Maersk Brooklyn off to take over from Charlotte Maersk damaged by fire in Malaysia

Maersk Brooklyn, the last of the laid up ships to leave Loch Striven and the last to leave the Clyde, reached Le Havre on schedule yesterday evening, bunkered and set out again this morning bound for Malaga.

She is taking over duty from Charlotte Maersk, the 9,194 teu container ship which suffered a major fire aboard in the Malacca Strait, 60 miles off Port Klang on Wednesday 7th July.

Charlotte Maersk, under Captain Dick Danielsen, had left Port Klang for Oman when, at 21.30 local time, fire started on her foredeck, in a container carrying dangerous goods. She had a cargo of 1,000 containers, with a 21-man crew for the voyage – Danes, Indians, Filipinos and Ukranians, all of whom are safe and unhurt.

The ship began its own firefighting and the Malaysian authorities sent fire fighting ships  to help. An amphibious Bombardier aircraft was also involved in the firefighting. Over twenty four hours later, containers were still burning, resisting efforts to extinguish them. Photographs show fire burning steadily almost midships.

Maersk got a Svitzer salvage master on board by 8th July and sent a team of eight fire fighting experts and one marine chemist, who arrived that evening. One tug arrived that evening – assisting with firefighting – and three more the following day.

The procedure in fighting such fires is that for the first 4-6 hours containers in a specific place are cooled, after which a thermal camera establishes the temperature and, if this indicates that it is safe to enter the area, what is called ‘surgical container extinguishing’ is carried out, This means using container-cutting equipment to open and then to extinguish the burning containers, one at a time.

In the Charlotte Maersk fire, the temperature was very high in some areas – 1,000 Celsius – ruling out surgical extinguishing until more cooling took place.

Six days later, on 13th July, the fire could be said to be contained but had not been extinguished. 150 containers were involved and by 13h July 20 of these had been extinguished. By then Maersk had doubled the number of firefighting experts on the ship – to two firefighting team leaders and 13 firefighters, all very experienced.

Given the dates of the incident and that Brooklyn is now off to fill in for Charlotte Maersk, it may be that this is the reason why Brooklyn did not leave the Clyde as planned on 12th July but waited until 15th, after which she has wasted no time, making a quick exit from Le Havre on her way to Malaga.

This is not quite the voyage that Captain Fantastic, David Johnstone, had anticipated for his and Brooklyn’s return to service.

As we write, Brooklyn is rounding the northwest headland of Brittany on her way south, doing 19.2 knots on 242 WSW.

Update 10.30 20th July: We’ve lost Brooklyn. We saw her last off Porto on the Spanish west coast early yesterday evening but can find no trace of her this morning. She was scheduled to arrive in Malaga at 17.00 this evening. Charlotte Maersk was due to go to Oman from Port Klang when containers went on fire on her foredeck. With Brooklyn now off to fill in for Charlotte and assuming that there was a cargo at Oman to be loaded, we would expect Brooklyn to cross the Med and go through the Suez Canal to reach Oman. Speculation is all we’ve got at the moment but we’ll keep a look out for Brooklyn and update if we find her.

Update 23.00 20th July: Found her. She’s just coming through the Straits of Gibraltar, doing 12.9 knots on 64 ENE – and with a revised ETA for Malaga – 04.00 21st July.

Update 22.00 21st July: Brooklyn left Malaga around 21.00, headed for Fos Fur Mer, just west of Marseilles, with an ETA of 12.00 on 24th July. She’s currently doing 12.7 knots on 101 ESE.

Update 08.45 22nd July: Already round the south east promontory of Spain in the Mediterranean, Brooklyn is headed 49NW and doing 13.5 knots, with Carboneras on the mainland falling astern to port. And for the ship she is replacing in the Maersk schedules for the time being, a comment posted last night by site visitor Hugh MacFarlane says: ‘Charlotte Maersk is reported to have arrived 19 July at the port of Tanjung Pelepas on the river Pulai in Malaysia, where her containers will be unloaded’.

Update 21.15 22nd July: Brooklyn is now north east of Denia on the Spanish east coast, running between the mainland and the hedonists’ Island of Ibiza in the Balearics – big change from the cool proprieties of Loch Striven. She’s doing 13.2 knots on 33 NE.

Update 10.50 23rd July: Now north of the Balearics and with one of the world’s favourite cities, Barcelona, abeam to port, Brooklyn is a couple of hours off a line with the Spanish-French border. doing 12.5 knots on 37 NE. Her destination of Fos Sur Mer, west of Marseilles, is pretty much on the nose and she’s well on schedule for her ETA there of 12.00 tomorrow (24th July).

Update 05.00 24th July: Brooklyn has anchored in the centre of the wide entrance to the bay and harbour at the Mediterranean port of Fos Sur Mer, west of Marseilles. There are a lot of ships at anchor in the bay ahead of her, so if she is waiting her turn to berth, it’s not going to be quick.

Update 03.30 27th July: For the past two days Brooklyn has stayed at anchor in the entrance to the harbour at Fos Sur Mer, queueing to berth, with many ships still ahead of her in the inner harbour.

Update 20.00 29th July: Maersk Brooklyn moved into a berth at Fos Sur Mer earlier today and is alongside.

Update 00.15 30th July: Still berthed at Fos Sur Mer, Brooklyn is now showing her next voyage – to Genoa, with an ETA of 06.00 on 31st July. So she is moving eastwards across the Mediterranean, which leaves the Suez canal route to Oman still a possibility in her filling in for Charlotte Maersk.

Update 17.00 31th July: Brooklyn is still berthed at Fos Sur Mer and her ETA at Genoa has now been brought forward to 05.00 on 31st July.

Update 20.50 31st July: Finally leaving Fos Sur Mer before 04.00 this morning (31st July 2010), Brooklyn is now well on her way to Genoa, doing 11.5 knots on 61 ENE and passing east of Mougins on the French Riviera. Her ETA at Genoa is now 04.00 1st August.

Update 11.15 1st August: Brooklyn is now at anchor off Genoa, about a thid of the way east on a line between Loano on the east shore and La Spezia on the west.

Update 21.00 1st August: Still lying off Genoa, Brooklyn is now showing at ETA at the port of 04.00 on 3rd August 2010.

Update 01.30 3rd August: Maersk Brooklyn moved in to berth on the outside of the southermost jetty in Genoa – opposite Cristoforo Colombo International Airport, whose runway comes down the east pier.