USCG Lifts Hatch Cover as It Investigates Baltimore Bulker Explosion

The hatch cover that was blown overboard during the explosion on the bulker W-Sapphire was retrieved from the Baltimore shipping channel on Thursday, August 28. It is part of the ongoing investigation into the incident 10 days ago, on August 18, shortly after the vessel departed the coal terminal in Baltimore.

The Fort McHenry Federal Channel leading into and out of the Port of Baltimore was closed to vessel traffic on Thursday from 0730 to 1500 local time. A 500-yard safety zone radius was established around the location of the hatch cover at the northern end of the Chesapeake Bay. 

Dive and salvage operations were undertaken. By mid-afternoon, the USCG posted that the 30-ton hatch had been successfully retrieved from the Patapsco River. The safety zone restriction was removed and the channel reopened.

 

Army Corps surveying the harbor area after the explosion (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District)

 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Baltimore District had assisted the USCG and deployed its survey vessel Buck to conduct sonar surveys around Baltimore's Fort McHenry Channel on August 19, the day after the explosion. Captain Jake Tuer, who conducted the survey, reported that the data collected during this process would help determine the operational plan moving forward, including reopening the channel that day and yesterday’s recovery.

The 751-foot bulker W-Sapphire remains anchored in the channel near Sandy Point State Park and north of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The ship had been escorted into the anchorage shortly after the explosion and will remain there while the USCG and state authorities are investigating the cause of the explosion. Initial radio calls from the vessel said there was possibly water intake into the hold, but the force of the explosion appears to have mostly been driven upward, breaking through the hatch cover.

 

Bulker being escorted out of the channel after the explosion on August 18  (North Point - Edgemere Volunteer Fire Department)

 

Investigators are looking into the cause of the explosion, which ripped the hatch cover off the vessel’s number 2 hold. One leaf remained on deck while the other went overboard. There was a massive fireball, which observers said went several hundred feet into the air, followed by a smoke plume. Coal dust explosions are typically a secondary result of another trigger and require a mix of fuel, heat, and oxygen with the dust suspended in the air. They are reported to be considering spontaneous combustion as well as an external source of heat or fire that contributed to the explosion.