Explosion injures crewman, leaves boxship adrift in North Atlantic
Professional Mariner|August 2020
One crewman was injured during a “severe” engine failure aboard a Danish containership that left the vessel adrift in the North Atlantic.
Casey Conley
Explosion injures crewman, leaves boxship adrift in North Atlantic

The 872-foot Laura Maersk reportedly had an explosion in the engine room June 4 at about 1430 while the ship was roughly 275 miles off Ocean City, Md. The crewmember suffered burns and other injuries deemed nonlife-threatening, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

Maersk attributed the incident to a “severe turbocharger breakdown” in the engine room. It caused a minor fire that the crew “promptly extinguished,” according to company spokesman Thomas Boyd.

“The cause of the turbocharger breakdown is unknown at this time,” he said. “There (was) no further damage to the vessel and all cargo is intact.”

Authorities in the United States likely will not investigate the engine problem or crewmember injury because the incident occurred on a foreign-flagged ship sailing in international waters, Coast Guard spokesman Ronald Hodges said.

This story is from the August 2020 edition of Professional Mariner.

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This story is from the August 2020 edition of Professional Mariner.

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