A crew member is taken from the Vigor SW. PHOTO/Vietnam Border Guard
By MARITIME CORRESPONDENT
Four seafarers have died in separate sea mishaps that includes one where a general cargo ship sank off the coast of Turkey and another involving a suspected gas poisoning according to media reports.
A crew member died and two more were in a coma after a suspected case of gas poisoning on a Taiwanese bulker in Vietnam. The incident took place on the 32,000-dwt open-hatch vessel Vigor SW (built 2009) at Nghi Son International Port.
VN Express cited the border guard command of Thanh Hoa Province as saying on Tuesday that the three seafarers were Chinese nationals. Tradewinds reports that the Panama-flag ship was docked at the time. During unloading operations, the master discovered three colleagues unconscious.
They were named as Zhuang Lijn, 52, Li Wen Liang, 33, and Kong Deshan, 23. The trio was taken to hospital, but one later died. Another suffered broken ribs.
Doctor Duong Tat Linh, director of Hop Luc International General Hospital, said it is possible that the crew members had been poisoned by hydrogen sulphide.
The gas is often produced from the microbial breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen, such as in swamps, sewers or a ship’s cargo hold.
The border guard said it is working with other agencies to investigate the accident. The bulker is owned by Taiwan’s Shih Wei Navigation, which has been contacted for comment. The ship has a clean port state control detention record.
And in the other incident, Tradewinds reports another three crew members died and another six were reported missing after a general cargo ship was lost off Turkey.
Turkey’s Coast Guard launched a search for the missing seafarers. PHOTO/ Creative Commons.
The 3,100-dwt Joe 2 (built 1993) sank 35km off Kumluca on the Mediterranean coast on 5 April, Turkish officials said. The former Ali Bey, which was reflagged to Guinea-Bissau in March, had 14 seafarers on board.
Five crew members were rescued, three of whom sustained unspecified injuries, and three bodies were recovered. A search was launched for the remaining six seafarers. The vessel was heading to Izmail in Ukraine from the Turkish port of Iskenderun, according to Antalya governor Ersin Yazici.
The cargo ship was carrying a cargo of aluminium, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported. The cause of the sinking was not immediately clear. An investigation has been launched by the chief prosecutor’s office for Kumluca.
The Turkish Coast Guard Command said it received a distress call at 0347 hours and sent a corvette, seven boats, two helicopters and a plane to the scene.
Two crew members were rescued by the coast guard helicopters and taken to the Finike State Hospital, while three others were picked up by other ships in the area. All of the crew were Syrian nationals.
The rescue efforts were hampered by a storm, Anadolu reported. The Coast Guard said all the crew members on board were Syrian nationals. The vessel is listed as operated by Team Chartering & Shipping of Turkey. The Joe 2 was inspected in March in Tripoli, Lebanon, and was not detained.
Inspectors found five deficiencies, including missing emergency towing arrangements, an unreadable magnetic compass and improperly maintained ventilator air pipe casings. The ship was previously detained in 2020 in Bulgaria.
