SS SILVER DOVE CARGO SHIFT AND SINKING IN THE NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN ON 2 APRIL 1973 WITHOUT LOSS OF LIFE. MARINE CASUALTY REPORT

At 0937 on 31 March 1973, the freighter SS SILVER DOVE, en route from Guam to the Panama Canal with a bulk cargo of raw sugar, listed suddenly to port; the vessel sank 41 hours later 180 miles southwest of Johnston Island. Water had been leaking through a crack in the hull for several days; since the crew's attempts to repair the hull were unsuccessful, the vessel had stopped in Guam for temporary repairs. After leaving Guam, the leak continued, however, and the ship listed slightly to starboard. The sudden list to port occurred when the master shifted weight to the port side to correct the starboard list. The crew was rescued before the ship sank. The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the sinking of the SILVER DOVE was the loss of transverse stability when the master was unable to assess the vessel's stability and incorrectly transferred fuel and water at a time when a crack was allowing seawater to leak into the sugar cargo. Contributing factors were the inability of the repair crew to repair the crack in the hull properly, the Coast Guard inspector's release of the ship without insuring proper temporary repairs because he had no inspection instructions, the inability of the ship's crew to remove the leaking water, and the creation of empty cargo space when the sugar dissolved to form the viscous sugar-water solution. (Author)

• Corporate Authors:

  National Transportation Safety Board

  800 Independence Avenue, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20594

  United States Coast Guard

  2100 Second Street, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20593
• Publication Date: 1976-9-10

Media Info

• Pagination: 63 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Angle of repose; Bulk cargo; Cargo handling; Cargo ships; Cracking; Crash investigation; Fatalities; Floods; Free surface; Hulls; Human error; Maintenance; Mechanical stability; Repairing; Shipwrecks; Stresses; Sugar; Water transportation crashes
• Identifier Terms: United States Coast Guard
• Uncontrolled Terms: Ship hulls
• Geographic Terms: Pacific Ocean
• Old TRIS Terms: Cargo stability; Crack formation; Crack repair; Damage stability; Free surface effects; Hull stress; Ship casualties; Ss silver dove; Transverse stability
• Subject Areas: Freight Transportation; Hydraulics and Hydrology; Maintenance and Preservation; Marine Transportation; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00154934
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
• Report/Paper Numbers: USCG-NTSB-MAR-76-1
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 31 1978 12:00AM