Maritime Transportation And Shipping Talk

It has been all over the news these last few days. A ship had an oil spill in the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Looking at the international scene this spill is just a minor little thing. The amount of oil that leaked out into the Seaway was not a lot but as with any oil hitting water surface, it spreads very fast and makes the whole thing look far worse than it really is. When you look at the local scene in the river of Saint Lawrence this is a major spill. It was major enough to shut down the traffic in the Seaway for a few days. The risk was also there for local water filtration plants to be contaminated and that would have affected several local communities water supply. As the Saint Lawrence Seaway have an emergency response team already in place, the response time was fairly quick and the contamination was brought under control fairly quick. The traffic was back up and ship was moving again by 1600hrs local time today Thursday July, 2010.
Looking back at this event we should ask some question, not to put blame but to see if things like his can be avoided in the future.
As in many maritime disasters the first thing that is looked at is the people onboard the ship. Did they react properly and quickly enough? What was the cause of the puncture in the fuel tank? Was this a double hull ship and fuel tank? It the ship lost engine power, what was the reason? If it was engine failure, was this a problem that was recurring or was it simply a new and unforeseen problem? Could it have been avoided with better maintenance?
Understanding that the current owner has recently acquired this ship is there a history of mishaps with the ship that they should be aware of?
I hope that whatever enquiry the authorities have after this is over that measures will be taken for this not to be repeated anytime soon
You can read the latest about Navigation Resumes In Seaway’s South Shore Canal