ROCKNES UPDATE 2

September 10th, 2009 by JCB
Posted in Articles | No Comments »

Readers may recall that following the grounding and capsize of the MV Rocknes, near Bergen, in 2004, which tragically resulted in the deaths of 18 of the 29 on board, I wrote an article (October 2004 pages 8 &9) with an update in the July 2005 issue (page 10) which stated that the Norwegian Hydrographic Service (NHS) would not be prosecuted over failures to plot the rock, upon which the MV Rockness grounded, on the relevant chart. That decision not to prosecute was the outcome of a criminal prosecution brought by the Bergen police.

Despite that 2005 ruling, the ship’s P&I club, along with other plaintiffs took the NHS to court to recover costs of NKr 700m (approx £68m) over the charting failures. The basis of the claim was that the Norwegian Chart Authority had discovered the shoal on which the Rocknes grounded during a survey in 1995, but the Norwegian State had failed to report the shoal with the result that navigators and pilots were unaware of its existence. The NHS had updated information about the shoal on a new edition but had not told anyone about it through a notice to mariners.

Mr Eilertsen, the plaintiffs’ lawyer argued that information about changes on new charts, such as hidden rocks, should be promulgated though Notices to Mariners, rather than being placed on the new charts, which left navigators and pilots to discover the changes for themselves. “ This was our argument. We have up to 100 pilots certified for that area and no one had discovered it (on the new chart),” said Mr Eilertsen. He suggested that sometimes the NHS would fail to let navigators or pilots know that a particular chart had been superseded. There is a convention that when a new chart is issued, as opposed to a reprint of an existing chart with all corrections marked, the older version can no longer be used but this practice hadn’t been followed in Norway. “In which case users lived under the opinion that so long as they continue to change the old chart according to the notice to mariners then they will continue to reflect the new chart.”

Mr Eilertsen said that the Norwegian authorities have now amended their practices,. It now has explicit print saying that new editions should always be used.

However, the original accident investigation in 2004 revealed that the vessel’s cargo of rocks could have been loaded badly and the grounding led to the cargo shifting, which in turn led to the capsize. The Oslo court decided that this was probably the case, and that had the vessel hit the rocks in a more stable condition it would have remained upright, thus limiting the liability of the hydrographic service.

The court’s judgment was delivered on May 29, 2009. The state was held liable for negligently omitting to report the shoal on which the Rocknes grounded. Due to the fact that the court held that there was contributory negligence on the claimants’ side, and since the court held that the Rocknes would not have capsized had it been properly loaded and the cargo trimmed, the damages were reduced to NorKr 22m (Approximately £2m)

The Norwegian government has already filed an appeal against the decision.

JCB