At 5:05 a.m. on May 2, 1993, China's Xiangyanghong 16 ocean-going research ship was sailing in the waters near the Zhoushan Islands in Zhejiang. As usual, most of the crew were sleeping soundly, because the sea was foggy and visibility was poor, and the veteran captain Jin Mingqi, who had 30 years of experience at sea, had already stepped into the wheelhouse an hour earlier, closely watching the sea in front of him, as well as the data of various instruments.
But this did not prevent the tragedy from happening, and the most well-equipped ocean-going research ship of the State Oceanic Administration, Xiangyanghong 16, was suddenly hit! Xiangyanghong 16 had a displacement of 4,500 tons, and was sailing normally at that time, but the silver horn freighter from Cyprus had a full displacement of 38,600 tons, and Xiangyanghong 16 looked vulnerable in front of the silver horn, as if a piece of paper had been easily torn apart. Only 32 minutes after being hit, Xiangyanghong 16 sank, and this major accident directly alarmed the ** leadership.
Why was the Xiangyanghong 16, which was sailing normally, suddenly hit? How does the rescue work unfold in the event of an accident? Finally, how did China deal with the ship that caused the accident? In this issue, let's talk about the beginning and end of the Xiangyanghong No. 16 accident.
Let's turn the clock back to April 30, 1993, and the crew of the Xiangyanghong 16 were very excited, because the 4,500-tonnage ocean-going research ship in front of them had just undergone a large-scale refit, equipped with advanced electronic systems and power systems, and a large number of precious precision instruments. The ship has a maximum speed of 1846 knots, capable of enduring 10,000 nautical miles, and able to resist 12 gale winds, has carried out polymetallic nodule survey missions in the Pacific Ocean many times.
It is the wish of many oceanographic researchers to be able to board this beautiful new ship, and at that time the sea operation was able to get subsidies, the ship will operate in the Pacific Ocean, and it is expected to stop at the port of Hawaii four times on the way, so the ship also brought a lot of dollars and yuan, and it can be scientific research and travel, which is definitely a trip to the United States.
The Xiangyanghong 16 ship belongs to the East China Sea Branch of the State Oceanic Administration, and in order to allow the scientific research personnel to get the opportunity to board the ship and go to sea, the crew of the Xiangyanghong 16 is actually rotated. At that time, it was the four brigades in Ningbo that boarded the ship, and this temporary team was not very familiar with the ship, which undoubtedly laid a hidden danger for the later accident.
Xiangyanghong 16 was originally scheduled to go to sea on April 30, but because of the foggy sea, it did not have the conditions for sailing, so it anchored in Wusongkou for a day. In order to deal with possible emergencies, the whole ship organized an emergency deployment exercise, and many of the crew members were marine scientific research personnel from Beijing, Hangzhou, Qingdao, Xiamen and other places, and many of them were going to sea for the first time, so everyone attached great importance to this exercise.
During the exercise, the crew quickly boarded the four lifeboats within the scheduled time, and the captain also made serious personnel arrangements for the four lifeboats, the captain was in charge of the port side boat No. 1, the political commissar was in charge of the starboard boat No. 2, the chief officer was in charge of the port side boat No. 3, and the second officer was in charge of the starboard boat No. 4. Everyone on board, including the captain and commissar, thought it was necessary but routine training, but they did not expect that it would not be long before they would face a real shipwreck. And when a real disaster strikes, the complexity of the situation and the nervousness of the crew are by no means simulated by the exercise.
In the early morning of May 2, the East China Sea was full of fog, and in order to hurry, Xiangyanghong 16 did not reduce its speed, and soon entered the waters of the Zhoushan Islands, which is a fishing ground. There are many small fishing boats in this area, and in order to avoid collisions with larger boats, most of them have triangular cone-shaped radar reflectors installed on their masts. The Xiangyanghong 16 is also equipped with a collision avoidance radar, and as long as there is an echo within a mile, the instrument will beep non-stop. When Xiangyanghong 16 entered the fishing ground, the instrument began to sound, and the crew on duty in the early morning felt upset and turned off the collision avoidance radar! This is again a bane of accidents.
At four o'clock in the morning, the Silver Horn appeared on the radar, and the crew on duty made a record according to the regulations, but for some reason did not change course. By half-past four in the morning, the Silver Horn should have been recorded again, to determine whether there was a possibility of impact, and to determine whether it was necessary to change course, but the crew did not record the position of the Silver Horn again. At this time, the Xiangyanghong was sailing in a southeasterly direction, while the Silver Horn was heading from southwest to northeast, and in the event of an impact, the consequences would be very serious.
The captain had already arrived in the wheelhouse before, and the 49-year-old captain Jin Mingqi had been working at sea for nearly 30 years, and had been the captain of the Xiangyanghong 16 for 11 years, engaged in marine exploration and surveys of hundreds of thousands of kilometers, and had very rich experience. After Jin Mingqi came to the wheelhouse, he found that the sea in front of him was full of fog, and he could only see 20 to 30 meters with the naked eye, and the sea conditions were very poor, but Jin Mingqi, who was accustomed to seeing strong winds and waves, did not increase his vigilance because of this, let alone forebore the danger.
Suddenly, a huge black shadow appeared in the dense fog, like a big mountain, pressing towards the Yanghong, and the distance between the two ships was less than two hundred meters. According to international practice, in this case, both ships should turn to starboard and pass through the stern of the other party, but at this time the Xiangyanghong 16 was already very close to the bow of the other party. Perhaps for this reason, or perhaps because of the confidence in the power of the Xiangyanghong 16, the Xiangyanghong 16 played the left rudder, apparently to overtake the bow of the Silver Horn.
But at this time, the Silver Horn hit the right rudder, which caused the bow of the Silver Horn to hit the waist of the Xiangyanghong 16, and a strong impact occurred. Xiangyanghong 16 looked very weak in front of the huge Silver Horn freighter, the captain couldn't even see the opposite deck, and Jin Mingqi saw the Silver Horn's bulbous bow crash into the ship's engine room. The Silver Horn then applied an emergency brake, causing the Silverhorn's huge main anchor to be thrown towards Yanghong 16, directly penetrating the upper cabin, and one of the staff members inside died on the spot.
The Silver Horn began to retreat until it had exited a distance of one nautical mile. The retreat of the Silver Horn gave Xiangyanghong 16 another blow, because at this point the sea water could pour in through the hole that had been knocked open, and there was no time to take remedial measures.
At this time, the 110 personnel on the ship had been awakened by the violent impact, and the first mate Hu Qifang was still a little seasick, and fell asleep after the end of duty at 4 o'clock in the morning. The thunderous impact woke him up from his dream, and Hu Qifang, who was fully awake, immediately smelled the pungent smell of smoke, "It's not good, the host may be **!" Hu Qifang immediately rushed to the engine room and met Shen Zhongwei, the third engineer, and sure enough, the engine room had been flooded, and in less than a minute, the water in the engine room had reached two meters deep, and the main engine made a piercing low-pressure alarm sound!
At 5:08, 3 minutes after Xiangyanghong 16 was hit, Captain Jin Mingqi ordered to send a distress signal, that is, the satellite coordinate point, and just two minutes later, at 5:10, Jin Mingqi ordered all to abandon ship! According to the regulations, the alarm bell of the abandoned ship should be six short and one long, lasting one minute, but the emergency power supply at that time was quickly destroyed, and the alarm bell rang twice and then stopped abruptly, at this time Xiangyanghong 16 has lost power and power supply, and is sinking rapidly.
Time is of the essence, and the entire crew immediately prepared to evacuate, but at that time there were 4 lifeboats.
The second and fourth boats have been damaged by the Silver Horn and have lost power, and only those that can be used are used.
Boat 1, 3, and.
Boats 1 and 3 also lost their balance due to the impact and had difficulty letting go.
The situation was urgent, and Xiang Yanghong No. 16 immediately called the Silver Horn in English, "Release the lifeboat!" Put a lifeboat! But the Silver Horn did not make any response, and remained a nautical mile away. With the efforts of the crew, boats 1 and 3 were finally put down, and the two boats were supposed to carry a total of 67 people, but they were eventually overloaded to nearly 100 people. The captain of the ship, Jin Mingqi, calmly commanded and properly arranged for the scientists to get on the boat first, while he, the first mate Hu Qifang, and the chief commander of the expedition, Zhang Zhiting, resolutely did not go to the boat, but only sent important documents to the lifeboat.
Xiangyanghong 16 was about to sink, and at this time there were more than 20 people on board, including captain Jin Mingqi, expedition commander Zhang Zhiting and first mate Hu Qifang. There is no choice but to give it a go! The crowd made their way to the sloping main deck and pinned their last hope on two unpowered life rafts. There was no time to slowly lower the life raft, and everyone had to jump down one by one. Captain Jin Mingqi was the last to jump, and the moment he jumped onto the life raft, Jin Mingqi, the veteran captain with thirty years of work experience, also shed tears.
After escaping the whirlpool created by the sinking of Xiangyanghong 16, everyone looked at the sinking Xiangyanghong 16 and cried. This ship carries the dreams of countless ocean people, it has hundreds of millions of yuan worth of precision instruments on it, which is first-class in the world, in addition to a large number of precious scientific data, but now it is going to be buried at the bottom of the sea. At 5:40, Xiangyanghong 16 sank, and the water depth at the wreck was about 80 meters.
After the sinking of Xiangyanghong 16, the Silver Horn came to the rescue, and everyone climbed up the soft ladder of the Silver Horn with difficulty, and everyone had tears in their hearts. After learning of the accident on the Xiangyanghong 16th, the Shanghai Salvage Bureau immediately instructed the ocean-going rescue ship Deyi to set off immediately for rescue. However, the Silver Horn refused the request to dock at a Chinese port and sailed straight northeast, and it took a while for the German-Italian to catch up with the Silver Horn, and after urgent negotiations, the German-Italian received our crew in the southwest waters of Jeju Island, South Korea.
On the morning of May 5, the Deyi carrying 107 rescued people sailed into the wharf of the Donghai Branch, and the leaders and other colleagues expressed comfort to the people who had escaped death on the wharf. After all, life is the most important thing, the ship can be rebuilt if it is gone, and if a person is sacrificed, he will never come back.
Thereafter, the claim against the Silver Horn was unsuccessful, because Xiangyanghong 16 did not follow the practice of small boats giving way to large ships, and Silver Horn also claimed that it was sailing normally. Moreover, the Silver Horn is carrying liquefied natural gas, and in order to avoid **, it seems reasonable to retreat in time after hitting Xiangyanghong 16.
It is strange that the two ships had not been contacted once by channel before the accident. Moreover, in order to save expenses, Xiangyanghong No. 16 did not buy insurance for the equipment, so the loss of this accident is basically irreparable. This accident not only caused us to lose Xiangyanghong No. 16, but also lost Yu Haiyang, Liu Shiming and Meng Lingwei, three outstanding scientific researchers, forever, with a loss of nearly 100 million yuan, and the lesson is very profound!
The cause of the accident is also worth reflecting on. First of all, we should be more vigilant when the weather conditions are poor. Foggy weather was one of the causes of the shipwreck. Secondly, the crew must be skilled, and the crew must be responsible at all times. If the radar had not been turned off, the shipwreck would probably not have happened.
Finally, crews should abide by the rules of international navigation to make sailing safer. In such harsh conditions, the Silver Horn is still shuttling back and forth in the sea at high speed, which is actually very dangerous! I also hope that the above situation can be improved in the future, so that the shipwreck will not happen again.