Loading…
2017-03-31 · South Atlantic Ocean, ~3,300nm off Brazil · Very Large Ore Carrier (VLOC, 266,141 DWT) · Marshall Islands flag
The Marshall Islands-flagged VLOC Stellar Daisy (Polaris Shipping, South Korea) — a 266,141-DWT VLCC converted to VLOC in 2008 — sank without warning in the South Atlantic on 31 March 2017 with a 260,000-tonne Brazilian iron-ore cargo. The last message from the Master was 'water leakage in ballast tank; abandoning' at 21:30 local time. Two crew survived on a life raft; 22 (16 Filipino, 8 Korean) died or were lost. The wreck was located by Ocean Infinity in 2019 at 3,459m depth. Investigation attributed the loss to fatigue cracking around the deck-plating and cargo-hold structure — a known weakness of VLCC-to-VLOC conversions. The case drove IACS review of converted-VLOC structural adequacy + eventual retirement of the entire converted-VLOC fleet.
Stellar Daisy is the founding case for the officer-safety implications of hull conversions. Any officer joining a converted-VLCC VLOC now scrutinises the class-society certification + inspection history. It also drove the fundamental industry realisation that iron-ore cargo behaviour on aged hulls is materially different from crude — a lesson that saved lives across the surviving converted fleet.
IACS UR S31 fatigue-strength review of VLOC + converted-VLCC structural adequacy. Korean MSA investigation recommended enhanced VLOC structural-monitoring requirements. Directly cited in the 2020 Casualty Investigation Code amendments.