D/Cdt HIDALGO, Cleanard S.

Met-O 2
Pollux – II Capt. AGalon

A Case Study on APL China Accident

APL China is a container ship built in the year 1995 and is registered under Malta. The vessel has

a 5108 TEU, Length Overall (LOA) is 276.3 meters and the width is 40 meters.

On the November of 1998, APL China has experienced a great damage on its cargoes on board. It

was said that she carries about 4000 containers and at least 700 if this is damaged. In this situation, it was

a big loss to the company and the value of her damage is more than the value of the ship itself. Also, it

was considered that her incident was the most expensive lost in shipping industry during her time.

The root of the damage cannot be pointed out to the crew or directly human error but mainly from

parameters of the ship or so called ‘parametric rolling’, and natural occurrence of wave frequencies.

There is a phenomenon called parametric rolling resonance. This is when longitudinal waves hit the ship,

it causes a roll motion to the ship and it may grower bigger over time. Then the effect of the large

longitudinal waves make the ship roll at a big angle, which also increases. When this happens, there is a

high possibility that the ship will lead to capsize. This is the reason why experts concluded that

parametric roll resonance is dangerous to ships to encounter.

Although the idea has already been known before what happened to APL China, she was the first

one to experience this kind of accident. They also know that large vessels are prone to this kind of

occurrence. The varying shapes of the fore and aft body parts are one factors to the resulting of cargo

damage. Even if the occurrence of roll resonance does not result to capsizing, it can still bring damage to

the ship, cargo, or even the crew on board.

However, there are certain ways to deal with this kind of problem. One way is to utilize the

ballast change in order to alter the KG as well as the GMT of the ship. Then there will be a change in

rolling period which also results in non-synchronous value. The other way is changing of the ship’s

heading direction. The vessel must be oriented differently so that the approaching wave frequencies are

changed and there is an effect of yawing to the vessel. Next is to aim for the non-existence of
D/Cdt HIDALGO, Cleanard S. Met-O 2
Pollux – II Capt. AGalon

synchronism or resonance with the wave frequency. This can be attained by changing the speed of the

ship. Then, an anti-rolling acting stabilizing system is important to the ship when reducing parametric

rolling. This system can be used on all speed of the ship where in it is able to transfer water across the

vessel in a vertical way between two tanks. Lastly, hydraulic fin stabilizers are either hinged or telescopic

located at ship sides or at near to the amidships.

Therefore to conclude, the incident happened to APL China is mainly because of the parametric

roll resonance where the large wave frequencies hit the ship longitudinally. In this case, the vessel

experienced a large angle of heeling from the rolling and as a result, billions of cargo on board incurred

loss. It may not have been recognized before the accident however, modern naval architects and shipping

industries consider this factor for most of all the ships in order to avoid the same occurrences in the

future.