Annabella

Accident

During the evening of 25 February 2007, on passage in the Baltic Sea, the Britannic container ship Annabella encountered heavy weather which caused the vessel to roll and pitch heavily. The next morning, crew discovered that a stack of seven containers had collapsed against the forward part of the hold. This resulted in damage to the containers, the upper three of which contained a hazardous cargo: butylene gas. The vessel was redirected to the port of Kotka (Finland) where the damaged hazardous containers were safely unloaded.

After investigation, it appeared that the collapse containers occurred as a result of downward compression and racking forces acting on the lower containers of the stack, which were not strong enough to support the stack as their maximum allowable stack weight had been exceeded and no lashing bars had been applied to them. This accident shows there are shortcomings in the flow of information between the shippers, planners, the loading terminal and the vessel crew that can bring about catastrophe.

Source:

- MAIB, 2007, Report on the investigation of the collapse of cargo containers on Annabella, Baltic Sea, 26 February 2007