Oil, gas lost off Canadian warship

Straps failed during storm

More than 3,000 litres of oil and gasoline were washed overboard from one of Canada’s warships during a violent storm off the East Coast, according to documents obtained by the Citizen.

The storm swept the drums of oil, cans of gas and some barrels of hazardous waste off the deck of HMCS Athabaskan on Feb. 16, according to the Royal Canadian Navy documents.

At the time of the incident, the destroyer was in Sea State 9, with winds at 65 knots, or 120 km/h, the report noted. Sea State 9 is defined as having waves higher than 14 metres, according to navy officers.

No crew members were injured during the massive storm.

The material — approximately 3,000 litres of oil held in 10 drums, a rack of jerry cans holding approximately 180 litres of gasoline, and four drums of hazardous waste material consisting mainly of oily rags — disappeared during the storm.

The upper deck fittings and straps failed during the storm, the report added.

“As the high sea state was dangerous to personnel, HMCS Athabaskan took the precaution of placing the upper decks out of bounds for a period of 36 hours, during which time the incident was reported to have occurred,” navy Lt. Kelly Boyden told the Citizen in an email. “The loss was not witnessed.”

Boyden would not provide the specific location of where the ship was at the time for security reasons. “However, it can be stated, in general terms, that HMCS Athabaskan was several hundred miles south of Nova Scotia at the time of the incident,” he noted in the email.

Boyden said it is standard procedure to have petroleum products, gasoline and hazardous waste such as oily rags on the upper decks of the ship because they could be a fire hazard if stored elsewhere on the vessel.

“The material in question was lashed down and secured in accordance with SOPs (standard operating procedures); however, despite these procedures and precautions, the sea can be a dangerous and unpredictable environment,” he said.

By the time HMCS Athabaskan returned to sailing in calmer waters and the loss was discovered, a search was not practical, Boyden added.

The lost material had varying degrees of buoyancy, and would have either sunk immediately or stayed afloat for a period of time, he stated.

Boyden noted that such an incident is not considered normal. An investigation was done by personnel on HMCS Athabaskan, who concluded the incident was due to violent weather.