On 25th February 2013 the container ship Emma Maersk arrived at the port of Palermo. It was completely disabled at the time of arrival. This is because the engine room of the Emma Maersk was completely flooded.

The situation was so bad that the ship had to be towed for about thirteen hundred miles. It had to be towed from the port as the container ship was hit by a sudden flooding in the engine room. Due to the sudden flooding there was loss of power as a result the ship had to be towed.

The towing was done by the Fairmount Alpine. The officials are not sure of how the engine room of the Emma Maersk got flooded. The research is still on. The aim is to pump out the huge amount of water that got into the engine room. The water is about sixteen meter high. Only the engine room of the Emma Maersk was flooded.

The crew members and port officials are trying to salvage as much of the mechanisms as possible. The efforts are now on to drain the engine room without damaging the machines in the engine room. Nothing can be said on how long it will take to drain put the huge amount of sea water that has entered the engine room. The sea water is salty and the longer it stays in the engine room the more difficult it will be to salvage the same.

The container ship of Emma Maersk will be dry docked at the Fincantieri shipyard at Palermo. The authorities believe that only after the Emma Maersk’s engine room is drained completely can they tell how the water managed to enter the engine room.

The crew has ruled out possibility of any human error. The authorities have said that he crew had handled the situation quite well. This is true because in spite of the flooding the ship managed to stay afloat. The cargo operations and the customer relations department are trying to ensure that the loss is kept to the minimum.

Basically this just goes to show the types of hazards that could possibly a mariner could come across at sea. Despite these odds, the adventurous mariners are still keen on joining marine jobs. We truly salute the spirit of mariners and as far as this specific ship goes, well one thing is for sure that it will take nothing less than few months for the Emma Maersk to get back in action but we would soon see her sailing.

Food for Thought: Do you know why the ship was mentioned as “feminine” in the last sentence above?

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