Halifax tour boat nearly hit by huge cruise ship, report finds

An incident that nearly led to a collision between a Halifax tour boat and a cruise ship has led to new safety measures for all Murphy's on the Water boats. 

The Transportation Safety Board issued a report Thursday about the June 29, 2016, incident.

On that morning, the Murphy's tour boat Summer Bay crossed directly in front of the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Grandeur of the Seas. 

'Right in the centre of the Summer Bay'

"It was a crossing situation," said Chris Morrow, regional senior investigator with the Transportation Safety Board and author of the incident report.

"If there were a collision — which there wasn't — the stem, the very bow of the boat, is the strongest part of your vessel. That's where the best place to collide would be. And it would have been right in the centre of the Summer Bay."

Morrow says the consequences of a collision would have been "severe" for the smaller boat, while the cruise ship would have sustained little damage.

Foggy morning

On the day of the incident, during thick morning fog, the Summer Bay left harbour with 35 passengers and four crew. At the same time, the cruise ship Grandeur of the Seas was coming into the harbour with roughly 3,200 people on board. 

There was low visibility, but the two ships could see each other on radar. Over marine radio, they agreed to pass each other port to port: the Summer Bay was to stay west of the Grandeur of the Seas. 

But less than 10 minutes after making that agreement, the master of the Summer Bay believed he saw another ship to starboard on his radar. He also thought there were shoals on his starboard side. 

Disappeared from radar

According to the TSB report, neither of those things were true. The shoal was behind the Summer Bay, and the radar image was just a reflection of the large Grandeur of the Seas. However, the master of the Summer Bay decided his safest course was to turn and cross directly in front of the path of the oncoming cruise ship. 

The 15-metre Summer Bay passed 25 metres in front of the Grandeur of the Seas. Crew on the cruise ship did not see the smaller ship almost beneath them. 

"The first indication from the Grandeur of the Seas was they saw the mast coming from underneath the bow," said Morrow. 

The smaller ship did not warn the cruise ship of the change in plans. The crew on the Grandeur also saw the Summer Bay briefly disappear off radar because it was too close for the instruments to measure. The crossing happened in about 30 seconds. 

Improving safety training

Morrow made several findings encouraging vessel captains to pay attention to proper procedures in fog and to verify their radar data.

"The most important part would be a risk mitigation strategy for vessels operating in fog, and for the company to ensure that their masters are fully competent and aware of the risks involved in going out in the fog with large traffic on the way in, and mitigate those risks," he said.  

The master of the Summer Bay had worked on fishing vessels for 15 years, but was only hired by Murphy's eight days before the incident. Two days before the incident, he received a master's certificate. The day before the incident, he began to work as an unsupervised master.

"Since joining the company, and until the day of the occurrence, the master had had no experience operating under conditions of limited visibility in Halifax Harbour," Morrow wrote in the report. 

Murphy's says the employee has since left the company, but that it has improved safety training for all its remaining boat masters. 

New safety measures

One of Murphy's first acts was to create a new position for a person to examine safety and standardize procedures for the company's captains to follow. 

Roger Nugent, fleet operations director for Murphy's on the Water, was brought in from Ontario, where he worked in marine safety. 

"My No. 1 priority was to create a safety management system here that really brought our safety standard up a few more notches," he said.  

Nugent says Murphy's gave him direction to ensure such an incident did not happen again, and after working through last winter to develop new guidelines, he believes procedures have improved and are standardized for all masters. 

Murphy's has added automatic identification systems (AIS) to all its vessels, as recommended in the TSB report. AIS works in addition to radar to identify other vessels and show their course. 

As well, Nugent said Murphy's puts new employees through more stringent training. 

"All of our new masters are put through what we call a position qualification. That ensures 60 hours of training, and this is above and beyond the training they receive beforehand," Nugent said.

The 60 hours of training are held in all types of conditions, from fair to foggy.