The families of two Australians who went missing when the Gulf Livestock 1 (IMO 9262883) capsized on September 2nd 2020 have asked the federal government to help them get more details about what happened, according to reports in local media. The livestock carrier had been sailing from New Zealand to China with 43 crew and about 6,000 dairy cattle onboard when it capsized in the East China Sea during Typhoon Maysak. Only three crew members were saved.
The Panama Maritime Authority, acting as the flag state of the vessel produced a report into the incident in 2022. However, the families told 7News that the report, which has not been made public “ticked boxes but did nothing to detail what happened to the ship in the storm and did not touch on known problems with the vessel in the lead-up to the sinking.”
An ABC investigation had revealed that in the 18 months prior to the vessel’s sinking, Indonesian and Australian authorities had recorded dozens of safety breaches onboard, including critical failures of its propulsion and navigations systems, as well as issues relating to vessel stability.
During a voyage more than a year before the sinking, in July 2019, the livestock carrier had drifted for 25 hours whiled it underwent repairs following an engine failure.
The ship was built in 2002 as a container ship, and named Maersk Waterford. It became the Dana Hollandia in 2006 and then the Cetus J in 2012. In 2015, the vessel was converted to a livestock carrier and named Rahmeh. In 2019, it was renamed Gulf Livestock 1. At the time of the sinking the Panama-flagged, 11,947 gt vessel was owned by Gulf Navigation Livestock 1 Ltd care of manager Hijazi & Ghosheh Co of Amman, Jordan. ISM manager was Marconsult Schiffahrt GmbH of Hamburg, Germany. It was entered with West of England (Greece Claims team) on behalf of Gulf Navigation Livestock Carrier 1 Ltd, Inc.