Napoli's hull buckled under weight
The report from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) into the container ship MSC Napoli has now been published and concludes that one of the main factors contributing to the failure of the hull was that there was not enough buckling strength around the engineroom.
One of the reasons for this was that the classification rules applicable at the time that the ship was built did not require buckling strength calculations to be undertaken beyond the ship's amidships.
The MAIB has now made recommendations to the International Association of Classification Societies to rectify this.
MSC Napoli was deliberately beached in Branscombe Bay on 20 January 2007 after her hull failed in heavy seas. The ship was en route to South Africa when it ran into trouble and some of its cargo was lost overboard, although most of this has now been returned to its rightful owners.
The clean-up operation on the stern section is still underway and is expected to take several months.
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