MEGA-CONTAINER Ship 'ONE CONTINUITY' Loses 45 Containers Due To Strong Waves While Saling South Of The Canary Islands 

Unstable sea conditions on Wednesday, caused the Singapore-flagged container ship 'One Continuity', '(IMO 9388352, MMSI 563289700)  carrying more than 16,000 containers, to enter the port of Las Palmas in a state of emergency. During its crossing of the Atlantic, strong waves struck the cargo, causing the stern of the ship to shift. The impact of the waves destabilized nearly 100 containers, causing them to roll, with approximately 45 containers falling into the sea. The emergency forced the ship to be diverted to the port of Las Palmas, where it docked at the Boluda terminal, La Luz.
The mega-container ship docked in the Port of Las Palmas belongs to the fleet of the shipping company ONE (Ocean Network Express), one of the world's leading container shipping lines. It built in 2008 (17 years old)

Hammering away and perched in baskets atop towering land cranes, dockworkers at the port of Las Palmas are working this Thursday to free the nearly 20 containers from their lashings and lower them from the stern of the 'One Continuity'. The containers are completely smashed after a wave knocked them over, and nearly 45 fell into the water during the Atlantic crossing.
Lashing specialists are working to reposition the cargo so the ship can continue its journey to China after its emergency diversion to Las Palmas. "The bars holding the containers have shifted considerably, but the work is progressing."

According to initial reporting, at least the top three tiers of containers involved were empty. That detail matters because empty containers have lower mass but higher susceptibility to vertical and transverse accelerations and when this is combined with:
- tall deck stacks
- heavy weather
- dynamic whipping and racking loads

The load is transferred directly to lashing assembly, usually turnbuckles and lashing rods .Crews can not  intervene in these cases and the only mitigation is the fastening of the lashing assembly much before high winds or rough seas, when it is still safe to walk the catwalks and always tied-up. On every occasion of lost containers at sea, and there have been many this year, lashing performance and tightness is often the root question.

Related : Navigation suspended at the port of Genoa Pra' due to containers falling overboard

,One Continuity , container ship , Singapore-flagged , port of Las Palmas ,Canary Islands , Crews