Devon council seeks answers to ports of refuge dilemma

Thursday 10 May 2007

FRESH turf has been laid in front of the Sea Shanty restaurant on Branscombe Beach. The shoreline is spotless.

Virtually the only evidence of the drama that unfolded a few hundred yards out to sea nearly four months ago is a receptacle for any remaining debris found from MSC Napoli — plus the ship itself which is clearly visible from the coast.

The huge containers and their contents that spilled ashore when the ship was grounded in January were cleared up some time ago.

All that is left are mostly small items that wash up on each tide — although a drum of hydrochloric acid was found on the beach at Lulworth Cove, some way along the coast, just a fortnight ago.

But it will be many years before the memories of those caught up in the crisis as the stricken ship was towed into Lyme Bay begin to fade.

As news spread that cargo from the ship was being strewn along the coast, hordes descended on the tiny village of Branscombe.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency was in no doubt about the law of salvage. Any cargo lost overboard from the ship remains the property of the original owner.

“Finders keepers is an urban myth,” says Mark Rodaway, the MCA’s district officer at Portland who was on duty when the decision was taken to bring the vessel to Lyme Bay.

But with the police unsure, partly because of what locals describe as an “unhelpful” press briefing by the Receiver of Wrecks, and refusing to close access to the beach until legal advice had been obtained, MCA officers found themselves trying to maintain order as 53 containers landed on the beach.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” recalls Mr Rodaway who spotted small children shivering alone on the rocks as their parents tried to force open 20 ft and 40 ft containers that were being tossed around in the tide. “It was really dangerous.”

African language bibles were used as fuel for bonfires, and locals had their wheelie bins emptied, wheel barrows stolen and garden gates ripped off as scavengers used whatever they could to carry off their pickings.

“We felt intimidated,” says Devon County Councillor Margaret Rogers who is also a resident of Branscombe.

The MCA’s Pete Pritchard, whose team tried to operate a traffic management system along the narrow lane to the coast in the absence of police intervention, was shocked by his experience.

“I was verbally abused and threatened,” he vividly remembers.

Once the police were sure they had the power to cordon off the beach, order was restored. But the response of the different emergency services will be one of the issues to be addressed in a public inquiry that Devon County Council plans to hold.

Inspector Nevin Hunter of Devon and Cornwall’s contingency planning unit, admits that the MSC Napoli mishap was a unique event for which the authorities were not fully prepared.

“There was confusion about the legislation and we needed to take legal advice,” he says.

“There was no precedent in place and (the issue) took time to resolve.”

The question of whether the police had sufficient manpower has also been asked, but Inspector Hunter denies there was such a problem. “We could handle it,” he told Lloyd’s List. But what has emerged from the MSC Napoli incident is the fact that the risk from container shipping has not been taken sufficiently seriously, at least until now.

For one brief moment, MSC Napoliwas the world’s largest containership when it was launched in 1992 as CGM Normandie. Today, its capacity is less than half the size of the latest generation coming into service. Nevertheless, most plans in place to cater for a maritime casualty focus on oil spills. The police and local authorities are far less prepared for several dozen containers washing up on the beaches of southern England.

“We realised that all our contingency plans are based on an oil spill, not inert pollution which requires a very different clean-up solution,” says Rachel Waldock, maritime conservation officer for Natural England who has been working with the salvage team from the very beginning.

Devon County Council and East Devon District Council quickly came to the same conclusion.

Neither was it clear who was in charge as containers started to come ashore. While the MCA undoubtedly had responsibility for what was happening at sea, there was no clear command structure on land, according to Brian Greenslade, leader of Devon County Council.

“No-one seemed to know the law,” he said in a recent meeting with Lloyd’s List. “We were waiting to be led.”

These and many other issues that have emerged from the MSC Napoli affair will now be addressed in the public inquiry that the county council plans to hold in the absence of one at national level.

But for locals, one of the most important issues will be Lyme Bay’s status as a designated port of refuge.

“Were we aware of that? Absolutely not,” Mr Greenslade states emphatically. Neither he nor other councillors question the decision to take the limping ship into shelter there, given the circumstances, but they still believe there is a case to be answer.

The county council hopes the conclusions from its public inquiry later this year will help shape future contingency planning, both locally and nationally.

“Although the recovery operation for the MSC Napoli has progressed well, the incident itself has thrown into sharp focus a number of long-standing concerns about the potential risks posed to such an environmentally sensitive area as Lyme Bay and the World Heritage coastline and also raised questions about contingency planning for emergencies involving large container vessels,” writes Devon County Council chief executive Phil Norrey in setting out the terms of the inquiry.

“What we don’t want to happen is for the wreck to be cleared, and we just say ‘that’s done’ and then do nothing more,” say councillor Mike Green from East Devon District Council and Mark Reilly, head of the council’s street scene services. For most now realise that it could easily happen again.

All agree that there are many lessons to be learned from the MSC Napoli accident, at local, national, and international level.

In future, contingency planning ought to include cargo ships as well as oil tankers. That should be the legacy of MSC Napoli.