Dolphin's mate tells of 'catalogue of errors'

Geir Syversen, the second officer on the fated Bourbon Offshore Norway anchor handling tug supply (AHTS) vessel Bourbon Dolphin today told a maritime inquiry of a catalogue of errors in the last hours before the AHTS capsized while working at the Rosebank field, west of Shetland.

Syversen told the inquiry, which is sitting in Aalesund, that the Bourbon Dolphin almost collided with the Gulfmark Offshore AHTS Highland Valour before the capsize on 12 April.

He also told how the Highland Valour hooked up to the anchor chain the Bourbon Dolphin was releasing after failing to connect to it four times. Syversen added that the Highland Valour had then sailed in the opposite direction to the course it was instructed to follow.

The Bourbon Dolphin had a crew of 15 on board at the time of the accident. Three died, five - including the skipper's 14-year-old son who was on work experience - are missing, presumed drowned, while seven crew survived.

The vessel sank on 15 April.

"After (the Highland Valour) started on the right course, we got an incredible increase in tension," Syversen told the inquiry.

"We realised pretty quickly that the Highland Valour had lost the chain again - we had felt a shift to port."

He then said that both the rig - the two AHTS vessels were working with the Transocean semi-submersible rig Transocean Rather - and Oddne Arve Remoy, the captain of the Bourbon Dolphin, called the Highland Valour.

"The rig said first: 'What are you going to do now to get out of the situation you have put the Bourbon Dolphin in?' He (the captain of the Highland Valour) answered that he would try to hook up to the chain again," Syversen said.

"The rig rang us and said that whatever we did we must not drift towards anchor number three's position. At that point we had 1800 metres of chain out. It was 1655 and we had 290 tonnes of tension on the winch. The boat then made a big shift to port."

At this point Syversen said the first officer called for a shift in the ballast to starboard. At 1700 the Transocean Rather called the Bourbon Dolphin and suggested removing the starboard guide pin.

"I could sense that the captain and the first officer didn’t like the idea, but they didn’t tell the rig that. I think the skipper got the picture. The captain and the first officer decided to do it, the tension was then at 330 tonnes. The captain tried to release it, but because of all the tension it would not move.

The captain then steered the boat a few degrees to starboard in an attempt to make it easier to release the pin.

"It appeared there was a small drop in tension, and the first officer tried to drive down the inner pin. The chain rushed across to the portside outer towing pin, then it went over the side of the boat. The vessel was listing hard to port as well as drifting quickly to port. Most of the cargo deck had disappeared under water," Syversen said.

Syversen told the inquiry he thought the time was about 1703.

"There was a phone call from the engine room, I think it was the chief engineer, saying that both the main engines to on the starboard side had stopped."

He added it was the first officer who spoke to the engine room.

"He hung up and the boat shifted about 90 degrees. I said: 'I'm going now'. But before I could, the captain asked me to press the emergency release button.

"So I sat in my place again because after that all the chains were meant to be released so the boat could right itself again," he said.

The inquiry leader asked Syversen: "It was an emergency button?"

"Yes. It releases everything attached to the boat. It can happen so quickly that it almost rips the winch from the boat. But nothing happened. When I started to climb to the starboard door, I saw that it was releasing only about 12 metres of chain per minute."

"There were six of us on the bridge. Me, the first officer and an able seaman stood were closest to the door so we tried to open it. We had a lot of trouble doing so, but finally got it free.

"The last I saw of the bridge was the skipper, his son and another sailor going down to the port side.

I stood outside the bridge door with the first officer and began climbing up the hull on the starboard side. And then, the boat went under," the 37-year-old said.

The inquiry will now hear from Syversen's crew mates Per Jan Vike and Egil Atle Hafsaas. The Bourbon Dolphin's alternative captain Frank Reinersen will also give evidence.

The inquiry continues.