On this episode of What’s Going On with Shipping, a Russian ship captain has found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence after a fatal North Sea collision. I’m your host, Sal Maglan, and welcome to today’s episode. So we have been following the events that transpired last year up in the North Sea with an elig not a collision but an elision between the motor vessel Salong and the motor tanker Stenna Immaculate.

 Stenna Immaculate was at anchor. Motor vessel Salong was heading southbound from Scotland heading over to the continent of Europe when the ship impaled itself on the port side of Stenna Immaculate. We’re going to talk about the guilty plea just found against the master of the Modessa salon and also talk about what happened on board the Stenna Immaculate.

 Some amazing harrowing stories coming out of that event. If you’re new to the channel, hey, take a moment, subscribe to the channel, and hit the bell so we learn about new videos as they come out. Now, we covered this story when it happened back on March 10th, 2025. The motor tanker Stenna Immaculate was under contract to the US Navy’s military sealiff command to deliver air force jet fuel to US Air Force bases actually RAF bases used by the US Air Force in England.

 The illision and it’s an elision because motor tanker Stenel Immaculate was at anchor. The ship was not maneuvering and technically a collision takes place between two maneuvering or moving objects. An collision takes place when a moving object strikes a stationary object. And although Stenna Immaculate was at anchor and was technically moving on its anchor chain, it was not underway.

 Hence the designation as an vice a collision. Now the UK courts have come out with a decision against the master of the motor vessel Salong, which was a Portuguese flagged vessel registered in Madiraa. The findings are here in this story from G Captain. This is a Reuter story. Vladier Motton 59 was captain a salon when it hit the Stenna Immaculate tanker which was anchored and carrying just over 220,000 barrels.

 Barrel is 42 gallons of high-grade aviation fuel. The March 10th crash started a blaze on both ships and caused the death of Salon crew member Mark Perier, a Philippines national whose body has never been found and is presumed dead. Prosecutor Tom Little told jurors at the start of Motton’s trial last month that the captain did quote absolutely nothing unquote to prevent the collision having been on a course to hit the Senate Immaculate for more than 30 minutes before the crash.

Motton’s lawyer, James Leonard, said Motton unsuccessfully tried to take the salong off autopilot and change course, arguing that while Molton was at fault, he was not grossly negligent. Motton, who had pleaded not guilty, was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter of Peria after a trial at London’s Old Bailey’s Court.

 His sentence will be on Thursday. Little said in court that Perier’s wife, who lives in the Philippines, was 7 months pregnant at the time of his death, and the child has since been born. That is actually the his second child, which he will never see. All right, let’s go over first to the UK’s report on this, their interim report on the collision.

 So this is the United Kingdom’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch uh interim report. This is as of April 2025. So as we noted, Stenna Immaculate had departed Greece with about 220,000 barrels of aviation fuel. She was bound for Clingholm, England and was expected to birth on 11 March. The Portugal registered container ship Salong was in a fixed trade in the North Sea between Rotterdam, Graangemouth, and Hull.

 And on 10 March 2025, its containerized cargo included various products, including some designated as dangerous goods. We’re going to discuss those in a second. When Sten Immaculate approached the Humber estuary on Nying March, they contacted the associate British port vessel traffic service for the Humber and they were advised to proceed to anchor at a position 5 miles to the north of the Humber light float in 2 miles clear of any pipeline.

 By 2000 hours on 9 March, Song had departed Graange Mount, Scotland, disembarked the pilot, and commenced its passage to Rotterdam. So long planned passage following a route the vessel had used in the past. Uh some of the previous videos I did track all that. So if you want to go back, we went through their track using marine traffic.

 This is the heart of the report here. At approximately 0130 on 10 March, Salong passed Longstone Lighthouse off the northeast coast of England. An altered course under a heading of approximately 150°. So long maintained this course except for a slight deviation at 0345. We believe that may have been for some traffic.

 Uh the ship was probably running on an autopilot following a fixed point, but at 0700 So long’s master returned to the bridge and took over the watch as the lone watchkeeper. Very common for lone watchkeepers to be on the bridge of vessels, especially small trading vessels like the Salong. The visibility in the area north of Humber Light Float was reported to be patchy and varying between 0.

25 25 and two nautical miles. The video I showed you just before was from a crew member on board so long looking forward out of his port hole, the Alleion between Salong and Stenna Immaculate. Neither Salong or Stenuline had a dedicated lookout. Not that it would helped in the case of Stenna Immaculate at all.

 At 0947, Salong elided with the anchored Sten Immaculate port side on a heading of 150° and speed over the ground of about 16 knots. That’s really really fast as you saw in that initial video. Abel Seaman Mark Pina, one of Salong’s crew, was reported to be in the folks area at the time of the collision. So the conviction of Vladimir Motin, the master of Salong on manslaughter and gross negligence is a significant event.

However, the other element I want to talk about here were the actions of the crew on board Stenna Immaculate. I’ve been wanting to put this story together for a while, waiting for a good opportunity. And this is perfect because the performance of the crew on Stenna Immaculate was absolutely amazing.

 Just some unbelievable work to prevent this accident from being much larger. Here you see images of the crew of Sten Immaculate. Although there was one non-crew member there that is William Barry right there, Willie Barry. He’s president of American Maritime Officers, the AMO, one of three unions uh present on board the ship. Uh AMO, SIU, the Seafares International Union, and a uh mate from MEBA, the Marine Engineers Beneficial uh Association were on board the ship.

 23 crew members on board Stenna Immaculate. And I really want to take a moment and talk about their performance because the story when it came out was unbelievable. And then I talked to members of the crew and it’s even more unbelievable. So there are several things about this illusion that has to stand out.

 Both these ships are hauling dangerous goods on board. So motor tanker Sten Immaculate is loaded with jet fuel. As you see the salon come into image here. That collision immediately bursts the fuel in that port tank into flames. So, a couple of things really important to note here. Motor tanker extended immaculate has a series of 16 tanks, eight on each side.

 This rupture takes place on the port side number seven tank. Once the elion takes place and you open up that compartment, one of the things that is done on board modern ships to prevent fire and explosion is that the ships use an inert gas system. They basically reduce the oxygen level in the tanks down to about 4 to 8% oxygen.

 That is not enough to support combustion. So that when this lesion takes place, you rupture the tank, you allow oxygen in. Now you have sparks, you have heat, and you get this explosion that takes place. And so what you see here on the video is fire emanating from that ruptured fuel tank. You will also notice how the front of salong takes off.

 So the report mentioned dangerous cargo on board motor vessel salong. The dangerous cargo on board motor vessel salon is a series of containers, what are called ISO containers, international standard uh organization containers loaded with, get ready for it, scotch, scotch whiskey. They’re hauling alcohol down. So that when this explosion takes place, this is a combination of jet fuel and alcohol all burning.

 And obviously this is going to be a major event. I should also mention at 16 knots what happens to the ship the standard immaculate is it keeps swinging on the anchor. Ship never disengages its anchor. So it’s swinging on the hook. But as it’s swinging it is dumping this fuel and this whiskey into the ocean and it is on fire and engulfing around the ship.

 So you have a fire with the two ships joined together and you have fire spreading on the ocean. Now, one of the things that’s not mentioned in the report and really should be is that Motor Vessel Salon did the worst thing they could have done, and that is back out of the situation. They actually pulled their ship out from the Stenna Immaculate.

 I would have argued that if they kept themselves together, they could have kind of controlled this situation a bit more. That’s a little bit second-guing, I know, but it’s always a bad thing to extricate one out, but they did at that moment. This is that video from earlier showing a view from below the bridge on Salong. It’s looking out through one of the forward windows there from a stateateroom on board the vessel.

 You can see the collision. Notice the visibility. You can see what they’re talking about with the fog and and reduced visibility. But the fire now is taking place and up forward you can see those ISO containers right there, those round barrels that are burning right there. those are going to start cooking off and engulfing the forward part of the ship.

 So, I want to read to you from some of the press releases that came out. There were two of them. One from AMO, the American Maritime Officers, and one from the Seafares International Union, the SIU. This one’s from the SIU. So, Jerry Griffin, who’s an SIU member, was sailing on board Stenna Immaculate on his very first trip as a third maid.

Third mate is the junior deck officer on board a ship. I’ll read you directly from the report now. While the vessel anchored near Hull, England, Griffin happened to glance at his watch and saw 0947 hours. He briefly weighed whether to continue a procedure known as sniffing the tanks. That’s when you go around and determine the oxygen levels to make sure the inert gas system is working or head off for the upcoming coffee break.

 Coffee break is from 10 to 10:15 on board ships. He decided to keep working for a bit. ship had 16 cargo tanks, eight on each side. Griffin was standing on the number seven starboard tank. So, he is about even with where this collision is going to take place, but on the opposite side when he heard a shipmate yell, and this is exactly what they wrote here in the report, quote, “What the parents heck is this guy doing?” I have a feeling that this union member did not use the word heck.

 I’m going to say he said, “What the f is this guy doing?” That’s the word I think came out of the mouths of a union member. Griffin said, quote, “I poked my head up and was able to see a vessel coming straight at us, straight at me and my tank. All I could see was something big and blue heading toward us.

 I immediately knew it’s not going to miss us. It was going fast. I was front and center when it elided between the seven port and sixport cargo tanks. There was a great big loud crunching noise that was followed by a whole lot of fire. For Bos and E and Sterry, those initial moments weren’t nearly as self-explanatory. Quote, “We heard the boom from the impact and it was shocking.

 We didn’t know what happened for sure. Maybe something with the engine. We felt the vibration and shock. And when I went to the window, I saw the bow of the other ship and the smoke and the fire. I was surprised at how fast it happened, but I saw black smoke and started yelling, “We’ve been hit. Fire on board. Fire on board.

” Apprentice ordinary seaman Benjamin Brown had a similar delayed reaction. Quote, “We were kind of confused at first. It wasn’t a huge jolt. I remember looking through the fog and seeing a container from the other vessel. All the alarms started going off. I could faintly see the white outline of the house on the other ship.

 And then that first fireball happened. The flames just shot out, and I thought, “This is really serious.” As the fire teams dawned the proper gear and began to try to extinguish the blaze, it became known that two officers were trapped on the bow. But the crew’s quick reactions, laying down foam and fighting the raging flames, enabled two officers working forward to return back through thick smoke to the house to join the rest of the crew and continue their fire and emergency duties together prior to abandoning ship. So, I want to shift

over here to the report. The crew of Immaculate responded valiantly, professionally, and bravely, said Captain Thomas M. Leaf. Our crew had nearly put the fire out. Fortunately, when the other vessel attempted to back out of the side of the immaculate, the fire flashed exponentially, overwhelming any further effort to be made by our dedicated crew, fire mitigation rapidly turned into vessel abandonment.

 The crew seamlessly pivoted to leaving the vessel in an orderly fashion. Move back over to the SIU report. Bosen Ster recalled, quote, “As the fire started to increase, we were thinking, this is a bigger problem than we first realized. We can’t fight it.” Then the chief mate Thor Pearson. That’s right.

 Chief mate Thor Pearson. [snorts] That is the best sailing name I have ever heard. If you name your child Thor Pearson, they’re either going to be a Chief Mate on a tanker on fire or star in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There’s only two options for that child. Chief Mate Thor Pearson got word we were changing from fighting the fire to a abandoning ship.

 According to third mate Griffin, he had teamed up with three seaf farers. I won’t say we were close to putting the fire out, but we were doing well. We had good pressure. I was about to do a muster. When we heard the word, forget the muster. Abandon shipped. We moved in the most organized but urgent way. Nothing was slamming into each other.

 We did a quick muster at the lifeboat. I had grabbed my phone and nothing else. We got the lifeboat manned. A lot of people were very scared to get in the lifeboat because of the flames and nearby smoke. Second mate, Peter Skiers did the fastest headcount I have ever seen, but he did count everyone. Sterry noted, “When we were ready to launch the boat, the wind, or maybe the position of the ship changed.

All the smoke came toward the house. We could feel it in our faces. There was so much smoke, we couldn’t see the ship that hit us. It was scary because the fire was so close.” Once the crew boarded the lifeboat positioned on the stern and utilizing a gravitational launch, they used a freef fall lifeboat, which is a trip if you’ve never been in one before. The bosen jumped in.

 He then informed one of the officers that the water they were about to enter was on fire. The lifeboat successfully moved away from the accident scene approximately a dozen miles from shore, and the crew’s relief was obvious. However, between the fumes and the trauma in 5-ft waves, which are a hell of a lot bigger when you’re in a lifeboat bobbing in the ocean than when you’re on a ship, uh the crew welcomed the nearly immediate opportunity to board other boats.

 Uh there was a great response from local boats in and around the Humber and that region. Uh we had workboats in the area that responded along with lifeboats from the RNLI, that’s the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. I believe I got it right. Uh that are basically volunteer lifeboat services that are up and down the coast of uh Great Britain and respond to events like this and other rescues.

 Uh the crew from Senate Immaculate was picked up within the hour. I want to go back to the AMO report and talk about the fact that two of the ship’s officers returned back to the vessel the following day. This is from Chief Mate Thor Pearson. Quote, “I returned to the vessel after the fires were out to stabilize the cargo and help with initial damage surveys.

 It is amazing how intact the vessel was despite the catastrophic rupture. All cargo lines, hydraulic systems, and inert systems were able to be quickly triaged and returned to service. I believe the constant operation of the fire pumps on deck helped to dissipate heat and prevent further loss. I believe the Stenna Immaculate is a testament to modern ship safety construction regulations and American sailor’s competencies.

 A cargo tank rupture and subsequent fire is a worst case scenario for any tanker. The Stan Immaculate Design limited the rupture to one cargo tank, which is less than 8% of the ship’s capacity. In my opinion, the crew’s response and boundary cooling prevented explosion and loss of life. While we were actively fighting the fire on our ship, the crew of the other ship was mustering to abandon theirs.

 If that is not a testament to pride and bravery of sailors, I don’t know what is. Pearson noted this. The engineering department was able to get foam, the main engine, and inert gas operational in a remarkably short timeline. The deck department and emergency response teams were able to use the tools available to minimize cargo loss and damage to the vessel.

 The bridge team’s decision not to trip critical systems prior to abandoning kept the fire pumps, generators, and inert gas functioning after our departure. Keeping those critical systems online even after we left is what prevented this tragedy from worsening. Pearson noted this. While I was o opening the deck main isolation valve to send inert gas to the cargo block, I could see salon crew mustering to abandon their vessel.

 At that point, several explosions in quick succession reinvigorated the fire, and the heat was getting fairly intense. I recalled the firefighters from the deck and notified the master that we should consider abandoning ship. The master agreed and gave the order for the Sten Immaculate to abandon ship.

 We quickly stowed fire gear and mustered successfully at the freef fall lifeboat. Captain Thomas Leaf at the end of this statement said this quote, “I cannot recall a single maritime event, whether US flag or other, where there have been a greater level of catastrophe without a single injury or loss of life for a vessel like ours.

 Clearly, this is a testament to the ability and professionalism of today’s modern maritime crew. We made history on March 10th, 2025. For better or worse, much better than worse. And uh it is a testament I would argue to the crew on board Stenna Immaculate. Uh Sten Immaculate is an interesting vessel. Uh it is a testament to ship construction today.

 I will note however the ship was constructed in China. So when people want to sit there and talk about poor Chinese ship building, here’s a good example of it. The ship was sold in October and then sent to do repairs at Desen Shipyard. The vessel was ref flagged over to a Maltese flag. The CS Anthem replaced the Senmaculate in the tanker security pro program, joining Crowley.

 Crowley is the operating company for the ship. I think a lot of credit has to go to obviously the crew on board Sten Immaculate. I also want to highlight the training they received from their maritime unions. Again, SIU, AMO, and MEBA were all involved. The operating company, Crowley Maritime, did a fantastic job.

 They were on site almost immediately dealing with this. Uh again, you know, you cannot get into a situation fast enough to provide aid for the ship, the crew. They prevented a major disaster which could have happened had Stenna Immaculate Fire spread to those other 15 tanks. Had the ship suffered a catastrophic explosion because the inert gas system went offline.

 If the heat in the tanks had built up, if there had been a explosion, a vapor release, it could have been catastrophic. you could have had a massive spill along the east coast of England. Fortunately, it was all minimized. Smith Marine, the salvage firm, went in to do the salvage and overhaul. Uh the vessels were eventually brought into port and uh both vessels were then sent out salon to be scrapped and Stenmacula to be repaired.

 tragic story, but with some absolutely harrowing moments of bravery and action by the crews on board. Again, very fast response by everybody in and around the area. Again, these events do happen. And unfortunately, this ship, the Salong should have known Senate Macket was there. It was on radar. There was no question about it.

 It was h not hiding its position. Its AIS was fully visible that day. Even in reduced visibility, the salon should have maneuvered around. Uh, I’ll be interested to hear what the final hearing is from the MAAB on their final report when it comes out. I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. If you did, hey, take a moment, subscribe to the channel, and hit the bell so be alerted about new videos as they come out.

 Leave a comment, share it across social media, and if you can support the page. How do you do that? You can hit the super thanks button down below, or head on over to Patreon and become a monthly yearly subscriber. Until our next episode, S signing off.