Two Ship's Captains found drunk - this week

by Des Ryan on 18 Aug 2010 Next time you encounter a large ship while sailing, just because it is big, don't automatically think that it will behave rationally - those controlling ships have been found dozing, or worse. Ships are subject to the same variances as drivers on a highway, most are responsible but some not, as the following stories, both within the last week, will attest:

In the first incident, reports in from Wellington in New Zealand are that a cargo ship has been forced to stay berthed in Wellington Harbour this week after port staff discovered its master was too drunk to set sail.

Maritime New Zealand authorities cancelled the sailing after the ship's master was found heavily intoxicated by the local pilot, who was to take the ship out of the harbour.

Maritime New Zealand would not name the master yesterday but confirmed he was drunk. It is understood he has been stood down.

Wellington harbourmaster Mike Pryce said the master was extremely drunk. 'I understand he was conscious but not well.'

Maritime NZ spokeswoman Sophie Hazelhurst said staff contacted the ship's owner and it voluntarily tied the ship up in Wellington until a replacement master could be flown out from Japan.

................................

In the second incident, AFP has reported that Swedish police on Friday charged the captain of a Dutch vessel that ran aground near the Helsingborg port with aggravated drunkenness and carelessness in sea traffic.

The 44-year-old captain, a Ukrainian citizen, was more than four times over the legal alcohol limit when the ship ran aground earlier Friday, Calle Persson of the Skaane police told AFP.

Persson said the captain had an alcohol level, as measured by a breath test, of 0.4 milligrams per litre, with the legal limit for navigating at 0.1 milligrams per litre.

He added the captain was arrested for 'aggravated drunkenness at sea' even though aggravated drunkenness usually starts at 0.5 milligrams of alcohol per litre, because of the circumstances.

'It is a decision that was taken considering he was the commanding officer of a big ship that he was navigating in the shallow Oeresund strait,' he said.

The 85-meter (278 feet) Flinterforest, a Dutch vessel, ran aground early Friday a few kilometers (miles) north of the southwestern port of Helsingborg, on her way from Finland to Scotland with a cargo of paper rolls.