By Mark Malone, CEO of Engage Marine & Westug
Mr Malone wrote the following item on Linkedin, shortly after the Portland Bay was brought safely alongside at Port Botany. Shipping Australia wanted to acknowledge the incredible skill and bravery of the team that safely brought the vessel into port. The following item is re-published with Mr Malone’s permission.
————-
Mr Malone writes:
I wanted to acknowledge the immense effort of our Sydney Engage Towage team in bringing this vessel into port safely.
48 hours ago [as of approx 04 July 2022] the Portland Bay lost engine power and was drifting towards a rocky coastline in treacherous seas. For a harbour tug to fully prepare the necessary emergency response capability takes a few hours. In our case, it took 3 hours.
The tug SL Diamantina sailed immediately on receiving the call from Port Authority NSW to get to the scene ASAP, whilst the tug SL Martinque prepared the necessary full response capability. The SL Diamantina was under resourced for the situation on hand, but the decision was made that unless the drift towards shore by the Portland Bay was arrested or slowed as soon as possible, it may all be too late.
The SL Diamantina arrived at the scene with the Portland Bay less than 1 mile from the rocks and drifting toward the coast at over 1 knot. They had less than an hour to prevent catastrophe. A tow line was secured to the vessel in wave heights of between 8 and 10 metres, this line parted 3 times over the course of the next 2 hours due to the terrible sea state and wave conditions.
The tug crew however never gave up and continued to re-connect until additional support arrived. I want to thank Brad, Marius and Alex for this incredible act of selflessness and bravery that bought time for other resources to arrive.
The SL Martinque was on station 3 hours later, fully equipped and resourced. The SL Martinque connected a tow line to the Portland Bay to replace the SL Diamantina, and a third tug, the Bullara arrived shortly afterwards to further assist under the direction of AMSA.
The plan was for the SL Martinque and Bullara to tow the Portland Bay away from the coast, so that the engineers onboard could make engine repairs in relative safety. This plan was aborted when the Bullara lost its tow line connection, and the Portland Bay lost the minimal use of its own engine power that was facilitating the tow out to sea against the weather.
The SL Martinque maintained its tow connection in extreme circumstances and under the direction of the authorities, guided the stricken vessel to anchor in safer waters under a plan B scenario off Cronulla. The continuous tow line connection was crucial in averting the immediate danger to the Portland Bay, and it was the experience, expertise and skill of our Tug Masters, Rob and Andy, that made this possible.
The SL Martinque has remained attached with a tow line throughout since making its initial connection and led the towage operation under the direction of Port Authority NSW and AMSA. I want to thank Rob, Andy, Ahmed, Simon, Dave and Matt for staying the course, persevering and delivering the Portland Bay and its crew of 21 onto a safe berth in Port Botany. What an incredible effort by all 9 guys and their shore support team in Sydney.
————————
Note: Engage Towage is a joint venture between Engage Marine and Smit Lamnalco, and it was Engage Towage that performed the work.
FURTHER INFORMATION
“The day three men in a tugboat prevented a disaster”, ABC News Daily
