Revere Products Save Lives off St. Maarten Coast - 2.25.08
Details of the JB4 Sinking by Ian Steele, Captain:
"On Friday the 22nd February in Crown Bay St. Thomas, the Dockwise Explorer semi-submersible ship began ballasting at 8:30am; by 10:30am JB4 had been re-floated and motored out of the ship. The vessel was then motored to Crown Bay Marina for fuelling, general inspection and preparation for departure to Antigua by way of St. Maarten. At 2:25pm after completion of port and immigration formalities, JB4 left Crown Bay in typical trade wind weather conditions, wind strength 15-20 knots ENE with waves 2ft-3ft.
The first 8 miles in the lee of USVI were done at 10 knots boat speed, the second 1 ½ hours were done at 8 ½ knots boat speed. The next 30+ miles were done at 6 ½ knots, the remaining 20 miles at 5 ½ knots. The speed had been reduced from 10 to 8 ½ to 6 ½ to 5 ½ knots as sea conditions demanded to prevent the vessel pounding into the head seas, 5 ½ knots was into 5ft-7ft seas over in the open water. At around 2:00am Saturday 23rd February the vessel took occasional blows to the bows as the frequency of the waves had shortened.
At 2:30am it was noted that the vessel was riding bow down and the forward bilge pumps were running, the vessel was brought to a stop and occasional waves were coming over the bows, the vessel was turned stern to the wind and waves. A pan-pan call was put out on Channel 16 and CROSS AG the French maritime rescue service responded. The vessel was kept stern on to the seas and making good her course to St. Maarten at 2 ½ knots with the engines at idle speed, this allowed the crew to work on bailing the water on the foredeck. The second compartment pumps were now running. This indicated four out of the eight compartments on the vessel had water in them, with a flashlight and looking over the side of the boat the discharges from the bilge pumps could be seen. With great effort the crew kept the foredeck relatively free of water, at this time the Bowman hatches were removed one at a time, the hatches are rubber gasketed and released with a single lever working four dogs; inspection of the compartments revealed they were 2/3rds full of water, about 4ft. The covers were replaced and never reopened as occasional waves were still coming on the foredeck not over the bows but through the open section of the starboard forward bulwarks.
The second pair of hatches going aft were then removed and about 1ft of water was noted in these compartments, all four pumps were pumping water overboard. The vessel was kept underway heading stern first towards the lee of St. Maarten, for the next 2 hours occasional waves came on board on to the foredeck and over the stern into the pilot house. This water was manually bailed. The French rescue authorities called every hour to check our progress and at approximately 5:30am we asked for a vessel to assist us with a large capacity pump. As daylight came 6:15am an inspection of the bow revealed the forward edge of the bow had split open the entire width of the vessel, the forward deck appeared to be loose and a crack was visible on the starboard forward deck and starboard forward bulwark. The vessel was still down at the bow and listing slightly to starboard. The aft steering compartments were dry and the engine room had a few inches of water in them.
The engines tachometers had failed and the water in fuel light and alarms were operating but the engines were still running and we were still on course and about 18 miles from St. Maarten making 2.2 to 2.4 knots towards the west coast of St. Maarten. At 6:30am it was noted the bow was lower in the water and although the two forward bilge pumps were discharging water the compartments aft of them were not pumping. Removing the hatches showed the compartments were half full of water, the pumps electrical breakers were reset several times but no water was being discharged from the vessel. Water was running in through the starboard pilot house door, CROSS AG were contacted that we were preparing to abandon the vessel. The entire bow was under water including the railing, the water was 1ft deep at the steering wheel and a few inches from the main switch and breaker panel. At about 6:45am we made our last radio transmission informing CROSS AG all electrical circuits would be shorted with sea water in minutes and we were getting into the life raft. We gave them our last GPS position, switched off the engines and deployed the life raft. All four crew were in the life raft and watched the vessel sink 15 minutes later.
The sea state and wind conditions had remained the same over the 17 hour period becoming calmer, if anything. The crew were: Ian Steele (Captain) David Stubbs (Mate), Bernard Daniel and Conrad Francis (Deckhands).
The crew were in the life raft for 2 hours and did activate a GPS enhanced EPIRB. The vessel French Coast Guard with Capt. Coxswain Jean Claude van Rymenant completed the rescue. Salvage was limited to 20-30 life jackets, nothing else was salved.
This would end the report; the insurance company have the vessel’s specifications and my credentials. I will have to forward the other crew members qualifications and obtain the official French reports of the rescue.
The failure of the vessel I think was primarily due to poor build quality of a critical area of the vessel, the 2 hulls completed in 2006 by a different construction crew were sound, the connection of these hulls which incorporates the deck done in late 2006-early 2007 were too scant and done unconscientiously creating a weakness the sea found. The French rescue authorities were excellent and highly commendable.
The crew had worked tirelessly and not without risk to try and save the vessel, which in my opinion was worth saving as it would have fulfilled our operating condition and criteria better than JB1 or JB3. I could not have had a better crew.
A boat that was ordered in 2005 and supposed to take 17 weeks to build took 2 ½ years. I had suggested during 2007 that the boat would be my Nemesis, it almost was. I could be selfish and callous and say ‘it’s insured’, ‘it’s only a boat’, but the time, effort, and stress put into JB4 by a few people on Jumby Bay has made its loss very tangible."