APL England released by AMSA, sails to China

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has released APL England to allow the ship to sail from Australia to undertake repairs in China. This is the cargo ship which recently lost circa 50 containers overboard.

The ship sails without cargo, and with a new Master.

The ship’s previous Master – facing multiple charges relating to the incident according to Port News – will leave be repatriated home.

Prior to allowing the ship to sail, AMSA received a formal written undertaking from the ship’s insurer, Steamship Mutual, that it will pay fines and other amounts that are agreed or imposed by a court in relation to AMSA’s costs in responding to the incident. This commitment is for an amount up to $22.5 million.

So far, Australian authorities have recovered 15 containers from the 5,510 TEU capacity containership that spilled at least 50 boxes overboard after temporarily losing propulsion while sailing from Ningbo, China to Melbourne. AMSA has directed the shipowner to search for and retrieve the 35 containers that are still missing.

AMSA welcomes advice from the owners and insurer that they are in the early stages of tendering for a sonar search of about 1000km2 of water from the Illawarra to Sydney’s southern suburbs where it is believed multiple containers may have sunk, as per the Direction issued by AMSA.