itself sufficient to reload a vessel
aground. There have been numerous cases where all a ship had to do
was, wait for high water and find herself afloat once again.

2.

Lightening All ballast water and any other non-essential liquids are
first discharged. This may also be done selectively i.e. only discharging
the ballast/fresh water etc from one part of the vessel to change the trim
or to provide additional buoyancy for that particular region.

3.

Lightening of cargo this is an expensive option, as lighters are

required to come alongside the vessel to discharge her cargo. In case
of a tanker, lighterage operations are carried out by oil barges or even
flexible hoses to some suitable storage.
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4.

Tugs tugs are usually the most viable option in most cases after
lightening and tides can be seen to have no effect. The simplest form of
tugs assistance is to pass a towing line to the vessel, and in conjunction
with the tide and current, use her pulling power to pull a stranded vessel
off a shoal. The number of tugs used, the angle of pull, and the power
required are all factors that are determined after studying the
circumstances.

5.

Ground tackle For smaller vessels ground tackle consists of the

ships anchor, which is laid out, in the direction in which refloating is
planned. The anchors are connected to heavy wire hawsers or a
section of the anchor cable, which are brought to the ship. Heavy
purchases are then attached to the gear, often securing a second
purchase to the hauling part of the first in order to obtain a mechanical
advantage, which will be the product of the two separate mechanical
advantages. This is then heaved on, in conjunction with the tidal force
of a rising tide or swell. Winch drums may also be used for the hauling,
as heavy tackles are not commonly found in present day ships.
However this layout and system of using the ground tackle is not
practical for larger vessels as can be appreciated considering the
weight of anchors on these ships, and the lack of suitable wires and
tackles required.
In the present context this consists of the ships anchor and cables,
which are used as a means of pulling a vessel off a shoal. The anchors
are carefully placed at a considerable distance from the ship and then
heaved by the ships windlass for providing the considerable force
required to move a grounded vessel. The placement of the anchors is
done with due consideration of the tide, currents and other factors and
requires the assistance of a tug or other such vessel that can carry the
ships anchors to the location desired while the cable is slacked. Once
the anchors are in position the cable is heaved and in many cases, this
is assisted by tugs that pull or push in conjunction to supplement the
force or pull required.

Beaching
There is of course an act of intentionally grounding called beaching
which is defined as an act of deliberately grounding a vessel in
circumstances which make this an action of last resort to avoid even
greater danger - as when a ship is damaged to such an extent that the
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ships system is unable to cope with the flooding and that continuing
would lead to foundering and loss of life etc.
What are the circumstances under which a master of a vessel may
have to consider the possibility of beaching?
Consider a collision near a relatively remote coast. The vessel is unable
to cope with the flooding caused by some damage and immediate help
is not available. Beaching in such circumstances can be considered
opening up the possibility of repair and refloating at a later stage, and a
possible salvage including the saving of some of the cargo etc.
Similar situation could arise if the vessel suffers heavy damage and
experiences flooding to the extent that it cannot be controlled. However,
beaching has to take into account various factors. Beaching being a
pre-planned action can be controlled to the extent that circumstances
permit, with the idea of causing minimum further damage to the ship
and making refloating at a later stage a feasible proposition.
Factors to consider
The action of beaching is of course a decision taken by the master,
undoubtedly with consultation of the owners, charterers, underwriters
etc. However, a few of the important considerations are mentioned here
for your information.

The best type of beach is one, which has a firm surface neither too
hard, like rock nor too soft like sand or silt.

The beach should have a gentle gradual slope that enables a

It should be free from obstructions, rocks etc that may cause damage to
the bottom

It should be free of strong currents and surf.

Tidal range should not be excessive, and neither should there be any
tidal range at all. Some tide is desirable as repairs etc can be affected
at low water and refloating attempted at high water.

How to beach
Beaching should always be done ideally at high water or at least on a
falling tide so that the ship sits slowly and settles easily on the bottom
without causing any strain or damage to the hull or bottom plating.
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A ship must always be ballasted to her maximum possible prior to

beaching, taking into consideration trim and other effects of course. This
gives the vessel ability to pump out her ballast at a later stage when
additional buoyancy is required, especially for refloating.
A ship is normally beached bow-first and in certain circumstances sternfirst also. Both have their advantages. Beaching head-on is easier as
the engines and rudder is available for use to control the operation, but
the more buoyant and therefore more vulnerable stern of the ship is
exposed to the sea and weather. Beaching stern-first has the advantage
of easier laying of her anchors to seaward, but is a much more difficult
manoeuvre to execute.
Attention is given as to how the crew would be landed ashore and the
safe launching of lifeboats or life rafts. In a number of cases the
beaching was carried out but the boats could not be launched due to
heavy surf or adverse weather conditions. When such difficulties arise it
would be better to carry out such abandonment in concert with SAR
organisations.

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