Engine room flooding aboard sailing school vessel

A flooded engine room proved a costly lesson in the need for adequate alarms when a vessel has reduced crew and normal operation stations are unattended

Background

Based in Rhodes Island, the SSV Oliver Hazard Perry is the largest civilian sailing school vessel in the United States, providing innovative and empowering education-at-sea. The 128-foot-long, steel-hulled, three-masted ship was launched in 2015, the first ocean-going full-rigged ship to be built in the US in over 100 years.

What happened?

On 10 May 2025, the Oliver Hazard Perry was docked at its summer berth at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island, with one crewmember (the bosun) aboard. The port generator was running to supply electrical power to the vessel – new shore power breakers had recently been installed on the pier, and the crew had been troubleshooting the vessel’s electrical system due to the shore breakers tripping. While running, the port generator’s engine was cooled with seawater, which was supplied by the portside sea chest and circulated through the engines by an engine-driven pump.

At about 21:00, the bosun received a freshwater tank level sensor alarm. He conducted a visual inspection of the engine room and auxiliary machine space (AMS) and found everything in good order, so he retired for the evening to his stateroom.

At 07:35 the following morning, the bosun woke to a faint audible AC [alternating current] power fault alarm coming from the fire alarm panel in the ship’s office and noticed that the electrical power was out throughout the vessel. In the darkness, the bosun went to the engine room and discovered seawater covering the base of the port generator and water in the AMS. The bosun did not report hearing any high-level bilge alarms.

Upon observing the flooding, the bosun called the captain via cell phone, who then set in motion alerts to the local fire department, a pollution-prevention response team, the Coast Guard, a salvage company, and a local diver. The vessel had electrically driven bilge pumps but they could not be used because they were submerged in seawater and the main power and emergency power were out.

Local firefighters arrived at 08:10 and worked with the bosun to monitor water levels in the engine room and AMS. About 10:30, a diver entered the water and removed the grating covering access to the portside sea chest and plugged through-hull penetrations into the engine room.

At 14:30 a salvage team arrived and at 17:15, they began removing water from the AMS using a vacuum truck on the pier. On 12 May, pumping was completed and the vessel was dewatered, with around 21,000 gallons of water removed from the vessel into tank trucks for disposal.

The damage

While there were no injuries, the damage to the Oliver Hazard Perry was estimated at $1 million. The flooding in the engine room reached a few inches above the tops of the main engines and covered the reduction gear sets. Both electrical generators and the emergency generator were partially submerged. Several batteries, chargers, wires, and switches in the engine room were submerged and the seawater supply pump, air compressors, and fuel/water separator were damaged by flooding.

The flooding in the AMS damaged several pumps for the water maker system, HVAC system, firefighting system, and marine sanitary device. Several electrical components and switchboards were submerged including wiring, switches and breakers.

Cause

A marine surveyor determined the cause of the flooding was due to a failed seawater cooling supply pipe for the portside generator, likely due to corrosion.

About a year before the casualty, components in the starboard generator’s seawater cooling piping system had been replaced due to corrosion. It is, therefore, likely that the portside generator’s seawater cooling system was similarly corroded and in need of replacement.

Further analysis

The engine room and AMS were separated by a watertight bulkhead and watertight door, which should have prevented progressive flooding between compartments. According to the captain and bosun, and photographs of the door taken during the flooding event, the watertight door between the engine room and AMS was secured with all eight dogs in the fully secured position. However, if the watertight door’s gasket was not making full contact with the knife edge sealing surface, seawater could have leaked into the AMS. Additionally, if any of the pass-through fittings in the watertight bulkhead had been disturbed at some point and not properly resealed, seawater could have also flooded through the fittings into the AMS.

The vessel was fitted with a bilge system, with three bilge level sensors in the engine room and AMS, which should have been triggered by the rising floodwaters. However, the bosun did not report hearing any bilge alarms on the evening of 10 May or the morning of 11 May. The bilge alarm system had not been tested since July 2024, and due to the flooding, the bilge level sensors could not be tested after the casualty, so investigators could not determine whether the bilge level sensors and alarm system had been functional.

Importantly, the accommodation spaces, including the bosun’s stateroom, were not equipped with an alarm panel or annunciator to alert the bosun of any bilge alarms. Therefore, even if any of the three bilge level sensors in the engine room and the AMS had activated, it is unlikely that the audible alarm would have been capable of waking the bosun.

Lessons learned

The National Transportation Safety Board report said the lesson learned from the incident is that when a vessel is in layup or moored with reduced crew and its normal operating stations - such as the bridge or engine room - unattended, it is imperative that any crewmembers on board be notified of emergencies without delay to allow for a timely response. Alarms or other notification systems should be configured such that crewmembers, even in accommodation spaces, are notified immediately in case of flooding or other emergency.

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Main Image: The SSV Oliver Hazard Perry, the largest civilian sailing school vessel in the United States. Credit: MaritimeRI