Seatrade Maritime: Another week before dewatering of ONE Henry Hudson

A week after returning to berth in the Port of Los Angeles the fire hit container ship ONE Henry Hudson is still awaiting the start of the removal of wastewater from firefighting.

In an update to customers charterer Ocean Network Express (ONE) said the vessel was alongside at berth 212 in the Yusen Terminal in the Port of LA. 

Cargo inspection is pending dewatering of the ONE Henry Hudson with hold no.3 on the vessel reported previously to be around 80% full of water following firefighting operations.

“Due to the large amount of water used for firefighting operations in some vessel holds, the vessel must first dispose of that water in order for further inspection to be available,” the ONE customer notice said.

ONE said the vessel’s owners, FJ Shipping Co of Japan according to Pole Star Global’s PurpleTRAC, and salvors were currently making arrangements for the disposal of wastewater.

“Although the situation is not clear at this point, it is expected that at least a week will be needed before water disposal operations can commence,” the container line said.

Even once the vessel has been dewatered any operations to remove cargo from the ONE Henry Hudson are subject to permission from the US Coast Guard.

ONE has declared General Average on ONE Henry Hudson meaning that shippers are liable for a portion of salvage costs and will pay a security cost before cargo is released once it has been offloaded from the vessel.

ONE Henry Hudson had arrived in the Port of LA on 19 November having crossed the Transpacific with its previous ports of call Tokyo, Nagoya, and Kobe in Japan according to GPS tracking data from Pole Star Global.

The fire onboard the ONE Henry Hudson started on Friday evening and a firefighting operation initially involved nearly 200 personnel. The vessel was towed to an anchorage outside the port’s breakwater early on Saturday morning as firefighting continued.

No-one was reported to have been injured in the incident which is the latest in a series of serious fires onboard container ships, which can take weeks if not months to fully extinguish.

The cause of the incident is under joint investigation by the USCG and the National Transportation Safety Board.