The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) boarded the Singapore-flagged container ship APL England at the Port of Brisbane anchorage (off Port Cartwright) today following an incident involving the loss of 40 containers overboard during heavy seas on Sunday.
Today, AMSA surveyors conducted a seaworthiness inspection to check the structural and operational condition of the ship following the collapse of container stacks on the deck.
AMSA General Manager of Operations Allan Schwartz said the seaworthiness inspection would help inform if, and how, the ship might be brought safely into the Port of Brisbane.
"We expect to have the outcome of today's seaworthiness inspection and confirmation of the next steps by tomorrow morning. We are working closely with our partners at Maritime Safety Queensland," Mr Schwartz said.
"Once the ship is safely in port we will begin our investigation which will focus on the safety of the ship including whether cargo was appropriately stacked and secured on board the ship, and any potential breaches of environmental pollution regulations."
Mr Schwartz said while it was still unclear exactly which containers had fallen overboard, initial indications were that the affected stacks contained a wide range of goods like household appliances, building materials and medical supplies.
"No dangerous goods appear to be in the areas affected by the collapse of container stacks and AMSA is working closely with the ship's cargo agent to confirm exactly which containers went overboard," Mr Schwartz said.
"We have received a report of some medical supplies (face masks) washing up between Magenta Beach and The Entrance. This information has been passed onto NSW Maritime. These correlate to drift modelling of debris and are consistent with items listed on the ship's cargo manifest.
"Under the National Plan for Maritime Environmental Emergencies, the NSW Government has lead response for shoreline clean-up. AMSA will support NSW in their response. Modelling suggests that debris such as this could continue to wash-up over the coming days."
