APL England master faces charges over shipping container loss

Charges have been laid against the master of the APL England, which lost about 50 containers overboard off Sydney on Sunday. The offences relate to pollution and/or damage of the Australian marine environment as a result of poor cargo loading, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said.

AMSA General Manager Operations Allan Schwartz said laying charges against the ship’s Master was not undertaken lightly.

“This and other incidents remind us of the important role the ship’s Master has in ensuring the ships that ply our waters are operated safely and do not damage our marine environment.

“Today’s actions should not detract from the responsibility of the ship owner APL Singapore, insurer Steamship Mutual, and operator ANL who remain accountable for remediation of any impacts of this incident.

“We welcome ANL taking responsibility by engaging contractors to undertake shoreline clean-up and retrieve some of the floating containers this week, but the impacts of this incident could take months, if not years to remediate and we expect these efforts to be sustained for however long it takes.”

Mr Schwartz said the ship remained under detention in the Port of Brisbane and would not be released until its serious deficiencies have been rectified.

“As of today, AMSA has placed an additional requirement on the owner of the ship under the Protection of the Seas Act which must be met before the ship will be released from detention.

“This action seeks financial security from the insurers in the order of $22 million. This provides a commitment that they will remediate all impacts of this incident. That $22 million covers estimated costs including that of a clean-up.”

AMSA’s investigation is ongoing.