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2019-09-08 · St Simons Sound, Georgia, USA · Pure car and truck carrier (PCTC) · Marshall Islands flag
The Hyundai Glovis-operated Marshall Islands-flagged PCTC Golden Ray capsized in the St Simons Sound approach to Brunswick, Georgia, at 01:30 on 8 September 2019, minutes after leaving the port. The NTSB investigation found the chief officer had entered incorrect ballast quantities in the loading computer — the actual condition had ~2m less GM than the calculated condition. The unstable ship heeled 60° to port on her first turn and sank onto the seabed. All 24 crew were rescued alive after a 30-hour salvage operation that included cutting a hole in the exposed hull to reach four Korean engineers trapped in the engine room. The salvage of the 656-foot hull was the largest wreck-removal operation in US history — the wreck was cut into 8 sections and lifted over 18 months.
Golden Ray is the case that made 'trust but verify' mandatory in PCTC ballast operations. Chief officers now cross-check the loading computer output against physical ballast tank soundings before departure, and second officers verify the calculations independently. The case also demonstrated that PCTC intact stability margins in modern deep-draft ports are much smaller than in the past — a 2m GM error was enough to capsize the vessel.
USCG-NTSB joint investigation cited ballast-calculation error by the chief officer. Drove the industry-wide adoption of automated ballast-condition monitoring on PCTCs. IMO MSC Circular on PCTC intact-stability pending.