A ship sinks due to refrigeration failure

Three years ago, in April 2001, a factory freezer trawler, the Fame, sank off the coast of Labrador, Canada. According to a recent report by a provincial Transportation Safety Board, the ship sank due to a chain of events, eventually flooding the ship, initiated by the failure of a refrigeration system. The ship suffered a failure in the factory freezer trawler equipment, which resulted in the release of the entire refrigerant charge into the engine room, thus displacing the oxygen. This led to suffocation of the engine and caused a total loss of power. Hence, the pump could no longer pump out the seawater that washed in through the valves on the factory deck used for processing shrimp, leading to flooding. All 24 members of crew were rescued by nearby fishing vessels. However, the distress message was sent more than 14 hours after the incident occurred. The ship could not be saved and sank with 155 000 litres of marine diesel fuel on board.