Marine Occurrence report 232 - Australian Transport Safety Bureau

Figure 7: Normal mooring arrangement at Finucane Island berth D
However, on 10 September, a construction barge was being used to undertake
modification work on the northern end of Finucane Island berth C, resulting in the
number nine dolphin being inaccessible. As this had been a regular occurrence
since May 2006, a revised mooring plan had been devised and implemented for
ships using the berth (Figure 8).
Figure 8: Creciente’s mooring arrangement at Finucane Island berth D
North
North
Under the revised mooring plan, the ship’s bridge marker was located about 45 m
from the southern end of the wharf, about 30 m further north along the wharf. This
provided an extra lead for the stern lines without the ship’s position exceeding the
travel limits for the loader.
The forward mooring lines were arranged as per the normal plan (Figure 7).
However, the arrangement for the aft lines was different. Two breast lines were led
from the outboard winches to number eight dolphin along with two from the
inboard side of the aft deck. Two spring lines were made fast to number six
dolphin. Two stern lines were run from forward of the accommodation. The original
plan called for both of these to be run to number eight dolphin but on 10 September,
one led to number seven dolphin and the other to number eight dolphin (Figure 8).
1.3 The incident
On the morning of 8 September 2006, Creciente arrived off Port Hedland after a
voyage from Kokura, Japan and anchored off the port while waiting for the
Finucane Island berth D to become available for the ship to load a cargo of about
150 000 tonnes of iron ore.
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