First draft: 2 September 2006
Last revised: 20 January 2007.

JUPITER 6

The tragedy of a difficult towage that lasted 10 months and ended with the disappearance of the tug.

JUPITER 6 : crew before leaving Walvis bay (Picture from Missions to Seafarers)

Foreword

The following summary has been prepared in order to assist the relatives of the JUPITER 6 in getting some compensation for the loss of their husband, father, or son who supported them with their earning as crewmembers of the tugboat. It is about one year since the ship had vanished, and many reports confirm that no compensation had been paid, or that a ridiculous amount of about 400 USD had been offered and rejetected. In the meantime women in charge of many children had no income, some parents died in the months that followed the disappearance of their son. It is urgent that the commercial interests in Mumbai, and the involved governemeent organisations in India, Ukraine and Jamaica, speed up their efforts to reach a decent settlement otherwise the lives of more relatives will be destroyed by the lack of due diligence to handle the consequences of this tragedy. Taking into accout this urgency, some material, like pictures displayed on the internet, had been freely used. Needless to say that this material cannot be used for any commercial purpose.

Need for more data

Any useful information regarding the JUPITER 6 and his crew and their relatives can be sent to lemschout@skynet.be
or merchannavy@yahoogroups.com or, for the Indian relatives, to captjoy@yahoo.com
With several freely working Indian sympathizers, many of them former shipmasters, we are trying to support the relatives by providing technical expertise and coordinating internationaly their efforts to obtain a fair compensation.

JUPITER 6 : Summary of collected information

Built in 1975 by "Brodogradiliste Tito" at Mitrovica (Yard number 925) Gross tonnage 323 or 299, thus normally not a SOLAS ship, not subject to the ISM code. It indicates also that it was a rather small tug for a long ocean operation. It could be that the tonnage had been artificially kept low in order to escape SOLAS rules, but the list of previous owners shows only slight variation in the tonnage, the largest one being when the ship was under Philippines register (447gt). No owner will require to increase a tonnage, but the only pictures available suggest anyway large tug.
Tug/Anchor Handling/Supply , IMO n° 7391745, Gross tonnage 299 GRT, Netto tonnage 85 NRT
Lenght 39,93m(32,19), Beam 10,14m, Depth 4,611m(5,31)
Fighter fighting and salvage capabilities
Main engine: B&W ALPHA type 16V23LU, total power 4690 bhp, 2 propellers with 4 blades
Bow thruster of 300 bhp
Generators: 2 diesels
Speed 13,5kn, bollard pull 65 tons.
July 2004: Harbour tug "SEA HUSKI" of Trinidad, damaged by fire was bought by "Jupiter Shipmanagement Inc" at Mumbai (IND), renamed JUPITER 6
Owner: PELMAR Shipping & Engineering Pvt Ltd, has an office in Mumbai.
Management: reported to be a company located in India or PELMAR itself? Crewing agent: Pelican Marine, Mumbai
Flag: ST.VINCENT & GRENADINES ( Previously reported as MARSHAL Islands & JAMAICA)
P&I: Unknown, it is not sure there was a P&I
CLASS: Unknown
Crew: 3 Ukrainians, 10 Indians

The trip

The JUPITER 6 left Cuba in November 2004 towing the bulker ITHOMI (Also called SATSANG, POINTING). Called Port of Spain, Trinidad, left 6 January 2005 and reached Fortaleza in Brazil on 18 March 2005. The tow made an average speed of 0.7 knots, not taking into account the eventual stop due to engine breakdown or other. There is also a strong current in the opposite direction north this part of the coast of South America, but almost no strong winds.
After a short call, the tug left Fortaleza on 19 March and reach Walvis Bay in Namibia only three and a half months later, on 1 July 2005. The average speed during this crossing of the South Atlantic was 1.3 knots. Engine problems can be assumed to have delayed the vessel as it went to dry dock for extensive repairs.

JUPITER 6 in repair yard and dry dock in Walvis Bay

The tug left Walvis Bay on 9 August 2005 and sent its last position on 5 September 2005: 35.52 S 23.26 E with as final destination the shipbreaking yard of Alang near Bhavnagar in the Indian state of Gujarat. An intermediate call in Mauritius was probably foreseen.
On 7 September a large low centred on the Orange Free state provoked heavy thunderstorms. A satelitte picture shows that the associated throughs could have brought high wind from NE then NW in the area where the tug was sailing on 6 September.
The suggestions that the JUPITER 6 could have been the victim of a pirate attack are ridiculous. These were never reported off South Africa, and the bad weather itself would discourage piracy. But it is well known that freak waves associated with a depression frequently occurs near the edge of the Agulhas bank.
Sattelite picture showing a large depression on central South Africa on 7 September 2005

Sattelite picture showing a large depression on central South Africa on 7 September 2005

Extract from the Nautical chart showing the last position, the place(s) where the tow "ITHOMI" was found, and the location of the radio beacon

After the tug went missing

On 25 September the towed ITHOMI was found drifting by bulker POSEIDON drifting in position by 37.48 S 28.59 E or 25.59 E.
The tug SMIT AMANDLA was sent to recuperate the vessel. It found the tow line snapped and indication that two emergency towing wires had been rigged. Which means that the crew had a hard time to keep the ITHOMI in tow.
On 8th October a distress signal from the ship emergency beacon (EPIRB) was received from the position 35,12S 24,17E. A plane was sent and observed traces of oil and some floating wreckage. The EPIRB was somehow recuperated and found to have manually activated.
Remain the mystery of the cellular phone call from Namibia. One sailor phoned when the ship called Walvis bay in August 2005, and on 23 and 24 June 2006 one relative received a phone call from the same phone. She tried to call back but nobody answered. It is possible that the phone had been stolen or lost, and somebody in Namibia tried to use it.

Here follows a list of the crewmember prepared on basis of internet information.
BULGARU Y. Master(?), Ukrainian
ZELENETSCIY O. Chief Officer(?), Ukrainian
TKACH S. Chief Engineer (?), Ukrainian
KUMAR Raj, 2nd officer from India
HOLIDATHAGOTI Hussein, crewmember from Lakshadweep, his mother died in November 2005
KATTAMPALLY Jose Matthew, electrician from the Indian state of Kerala
JAGOTHI Ibrahim Eduruman, crewmember from India
FAIKAGE Hassan, 20 year old, crewmember fron India
KOLUGEDORU Ali, crewmember, his father died around 30-6-2006
EDURUMANJAGOTHI Ibrahin, crewmember, his father died begin 2006
DAS Shri Subhas, cook from Calcuta.
MATHEW Jose, crewmember from India
PRAVIN Pandey, crewmember from Uttar Pradesh province, India.

Besides the crew from the Indian state of Kerala, 4 others are from Minicoy in the Lakshadweep islands, one from Calcuta and apparently one from the Uttar Pradesh province.

Further information

With a group of Indian volunteers we try to get more information, but apparently the Management did not provide much since the disappearance of the tug, otherwise the relatives would not have used the net to publish their desperate situation.
The crew manager advised the Indian relatives only one month after it had lost contact with the crew.
An other aim of the report is to draw the attention of the IMO on the crews embarked on small ships which are not subject to SOLAS regulations. Some other legal instruments could well be refered to, but none could be as efficient internationaly as the ISM Code which should be extended to all international shipping operations.

The MSC-Circular 884 on Safe Towing is applicable as there is no tonnage limit, but it provides only guidelines, and it can only be used to assess to which extend the JUPITER 6 was up to the task of towing such a large vessel in the stormy waters off South Africa.

Extract from IMO/MSC circular 884

2 APPLICATION
2.1 These Guidelines are applicable to international ocean towing operations from one State to another State. However, these guidelines may also be used for any other ocean towing operation. ... 6.2 There should be a contingency plan on board the towing vessel to cover the onset of adverse weather, particularly in respect of arrangements for heaving to or taking shelter. Personnel should be familiarized with their responsibilities and duties in an emergency situation in accordance with this contingency plan. If the towed object is manned, the contingency plan should also be carried on such object. ... 7.3 Where operational limitations have been identified for the tow, procedures should be put in place to prevent the tow encountering conditions in excess of the limitations. Such procedures may include weather routeing or safe shelter locations, or both....
9 DESIGN ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS
9.1 The towed object, including cargo and securing arrangements, should be capable to withstand the loads caused by the most adverse environmental conditions expected for the season and areas in question.*...
9.3 For long duration towing operations passing through areas having different sea state characteristics, the worst sea state for the route should be considered....
9.4 The continuous bollard pull of the towing vessel(s) involved should be sufficient to maintain station keeping of the tow in the following environmental conditions, acting in the same direction:
- Wind: 20 m/s
- Significant wave height: 5 m
- Current: 0.5 m/s

SPECULATIONS & FACTS

As for many sea mysteries many strange suggestions were made, some quite damaging for the progress of the inquiry, some others that are slightly plausible and some coming straight from the imagination.
When some people heard that the tug was in the Indian ocean (it just entered it) he made a connection with what is happening on the Somali coast on the other side of the Equator suggested that it had been highjacked by pirates. But pirates attack were never reported near South Africa and the stormy weather would prevent them anyway.
Another suggestion is that the tug had been taken over by the crew of part of it, and sailed away with or without the knowledge of the owner to a destination where it could be sold. This is very unlikely taking into account the complains of the relatives who are still remaining without news of their loved ones. Anyway this hypothesis can be totally ignored thanks to the testimonies from all the relatives, including the Ukrainian wives, about their distressful situation.
And on one internet discussion group I read that the tug could have been swallowed by a giant squid! No further comments.
It is almost certain that the tug was either sunk by bad weather, a large unexpected wave could have flooded the engine through an open door, or was rammed by the tow itself. Then some damage could have been found on the bow of the ITHOMI, a report from the SMIT AMANDLA would be welcome here.
The most important clue remains poorly studied, the manual activation of the EPIRB 33 after the disappearance of teh tug. One report indicates that the battery life of the EPIRB is only 90 hours, thus it was not self-activated by sea water if the tug sank around the 5 September. One possibility is that the EPIRB remained afloat was likely found by a passing low freeboard ship, possibly a fishing boat that was fishing or sailing the area, but did not want to report its own position. But another and more distressing possibility was that the tug boat had been disabled by heavy seas around the 5 September and lost communications due to lack of electric power or wet instruments. As she was not so far from well frequented sailing routes, with plenty provisions the crew could have hoped to get help from a passing ship. This could be supported by a single piece of information made available by the owners "One fact so far not known was that a ship named Caroline reported sighting Jupiter 6 on 12/9 but no radio contact could be extablished, the position was in the proximity of the last reported position but without a tow. The owners were in a hurry to reach the scrap yard in India as they already had the next charter, a lucrative one, in place in the oil fields off Bombay.". I asked further info on this sighting, but never got it. Then it is reasonable to assume that the tug could have been drifting in the area until another storm around the 8 october made that the sinking was obviously certain, that the crew finally activated the EPIRB.. and died in the following hours. To support this theory, the weather records from the South African weather services would be needed.

PLIGHT of RELATIVES

One thing is sure, they are in Ukraine and India destroyed families which are facing a very dark future if some fair compensation is not paid for the loss of their loved one.
But the financial issue is also not the main problem for the families. The despair of the relatives is poorly known as very seldom it make the news in the media, but sometimes a woman finally gives a testimony of her suffering as this mother of the master of the bulker Kairali which vanished shortly after it left India in 1979.
One article in the Indian press dealing with the "Jupiter 6", quoted that she had well received some compensation, but it could bring her husband back.
From the Don Winner of the Panama guide (6 October 2006) :
"However, the Kerala High Court did order relief for an elderly mother of a crewmember of Kairali, which sank about 500 km off the port of Margaon in July 1979, taking with it 53 people."
And in the Deccan Herald of 20 July 2005 more details could be found:
Quote:
Bid to locate ship that vanished 26 years ago
From R Gopakumar DH News Service Thiruvananthapuram:
Relatives of the crew of the ship ‘Kairali’, which disappeared in the Arabian Sea in 1979, believe that their loved ones are alive.
Hearing the prayers of 72-year-old Marykutty, one might even wish that the mystery that shrouds the disappearance of her husband Mariadas Joseph along with the ship he captained 26 years ago, should well remain unexposed. “I tell my five sons... papa will come some day even if he is 100 years old. He must have been marooned on some island in Germany or Africa desperately trying to get back,” she told Deccan Herald from Kottayam.
But Marykutty’s hopes may be dashed if oceanographic experts succeed in tracing the remnants of ‘Kairali’ which disappeared with a crew of 53 people and 20,000 tonnes of iron ore on July 3, 1979. Chances of a fresh search have brightened with Chief Minister Oommen Chandy earnestly asking his scientific advisors whether anything could be done. The ship made in Norway had set out on its voyage on June 30, 1979 from Margao to Rostok, Germany, via Djibouti, Africa.
Mr Chandy has been given to believe that it would be possible using new technology to trace the remains of the ship. The reopening of the old chapter seemed to have been spurred by the chief minister’s personal interest also, as his cousin Ranjit George was Kairali’s second engineer.
Unquote
The pathetic plea of this mother shows also that the parents of the victims are often suffering even more than their widows, as stated at least 3 of them passed away after the disappearance of the tugboat.
An important factor was also that a close relative of the Chief Minister Oommen Chandy was lost with the bulker as obviously this personality really tries to do something for the seafarers of his country. At this stage we can wonder if a "Flag State" which has none of its nationals involved in commercial shipping still should have a strong voice in regulating this industry at the IMO level.
On 12 November 2006 the newspaper "The Hindu" published the following that reflects the persistence of the relatives to know more about the fate of their beloved ones:
Quote:
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has issued notice to the Centre on a writ petition seeking a probe into the disappearance of ship 'Jupiter 6,' its crew and other members in mysterious circumstances since September 2005. A Bench of Justice H.K. Sema and Justice P.K. Balasubramanyan also issued notice on Friday to the Director-General of Shipping; Pelmar Shipping and Engineering (PSAE) Private Limited and Pelican Marine Personnel Management Private Limited on the petition filed by the family members of the missing persons.
The petitioners, Sabeeha Faikage and four others, said they were the next of kin of their respective family members who were employed by their foreign principals to work on board a foreign tug ship, 'Jupiter 6' through their Mumbai-based agent, PSAE. Jupiter 6 consisted of 10 Indians and 3 Ukrainians.
The ship was said to have sailed from Walvis Bay to India via South Africa on August 21, 2005, when the crew informed their families of their return to India. They said that according to the agent PSAE Jupiter 6 went missing since September 5, 2005. They said that even after the issue was raised in Parliament, the Centre and other authorities had failed to take steps to trace the missing ship and the crewmembers. They said that on various dates, during the past one year newspapers and television channels across India reported about the incident. In spite of this no concrete measures were taken to seriously pursue and trace the missing Indian sailors.
The petitioners said that the State could not be a mute spectator to this agony and till date neither the Prime Minister, nor any other authority had even bothered to comment on the plight of these Indians. They sought a direction to the Centre to conduct a probe into the disappearance of the ship and the crewmembers and to award suitable compensation to the family members

Unquote

An international affair

As in many other maritime tragedies, several countries besides India are involved in this case, mainly Ukraine regarding the nationality of 3 victims, with a possible connection to Russia, and the tiny Caribbean country of Saint Vincent and Grenadines as the flag state of the tug boat.
However, if going global was obvious to maximise the profits, there was also a tendency to restrict the investigation to the shipping circles in Bombay, this in spite of the good functioning of the democracy in India. The justification for this was that some persons and politicians lacking the necesary expertise made imprudent statements, such as evoking the possibility of a pirate attack, and it delayed the settlements of compensations by the insurance and/or P&I club. But in such a difficult case, the best maritime expertise, technical and legal, is needed first to help the relatives, then to find all the causes of the tragedy so that the right lessons can be learned.
If most of the relatives were using internet to publish their distress, there was on the contrary an excessive discretion from many of the persons and organisations involved. It is too often the case with maritime tragedies, with as result that they repeat themselves and just make more victims.
Therefore here under I provide a list of the organisations approached for a complement of information with a summary of their reaction:
- Merchantnavy discussion group from India: main source of continuous information on the issue, it triggered the study of this case.
- South African weather services: approached by Email in September 2006 for the record of the weather at the time of the dissapearance of the tug. No answer.
- Mission to Seafarers in Walvis Bay: contacted by the Mission of Antwerp in September 2006 in order to have a confirmation of the good spirit among the crew members of the tug. It could have helped to refute some allegation that the crew itself high jacked the tugboat. No answer.
- ITF London: contacted via ITF Belgium in September 2006 and it provided some of its correspondace with the "Water Transport Worker's and Seamen's Unions Federation of Ukraine"