Concordia (ship)
Encyclopedia
Concordia was a steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
-hulled
Hull (watercraft)
A hull is the watertight body of a ship or boat. Above the hull is the superstructure and/or deckhouse, where present. The line where the hull meets the water surface is called the waterline.The structure of the hull varies depending on the vessel type...
barquentine
Barquentine
A barquentine is a sailing vessel with three or more masts; with a square rigged foremast and fore-and-aft rigged main, mizzen and any other masts.-Modern barquentine sailing rig:...
that was built in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
in 1992 for the West Island College
West Island College
The West Island Colleges are a set of private Canadian junior high and high schools, one of which is located in Montreal's West Island, and the other in the south-east of Calgary. The schools also offer a program known as Class Afloat that provides students with an educational experience while...
, Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. She served as a sail training
Sail training
From its modern interpretations to its antecedents when maritime nations would send young naval officer candidates to sea , sail training provides an unconventional and effective way of building many useful skills on and off the water....
ship until she capsized and sank on 17 February 2010.
Description
Concordia was built by Colod of SzczecinSzczecin
Szczecin , is the capital city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. It is the country's seventh-largest city and the largest seaport in Poland on the Baltic Sea. As of June 2009 the population was 406,427....
, Poland in 1991, and completed in April 1992. She was 57.5 metre long, with a beam of 9.44 metre and a draft of 4 metre. She was 35 metre to the top of the highest mast. Her hull was made of steel, and she was rigged as a barquentine. As well as sails, she was propelled by a MAN diesel engine, which could propel her at 9 knots (17.6 km/h).
History
Concordia was designed by Ryszard Langer and owned by the West Island CollegeWest Island College
The West Island Colleges are a set of private Canadian junior high and high schools, one of which is located in Montreal's West Island, and the other in the south-east of Calgary. The schools also offer a program known as Class Afloat that provides students with an educational experience while...
Class Afloat program. Her port of registry was Bridgetown
Bridgetown
The city of Bridgetown , metropolitan pop 96,578 , is the capital and largest city of the nation of Barbados. Formerly, the Town of Saint Michael, the Greater Bridgetown area is located within the parish of Saint Michael...
, Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
but she was based in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
Lunenburg , is a Canadian port town in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia.Situated on the province's South Shore, Lunenburg is located on a peninsula at the western side of Mahone Bay. The town is approximately 90 kilometres southwest of the county boundary with the Halifax Regional Municipality.The...
. On 5 December 1996, an explosion on board during battery charging resulted in the death of a crewmember.
Sinking
On 17 February 2010, SV Concordia encountered what the vessel's Captain called a microburstMicroburst
A microburst is a very localized column of sinking air, producing damaging divergent and straight-line winds at the surface that are similar to, but distinguishable from, tornadoes, which generally have convergent damage. There are two types of microbursts: wet microbursts and dry microbursts...
some 550 kilometres (297 nmi) southeast of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
in rough seas and high winds. The vessel was knocked onto its side within 15 seconds and eventually sank 20 minutes afterward.
In September, 2011, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada report found, "The wind speeds experienced by the vessel at the time of the knockdown were most likely in the range of 25 to 50 knots. While there was probably a vertical component to the wind, there is no evidence that a microburst occurred at the time of the knockdown." The report also found the vessel was operated in a way that did not allow it to, "...react to changing weather conditions appropriately and maintain the stability of the vessel."
All on board successfully abandoned ship. As the capsizing was so fast, no radio distress call was made but a distress radiobeacon (EPIRB) was hydrostatically released and automatically activated when the vessel sank.
The Concordia sank at 1423 hrs local time Wednesday. At 1425 Concordia's Bosun Geoffrey Byers swam to retrieve the EPIRB and brought it aboard the rafts. The Captain directed that someone hold the EPIRB upright at all times and keep it safe from damage. The EPIRB signal was received at 1505 hrs by the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-12. The position of the sinking, 27°28′S 40°53′W, was resolved at 1525 local time. The TSB report noted the EPIRB database only listed one telephone number for the Concordia and that number had not been in service since 2004.
The following morning at 0806 hrs the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre Brazil sent a fax to Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Halifax requesting information about the Concordia.
After attempting to contact the Concordia a Brazilian Air Force aircraft was dispatched at 17 hrs local time Thursday and sighted the liferafts 3 hours later.
The survivors spent nearly 30 hours in liferafts before the aircraft spotted them. Flares were fired from the rafts, and the aircraft blinked its landing lights in response and directed nearby merchant ships to the scene. The lights of the Mitsui O.S.K. Lines
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines
is a Japanese transport company headquartered in Toranomon, Minato, Tokyo. The company's main area of operations is international shipping. Its alligator logo can be seen on containers in ports around the world....
woodchip carriers and were sighted by the survivors at 1:30 am local time and the rescue was completed by 8 am local time.
41 hours after the sinking the crew were safely aboard the rescue ships. All 64 people (48 students, eight teachers and eight crew) who were on board were rescued from 3 large and 1 small liferafts.
External links
- Transportation Safety Board of Canada Marine Reports - 2010 - M10F0003 Knockdown and Capsizing - Sail Training Yacht Concordia 300 miles SSE off Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Also available as PDF (4715 kB) http://www.tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-reports/marine/2010/m10f0003/m10f0003.pdf
- "Class AfloatTM"
- "Concordia Image Gallery"
- Tall Ship Down. 21 minute documentary of SV Concordia's last voyage. CBC
- Abandon Ship: The Sinking of the SV Concordia A 45 minute CBC documentary on the sinking of the SV Concordia, first broadcast February 10, 2011