Countless tons of cargo burning aboard the MSC Flaminia


The considerable damage to the container ship MSC Flaminia, which has been on fire in the mid-Atlantic since July 14, is clear from a photograph taken Friday morning from a salvage tugboat fighting the blaze.

As costly efforts to control a container ship fire in the mid-Atlanic continue, exporters with uninsured goods aboard the MSC Flaminia, whose last port call was Charleston, could be facing some large bills.

Photographs taken from firefighting tugs at the scene, where the Flaminia has been burning since July 14, show considerable damage. Ship owner NSB Reederie, of Germany, said three cargo holds have been “demolished,” and it could take weeks to put out the fire.

The Flaminia’s crew abandoned ship the morning of July 14 after the fire broke out and an explosion followed. One crewman was killed, another remains missing and three were injured.

The ship was carrying 2,876 shipping containers, and each 40-foot container can hold tons of goods.

Under an international standard known as general cost averaging, cargo owners may be required to pay a proportional share of damages to a ship carrying the goods, unless they are insured against that possibility.

For example, if a company’s cargo comprised 1 percent of the value of all the cargo on the ship, it could be liable for 1 percent of all the damage to all the cargo and the ship.

In West Ashley, Jackie Adamson, regional vice president for the international insurance broker Roanoke Trade Services, said a substantial number of importers and exporters don’t buy insurance.

“It’s the medium-sized shippers, who have never had a claim,” she said.

Adamson said notices of potential claims from the MSC Flaminia have been “coming in left and right” all week from those who did buy insurance.

“Right now, all they are focused on is getting the fire out,” she said. “Then, what will be, will be.”

Shipping trade publications have suggested the damages to the ship and cargo could exceed $160 million. NSB hired SMIT Salvage to put out the Flaminia fire and to tow the ship to port.

Fighting The Fire

Firefighting efforts on the Flaminia began Tuesday when the first of three ocean-going tugs arrived. A second tug arrived Friday, and then salvage experts boarded the 984-foot ship and reactivated onboard firefighting systems, according to NSB.

The ship is now roughly 600 miles from the British coast, listing 8.5 degrees due to shifting cargo and the weight of water from firefighting efforts, NSB reported.

The causes of the fire and subsequent explosion Saturday, and an explosion Tuesday that temporarily halted firefighting efforts, have not been determined.

Paul McClintock, senior vice president and chief commercial officer at the State Ports Authority, said he had no specific information about cargo on the Flaminia, but container cargo on Charleston-to-Europe routes tends to be relatively heavy, low-value goods, such as agriculture and paper products, scrap material and machine parts.

“Inbound, the containers might weigh half as much and be worth 10 times as much,” he said, because imports tend to be higher-value products, such as clothing and electronics.

Charleston was the last of a string of ports in the U.S., Caribbean and South America that were called upon by the Flaminia before the ship headed for Antwerp, Belgium, on July 8.

McClintock said shipping lines make Charleston their last port on some export routes because the harbor is deeper than at some other ports, such as the Port of Savannah, and that allows ships to take on additional weight in Charleston.

Mediterranean Shipping Co., which chartered the Flaminia, has declined to comment on events involving the ship. Owner NSB has provided regular updates, but no information as to the cargo manifest, which the company said included “dangerous goods.”

When firefighting efforts began Tuesday, the salvage tug on scene was forced to retreat after there was another explosion aboard the Flaminia and NSB decided “the danger of continuing the firefighting operations was too high due to dangerous goods which are onboard.”

Firefighting efforts resumed the following day.

Open Questions

Pamela Zaresk, the former director of U.S. Customs and Border Protection for South Carolina and central Florida, and current president of the Maritime Association of South Carolina, said it’s unsurprising there’s little detailed information about the cargo and fatal events at sea.

“There hasn’t yet been an investigation, and the thing is still on fire,” she said Friday. “Nobody here has any jurisdiction, and when somebody else is handling it, which they are, nobody here is going to want to say anything.”

Zaresk said Customs and Border Protection would have reviewed the ship’s manifest, but the fire might not have started due to the contents of a container.

“Just because something ignited doesn’t mean it was dangerous in and of itself,” she said. “We drive around all day in cars filled with gasoline.”

The Flaminia is flagged in Germany, so any investigation is in that nation’s hands. The Flaminia’s 23 crew members were German, Polish and Filipino nationals.

NSB has refused to provide information about the nationality of the two passengers on the ship, but the humanitarian group The Mission to Seafarers said both were men from the United States.


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