Napoli Inquiry

When the beaching of the container ship Napoli off the Devon last year happened, inquiries reported that hull failure on a lack of buckling strength in the engine room region of the ship was the reason for the accident. The Napoli was considered huge when built in 1991 with a capacity to carry 6,000 containers. When the Napoli was built, safety standards had not kept up with the growth of the vessels. There is also concern that a lack of control of the weights of containers being carried. The Napoli itself was 1000 tonnes over its recommended weight limit. Although this was only 2% over the limit, a very small amount, MAIB says it could have contributed to the structural failure of the ship because of the heavy storms at the time. More than 1,500 similar ships were screened following the incident, of which 12 unidentified ships required strengthening work "to bring them up to acceptable safety standards", according to the MAIB report.

Nowadays ships are being built to carry up to three times that cargo. The largest operating container ship is the Emma Maersk operated by the Maersk Company, and can carry 15,200 containers.

Source: Shiptalk News, June 12, 2008