The Cypriot-flagged bulk carrier Peace, operated by Danaos Shipping, has been banned from entering Australian ports for three months after being deemed unseaworthy.
The merchant ship is the second such vessel of Danaos Shipping to raise concerns in Australia with their other bulk carrier ‘Suez Canal’ having been subjected to a prolonged detention by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) in January 2024.
AMSA Acting Executive Director Operations Greg Witherall in a statement said that the failures with the Suez Canal led to the authority deciding to increase the frequency of inspections with the company’s other ships.
“In January 2024 we issued Danaos Shipping with a formal letter of warning, urging the company to rectify the systemic issues which led to the Suez Canal being detained in Australia that same month,” Witherall said.
“Clearly that letter of warning fell on deaf ears. Fast forward 5 months and we have had yet another one of Danaos Shipping’s vessels, the Peace, detained in an Australian port for a lack of maintenance and serious deterioration of fixtures and fittings such as hatches.
Witherall stated that Peace represented a real and unacceptable risk to the safety of its crew and Australia’s marine environment, stating clearly that “ships cannot be operated in this unseaworthy state”.
He added that the watertight and weathertight failures on the ship had catastrophic potential.
Peace was detained in Newcastle on 31 May 2024, with the detention lifted on Monday following rectification of these deficiencies.
“Allowing a ship to fall into a state of deterioration is completely unacceptable – there are no excuses for this level of neglect,” Witherall said.
“That is why we have taken the next step of banning this ship from entering an Australian port again for 3 months.”
Witherall warned that further action could be taken against Danaos Shipping if they continue to operate unseaworthy ships.
