ÉDOUARD FRANÇOIS / VOLGO-DON 5038: The Autopilot Was Steering Toward the One Thing It Couldn't See

Off Port-la-Nouvelle, 22 January 2013 — 05:46

ÉDOUARD FRANÇOIS, a French trawler with 5 crew, cleared the harbour breakwater and set course at 9 knots, passing two anchored cargo ships in the port's designated waiting area — VOLGO-DON 5038, a 132m Russian bulk carrier, and another vessel further off. Both were spotted and noted by the skipper before he engaged the autopilot.

What Happened

Minutes later, a deckhand doing his routine round found a hydraulic oil low-level alarm sounding and called the skipper down to the machinery space. With the autopilot now steering the vessel unattended, the skipper told his deckhand to go up to the wheelhouse briefly and check there was ‘nothing dangerous ahead.’ The anchored cargo ship, well lit, looked clear from where they stood. Judging it safe, the deckhand went back down to help finish the repair. Four to five minutes later — repair just completed — ÉDOUARD FRANÇOIS struck VOLGO-DON 5038 with her port bow and scraped down the cargo ship's port side. Aboard the cargo ship, the officer of the watch had the trawler on radar the whole time, tried to raise her on VHF with no response, then attempted signal lamps — nobody was visible on the trawler's bridge to see them. No one was injured on either vessel; ÉDOUARD FRANÇOIS suffered hull damage above the waterline.

The Same Failure, With One Difference

This is structurally the same failure this pipeline has already covered aboard GWENVIDIK — a wheelhouse left unattended while the whole crew dealt with a problem elsewhere on the vessel. The difference here is what was actually driving the vessel while nobody watched: not just a steady, unchanging course, but an autopilot actively holding a heading toward a fixed, anchored obstruction neither crewman was in a position to see developing. An autopilot doesn't know what's ahead — it only knows the course it's been given. Leaving it engaged with the bridge empty doesn't reduce collision risk the way it might feel like it does; it just removes the one thing capable of noticing the course was wrong before it mattered.

Check Your Vessel

• All crew: If you leave the bridge with the autopilot engaged, do you treat that as equivalent to someone actually steering — or as what it actually is, a heading with nobody watching what's in front of it?
• Skippers: A quick look before going below is better than nothing — but does it substitute for someone actually remaining on watch for the several minutes a repair might take?
• Deckhands: If sent to check the bridge is clear before returning below, do you know that a single glance isn't the same as a lookout being kept for the whole time you're away?

Source: BEAmer (Bureau d'Enquêtes sur les Événements de Mer, France) — Rapport d'enquête simplifié, Abordage entre le chalutier français ÉDOUARD FRANÇOIS et le cargo russe VOLGO-DON 5038, 22 January 2013, published December 2013.