The Finnish TV channel Nelonen has a series entitled Katastrofin anatomia (Anatomy of Disaster). It tells of events that shook the country. The tenth episode of the series, to be broadcast on Thursday, 19 November at 8 p.m., discusses an event with close links to our company: the capsizing of the Finn and the Baltic off the coast of Hanko on 27 December 1990. At that time, ESL Shipping had not started operating push barge combinations. Finn is now our push tug Steel, while Baltic became our barge Botnia.
The unfortunate accident in 1990 was mainly caused by the combined effect of wet cargo and rough seas, resulting in liquefaction of the cargo, which shifted so that the vessel became unstable and capsized.
Twenty-five years have now passed since the accident, and a lot has been done to improve safety – we have learned from the accident. The degree of liquefaction of the cargo is now taken into account, and easily liquefying ore of the same type is no longer transported in open barges at all. Consequently, push barges have safely transported over 80 million tons of cargo since the accident. Risks are communicated and instructions, procedures and equipment are being constantly developed in order to improve safety.
For further information, please contact:
Hans Björkestam
Safety & Environment Manager, DPA
ESL Shipping Ltd
Tel. +358 9 521 9924
