Ship Grounding

Ship grounding or ship stranding is the impact of a ship on seabed or
waterway side. It may be intentional, as in beaching to land crew or cargo, and careening, for maintenance or repair, or unintentional, as in a marine accident. In accidental cases, it is commonly referred to as "running aground".

When unintentional, grounding may result simply in stranding, with or without damage to the submerged part of the ship's hull. Breach of the hull may lead to significant flooding, which in the absence of containment in watertight bulkheads may substantially compromise the ship's structural integrity, stability, and safety.

As hazard

Severe grounding applies extreme loads upon ship structures. In less severe accidents, it might result only in damage to the hull; however, in most serious accidents, it might lead to hull breaches, cargo spills, total loss of the vessel, and, in the worst cases, human casualties.

Grounding accounts for about one-third of commercial ship accidents,Kite-Powell HL, Jin D, Jebsen J, Papakonstantinou V, Patrikalakis N (1999) Investigation of Potential Risk Factors for Groundings of Commercial Vessels in U.S. Ports. International Journal of Offshore and Polar Engineering 9 (1):16-21Jebsen JJ, Papakonstantinou VC (1997) Evaluation of the Physical Risk of Ship Grounding. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and ranks second in frequency, after ship-on-ship collision.Samuelides MS, Ventikos NP, Gemelos IC (2009) Survey on grounding incidents: Statistical analysis and risk assessment. Ships and Offshore Structures 4 (1):55-68 Grounding accidents are being studied in many international ports with serious concerns, e.g. Chittagong Port in Bangladesh.

Causes

Among the causes of unintentional grounding are:

*CurrentBriggs MJ, Borgman LE, Bratteland E (2003) Probability assessment for deep-draft navigation channel design. Coastal Engineering 48:29-50
*DarknessLin S-C (1999) Physical Risk Analysis of Ship grounding. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
*Tide
*Visibility
*Waves
*Wind
*Depth of waterwayQuy N.M., Vrijling J.K., Gelder P.H.A.J.M. van, Groenveld R. (2006) On the assessment of ship grounding risk in restricted channels. Paper presented at The 8th International Conference on Marine Sciences and Technologies - Black Sea Conference, Varna, Bulgaria, September 25th-27th
*Geometry of waterway
*Age of vessel
*Size of vessel
*Type of vessel
*Speed
*Human and organizational factorsPraetorius G (2012) Safety within the Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) Domain - Understanding the role of the VTS for safety within maritime traffic management. Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg
*War, terror attack, and piracy

Recovery

When accidental grounding occurs, the ship or its cargo, will need to be removed if possible. This is done for various reason:
* The grounded ship remains seaworthy so the ship is removed in order to be repaired and return to service
* A stranded ship is an unsightly image of the area
* A stranded ship causes significantly stress on its structure and will eventually become a shipwreck if not properly dealt with
* The ship contains hazardous material and causes environmental damage if the material is to be released, which will eventually happen if stranded long enough
* A ship might be removed to prevent unauthorized entry into the ship by locals
* The grounded ship is a navigation hazard or otherwise obstructs a shipping route

See also

* 2009 USS ''Port Royal'' grounding
* 2021 Suez Canal obstruction
*''Amoco Cadiz''
* Beaching (nautical)
* ''Costa Concordia'' disaster
* ''Exxon Valdez'' oil spill
* MS ''Riverdance''
* MV ''World Discoverer''
* ''Rena'' grounding and oil spill
* Spectacle Reef Light
* SS ''American Star''
* SS ''Torrey Canyon''
* SS ''Suevic''

References

{{Reflist

Maritime incidents