Bulker grounding strengthens Danish Case for Pilots at IMO

The aim is to train your ability to read and analyze an English text in order to characterize and summarize its contents, which you will present in a spoken way.

It is your own choice, how long or how short will be your presentation as well as the words, that you will choose, as long as your speech will be logic and formally (grammatically) correct.

The method, that I propose, is as follows: 1. Read the article once, look up unknown words and try to formulate your first impression 2. Read the article for the second time and make notes (mention and try to explain the title, note key words and sentences to summarize paragraphs), 3. Read the article for the third time and formulate the controlling idea of the author, write a logical summary and give comments, 4. Compose your speech, think of a good opening sentence, that both introduces the topic and the meaning of the article, but also mentions your own attitude, the opening sentence should be followed by your summary of the contents of the article, in a logical order, and your conclusion 5. Read the article for the fourth time (check-up).

Recommendations – try to say things in your own words and try to keep it short and exact.

- if you choose to argue with the writer’s point of view, think also of how to defend your point of view.

Bulker grounding strengthens Danish Case for Pilots at IMO

By Michael Grey (LL)

AS THE International Maritime Organization Assembly prepared to consider a submission by Denmark on the safety of ships transiting the Danish Straits, salvors were surveying a large bulker which had been refloated after being aground off the island of Samsoe for nearly nine days.

The 72,265 dwt Panamani­an flag Ever Mighty was carrying a full cargo of coal when first reported aground on November 11, by the pilot of another vessel transiting the Great Belt, with a 15° list. SvitzerWijsmuller Salvage, contracted by the owners and underwriters to salvage the craft, which remained hard aground, were forced to lighten some 10,000 tonnes of coal from the stricken ship.It was finally freed by four tugs in a controlled refloating operation.

The latest accident will give added emphasis to a Danish paper that has been submitted to the IMO Assembly this week, in which the advantages of taking a pilot through difficult Danish waters are stressed. Submitted last month, the Danish paper notes that no fewer than 22 vessels had grounded in the Great Belt alone during the period January 1, 2002, to June 30, 2005. None of the casualties had been carrying a pilot at the time of the incident.

The complexity of the navigation, with its tight bends, especially for large ships, has led the Danish authorities to call for greater attention to be paid to the IMO recom­mendation that pilots are carried through the straits leading into the Baltic Sea. The Danish paper analyses the enormous costs of a grounding incident in the Great Belt when a new, 72,000 dwt double-hulled tanker grounded, at the Hatter Reef, fortunately without pollution, with no pilot aboard. The ship was refloated after five days, but total costs after the 30 day repairs, estimated by the Danish authorities, were $2,830,000, including off-hire, repairs salvage and environmental protection costs. This was, say the Danish administration, some 375 times the price of the pilot, whose presence was likely to have prevented the grounding. Depending on the damage done to the Ever Mighty, the latest Great Belt grounding is likely to prove similarly expensive.