Page 12 - INTERCARGO - Bulk Carrier Casualty Report 2021
P. 12
Analysis of total losses
for 2011 to 2020
34 bulk carriers over 10,000 dwt have been identified as
lost, or on average four ships per year.
128 crewmembers have lost their lives as consequence, or
on average 13 lives lost per year.
The average age of the bulk carriers lost was 20.9 years.
Vessels amounting to a total of 2.33 million dwt have been
lost, which amounts to an average 233 thousand dwt per
year.
Reported cause Losses of life Losses of ships Likely root cause Losses of ships
Cargo shift/ 61 5 Cargo failure 5
liquefaction
Human element 1
Collision 0 2 Machinery failure 1
Unknown 1
Fire/explosion 0 1 Unknown 1
Structural 1
Flooding 22 4
Unknown 3
Human element 12
Machinery failure 1
Grounding 10 17 Navigation 3
Unknown 1
Weather 1
Structural 0 1 Unknown 1
Unknown 35 4 Unknown 4
TOTAL 128 34 34
Losses by cause
• Cargo failure (liquefaction) accounts for the highest loss of life
with five casualties resulting in 61 lives lost or 47.7% of the total
loss of life in the past ten years.
• The most common reported cause of ship losses has been
grounding, with 17 losses or 50.0 % of total losses.
• Losses due to flooding for four ships (11.8%) have been significant.
• Loss of lives resulting from four ships lost with unknown causes
accounted for 35 lives, or 27.3% of total lives lost.
