Section: 11 CARGO OPERATIONS - Univan

Univan Ship Management Limited Issue 1 REV 0 Page 1
FLEET OPERATION MANUAL Date 01.01.2005
CARRIAGE OF DANGEROUS GOODS IN CONTAINERS
11.11 Carriage of Dangerous goods in Containers
Copyrights: Univan Ship Management Limited, Hong Kong. All rights reserved
Any unauthorized reproduction of this manual, in any form is prohibited
SECTION 11.11
When towards the end of voyage four seamen on a ship were sent to check lashings little did any
of them realize what the future held in store.
Unbeknown to anybody on the ship, a shipment of cylinders of deadly gas had
been placed inside a freight container which had been loaded aboard.
Although the gas was properly packaged and the cylinders were properly labeled, they had not
been declared to the shipping company, the container was not placarded and the cylinders were
either badly secured or not at all.
Furthermore, the ocean had caused the cylinders to roll, damaging the valves
and letting the gas escape. A declared shipment would have gone on deck, but nobody knew so
there it was underdeck – and this particular gas was much heavier than air.
If only this story were the product of a fevered imagination. However,
regrettably, it was a tragic real-life case and two lives were eventually lost but it serves to
dramatically underline how vulnerable the ship and its crew can be, even with packaged
dangerous goods.
While loading dangerous cargo the following shall be checked on the cargo manifest :
1) IMDG class of Cargo and UN no.
2) MFAG no
3) Ems No.
The placard on the containers must be checked tallying as detailed on the cargo manifest.
Stowage of Container unit shall be carried out according to the IMDG. Any difficulties noted
regarding the same shall be immediately informed to the DPA.