MS «Richard With» ran aground in Ytre Steinsundet in Solund on Friday morning 5 August.
The ground disturbance led to a major rescue operation for the ship, which had a crew of 67 on board. After several hours, the ship itself floated off the ground at 15:37 when the sea rose.
For the media, Hurtigruten has previously formulated that it was the steering that disappeareddue to a “technical system error”.
On Friday, NRK was given access to the report Hurtigruten has submitted to the Norwegian Maritime Directorate.
There it emerges that it was not just the steering that disappeared in the narrow strait.
“While sailing south through Steinsundet, the ship lost steering and propulsion due to blackout. This resulted in the ship turning to starboard and the bow of the ship hitting the ground,” writes Hurtigruten in the report.
Furthermore, the incident is classified as a “near miss with danger to life, major material damage or serious pollution”.
May have regained control
The ground shock only extended beyond the ship, which sustained minor damage.
A “blackout” means that a ship loses both steering and engine power, i.e. that everything goes black on the ship.
– The ground disturbance is due to a technical system failure. It is easier for the general public to understand than to use that technical term, says press officer Tarjei Kramviken at Hurtigruten.
If the power goes out on such a ship, emergency power must come on within around 30 seconds, so that the crew can get power to the engines and get control of the progress.
Hurtigruten has not answered NRK’s questions about how long the blackout lasted and whether the emergency system kicked in so that progress could be regained.
According to the report, the ground disturbance occurred at 09.00 and the speed at the time of the accident is recorded to be 10 knots.
– What caused the ship to run aground was that we lost control, says Kramviken.
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Had a new propulsion system
The ship was on its way south to Bergen after a stay at Myklebust shipyard in Sunnmøre.
There, the ship has been converted to hybrid propulsion. Hurtigruten has launched an internal investigation into the incident and will not comment on whether it is the rebuilding that has caused the “blackout”.
– It is too early to conclude about the cause beyond what we have already reported to the Norwegian Maritime Directorate, says Kramviken.
At the same time, the Norwegian Maritime Directorate carries out its own inspection of the ship to find out what happened. Nor will they give comments about the findings during the investigation.
According to the plan, the ship, which was built in 1993, was supposed to be in normal traffic on 9 August. Now it is provisionally postponed until 20 August.
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