A refrigerated cargo ship had berthed in southampton to discharge a cargo of fruit. On the day of arrival the local port state authorities had boarded the ship in order to conduct a port state control (psc) inspection, which included a lifeboat drill. While securing the lifeboat after the drill, the ship`s bosun sustained minor injuries as the forward end of the lifeboat fell from its davit due to it not being correctly reset when it was hoisted from the water.
What happened?
During the port stay a Port State Control Officer (PSCO) from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) boarded the ship in order to conduct a Port State Control (PSC) inspection. During the inspection the PSCO noted several deficiencies, which included incorrect recording of the crew’s hours of rest and defective fire hydrants.
On the basis of these findings, the PSCO ordered the crew to carry out an abandon ship drill using the port side lifeboat. The chief officer (C/O) was the lifeboat commander and he entered the lifeboat together with five other crew members.
The C/O instructed the crewman operating the lifeboat davit winch on the embarkation deck to release the brake and lower the lifeboat into the water. When the lifeboat was in the water its engine was started and the C/O pulled the hook release handle (Figure 2) to free the boat from the davit suspension links. However, the hooks failed to open. The C/O pulled the release handle again and this time the hooks opened and released the lifeboat from the davit suspension links. The C/O manoeuvred the lifeboat clear of the ship and sailed around before returning and bringing the lifeboat alongside the ship in order to be lifted. During the preparation to be hoisted the lifeboat crew experienced difficulties resetting the hook release gear and two crewmen were required to pull on the hook release handle to force it into a position in which the safety pin could be inserted.
With the lifeboat in position below the davit arms, several attempts had to be made by the lifeboat crew before the davit suspension links were finally connected to the lifeboat hooks. Once engaged, the hooks were checked by the C/O who then instructed the crew to connect the Fall Preventer Devices (FPD) (Figure 3) to the forward and aft hooks. After both FPDs had been secured the lifeboat was lifted from the water, though some of the lifeboat crew were not convinced that the hooks had been correctly reset. When reaching the embarkation deck, all six crewmen disembarked from the lifeboat before it was hoisted into its davit.
The C/O instructed the ship`s bosun and two crewmen to secure the lifeboat. The two crewmen boarded the lifeboat to assist in positioning the gripe wires forward and aft. The bosun instructed the men in the boat not to release the FPDs until he had connected the gripes to the davit arms (Figure 4). The aft gripe had been secured and the bosun was connecting the forward gripe when the C/O came to the lifeboat and instructed the men in the boat to release both FPDs. As soon as the forward FPD shackle pin was removed, the hook opened and the forward end of the boat fell onto the handrails on the deck below (Figure 4), striking and injuring the bosun as it fell.
The emergency services were called and the bosun was taken to a local hospital for medical assessment.
Source: https://britanniapandi.com/2021/12/bsafe-incident-case-study-14-accidental-release-of-a-lifeboat/