Report on MV Rezzak points out ship's deficiencies

India has received the preliminary report of investigation into the disappearance of the shipping vessel M V Rezzak with 25 Indian sailors onboard, conducted by the Marine Casualty Investigation branch of the Panama Maritime Authority.
    
The vessel carrying steel billets left for Russia from Turkey on February 17 and disappeared in the Black sea. The vessel was owned by a Turkish national and registered at Panama.
  
According to the report by Panama Maritime Authority, local authorities at the Novorossiysk port in Russia inspected the vessel and reported a number of deficiencies to the safety of life at sea including various hull related items and others related to planned maintenance.
    
'Deficiencies found on board were rectified as stated... existing EPIRB was replaced due to damage to outer shell at the port of Novorossiysk,' it said. EPIRB or Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon are tracking transmitters which help in the detection and location of boats.
    
"The Rezzak loaded steel billets from Novorossiysk below maximum tonnage, it said. 'There was no deficiency noted by the harbour master of Novorossiysk as an overload condition,' the report added.
                                        
The steel billets loaded on the vessel were of different sizes and their position is 'very important', the report noted. However, support documents did not mention this matter, it said. All the cargoes were lashed down and related certificates were issued, the report said.
    
Despite the cargo being tied, the report doesn't rule out the rolling action and pitching actions may have existed due to direction of the wind force. 'The master of Rezzak decided to change her route to Bartin, which is a route opposite the anchoring area. This means that heavy rolling and pitching is very possible on the route,' the report said.
    
The vessel's GM has been found out to be 'very high'. The GM (metacentric height) is the distance between the centre of gravity of a ship and its metacentre. The GM is used to calculate the stability of a ship. It should equal or exceed the minimum required GM for that ship for the duration of the forthcoming voyage.
    
The report pointed out that Rezzak did not have records in place. 'Various records were examined, but the most recent records, which must be filled out on board, were not available,' the report said.