Text and photo by Fleetmon (link to original article)
Chief officer of bulk carrier İNCE EGE fell into water from pilot ladder while trying to read draft marks at Taman port, Russia, Black sea, understood early in the morning Feb 4, at nigh time. He was rescued 45 minutes later, but neither crew, no port paramedic, who was transported by tug, were able to resuscitate him, he, unfortunately, died. Understood the main cause of his death was hypothermia.
This article was originally published on Baird Maritime (link below)
When a pilot is berthing a ship with the aid of tugs, it sometimes happens that the ship lands heavily and suffers minor damage. More commonly in my experience, it also happens that the crew discover a large dent for which they cannot account ...
It has been shown that a majority (51%) of pilot ladders is secured by means of D-shackles, when secured at intermediate length. Previous research (Evans, 2020) has proven that this method has only about 50% of the strength of the pilot ladder when secured at full length (“double ended ladder”), or by means of the “endless-sling” method.