Claims consultancy WE Cox has reported that, further to its recent casualty advice and subsequent update concerning the fire onboard container ship NYK Delphinus (IMO 9337652), the most recent advice from GA Adjusters was that as a result of the fire the Vessel suffered serious damage in the engine room, which left the Vessel with no available power source. “The Vessel is a dead ship and is unable to sail under its own power.” At present the Shipowners were working with the US Coast Guard, the Flag State and the Classification Society to formulate a plan that would allow the Vessel to move safely under tow to a discharge berth and to carry out discharge of all the containers. The Shipping Lines were concurrently requesting permission and making arrangements with the container terminal to provide a berth to the Vessel and allow the discharge and the release or forwarding of the cargo to its final destination. WE Cox said that “all efforts are being urgently pursued but this is proving to be a complicated task”.
The Shipping Lines will advise cargo owners as soon as the relevant Authorities and the container terminal have given their approval and the expected date for the discharge.
NYK Delphinus suffered a fire on board in mid-May while it was sitting approximately 50 miles west of Monterey, California, half way between San Francisco and Los Angeles, waiting to enter port because of bottlenecks caused by an increase in traffic and a slowdown in processing time at ports because of Covid-19.
Photos released by the USCG at the time showed smoke coming from the ship’s superstructure around the funnel. NYK Delphinus was traveling from Fraser River, Canada at the Port of Vancouver, to Oakland, California.
2007-built, Liberia-flagged, 55,487 gt NYK Delphinus is owned by Tilran Shipping Inc care of NYK Line of Tokyo, Japan. ISM manager is Eastern Pacific Shipping Pte of Singapore. It is entered with North of England on behalf of Tilran Shipping Inc.
http://www.wecoxclaimsgroup.com/CASUALTY-UPDATE-NYK-DELPHINUS-2