Report out on ship incident
The cargo ship Heemskerkgracht ran aground in the portion of the St. Lawrence Seaway that is in Kahnawake on August 22, 2024, spending more than 24 hours there. File photo
Earlier this week, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) released the report of the investigation into what happened to cause the cargo ship Heemskerkgracht to run aground in the Seaway in Kahnawake on August 22, 2024.
The ship was anchored for over 24 hours, before being towed away to Cote Sainte Catherine. The TSB’s investigation began there a few days later, on August 27.
No pollution or damage to any infrastructure in Kahnawake was reported, and the ship sustained minor damage. No one, on board or otherwise, was reported to be injured.
According to the report, the ship “ran aground after the main engine shut down due to the activation of a false alarm on the oil mist detector (OMD).”
OMDs are devices used to detect the presence of oil mist in the crankcase and, if necessary, shut down the engine if mist is in fact detected.
The report stated that “these detectors cannot differentiate between oil mist, water vapour, or smoke, which can trigger false alarms.”
Usually, the risk of false alarms can be reduced by fitting OMDs with a heater, which can help prevent the buildup of the vapour that would trigger the alarm.
However, the heater on Heemskerkgracht’s OMD was left unpowered, due to an error in maintenance.
In March 2023, the ship’s OMD was found to be needing a replacement as part of scheduled maintenance.
“However, the vessel received a different model, which required an external source of power for the heater, unlike the previous unit, which had a power source built into the head. As a result, the heater was left unpowered, leaving the measuring head vulnerable to false alarms caused by water vapour,” stated the report.
That false alarm came on August 22, where it was water vapour that triggered the alarm and automatic shutdown of the engine.
“As a result, the vessel lost propulsion and ran aground in the canal,” stated the TBS report.
“Following the occurrence, the vessel operator replaced the OMD measuring head with a unit matching the original model. The measuring head was confirmed to have been installed per the manufacturer’s instructions and was calibrated and tested.”
Although these incidents are rare, they have happened three times in 10 years in Kahnawake - apart from the 2024 incident, two others similar to it happened in 2015.
In October of that year, a ship lost power and hit the north shore of the Seaway. In December, another ship wedged itself into St. Nicholas Island, causing an oil leak.
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“Unfortunately, it’s a reality that we have in our community. It happens every few years,” commissioner of public safety Lloyd Phillips said in a previous interview about the incident in August of last year. “It’s something that we have to remain vigilant to.”
