On 8/7/1997 1, the vessel NAVIMAR V (Official Number 320195) was involved in a capsizes in PORT OF QUEBEC, QUEBEC,.
The vessel, with 2 persons on board, experienced the incident while engaged in regular operations. Fortunately, the ship was able to continue its voyage. No injuries or fatalities were reported, and there was minor pollution.
This incident was officially recorded by Transport Canada on 6/10/1998 . Weather at the time was reported as clear.
In order to relieve the pilot who had been on duty from Les Escoumins, Quebec, aboard the "NAVIOS MINERVA", the pilot boat "NAVIMAR V" came alongside the bulk carrier while passing the pilot station at Québec, Quebec, shortly before 0100. Two pilots from the Québec / Trois-Rivières sector climbed onto the accommodation ladder, but before they could reach the vessel's deck, the pilot boat plunged into the sea and resurfaced upside down.
The master of the pilot boat was trapped in a compartment and the deckhand was thrown overboard. The Canadian Coast Guard Ship "STERNE", which was dispatched to the scene, recovered the deck-hand, who had climbed onto the overturned hull, and the master, who had swum to the surface. The "STERNE" took the survivors to the Canadian Coast Guard base, where an ambulance was waiting to take them to hospital. Both crew members were suffering from hypothermia and nervous shock, but they were released from hospital a few hours later. The "NAVIMAR V" drifted in the St. Lawrence River before sinking off the mouth of the Saint-Charles River, in about 30 metres of water. The pollution caused by the pilot boat was deemed minor.
The Board determined that the pilot boat "NAVIMAR V" overturned because when she came alongside the "NAVIOS MINERVA", she overtook a wave generated by the ship, pitched onto the wave crest then surged down into the trough of the next wave before plunging into the sea. The submerged bow slowed down the pilot boat but, due to her momentum, she continued to pitch until the vessel turned over. The decision to use the accommodation ladder instead of the vessel's pilot ladder contributed to the sequence of events.