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STRANDED: Icy water floods the HMS Endurance engine room
HMS disaster
£150m repair bill after Navy ship floods
TOP brass are probing how a Navy patrol ship was just seconds from sinking-causing £150 MILLION of damage.
Icy water flooded the engine room and left the 138 crew and passengers on HMS Endurance with no power for six hours.
A tugboat responding to a Mayday signal rescued them-just as they were about to abandon ship off the coast of Chile in South America.
The passengers-10 young researchers aged 18 to 23, from the British Schools Exploring Society-were airlifted to safety by helicopter.
The 6,000-ton Navy icebreaker-which carries a crew of 112 plus six Royal Marine commandos-was then towed to the nearest port at Punta Arenas.
RESCUED: Passengers leave stricken vessel
Last night one of the crew said: "It happened very quickly. We lost power and the lights went out as more water poured in.
"People feared for their lives. We were sinking under the huge volume of water and nearly lost the ship. The captain told us it was a close call. All the machinery rooms are wrecked and will take months to repair."
An investigation has begun into what caused the Portsmouth-based vessel to nearly sink as it carried out research into climate change.
Assessors have put the repair bill for the ship-nicknamed the Red Plum because of its colour-at £150 million. One theory is that a sea valve failed, causing water to gush on board.
A senior Navy source added: "We came very close to the crew abandoning ship and we will need to look closely at what went wrong.
Failed
"It is unclear what happened but we think one factor may be that a sea water valve failed. If that's the case, there is little the crew can do."
A Ministry of Defence spokesman played down the severity of the incident last month, saying the water had been contained.
The ship's skipper Capt Gavin Pritchard said in a message to families: "HMS Endurance suffered a very unfortunate incident when the engine room became flooded with sea water.
"The situation was extremely difficult but exceptional damage control efforts and professionalism kept the ship safe."
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This article has 23 comments
The documentry recently on TV, was very direct......
The outboard motors for ships boats failed to start, ...
a complete power failure in ice conditions ,
...Sea boats holed,
The Captain not on board.....
The XO incharge and flooding with near loss of ship (captain in UK), ..
. Stuffed cuddley toys in the mess decks .. .first sea trip for some crew....
Oh Dear......
By steven ayling.. Posted September 16 2009 at 8:29 PM.
Endurance MEO 74-76. Human error or mechanical failure! Was the wrong valve lid removed for routine maintenance or did a skin fitting fail? Is it a court martial or smacked wrist for the hull surveyor. My heart goes out to the crew who contained the damage and saved the ship. No-one would like to be in that situation. A very rare event, yet to be explained.
By Phil Thompson.. Posted September 4 2009 at 12:54 PM.
left the Navy a year and a half a go, and was due to join the endurance as the pt staff on board. I also was on the leeds-castle (falklands based ship) and went to visit south georgia etc. I thought the crew were brilliant given the circumstances, and the training that the ship and the crew go through is second to none, fact is if the ship or the crew are not up to the required standard the ship or the crew will not be sent anywhere - trust me! The people who comment on cost of repair the training etc obviously should keep on doing what they do best - being civillians!
By stan the man.. Posted August 24 2009 at 11:17 PM.
I served in HMS Endurance in 1984 - 1986 (not this one) and you have to remember that it is a hostile environment, and the crew did very well; Very Well!!. On the both seasons I did, we had problems, once we hit an iceberg and another time a submerged rock, on each occasions thousands of mile from nearest help, we overcame in the true spirit of Sir Ernest Shackletons Endurance and survived
By Ron.. Posted August 19 2009 at 11:47 AM.
That was bad.
and my dad saved the ship he missed christmas to fly down and stop the flooding.
By JAMES.. Posted March 19 2009 at 10:35 AM.
Reply to Sebestian Selby's comment.
HMS Endurance does not supply the Antartic bases, RRS Ernest Shackleton and RRS James Clark Ross undertake that task.
Plus this HMS Endurance was ex HMS Polar Circle ex Polar Circle a cruse ship built for Antarctic waters. Just bad luck about the 'sea valve'.
By Dave Taylor.. Posted January 12 2009 at 12:29 AM.
It seems to me that a lot of ill-informed and unqualified people have commented on this story. The Damage Control organisation onboard obviously did the job that they were trained to do - in very dificult conditions - and saved the ship : well done to them. The fact that certain people lost their belongings and living spaces is due to the extent of the flooding... Trying to organise repatriation of the ship's company ( RN ships do not have a "crew" by the way ) is a mamoth task, and it is inevitable that some problems were encountered - try orgainising one flight from the South Atlantic to the UK a few days before Christmas, let alone dozens. ?150 million for the repairs does seem excessive, but the extent of the flloding is a little more than "just an engine" - large areas of the accomadation spaces were damaged, along with the main machinery space, which houses engines, generators and auxiliary machinery etc. One of the comments above quotes the ship's unreliability : that is undoubtedly due to this government constantly cutting military funding, and yet still expecting the forces to perform the same tasks with less equipment, less training, less maintenance... the only surprise is that this sort of thing doesn't happen more often. Once again, well done to all the personnel onboard !
By Richard Allanson.. Posted January 11 2009 at 10:28 PM.
Anthony Campbell - this isn't the HMS Endurance that was in service in the 1960's. Check your facts before making silly comments
By Simon West.. Posted January 8 2009 at 5:35 PM.
my fiancce is on board hms endurance. he had to sleep on an office floor and live on choclate for 2 days! in this time we were being told he was safe and high moral, what a joke. he has also been given 4 dates to fly home over xmas and they are all been canx. he is now due home next week but not holding my breath. this was very upsetting for out daughter over xmas as she was let down so many time and just wants to see her daddy safe and well. i wish you would print the full story then everyone will now what bad condition our armed forces have to face!!
By chloe.. Posted January 8 2009 at 5:16 PM.
i posted a comment yesterday because my son is on board that ship,i dont think you have the full story of what really happened,i do, thats why i praised the crew, in the hope that they would read it and feel appreciated moren than they do at the moment,if only you knew what they had to go through
By Nev Rhymer.. Posted January 7 2009 at 1:04 PM.
My son was on board and he has lost all his personal possessions plus all his course work for his promotion course coming up soon. The main thing is that he is safe and well, but why didn't the RN tell us parents the truth about what actually happened. We were told that they had plenty of food and water, but apparently they lived on chocolate for two days.
By margaret lewis.. Posted January 6 2009 at 9:41 AM.
150 million? I think the decimal point just might be in the wrong place... try 15 million (...and not 1.5 billion :-)
By Dave MacArthur.. Posted January 5 2009 at 4:40 AM.
Anthony Campbell may have been in the Navy in the 60's but he has not kept abreast of the RN fleet. HMS Endurance today - same name, different ship! PG's estimate of repair cost is low but I agree the £150m figure is risible.
By Alex Duffy.. Posted January 5 2009 at 12:02 AM.
Now that the primary means of resupply for the Antarctic bases is no longer present in the South Atlantic, what will the chaps do for supplies????
By Sebastian Selby.. Posted January 4 2009 at 10:11 PM.
I was in the Royal Navy in the 1960s and the Endurance was in operation then, I cannot believe it is still going, it must be held together by paint!
By Anthony Campbell.. Posted January 4 2009 at 8:58 PM.
I was in the Royal Navy in the 1960s and the Endurance was in operation then, I cannot believe it is still going, it must be held together by paint!
By Anthony Campbell.. Posted January 4 2009 at 8:58 PM.
150 million cheaper to build a new one for gods sake and have the rfa tow her back home or just sink her in the atlantic. build a new one in uk give a shipyard in the uk a nice contract keep some jobs going..
By royal fleet auxiliary.. Posted January 4 2009 at 3:53 PM.
what a scare for them....150 million to repair the damage,,,what a load of cobblers...who the hell are you trying to kid,,,,ita an engine for gods sake,,perhaps you mean 150 thousand...or can it take you to the moon then...grow up.....and get real....mind you ,you can buy some science fiction comics and it may cost that in them.....
By peter griffiths.. Posted January 4 2009 at 2:37 PM.
Thank God no one was hurt or worse. I had served in the ship the previous 4 years to the flood and the ship was beset by constant breakdowns and mechanical faults. Very dangerous considering it operates in a very dangerous environment. Well done the DC teams.
By Mark Carlin.. Posted January 4 2009 at 2:26 PM.
My daughter was onboard too, and has lost all of her personal belongings due to water damage. What a worrying time for us families being kept in the dark about what really happened, and its all come to light now, almost 3 weeks later.
By David Dearman.. Posted January 4 2009 at 1:05 PM.
My son is onboard this ship and it was a very worrying time for the families just before christmas.
By Diane Caldwell.. Posted January 4 2009 at 11:57 AM.
Considering the magnitude of the influx of water the damage control teams did well to save the vessel and the captain instituted appropriate contingency evacuation plans. Its a pity that we lost our naval bases
as the original Endurance was always refitted at Chatham. At least we would have had the capacity to make good the damage and tow the ship to UK base for repairs instead of relying on and paying for foreign assistance.
By bob adcock.. Posted January 4 2009 at 10:08 AM.
SEA VALVE SEEMS THE LIKELY CUASE
By ROBERT A. MACKAY.. Posted January 4 2009 at 4:37 AM.